Acknowledgements

Over the last few months many people have helped me. Without their help it would have been very difficult to get to where I am now, and I am immensely grateful. Here I aim to list those who have helped me on my way.

Firstly I would like to thank my family and close friends:

– Thanks to my Father for lending me money and always being available if I need help. Thanks to my sister for putting me up in London. Thanks to my mother for worrying about me. Thanks to my love Yui for always listening and caring about me. Thanks to Eltin for putting up with me. Thanks to my good friends and extended family back home who support me with emails and messages.

– Every message or comment on the blog I receive from home makes me stronger and even surer about what I am doing. Thanks to everyone who has gone to the effort.

Secondly I would like to thank those amazing people I have met along the way who have helped me in small or major ways… (in the order that I met them…)

– thanks to Nick in Derby, for helping me set up and introducing me to England and Scotland

– thanks to Dr Tom Hickie in London for many great beers, support and encouragement

– thanks to all the bikers I met in the UK, for their warnings about the ‘foreigners’ over on the continent

– thanks to Andreas and Helena and all their friends in Gothenburg who showed me the best of Sweden in the little time I had

– thanks to the strangers I have met on the road (like Lars in Sweden, or those two English bikers in Munich) who have bought me beers or coffees and taken an interest

– Thanks to the good hostels; places like ‘the tent’ in Munich, where fun is always on tap

– Thanks to every biker who rides past me and waves hello (particularly in France)

– Thanks to that eighty year old German bloke who helped me service my bike, and the young Duncan who took an interest

– Thanks to UTS (and Tom Hickie) for being so enthusiastic about my plans (exciting news on this front coming soon!! I hope…)