Are you okay? 🤨

Whenever I do something my Greek friend Maria think is stupid, she asks me this question. Picture it with a Scots Greek accent. And when I told her I was going to climb the tallest peak of every European country, she yet again raised her eyebrows and asked, "you okay hun?" At least I think she did. I’m not even sure I told her. But if I did, she definitely did utter these words. If I didn't tell you Maria, read my travel letters.

So, what is the Crown of Europe?

In simple words, it's my mid-life crisis. A mid-life crisis where I'm looking for a challenge to give my life a wee bit of flavour. And that challenge is to climb the tallest peak in every European Country, also know as the crown of Europe. Because who doesn't like to spend time amongst the gods smelling the fresh air from far above the polluted existence of every day life!?

So why am I doing this?

Well, it all started back in 2022. My friend Laura challenged me to another challenge, the 30 before 30. 30 before 30 is visiting 30 countries by the time you turn 30. This made me tally up all the countries I'd visited so far in my life and I got to 26. As I was 29 at the time, I realised time was running out so I needed to act fast.

This resulted in planning a trip to the Baltics in the summer of 2022, flying to Helsinki as my starting point to line up a quadruple of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. However, I didn't want to go there and just do the typical touristy things of seeing only the capital and getting hammered every day like any self respecting Brit would. So, what was I gonna do to see and experience a wee bit more of these countries and do something most people do not do?

The beginning

My initial inspiration was probably Bald & Bankrupt, a bald Brit with a shoddy reputation creating some of the best content you'll find on YouTube if you want to see the real people and places of the former Soviet Union. He made me intrigued to venture outside of the main spots that tourists come to visit and challenge myself in the way I approach people and travel.

However, I still needed a challenge (you're seeing a pattern here don't you?) and I don't know when, but at some point it just came to me. Climb the tallest mountain of each of the baltic countries! Because how random isn't that? Going to three countries which for most people are pretty much only known for their capitals being a brilliant cheap weekend getaway, but instead, go there to climb their tallest peaks. Three countries who arguably are just fields and forests. The combined height of all three isn't even 1000m. And so the first seeds were sown.

At this point, I was never even considering, or even knew of, the crown of Europe challenge. However, that changed quickly as I encountered my first inspiration who is still my primary inspiration for this journey. Because finding information on how to climb these three peaks was surprisingly difficult. Who knew, but it's not a very popular activity in either country and tourists aren't flocking to witness the views. Mental right?

The first inspiration

Enter Emma Svensson, a truly inspiring human being! A concert photographer, dumped by her husband 6 weeks into their marriage, decided to challenge herself to climb mountains after watching the movie Everest on a flight to New Zealand with no climbing experience. So she embarked on a journey to complete the Crown of Europe challenge and did it at that point, in record time (the record has changed hands many times since and is now sitting at just 61 days).

Emma and her blog 49 peaks helped me figure out how I could get to these 3 baltic picos but she also introduced me to the idea of the Crown of Europe challenge. At this point though, it was only a fun thought but nothing I ever considered. We actually have to forward two years to the summer of 2024 before the idea got more legs to stand on.

2024 marked a year where I wanted to see more of Europe, parts yet unknown to me (travel wise) and a goal of reaching 50 countries visited. A journey starting in Roma, passing through 14 countries I'd never before visited, ultimately ended in the Balkans (technically it ended in Frankfurt but that sounds lame, sorry Frankfurt amigos) and along the way I was yet again looking for another challenge. And like Emma, to me there's no better challenge than brushing elbows with the gods. So on my journey where I had time, I decided to yet again climb some, arguably easy, country high points. This included, San Marino, Hungary and Moldova.

Getting serious about it

And it was in Moldova where the thought of doing this challenge actually became real. After driving for 6 hours from the very south of the autonomous region Gagauzia and the city Vulcanești (Where I'd traveled because I thought the name sounded cool), I arrived close to the peak shrouded in fog, not really knowing if I was close or not. Seeing another car, I parked up and as I exited, out of the fog emerges a Polish woman and her son.

"You're here for the Crown of Europe too!?" she exclaimed and we started chatting. I truthfully told her that although the challenge might've brought me here, I had no plans of doing the full challenge. She told me she had started the challenge a long time ago but now wanted her son to tag along to complete it with her. This put a fire in me as the young boy was probably no more than 8 years old, and if he could do this challenge, so could I!

Enter 2025 and although the challenge had become something I was now seriously considering, I still had doubts about completing it, but I liked the idea of chasing a few more peaks of reasonable height (read, hills). Knowing that I was meeting friends in Paris in May, I decided that I'd set off earlier from Norway and make the journey by rail as I was gonna do a serious bit of destruction to planet earth later in the year (Sorry earth!). With my first stop in Denmark, I was dialled in on climbing the tallest peak there and was later planning to do the same in Luxembourg where I was meeting friends for a surprise birthday weekend away.

The climb in Denmark turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had planned. I was hoping to rent a bike but because of that wee bawbag Jesus, I was denied the chance to rent one (Apparently he died 2000 years ago and because of this, we still can't operate shops during the time kids look for easter bunnies. Redoncs. Believe it if you can) and I was left with no other choice than to go for a run from the nearest train station in pouring rain, ultimately completing my first half-marathon (28k in the end). Not bad eh?

I'm doing it!

This inspired me, and as I journeyed across the country to see my friend Tobias play at a country festival, I decided that with another 2 peaks in close proximity of Luxembourg, I was gonna complete the Benelux treble and now go all in on the Crown of Europe challenge! Who said hills can't be inspiring?

Now, you might wonder what my timeline is, and ultimately it doesn't matter as long as I complete the challenge. My initial thought was to do it by the time I'm 40, but when I told Tobias this after he completed his set at the Danish country festival, he was like, "well, that's easy then". And so, those words lit a fire in me, and I decided that 2027 will be the goal.

Why 2027? Well, there are a few peaks that requires equipment and should not be taken lightly. I will not climb these peaks without knowing I approach them with the right amount of respect and skill. Believe it or not, but if you climb mountains, you need both. Also, I'm scared of heights, so I don't really want to climb these mountains. But I have to. Fear is for losers. But doing things you're not in the right frame of mind for is stupid. And being stupid is worse than being a loser.

So ultimately, we'll see if I can complete this but I think I can. There's also the fact that good old Vladimir is still a right jobby and until he gets a grip (like that's ever gonna happen), Russia and Ukraine, and by extension Belarus (Alex is also a wee jobby), I cannot/won't consider them until the war ends. I'm hopeful for the Ukrainians that the end of the war is near but with Vlad at the helm, I'm not holding my breath.

Anywho, this is the why. Emma Svensson and the Polish woman and her son, they are my inspirations and my mid-life crisis is my driver. Are you okay?