Cycling the Balkans – Austria to Turkey by Bike! // A Documentary

This film has been a long time in the making, so we are really excited to finally share it with you!

It’s been quite the emotional rollercoaster for us to revisit the very beginning of our journey in this retrospective documentary, and it’s really shown us just how far we’ve come the past two and a half years.

Back then, it felt like every little milestone was a huge achievement, and every new experience was the first if its kind. A general excitement, that we hope to have conveyed in this film.

So come along and join us, as we go “back in time”, and cycle along the Croatian coast, through the Balkans, and down to Turkey.

By the way, if you’re newer to this channel and wondering why the sign on our bikes reads “Chains & Chords”… for the first 23 months of our journey we were traveling with first two, and then one guitar. However, circumstances changed and we eventually decided to leave them behind and also “rebrand”. If you’re interested, you will still find some music content on our channel.

Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome (back) to Europe!
01:25 – Austria – Leaving the Alps
06:44 – Slovenia – The Adventure Begins
10:48 – Croatia – Reaching the Coast
24:37 – Montenegro – Bay of Kotor
31:26 – Albania – Into the Unknown
37:41 – Greece – What a Moment
49:42 – Turkey – Goodbye Europe
57:30 – Epilogue – Cycling Around the World

To see our exact cycling route through the Balkans, visit our website:
https://www.louisaandtobi.com/route-infos

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2 years is a long Time for over 27 months now we have been cycling around the world making our way through Europe North and South America across Australia and Beyond we have have crossed deserts endured freezing cold and baking hot temperatures and cycled some of the world’s highest roads we have experienced so much the

Past 2 years that it has become impossible to recall every encounter and every moment and it’s so easy to forget how everything started all those months ago in the Austrian Elps in this film we look back at the beginning of our world Bike Tour when we were still traveling with two guitars and pedaling the first kilometers on our Epic Journey so join us on our very first Adventure as we cycle along the stunning Croatian Coast through the Balkans and down to Turkey turn the light on so we just spent the first night mhm on our world bicycle trip in a tent and I slept really good but Louisa didn’t sleep that well no yeah um but uh yeah the thing is it’s really really cozy in here and it was the whole night

Cuz it was raining like crazy not like crazy but it was raining quite a bit and maybe you can hear it but it’s still raining now so they pack and it’s meant to rain the whole day so now packing up the wet tent and everything is going to be a

Bit annoying I think yes especially cuz we have to set up a wet tent again tonight probably packing in the rain again tomorrow and then yeah but I think a tough start will make it a lot nicer for us then when the rain stops we’ll See The excitement of those first few days on the road is something we can still vividly recall even today for for a long time it felt unreal that we had really said farewell to our old lives our jobs our apartments and our friends and family to cycle around the

World for the first time in our lives we left all our Comforts and familiar surroundings behind without knowing what might happen tomorrow or even where we would sleep Tonight we’re searching for a camping spot right right now and it’s actually not so easy because uh it’s a big street and uh yeah mountains to the left and to the right so is there something um maybe we found something let’s check okay we found a

Spot um yeah right now we’re um just drying the tent or hoping it gets dry because um yeah when we walk up this morning it’s still rained keep rushing with a nice view the very beginning of our journey saw US cycling primarily along the ends and more bike paths in Austria through

The central East Eastern Alps Austria provides cyclists with an extensive network of longdistance cycle paths throughout the country with the ends and more bike paths alone spanning over 700 km this fantastic cycling infrastructure made our first days of riding a breeze and gave us the perfect opportunity to

Get used to many hours in the saddle and life on the road That’s Cool [Applause] We’re leaving the spot now where we cooked and now we have the I think last 5 km in Austria ahead of us and then we cross our first border to Slovenia so we just crossed the border to Slovenia and it just feels really crazy to cycle into a country to know that we yeah cycled through Austria and now reached our first different country um yeah only we bike it’s really awesome though we will only stay in

Slovenia for one day and uh we’re planning to go to Croatia tomorrow already So Slovenia is welcoming us with a massive Hill it’s a massive F it’s just steep so all the trucks are standing in line or trucks and cars are standing in line for the border to Croatia and we hope we can actually use this um Crossing cuz

It’s mainly I think for well there’s a Motorway to the left there but I think we can also get [Applause] through so Louisa is just uh asking one of the border control agents uh if we’re allowed to cross here cuz apparently it’s only for Motorway yeah okay it looks like we’re not making it to Croatia today because um yeah we were just right at the border and um I asked the policemen if there there was any possibility to go over the border with a bike and he said he was thinking about it and thinking and

