#005 - Time to ride : unCOMMON:Arctic

#005 - Time to ride : unCOMMON:Arctic

July 16th. The day we started cycling all of Iceland. 


The plan was simple: prepare everything the night before, wake up bright and early, grab a quick breakfast and start riding out of Reykjavik towards north.
Of course, almost none of it happened.
We woke up way too late, took way too long to shower and get all of our stuff together, got lost on our way to get coffee, came back to Nanna's apartment only to find out she had prepared the BESTEST breakfast of all time, took our sweet time eating our bodyweight in salmon and skyr and ONLY THEN, we left. 
It was 2 pm already. Classic.

#004 - Hello Reykjavik : unCOMMON:Arctic

#004 - Hello Reykjavik : unCOMMON:Arctic

And BOOM, just like that, we had left Svalbard and all its polar bears behind, and jumped on a plane towards Iceland, for the much anticipated two wheeled part of our project. Cycling all of Iceland on our trusted Cinelli Hobootleg Geo bikes. 


But first : a little stop over in Oslo. And with little, I mean SIXTEEN HOURS.

#003 - More Svalbard tales : unCOMMON:Arctic

#003 - More Svalbard tales : unCOMMON:Arctic

After the very spooky, yet super cool and let's not forget WET trip to Pyramiden, we decided to test one of the myths we had heard about Svalbard while daydreaming about this project : apparently Longyearbyen has some of the world's fastest internet connections due to a quite unique handshake that happened a few years ago between Nasa and the Norwegian goverments.

It probably went something like this : 
- "Hey norway, you don't really use Svalbard much, do you?" 
- "Nah, it's all coal and polar bears there" 
- "Cool, can we dump tons of optic fibre there and test internet connecetion for space? You get free internet though! I mean, the polar bears do" 
- "Whatever man, it's not like we care at all" 
And BOOM! As it turns out, it's all true! 

#002 - Welcome to Svalbard : unCOMMON:Arctic

#002 - Welcome to Svalbard : unCOMMON:Arctic

"Bye mom, i'm off cycling among polar bears with my best friends. Don't wait up for me" 

And with that said, I left home and drove to Milano's Linate airport, bright and early. The plan was simple: meet with Lorro and Sio as early as possible at the airport, wait for Cinelli (our main technical sponsor) to deliver us the bikes (already travel packed and ready to go), check in the gargantuan amount of  luggages we're traveling with and  enjoy a few hours in the duty free area, to chill out a bit before the big start.

Easy enough right? 

WRONG.

#001 - A new beginning : unCOMMON:Arctic is LIVE!

Where did we leave off last time? 
Ah yes! Cycling the length of Japan! 

Well, a few things happened from back then... 
Sio moved back to Italy, I moved to Melbourne, Australia and Lorro kept on cursing the day he had to say no to cycling the length of Japan with us.

What? You don't know who Lorro is!?

Well, let me fill you in: Lorro is a talented chef, a gigantic nerd, a wonderful person but most importantly, Lorro is our best friend. 

Me Sio and Lorro form a trio that goes waaaaay back to our University times and obviously, is still holding strong. 

Last December, me and Sio met in Singapore and spent a week brainstorming about what our next project could be. Several beers, coffees, weird pokemon runs after, we had our plan: combining our love for cycling, exploring uncommon areas of the world and interest in people living differently to what we are used. Sprinkle a little wilderness on top, add 24 hours of sunlight a day, serve chilled: unCOMMON:Arctic was born. 

The plan is simple: explore some of the northernmost areas of the planet, Svalbard, Iceland (by bike) and Greenland, to experience how life is so far away from everyone else. (???)

We gave Lorro a call and explained him the plan: "Say no more, i'm IN" 

This is it.

Welcome to unCOMMON:Arctic.


 

#13 : Our land, Hokkaido. From Hakodate to Cape Soya, the end of our adventure.

After a handful of hours on the ferry, along with our new traveling companions met in Aomori, we heard a voice coming out of the speakers : “We’re about to land in Hakodate, prepare yourself to leave the ferry” 

Woah! We were both speechless for a second there. We had just made our way back to Hokkaido, where the both of us had lived for 2 years each. But this time, we had arrived on our own forces, and on a bike! 

#12 : Niigata, Akita, Aomori. The long rides.

Arriving to Niigata came with a real lot of excitement: we had finally made it to the other side of Japan, crossed the Japanese alps and we were damn ready to enjoy the city for a couple of rest days. Too bad, thought, that all of that enthusiasm hit a brick wall straight away: long story short, there’s nothing to do in Niigata. NOTHING at all. 

