30 days on the road

Graz native cycled to Portugal for Erasmus studies

Arrival in Porto - and thus shortly before the actual destination of Lisbon.

(Bild: Fabian Kabas)

Fabian Kabas made his way to his exchange semester in Portugal by bike. Flat tires were just as much of a challenge on the route as the food. 3318 kilometers, 27,722 meters in altitude and 112,286 kilocalories later, the Graz native reached Lisbon together with his friend and companion Sebastiano Riebler.

"I do all my routes by bike," says Fabian Kabas. "I used to go racing cycling with my dad and in 2018 I went on a cycling trip to Greece with three friends." And so the 25-year-old Graz University of Technology student and his girlfriend quickly decided to cycle to Lisbon for two exchange semesters. Looking back, a crazy idea? "You very quickly forget that you suffered and only remember the good things, like the feeling of freedom," smiles Fabian.

Journey through five countries
In the months leading up to his trip, he did longer day trips alongside his Master's in Biomedical Engineering - "around 70 to 150 kilometers". But nothing could prepare him for the 30-day tour to Portugal: From Graz, Fabian cycled to Carinthia, Italy, over the Alps to southern France and north of the Pyrenees via Spain to Portugal. 3318 kilometers, 27,722 vertical meters and 112,286 kilocalories later, the cyclist from Graz would reach Lisbon.

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But he didn't have to complete the route alone: his loyal friend Sebastiano Riebler accompanied Fabian to the finish. "His chain broke once and I had problems with my drive - so we were always able to tow each other along," says the 25-year-old. The route didn't always take them over smooth asphalt roads - "we even had to carry our bikes through streams at times". It was also very hot over long stretches, "only in the Alps was it finally cool." The two spent some of their nights in tents, but others in hotels, pilgrimage sites or with friends.

Food as fuel
Eating along the way was a surprisingly big challenge. "We had to eat four times as much as normal every day," says Fabian. And often while driving: "At some point, eating was just fuel," he laughs. The high calorie requirement could only be managed with lots of carbohydrates - cookies, muesli bars, soft drinks or simply white sugar dissolved in water with salt and lemon juice.

It was all the more overwhelming for Fabian to finally reach Lisbon. "I took the most essential luggage with me on my bike and had the rest sent by post for 35 euros," he explains. He was also lucky with his - very international - shared flat in the Portuguese capital. His green journey was subsidized by the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization with several hundred euros. And the return journey? "I'm not ruling out the possibility of cycling home again," says the 25-year-old.