On the way home

​This blog post I write in a beach restaurant on the Greek Mediterranean. And because it's over 40°C hot here right now and I can hardly think straight, here are just a few keywords and plenty of pictures of the last weeks. 
Countries since the last blog post: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece.
-Germany is a very "comfortable" country by bike.
-Berlin is worth seeing
-Dresden I liked almost better
-Prague is probably one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, but not recommended on Saturday afternoon of a long weekend (unless you like gigantic crowds of tourists)
-Czech Republic, for the first time since Finland half an eternity ago, I climbed something that was more mountain than hill.
-Otherwise, the Czech Republic was so unspectacular that I have almost forgotten a lot of things...
-Vienna is beautiful
-It's great to sleep under the bridge in Vienna during thunderstorms:)
-There are in my opinion more beautiful cities than Bratislava. 
-The Tatra Mountains between Slovakia and Poland are beautiful!
-There I climbed the highest mountain of Slovakia (Gerlachovsky Stit, 2654m) and of Poland (Rysy, 2503m) with a mountain guide in one day, but the tour became a bit too long for the mountain guide :)
-In Slovakia I worked a little bit in a pizzeria one evening, could eat for free and stay in a hotel. 
-In the first 10 minutes in Hungary my sunglasses were stolen.
-The highest mountain in Hungary is quite unspectacular, but the capital Budapest is even more beautiful!
-Romania surprised me very positively! Beautiful landscapes, incredibly friendly people and numerous really worth seeing places...
-The road quality in Romania was worlds better than expected, but the street dogs were as feared the pure horror!
- A highlight in Romania was definitely the drive over the Transfagarasan Highway - known in certain circles as the most beautiful road in the world...
- And also the highest mountain in Romania (Moldoveanu, 2544m) was definitely one of the most beautiful country highlights so far!
- I saw a bear and passed it by 3 meters :)
- To call Bucharest "beautiful" would be a lie, but "interesting" is the city for sure
-Poverty, which is found in many places in Romania, has engaged me more than I would have expected...
-Bulgaria I was just passing through to get to Turkey. Will be back to the country soon though.
-Turkey is an incredible country!
-8 nights I spent there, on 7 of them I was invited!
-Turkey also has a lot to offer on a culinary level. I tried a lot of Turkish specialties. 
-You can get a kebab there for the equivalent of less than 1CHF. And with a little luck you get food poisoning for free...
-If you combine food poisoning with sunstroke, it becomes rather unpleasant...
-But I'm feeling better now.
-Istanbul is a very lively, beautiful and interesting city!
-In Istanbul I was ripped off by a scammer :(
-When the temperatures don't drop below 25° even at night and it's swarming with insects everywhere, sleeping outside is quite exhausting...
-The sea in Greece is beautiful!
-Olympus (2918m) is one of my favorite mountains!
-On the Olympus I met Toni from the Tyrol. He is 66 years old, cheese master and has never been traveling in his whole life. Since he was a child, he has dreamed of Mount Olympus because that is where the gods are at home. So he recently sold a few cows and drove with the money through the whole Balkans to Greece to climb Mount Olympus in 4 days. A wonderful story!
-It is quite hot on the road at 40°+!
-Athens is a great city!
-The vast majority of people here in the south are incredibly friendly and the food is excellent!

After more than 30'000 kilometers through 36 countries in almost exactly 5 months I am quite tired by now and I am looking forward to arriving back in Switzerland in a few weeks - probably between the end of July and the beginning of August! Until then, however, my journey still leads me criss-cross through all Balkan states to Croatia and from there then still on the highest peaks of the Alpine countries:)