09/09/2019 – Hospital

I woke from the campsite and left at a reasonable time, I don’t remember much from the day besides a few snapshots of some of the scenery.

This is because at some point during the afternoon of the 7th of September I had a crash.

I have no idea how it happened only that looking at the bike, it doesn’t look like I had an altercation with another vehicle so can only assume that I fell by myself.

The first thing I remember is waking up in a machine. I’m not sure whether it was an X-Ray or an MRI as I swiftly fell asleep again and next remember having stitches on my forehead and my chin. I again black out and wake up in a hospital bed feeling a bit sore and my left hand wrapped up in bandages.

Several questions went through my mind, what happened, where am I, where’s all my stuff.

The second 2 were answered pretty quickly when the guy who took me to the hospital showed up with fruit and water.

He said that I was sat on the floor and waved him down. He took me to the hospital in Komotini and my bike was with the police.

The extent of the damage was as follows: 7 stitches in forehead, 2 stitches in chin, chipped front tooth, skin on left palm of hand missing and numerous other scrapes over body.

However, nothing seemed broken and I could walk around so I classed that as a win.

I asked if the hospital had my phone and they did. What’s miraculous is that there isn’t even a scratch on it!

After letting my parents know about the crash and that I was okay, I started the next 48 hours of drifting in and out of sleep until I got discharged on the 9th of September. Fortunately my mum was arriving in a few hours.

I know there have been times where I haven’t worn a helmet around Cardiff but have worn my helmet for every single second on this bike ride.

Looking at it, I’m so glad I was as the damage to my head would have been so much worse.

Thank you all for your messages of support, once I’ve recovered, I’ll be continuing the trip in no time.