We reached the centre of the city around sunset and we went through our usual we-made-it-back-to-civilization routine : hot springs, coin laundry, food and looking for a place to pitch the tent. It was pissing rain, it was late, it’s was dark. As in : real dark. So we just decided to completely rely on google maps and blindly followed a strangely curvy road until we found a square literally the size of our tend under a tree, and stopped there, completely disregarding the fact that there was a peacock in a cage, literally a few steps form us. 

#11 : Mountain stories. From Tokyo to Niigata.

After spending 6 days in Tokyo, doing everything a tourist wouldn’t do, (and unwillingly avoiding every single thing a tourist WOULD do) we jumped back on our specializedTricross bikes and started cycling towards the Japanese alps and the city behind them, Niigata. 

With little to no surprise, we left Tokyo relatively late and the first day flew by too damn quickly: traffic, street lights, last purchases for the trip and more then 50km before even finding ourselves outside of that urban jungle. 

As soon as we reached the first little village outside of the suburbs of Tokyo, we pitched the tent and went to sleep super early. 

#10 : How to spend 514800 seconds in Tokyo.

Ok, where were we? 

 

Ahh, yes, in Atsugi! In the wild suburbs around Tokyo. No seriously, I mean it: WILD. EXTREME. SUBURBS.

Let me just tell you that the diameter of the urban area Tokyo alone is easily over 100 km. So when I say wild suburbs i’m talking about distances that for us Italians could easily represent the next region’s main city.  eek.

However, we arrived in Atsugi in the evening and operated following our usual protocol for big cities : a dip in the hot springs, a visit to a coin laundry to wash literally everything we had with us, having a suspiciously long dinner in a restaurant using all their plugs to recharge cameras, computers, mobiles, external batteries while working on photos, blogs and vlogs. And then lastly, pitching the tent in the first excuse for a park we came across and sleep like logs. 

#09 : All roads lead to Tokyo...

#09 : All roads lead to Tokyo...

In Italy we say that “all the street lead to Rome”. If that’s true, than we can say all the streets lead to Tokyo, in this part of the world. 

Right after leaving Nagoya, we started traveling towards Omaezaki, where another of our university ex-classmate was waiting for us. 

#08: More big cities : Kyoto & Nagoya.

#08: More big cities : Kyoto & Nagoya.

Kyoto, at last! 

Prior to getting to Kyoto, we got a big surprise: Chiara, Federica and Orsola (three former university classmates of ours) got in touch with us and invited us to crash at their place for a night. And who the hell are we to refuse such a thing!? As soon as we arrived there, we threw our sleeping bags on the floor, took a quick shower and went together for a night out in town, eating, drinking and most importantly, reminiscing big time! 

#07 : The first big cities. Osaka and Nara.

#07 : The first big cities. Osaka and Nara.

The day before reaching Osaka we stopped at Takarazuka. 

Why? Why the hell not! 

No, seriously, Takarazuka is where the KING lived. Nope, I'm not talking about Elvis, not that KING. I'm talking about Osamu Tezuka, the one and only KING when it comes to Manga.

#06 : First the desert, then the snow. Onomichi, Tottori and the mountains.

#06 : First the desert, then the snow. Onomichi, Tottori and the mountains.

Right after finishing the Shimanami Kaidō, Japan's longest bicycle route, we reached the little town of Onomichi. Now, it might be little and pretty ignored by most touristic guides but believe me, it's beautiful. Clean, colorful, interesting and filled with smiling people. You can't ask for more from a city! 

#05 : Hiroshima, more bombs, Dogo Onsen and Japan's longest cycling road.

#05 : Hiroshima, more bombs, Dogo Onsen and Japan's longest cycling road.

Wow, It's been a while since the last blog post...

Wait a sec, actually it wasn't so long ago! It's just that so many things happen everyday!

So, after spending the afternoon in the beautiful Miyajima, we rode our Specialized Tricross until sunset, and camped in the suburbs of Hiroshima.

#03 : Nagasaki, abandoned islands, atomic bombs and amazing hostels.

#03 : Nagasaki, abandoned islands, atomic bombs and amazing hostels.

It’s funny: we’re only at the third entry in this blog and yet I already forgot to mention our last stop in the previous blog post. So, let me tell you a little bit about Tomioka, the city that truly loved us the most so far! 

#02 : What monkeys, rain and volcanoes have to do with the beginning of our trip.

#02 : What monkeys, rain and volcanoes have to do with the beginning of our trip.

I clearly remember saying to myself "Don't write too much, and don't post too many photos at the same time".

Yeah, like I could do that. Brew a cup of your best coffee and pour it in your favorite mug. Done it? Than you're ready for this LONG blog post.