Category Archives: Turkey

Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 58: Ilica to Sariyar Baraji

There was a little rain this morning but thankfully we had but the tarp up yesterday so we were dry getting ready and by the time we were off it had cleared up.
We had a morning climb through the rocky, mountainous scenery but there was still a decent amount of green vegetation around. The climb took us up to 1100 meters and we got a great view of the countryside behind us. It was good we stopped to take it all in, for although it was different to what we had cycled through before, the terrain still felt a bit European or something.

  

   

at the top of the climb

   After we were halfway down the descent on the other side, I’d say the starting point was after passing through the town of Tašçilar, the scenery changed drastically. There was little vegetation and the mountains now exposed we big sedimentary things with the various layers of rock visible like slices of bread, one on top the other. It felt now,moor the first time, that we were starting to enter the Middle East. 

     
It was a lovely long descent on a wide and quiet road. In fact at one point a young guy driving an empty mini bus pulled up and offered us a lift onwards to the next big town called Nallihan. We didn’t take him up on the offer as the cycling was so nice but did pose for a photo with him, he seemed very pleased with himself to have met us. 
When we did arrive in Nalihan maybe 45 minutes later we stopped to,have a short look around since the place was quite big, biggest town we’d passed through since Izimit. We picked up some Tavuk Donner and then some baklava for later. Baklava is a great cycle touring snack, its like rocket fuel.
On the other side of Nalihan now, and we were in for a big surprise. Once we finished the initial climb out of the city we were greeted with some of the most dramatic and impressive physical geography I’ve seen. At first it was wide expanses of desert with interesting rock formations off in the  distance.

  
  
     

Once we got close to these rocks and hills though the whole landscape came alive.I could try describe but probably can’t get the point across so here are pictures instead:

  
 

 
  

 we arrived at the big lake (or wetland, not entirely sure what it was) we took photos and then figured we might as well stop here and camp at a little spot we had seen from the road that overlooked the vista. We were a couple of kilometres short and would have to make up for it on the ride into Ankara tomorrow, but we had a host lined up there and how often do you get to camp in a place like this:

  

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Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 57: Lake Sapanca to Ilica

 We spent a bit more time than usual getting ready this morning, partly because the spot by the lake was so nice we didn’t really want to leave but also we had a bit of maintenance to do, plus it was raining and there’s always the hope that you can wait the rain out. We finally got on the road at ten, quite a bit later than normal.
We were back on the D100 and from our campsite to the turn off for the smaller road to Ankara was a total straight shot. There was a light rain, but also a tailwind so it kind of balanced out that way. We made the turn off onto the route D140 and, what a relief, the traffic calmed almost immediately. By by now both of us were feeling pretty hungry so we stopped at the next spot that had food, a lot next to the road with a grocer and a bakery.

 

the long straight road in the morning

   
We picked some fruit and bread and sat on benches outside the bakery to eat when an old Turkish woman came over and started fussing over the damp table. She then disappeared inside the bakery and came out with a cloth, wiped down then table and then hurried back inside again. When she came out this time she had a paper spread she put down on the table and then three bowels of cheese and olives, tomatoes and roasted peppers. By now we figured she was the owner of the bakery and we were thanking her very much for the generosity, she gave us all this after we bought one loaf of bread!

 

a photo with the woman who was so kind to us at the bakery, she was chuffed to have her photo taken and made sure we were standing under the part of the sign that said “ekmek” which means bread

 
As we were leaving she handed over a fresh loaf of bread to take with us and then insisted we take a photo with her under the sign for her bakery. We said goodbye, thanked her again and got back on the road.
Our route to Ankara was was in the smallest, most direct road we could find. As a result it was the road that ran through some mountains which we of course we’re pleased to find out. We love cycling in the mountains!

 

start of the climb

  

can you spot Finn?

 But today even though we had some nice climbs the clouds were so low and nice view as a reward was not forthcoming. Although the cool, overcast day did make climbing much easier, compared to the heat we’d been riding in previously.

Finn isnt actually tired in this photo, hes just reenacting a time he was tired after a climb on another, completely different day. he wanted to make sure that was clear.