Said no it’s a highway it’s uh not possible with a bike uh yeah so we have to take another one and uh we won’t reach it today but we’re not in that much of a hurry I can’t talk so we thought we take the shortcut from the one border

Crossing which we couldn’t get over to the other one where we think we can cross into Croatia but this shortcut is so steep it’s just impossible to cycle even SL following doesn’t work Anymore so uh we did most of the climbing um of the unplanned climbing and uh we found a really nice spot to camp and we just asked a farmer here uh for a spot to camp and she just offered her garden which is really awesome and it’s so nice Here despite an unplanned extra night in Slovenia we soon had our second Border Crossing behind us already and we’re very excited to be in Croatia however looking back now we don’t really understand why we didn’t spend more time in the country perhaps because we had both visited Slovenia

Previously or because we had our sides set too much on the coast as the routs we took slowly got more adventurous they also brought us deeper into the rural areas of Northern Croatia there for the first time we were really able to settle into our wild camping Routine Good morning we’re cycling through the vbet Nature Park today uh up to 1,300 M and from there we should see the coast for the first time yeah and it’s 6:30 because we thought we should start early when we’re climbing that much actually started already with a climb um because otherwise it gets way

Too Hot so we’re taking the route through this national park today and we already did like 800 M of climbing on a paved road though and now we have another like 100 to go but gravel and we have around 40 km of gravel to do uh and uh we’ done like five so Far [Applause] so this is probably the biggest moment of our trip so far but we’ve made it to the SE oh okay that was weird well that’s the way it is now look at that we did it we did it having started out trip in the Austrian Alps reaching the Croatian

Coast on the Adriatic Sea was by far the biggest Milestone we had had up to that point and until today it Still Remains one of our most memorable moments on our whole journey at this point we had cycled just over 1,000 km and could not yet imagine how many more

Incredible experiences were to Come Croatia famous for its crystal clear water pristine Coastline and over 1,200 Islands is a popular tourist destination for many Europeans as we cycled there in July and August 2021 in the middle of the high season the main Coastal Highway was very busy so we did our best to avoid it by

Riding on back roads or taking fairies to the different Islands as of January 2023 Croatia is now part of the shenen area and the Euro Zone 10 years after joining the European Union I hope you saw the 9% sign cuz it’s going up uh 9% and it’s 37° in the shade and we’re obviously not in the shade and this whole landscape just looks like Mars it’s so surreal we’re on the island of pug now by the way in case I didn’t mention it it’s so

Crazy done oh after crossing the island of pug we returned to the mainland to follow the coast further south and explore some of Croatia’s beautiful old towns having carried our guitars all this way this was now the perfect setting for some Street Music so last night we spent here on the side of a little road um usually we try to avoid like sleeping so close to an actual road but we couldn’t find anything else we’re pretty like the coast is right there we’re really close to the

Coast and it was just uh we saw that like thunderstorms were like to be expected this morning um and it was just so windy last night and in the night especially like insanely windy uh so we had to just take this spot as well cuz it’s a bit more

Sheltered um but now it’s not raining or anything but it’s like super cloudy so now that we’ve uh packed up the tent and everything else dry we’re kind of just praying for rain because it’s so so humid and so hot 26° at 5 minutes to 6 and morning storm is Coming it’s uh getting pretty dark back there and it’s thundering pretty loud so uh yeah we really think need to find some place to shelter for a little bit uh-oh so it’s getting darker and darker and and we don’t think we’re going to be able to outrun this so we uh found some

Shelter at this wood uh brick bus stop which is also pretty good better than some metal thing yeah well it is pouring Now we’re so happy we’re here oh my God So sun’s out and we’re cycling behind the thunderstorm now it’s definitely better being behind it than in front of It so after cycling quite a lot uh last week and the week before really all the way from Austria to the coast in Croatia um we are taking it really really slow this week um and just really taking it easy enjoying the being on the coast

Swimming every day and so on um we still do like 50 to 60 kilometers every day but just really really chilled take long lunch breaks and it’s really nice and uh yeah it’s just so beautiful [Applause] Here look at that we’re just trying to find a camping spot for the night and we have this amazing view okay after 2 weeks of cycling down the coast to split we took a ferry to the island of Cula in the south of the country this turned out to

