A Dream:"The Conquest of Europe on two wheels"
Motto:" It’s not the goal that matters, but the road to achieve it"
Who? -Keresszegi Petrás Előd & Benedek Lehel
When? -May 2010 – August 2011 (15 months)
The goal? -Europe (30 country)
With? -Bicycle (31.000km)
“I have a dream” was said once by a famous person. Like every other person he too had a dream which he fulfilled. Dreams are important to life, without them a person is not himself. If he realizes his dream his life will become complete. His thought, his feelings and soul will converge into one. This gives the “owner” a huge power. If a person puts his dreams away in a box, then after five, ten or even twenty years later he finds his box and opening it he finds everything inside the same he will be stunned and sad. He will realize that somewhere along his life he forgot about something and he will feel disappointed.
I think everyone is entitled to his life, his dreams and of course he is allowed to accomplish them as well.
After these introductory thought lets see what we mean when we say “The conquest of Europe on two wheels”. Inside each and everyone’s head million thoughts and feelings emerge. The body becomes feverish, the soul becomes excited. The main thing that remains however is that this is something wonderful, a road trip like this can give us so much on so many levels, that an opportunity like this should not be overlooked. To experience, understand and feel everything which until this moment was only a dream.
But what does this mean in practice? Let us explain: 
Seeing the route a million questions emerge. We will try to answer the most important ones further on. The route is approximately 31000 km long and it will include most of Europe, more precisely 30 countries will be visited. Breaking down this distance into days it will mean an average of 70 km per day on bicycles of course and in time it will take us 15 month to complete. Obviously these numbers are very high if we consider the fact that it will be done on bicycles. Seeing these numbers other questions emerge like How much will this cost? What will you do about accommodation? What will you do during winter?
According to our plans we will be sleeping in a tent whenever circumstances allow us but we will also be counting on www.couchsurfing.com. Couch Surfing is a non-profit association, which allows people to offer their hospitality and free accommodation (most cases a couch J) to those tourists that come from foreign countries and want to spend 2-3 days in the area. This opportunity works both ways. Besides the accommodation it will also provide a cultural exchange between host and guest, new experiences and friendship. Now that we addressed the accommodation problem the only cost for us will be the food, entry fees and the unforeseen situations and problems that we might encounter during the trip.
Our trip will start on the 16th of May this year and will take us across the Transylvanian plains, through Cluj Napoca, Zalau, Carei then at the Urziceni border crossing we will say good bye to our homeland and role into Europe. In Hungary our route will take us across the Hortobagyi Puszta were we will have the opportunity to visit the famous Eger castel and city, the Danube turn where together with the Danube we will also turn towards Budapest.
The route from Budapest will again take us towards the west right besides the Balaton shores. After Hungary Austria, Switzerland will spoil us with their beautiful scenery and natural wonders. The most important among them will be the ascension of the Grossglockner peak (3798 m) and the hiking tours into the Alp Mountains. From Switzerland the route will take us to the north to our next destination the Black Forest. Cycling in south Germany we will visit Munchen, then two capitals Viena and Bratislava. From Slovakia once again we will be cycling towards the north touching Auschwitz. Leaving behind Poland we will cross over to the Czech Republic then by crossing the whole country we will be cycling once again in Germany but this time we will be going on the east side of Germany until we reach Berlin. From there our route will take us for a long period of time to the north. We will cross Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Until this point we will have at least 6000 km behind us and we will be 3 month older.
This is where a new chapter begins in our trip, because we enter in the Scandinavian countries, more precisely Finland the country of a “Thousand lakes”. Our route will be watched over by the numerous lakes that we go by and as we leave them behind we know that we are that much closer to Europe’s northernmost point, where if we are lucky we might even glimpse the Aurora Borealis. Depositing its image in our minds we will depart to south. Traveling around the Scandinavian fjords with their magnificent scenery we will surely not long for the beautiful image of the northern lights. Further on we will be zigzagging between the Norwegian Sea and Botten golf until we reach the Danish border. Crossing Denmark we will once again reach Germany’s border which will mean the end of another chapter of our trip and our calendars will show the beginning of December.
Most of the winter month we will be spending in the Benelux countries as well as on the Island of Great Britain. After going around Great Britain our route follows the cost line of France and Spain. After visiting Madrid we will be hading to Portugal where our destination is the westernmost point of continental Europe (Cabo da Roca). Following Europe’s southern border we will be passing through Barcelona, cycling along Spain’s southern cost line and the French Riviera until we reach the highlight of our trip the ascension of the Mont Blanc peak. From there we cycle down to the south continuing along Europe’s southern cost line, going around Italy to the Croatian cost line. After the Plitvice National Park our route takes a turn toward Targu Mures our hometown passing through Zagreb, Szeged and Arad.
This is the route in small scale; this is the plan, the dream.
So why do we put so much emphasis on all this? Because this is not just a common everyday event, you can promote with it beautiful and pure ideas. And what are those ideas? We will let our Readers decide for themselves, what they want to see in all this.
