Fietsen in de Poolcirkel (2018)

This article is written for the Wereldfietser, a Dutch magazine full of stories, interviews and travel reports about traveling by bicycle. A long way stretches in front of me. Left and right I see as far as I can forests…

In the summer of 2015 I was in Farg’ona in Uzbekistan. I had a conversation with a lady who wanted to study in Russia. She said that the Uzbeks didn’t really like the Russian influence in their country. They were…

I can’t quite realize it. How normal the snow has become. How normal it is to cycle in -10 degrees celcius with the idea of that being a mild temperature. That I slept in temperatures between -25 and -30 degrees…

Immediately after I crossed the border I noticed that Norway is a comfortable country to cycle compared to Russia. Cars see me, they slow down and then almost hit the road barriers on the other side of the road. People…

An icy wind is coming from my left. Snowflakes fly horizontally past me. Today I left Murmansk. I follow the M18 which goes from Murmansk to the Norwegian border. It is already getting dark. I left late and still have…

I’m preparing my dinner wearing a thermoshirt and and my thick down jacket. I have little choice for ingredients in this cold weather. Everything freezes immediately. I make my meals out of cans for a large part. With a little…

I turn myself on another side on a narrow bed in the train cabin. The train shocks every now and then. My bike is in a different cabin. At least I hope so. I have putten my bags in a…

It starts to twilight. I‘m in a hurry to look for a place to sleep. The clouds make it impossible for me to estimate when it is really dark. The sunset is taking a lot of time here. At least…

“My friends never cycle in winter,” says a friendly guy who is staring at my bicycle. I just took a break in a petrol station outside of Saint Petersburg. “Vaude bags, you are from Europe I see.” He is a…

I’m standing in line. A red light is lightning in front of me. It is the customs check at the airport in Saint Petersburg. It looks different than I’m used to. I don’t see the customs officer. I look into…