Solo Cycle Touring from Northern Norway to Azerbaijan | Arctic to Asia 13 (Day 197-210):
I cycled South out of Chișinău, Moldova’s Capital, towards the Romanian Border (after hitching a ride with my host, Alex). Along the way I stopped at Comrat, Gagauzia; Moldova’s other autonomous region, although it’s less well known than Transnistria. Officially the “Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia”, (aka ATUG aka Gagauz Yeri), it’s home to the Gagauz people, an ethnically Turkic population who speak the officially endangered Gagauz language. There are only around 150,000 Gagauz speakers, so the government has made efforts to preserve the language.
So, who are the Gagauz people? Well, Turkey considers the culture similar enough to Turkish culture that it has invested in the construction of hospitals and schools. My hosts – Ali, Rukiye, and their kids – were from Turkey, and had been sent to Gagauzia to work in one of those schools. Some people I spoke to said the Gagauz are just Christian Turks, but that wasn’t necessarily the way locals saw it, and most expressed a fierce cultural independence whenever I asked them about what it means to be Gagauz. The language is very similar to old Turkish, but the majority of Gagauz people are Christian-Orthodox. It’s difficult to know for sure, since there’s very little written history on just how Gagauzia came to exist as it does today.
While I stopped there on my cycle tour of Moldova, I experienced Gagauz music, Gagauz food, and was even treated to a live performance of some Gagauz folk songs, while my couchsurfing hosts toook me around and translated for me so I could speak to locals.
Before I left to continue cycling across Europe, Ali taught me how to fix a flat tyre for the first time on the trip, and he and his family offered to drive me to the Romanian border. From there I cycled via Galați, to Constanța, Romania’s largest port city.
I arrived in Romania at night, and ended up cycling in the dark several times in the Romanian countryside. It was getting warmer, and arriving in Romania by bike was nowhere near as chilly as my cycle through Moldova. My cycle tour of Romania was hillier than I expected, but I was thrilled to be travelling by bike in another new country. It wasn’t long before I reached the coast; cycling to the Black Sea was a major milestone on the trip, and my time on the road alongside it reminded me just how far I’d travelled.
Gagauzia: Moldova’s Turkic Autonomy – 00:00
To Romania’s Black Sea Coast! – 06:12
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BACKGROUND:
For the last 1.5 years, I’ve been on a cycle tour from Tromsø in Northern Norway to Baku, Azerbaijan, while interviewing locals along the way for my blog. Solo cycle touring for beginners like me can be intimidating; I’d ridden a bike 4 times in the previous 10 years before this journey, but I decided to jump in at the deep end and learn about bikepacking and touring while I was on the road. After watching a few videos on “how to cycle tour”, I set off, and covered 11 countries by bike (and took detours to another 2).
Long distance cycle touring alone was always going to be a challenge, but I got used to it after a month, and eventually started to truly appreciate it. I didn’t have much cycling gear or expertise, and I resorted to using an old Trek mountain bike that I got for free, which was frustrating at times, but I found motivation in the locals I met along the way, and the far-flung places I reached off the beaten track.
The adventure by bike introduced me to a new side of travel. I’d never interacted so much with local people and my surroundings, when I’d been abroad or been so exposed to the kindness of strangers. Travelling so slowly as I pedalled made me feel immersed in the countries and cultures I cycled through, and it forced me to stop in some of the more obscure places the world has to offer. All in all, cycling the world shows you a side of some countries that most travellers never get to appreciate.
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2 Comments
Pretty great video! I kind of thought that small places in europe like Moldova are intolerant towards different cultures. I was pretty astonished to see a muslim family living there with no problems at all. Media is very deceiving. This video warms my heart 🥰🥰
Great work! I'm glad I came across it.
this is so nice to watch, my dads side grew up in gagauzia but not many people visit it. we moved when i was about 3 and i havent been back since, i wish i could speak the language and all, considering how endangered it is. thank you for sharing!