64 days on a bike - 2400km - 160 hours of saddle time [Currently in Vlissingen]

The days are starting to blur together. My experience of this journey is changing from just an experience, to that of a different type of life. The writing has decreased. The camera has become lonely. The contact with home and loved ones has decreased. Almost everyday a new place. A new host. A new experience. I have met some extremely interesting people. Travellers of different types; cyclists, hitch-hikers, backpackers. Stories and experiences shared. Yet with time, the faces and names are also starting to blur. Some concrete friendships have been built, and I am ever so grateful to that.

The unknown and the known have been spiralling together as I move across Europe. From not knowing where I'm going and who I'm going to meet, to having a goal destination to meet people I knew before this lifestyle begun. My last update was when I arrived at Nuremberg to meet my friend Joanne and her boyfriend.

Following my time with Joanne, I had a 5 day cycle to Dortmund (450km of some pretty shit climbs through the centre of Germany) to meet my cousin Thomas. [Nuremberg -Koningsberg - Bad Kissingen - Fulda - Margburg - Winterberg - Dortmund]

Having arrived in Dortmund and meeting Thomas was rather necessary if I can be honest. Both on an physical rest sense and also as a bonding experience between two people. We hadn't spent some actual proper time together for about 15 years since he started his life in Germany. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with someone who I was extremely close to in my younger days. He took very good care of his younger cousin (me), and accepted for me to join him at a day of work. I got to meet his family properly and just really had a great time. Thank you Thomas.

Dortmund led to Munster, which then gave way to the Netherlands. Enschede, Apeldoorn, Lelystad, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Zierikzee, Middleburg and currently in Vlissingen. Cycling in the Netherlands has been such an amazing experience. To be perfectly honest I've had the occasional solo laugh while on the road thinking about Malta. - The occasional times I find myself scrolling through Facebook, I keep seeing more and more unhappiness of cyclists in Malta. And here I am in Europe's best cycling country. LOVING IT. [I know- What an a**hole]

Thank you Froukje and Paul for welcoming us into your home with such a confusion about when and for how long. You have taken such great care of us, and here I am writing this within your home.

Belgium will be coming next after the necessary rest time with our amazing hosts in Vlissingen.

All in all I think the current mental state is good. The"quest" to discover the point has been somewhat lost through the blur.

Some situations occasionally cloud my mind from being able to experience the moment in the rawest possible way. Yet the acceptance that sometimes you just gotta get on with it has proven useful.

One of the main pushing factors to start this journey was the exhaustion caused by stress of what many would call "First world problems". Being out here on the move so regularly has given my brain a crash course on how to prioritise what problems I should allow to stress me out, and what is worth finding a solution for.