Be a great decision as the island was not only very empty but also incredibly beautiful wow it’s so nice to cyle here there so few cars and um now we’re just next to the Sea they really nice Coes awesome so this is the main road to the village

Babina and it has like maybe 30% he like it 20 20 over 20 over 20 yeah we don’t want to break our breaks so we’re Pushing Ready nope think this we going to do with some momentum 3 2 1 oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God holy crap that’s steep oh my God you can do It so that’s going to be our uh camping spot for the night cuz there’s like no one here and uh yeah it’s just no dirt path on the coast and the island is completely empty anyway and yeah just think we’re not going to have any problems sleeping

There got right next to the coast I mean we can’t go down but we’ve already been to the coast into the water but yeah really [Applause] cool Wow leaving Cula again and heading back over to the mainland we soon reached the border to one of the world’s youngest internationally recognized countries Montenegro Literally meaning Black Mountain this culturally rich country only gained its independence after a referendum in 2006 and despite being neither in the European Union nor in the Euro Zone it uses the Euro as its de facto domestic currency as Montenegro is one of of the smallest countries in Europe it didn’t

Take us long to cycle through it but we did have quite the adventure awaiting us there we are having our first burs in Montenegro now and they’re awesome the best ones so Far at the border there was a sign saying M negro sea and Heights and if you see this then you understand why so after taking the day pretty slowly with planning our route in a cafe and the border crossing and drying our tent um we have to still cycle quite a

Bit bit now it’s 5:30 almost and also do some climbing because we um got a couch Surfer in Port gacha tomorrow uh and we want to get there on time but um yeah that means we have to go over a pass that’s over 1,000 M and we’re at

Sea level now obviously um so yeah it’s going to be quite a lot of climbing today and tomorrow morning um that’s where we got to go up over that big freaking Mountain so the climb has started the shirts have come off and that’s where we got to

Go over that and maybe even higher we don’t know yet what’s behind it Yoo yeah look at that amazing so it’s getting a bit difficult to find a place to sleep cuz it’s just vertical faces on left and to the right of the road but uh yeah we’re still looking and it’s getting a bit dark this is what it’s looking like at the moment yeah three

M think we’re going to turn around cuz we had a spot a bit further back which would have might be all right if we can get our bikes up this little Hill but I think it’s the best we can find tonight it so we found a little spot to put up

The tent um it’s just like here the bikes it’s like just up from the road which is down there you probably can’t see it anymore and uh we’re just going to put up the tent lock next to this tree here y it’s all pretty uh pretty dark Already At the moment We Are Climbing hairpin turn number 11 and there are 25 of them so still a few to go but they’re not too steep so it’s okay and I think once we’re up there the view will totally make it worth it because it’s already amazing there comes number 12 So we’re almost at 750 m now um and it’s starting to get a bit exhausting cuz it’s just quite long now uh and the sun is coming out well not yet but probably in a few minutes cuz we can see it climbing or the line going down the shade line going

Down on the trees ahead of us yeah so I think once the Sun hits us it’s going to be really Hot yay the last one begins number 25 Almost 2 months into our journey it was soon time to enter our fifth country already Albania welcomed us with friendly people and good coffee and for the first time we really felt like we had come a long way from the places and the cultures we knew so far we are really positively

Surprised by the streets in Albania because what we heard and R was that there were only the the main roads uh paved and rest of it was gravel but at the moment we’re obviously not cycling on the main road and it’s perfectly paved it’s completely new so really nice cycle Here so we’re driving down to the coast well we’re essentially at the coast now but now we’re really reaching the the coast and uh we already saw kind of that um it was super busy like so many people at the beach and we thought like oh we’ll drive somewhere where there’s

Not so many people bit out of the town and so but it’s so full holy crap yeah I don’t think we’re going to find anything that’s empty this is Insane still searching for a camping spot and sunset is maybe 40 minutes away so we’re probably going to cook in the darkness but we’re so hungry not cooking is not an Option And we’re leaving again there are too many ants and it’s actually not that perfect next time we check the ground before we push the bikes Up This is really not the best spot there are so many mosquitoes we expected that because there is water and there is water there’s so many and we already used some anti mosquito spray and I don’t know if it really works cuz they’re all around me and everything itches

