I cycled across Europe at 18

This summer, I rode from Lisbon to Greece, across Southern Europe.

I was solo and this was my first real time away from home, but I have always enjoyed adventures so I didn't struggle with that aspect. I am from England and did this trip over the summer before starting University, using the money I saved up from my part time job.

My original plan was to go all the way to Istanbul completing the whole length of Europe, but unfortunately in the southern Balkans my knees became very injured and even taking several days off didn't help, so I had to cut the trip short in Thessaloniki. My knees are still quite bad even now, so hopefully they eventually recover as I really want to do more things like this throughout the rest of my life.

However I am still very satisfied with what I accomplished.

In terms of costs, the entire trip cost approximately £1500 for 2.5 months, including the bike, all the equipment, food, accommodation and flights, which I think is pretty good.

I would wild camp almost always, but get a hostel every 6 days to recharge. I didn't stay in a campsite on the entire trip. I really enjoy wild camping though, and I get very excited when I find a place with a beautiful view.

In general I had no issues finding spots, although I would say around Monaco was the hardest, I ended up camping beside the road to a €5000 per night luxury seaside hotel.

One funny story is when I got investigated by the police in Kosovo as they saw me walking into the bushes by a road in the night after I walked into a town for water. They jumped out of their car and shone their lights at me and shouted which scared me, but in the end they just warned me of snakes and dogs and said I could stay for the night.

I kind of regret not trying more local food, as I would just make my boring pasta every night to keep costs below €7 per day.

I picked southern Europe in summer so I wouldn't have to worry about rain or cold, although it was pretty hot, but I got used to it. I also wanted to go to as many mountains as I could as I have never seen mountains in my life before, so I tried to include as much of the Alps and Balkan mountains as I reasonably could.

I really loved the Balkan section which I had no prior knowledge of, as especially outside the tourist areas, everybody was so kind and welcoming, and food was really cheap and delicious. I also had no encounters with dogs, which I was pretty worried about beforehand.

I was also incredibly fortunate with mechanical issues, as I can't do much more than change a flat tyre so I would have been pretty stuck if something major had gone wrong in a remote area. My bike is an old touring bike, which I bought on facebook marketplace for just £200 including all the 4 pannier bags which was an amazing deal, and it is now covered in stickers I would collect along the way.

For the first half of the trip, I would generally go around 70 – 120km per day as it was mostly flat and easy, and I also wanted to make it to Lake Garda in time to meet my family who were going on holiday there. However this slowed a lot later on, especially when my knees became injured and even 50km was a struggle.

The only time on the trip where my legs were actually tired was when I made the overconfident decision to go up 2 2000m+ passes in the dolomites and 100km in one day, the rest of the time I made sure to go at a pace where I could put in almost no effort, and therefore never get tired.

I have way more pictures I wish I could have included, and if you have any questions, please comment them and I will respond