Through Belgium, Netherlands & Germany - Back home after 1 Year of Bikepacking

Hi, I'm Jayme Chirio, a bicycle traveler. I've been on the road for one year now and in this vlog episode, I'm on my way back home. Back to Germany and back to the place where my journey began. Join me on my last 600 kilometers through Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Hey ho, let's go! And here we go again. Rain, rain, rain all day long. Today I will reach Belgium. I started cycling just 20 minutes ago at noon because I was hoping that this rain might stop and it's not heavy rain anymore, but yeah, it's raining and that's okay. I'm on my way to the border and I want to do 100 kilometers today just because the weather is shitty and someone texted me on Instagram and offered me a place to sleep, so yeah, I will take that. So hey ho, let's go off to Belgium. I crossed the border without even noticing. It's really weird. That happened to me when I crossed the French border and the Spanish border and Portugal as well. There were just no signs that I'm entering another country. And I just had to stop because it's raining heavily and then not so heavily and then it's raining heavily again. And my phone starts doing crazy stuff like the screen when the raindrops are falling on the screen. So now I will use this bag as a screen protector and yeah, I'll just try. 70 more to go and yeah, I'm trying to stay in a good mood, but actually it's really, it's disgusting and I do hate rain. I do hate it, but I will just cycle and I will just not complain. I'm very annoyed right now and this is pissing me off. I just stopped and had a coffee. Usually I try not to do this and have a coffee by myself somewhere in the nature. This situation right now just proved why and it's not because I'm in Belgium or something. It's everywhere the freaking same. I go inside, it's 4 p.m. When I enter, they start staring at me and I go there like upright posture and I order my coffee in a certain voice and sit down and like, I don't want to do this anymore. I just sat down, three other men just sat down next to me. Then first when I told them I was German, they did some Hitler jokes, which is not funny at all. Then I told them that this is not funny and then compliments about my body, compliments about my look, cat calling, doing animal noises like meow and I'm like, what the freaking f**k? I just tell these people that this is not okay. I went back inside to pay and I just wanted to leave because it was way too, when I wanted to leave the restaurant, one of these just grabbed my arm to tell me something or I don't know and I was just like, don't ******* touch me. What the freaking heck is going on? This is pissing me off. Travelling alone as a woman sometimes is really difficult and stuff like that never happened to me when I was cycling with men. It's making me so angry because I'm limited in the stuff I do just because of that and I just, I don't get it. I really don't get it. I now have to cycle like a maniac to get rid of my aggressive feelings. Holy freaking... Hello, I spent two days in Ghent now. I got invited by a very lovely person and yesterday as it rained, cats and dogs, like it poured down all day long. I was being invited to stay for another night and I needed that, like I almost slept all day long. I'm starting in Ghent now and today I'm going to make my way to Antwerp, Antwerpen. I'll have another house there, which is awesome. I'm doing luxury bikepacking, not camping here in Belgium. Yeah, I'm going to make my way there now. Someone suggested to take the bicycle highway and I'm very excited what a bicycle highway is meant to be. Let's go. Voila! So I spent one night close to Antwerp, a very cool place. Philip, where I stayed at, checked my bike and gave me a crash course and yeah, this morning I took off. Thank you. Now I don't know where to go, so I just stopped. Um, yep. And now I'm already just a couple of kilometers from the border to the Netherlands. I'll cross the southern part of the Netherlands tomorrow and then I'll cross the border to Germany. Yeah, I'm on my way back. Back to Germany. I can't believe it. Yeah, it's been a while since I've been there. So I think this is the border from Belgium to the Netherlands. You can see it right there. Bike lane of Belgium, bike lane of the Netherlands. And let's go. It's so flat and I'm so fast. They have bins and you can just throw your stuff in while cycling. So much fun. I'm riding so freaking fast. No hills, no me suffering. It's just me going straight all freaking day long. I'm 20 kilometers away from the German border. I don't know how to feel about it. I really don't know. Yeah, Germany, here I come, but I won't stay too long. I'm sorry. And that's it. I reached Germany and I didn't know how to feel about that. I knew my heart was beating for a life on the road, but I needed to return to see my loved ones and of course to refill the travel piggy bank. I planned to stay for two months, but these two months turned out to become six months. My journey is not over yet and I'm about to leave again to spend the cold winter time on the Canary Islands. A huge thanks to all my supporters who became a major part of my journey. And of course, a huge thanks to all the Cheerios out there supporting my journey financially. Thank you Jeff, Regio Express, Mädchen auf dem Rädchen, and thank you so much OP. I'm saying Cheerio, goodbye, salut, adios, and I'll see you next time.