Already after initially riding along the coast of Northern Albania we soon headed Inland to the capital tyana and then onward into the mountains towards the famous orid lake at this point we had cycled over 2,000 km already and had adapted well to traveling by Bike So today we are much happier with our cooking and probably camping spot than yesterday it’s just the side of this field and yeah it’s a small path but I don’t think anybody gets here close it ends There Byee with a depth of almost 300 M the uid lake is not only the deepest lake in the Balkans but thereby also one of the deepest in all of Europe the 350 square kilm lake is situated in the east of the country and forms part of the border between Albania and North

Macedonia the over 700,000 historic bunkers scattered throughout Albania are remnants of the country’s former Communist Regime and can also be seen right on the shore of the Lake it’s just so crazy to think that we’ve almost cycled to Greece it’s just so crazy I don’t know if you think about it and I mean of course this this is only the beginning of our trip we’re still going to cycle so much more but I

Don’t know it’s just it’s just a crazy thought like you usually fly here on holiday and now you just recycle here you know I don’t know feels so good there it is the border to gree woohoo maybe first the border from Elvia actually no that’s a petrol

Station all right now this is the real border yeah this looks much better we are in Greece woo we’re just so proud of us so cool really really really awesome what a moment 2 years on and we still not only look back with joy at this Milestone but also still feel proud

Of every new new country we reach by bicycle after now more than 35,000 km 25 countries and five continents our perspective of scale may have changed over time but our sense of achievement certainly has not yet no matter how well everything seems to go sometimes things take a turn for the

Worse we’re just cruising down this Valley and the north of Greece just after the border now and it’s so nice and it’s so clean here at the moment no trash on the side of the road so nice so we just had the stupidest accident ever I don’t know I looked to the side

For one second and then I touch Toby’s bike and then we couldn’t hold our bikes anymore and fell and yeah my my leg is a bit open now and it’s just so stupid I’m so angry at myself right Now Hello acci fell down yeah yeah no it was just a small small the B problem it’s so nice he’s just waiting for us every few hundred M our warm shower horse and even came towards us to see if we needed help cuz we wrote him

We’ll be a little bit later cuz we had an accident and it’s just so nice of him Yeah nice to meet you nice to thank you so toas blessing in disguise our warm Show’s host Harris turned out to be a paramedic and was able to properly take care of my injured leg luckily nothing major happened and until this day this accident Remains the worst we’ve had on the whole journey

Cheers we ended up taking the next days very easy as we slowly made our way through northern Greece towards the aan sea having enjoyed the summer in southern Europe the past weeks for the first time we now noticed an approaching change of the season So cold this morning that we’re actually putting on some thicker gloves and socks in the sandals nice but it actually helps cuz it’s freezing and I don’t know you can’t really tell tell but I think we’re at like almost 400 uh 750 or 700 M altitude

Um which is obviously makes it a lot colder as well so the knee does hurt a bit while cycling especially when I start again because uh yeah it’s like uh because of the movement the wound gets stretched and then squeezed and stretched and squeezed and that’s a bit

Painful but uh yeah only in the beginning and then it’s okay woo and it’s so cold this Morning hello we are here from the University we can 3 2 one have you tried these they cheese pies some kind of cheese pies so this woman we’re just cooking in this tiny little Hut in this tiny tiny village and this woman just came from somewhere and just gave us two

Lemonades and asked can can can I give you tomatoes and stuff as Well Toby has to carry a backpack now well actually since uh this morning already we had to carry one just because we were getting so much food from everyone uh so now I think in there are tomatoes and grapes and uh some bread all for free and we already had like a

Massive lunch now and we still have too much we we keep getting more stuff every time we stop for lunch we especially Tomatoes after cycling one last mountain pass up to 1,400 M we reached the GNC on Greece’s eastern coast passing the famous Mount Olympus we made our way

South towards Athens to visit my dad living in the area we stayed with him for over 6 weeks and enjoyed our time together as we explored some local highlights one of the most fascinating places we visited during that time were the Meteora monasteries located in the heart of the

Country perched upon on up to 600 M High Rock Pinnacles these centuries Old Eastern Orthodox monasteries make for a spectacular site end of October 2021 it was time to say our farewells though as we continued our journey eastwards towards turkey but not before checking out a tip we got from a

Local well this doesn’t look like we can enter this Springs here H there are definitely other people here uhhuh all right let’s have a look wow everything is like it’s like a ghost town it’s really creepy everything is super abandoned and worn down it’s really like a ghost town and I

Hear water up ahead I’m just going to have a look but man this is pretty creepy really smells like sulfur though you can smell the Natural Springs I wonder if this is already it here okay I think it’s up ahead cuz there’s some people there and it’s actually steaming like crazy which is

Cool yeah looks really cool I mean there’s some people there but not too many uh and I think we can get here with the bikes as well so uh I’ll go get Louisa I think this should be really awesome actually kind of creepy Here all those dogs and Grease so this has got to be the best tip we’ve ever gotten from a local it’s just so awesome and we actually completely alone now so warm like 0° outside well that was very relaxing but also uh we’re a bit tired now because it was just so warm and the system went

Down a bit We were just uh stopping at the cafe to get some fresh water and all of a sudden another cyclist couple show shows up and we talked a bit and they’re from Austria so also speaking German and uh we’re going to camp together tonight probably spontaneously yeah it’s very Cool So today will be our last day in Greece I don’t know we have 20 km maybe a bit more to go to the Turkish border and then we are out of the country yes after more than two months yeah it’s time for a new country and

Um and we’re not going alone because we met um another Yeah cyclus couple as we mentioned yesterday luas and Marina and yeah it’s going to be cool that we’re going to be traveling together for a little bit we’ll see how long but it’s yeah that’s Awesome okay wo it’s just again such an awesome feeling to reach a new country by bike and this time though I think it’s uh it feels even more special cuz it’s really it’s really outside of Europe yeah well of course still on the continent Europe but not long yeah yeah soon Crossing to

Asia bye- bike although not too eventful we still really enjoyed our first day cycling in Turkey together with Molina and Lucas camping cooking and sharing our passion for music and soon enough the time came to not only leave more familiar cultures but also the actual European continent Behind the Republic of Tura is a vast country located partly in southeast Europe but with a majority in West Asia the area is thought to be one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world with civilization dating back as far as 50,000 years So we just did the authentic thing and from the money we earned busing here in chakala hello all right my friend have a nice day thank you um we bought 1 and 1/2 kilos of uh every type of baklava they had in that store and yeah I think tonight we’re

Going to have a sugar Shock oh my goodness all right back have our party and now my fingers are sticky already so with which one should we start the green one looks great these ones well we have eight of those so we have it’s like a suit and we can start

With these do like the round trip and end with right okay okay I think now we need the now we need the forks yeah we need the Fork so we’re just outside of a bus ticket office uh trying to get bus tickets um from chakala where we are are right now to ismir because we were told that the coast from ismir down to antalia is a lot nicer so we thought with our limited time here in Turkey

We’d cycle that part instead of the more northern part so yeah initially we wanted to take a ferry but there is no fair so now we have to see if we can find a bus that takes all the bicycles and so on so it’s a bit proving to be pretty difficult

Okay now we’re going they’re going to the tourist office cuz the bus office they don’t speak well enough English or Something it’s already almost dark now as you can see uh we ended up camping in the Park right next to the bus ticket office and we’re going to be there tomorrow at 6 in the morning and um then just check if the bus really can fit four bikes because one bus is supposed

To go at 6:30 and they told us it would be empty and able to carry four bikes but we’ll see in the morning all right we’re now waiting for the bus to come and it’s Freez cold having taken the bus to ismir we soon left the urban centers behind and

Immersed ourselves in the countryside for 3 weeks we explored turkey’s Southwestern Coast together with Molina and Lucas spending the now colder evenings by the fire trying the local food and drinking lots of Chai one of our last nights together we even set ourselves the challenge of making pizza on our camping Stores however once again the moment of farewell came in no time when we parted ways in antalia while Malina and Lucas would continue eastwards we took a bus up to Istanbul to prepare for our onward Journey there our remaining week in Istanbul gave us enough time to not only dismantle and

Pack our bikes ready for our upcoming flight to the US but also explore the many captivating facets of this transcontinental [Applause] Metropolis Looking back now we really couldn’t have wished for a better start to our bicycle Journey around the world even during these first 5 months and almost 5,000 km we already experienced so much and met so many great people that we simply cannot remember it all anymore let alone retell it in a film

Nevertheless making this film more than 2 years after cycling to Turkey the process was a real trip down memory lane for us while on the one hand the beginning of our journey seems so far away on the other it may as well have all been yesterday and it is still as much an

Abstract thought today as it was back then to think that we are actually cycling around the World