 

lovely downhill, lovely uphill

 
 By the time we had made it to the top the rain had eased off, though the clouds persisted. Hurtling down the descent we passed through one small town called Ilica where we stopped to pick up some water. A Turkish chap was very pleased to see us outside the shop and beamed at us and shook our hands. After this fun encounter we continued riding downhill until we came to a bridge. Taking a turn off and following the bank we found a camp spot next to a river, swollen by the previous three days of rain.

  

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Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 56: Istanbul to Lake Sapanca

The rain had cleared up when we woke up, though it was still windy and overcast. The small building had done a great job sheltering us from the worst of the storm but everything had still managed to get a bit damp. One of the big drawbacks of camping in a park is that a lot more people tend to come by in the morning. We got a bit lucky this morning actually, we were up and out with the Bivvy gone just before a park keeper came over. It was quite clear we had slept there but since he didn’t find us fast asleep in the tents he didn’t really say anything,must made us move away from the building.
The moving was spent riding out of Istanbul and that took a good two hours, the place is so big and just sprawls on and on forever. The morning began on a great cycle along a bike track beside a quiet enough road on the coast right next to the sea. We rode on that for half and hour with a huge tailwind practically pushing us along, it was fantastic. Once the coast road merged with the bigger route D 100 though, the cycle track disappears and we had to cycle in the, thankfully ample, hard shoulder. 

   

you can see how strong the wind was by the trees

 The problem with the D100 wasn’t that it was big (three lanes) or busy (lots of trucks) but that, since it was going through the city still there were constant on and off ramps that interrupted the hard shoulder and were a bit of a headache to navigate.
Things got better the farther we got from the city though. By the time we were out of the greater Istanbul area the road was down to two lanes and was right next to the sea which we really enjoyed. We pulled off for lunch in the town of Körfez, as we were approaching it had started to rain a bit but almost as soon as we pulled in and got off the bikes and into shelter a massive downpour started, we were quite pleased with our timing.

 

this bridge was being constructed about 40km outside Istanbul to join the two sides of the bay.

 
Lake Sapanca wasn’t too far from Körfez, and seemed like a nice place to camp so we decided to aim there as a finishing point. We were still on the D100, not ideal but there isn’t really any other option if you want to get out of Istanbul in the direction of Ankara. The rain continued most of the rest of the cycle and cleared up perhaps an hour before we finished. After passing through Izimit, the city at the curve of the bay we climbed up to the lake. We spent a while riding along beside the lake, not quite by the shore but close enough. There were no good spots to camp at for some time. Finally we spotted a small grassy peninsula sticking out into the water.

this sort of extravagant pedestrian bridges crossed the road through Izimit

Pulling off the busy road and down to the peninsula was a nice relief and it turned out to be a great camp spot overlooking the whole lake. What with all the rain we put up the tarp for the first time since Austria, but it was a dry night in the end.

  

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Dublin to Nepal, Turkey

Istanbul, gateway to a continent

Since arriving in Istanbul marked for us the end of our European leg of the trip we had decided to spend one whole week there. A whole week not cycling seemed a bit crazy and in fact after only a couple of days off the bikes it started to feel like we’d never cycled at all! But the break was much appreciated. 

taking the boat back to the European side to the historic peninsula. the palace is on the right, the Aya Sofia the mosque in the center

 
The night we arrived in Ozgurs he was having some of his friends over. They were all out on his balcony playing Turkish folk songs and we were able to just sit back and relax, just the ticket after the hectic cycle into the city.
We had promised ourselves long ago that when we got into Istanbul we were going to go for a Hammam, a Turkish bath. A quick bit of research (browsing the requisite section of the Lonely Planet) revealed that one of the best was to be found back in the Sultanamate, right near the Aya Sofia. Next day we took the boat back over to the European side and made an appointment for one of their more luxurious bath options.
But before that, we met up with Josh and Abey and Josh’s mum for lunch. It was nice seeing them one last time, and kind of funny, thinking about how their trips were over and we were barely half way. Once lunch was over we said our last goodbyes and went for the Hammam.
Opting for the higher end bath was one of the better decisions we’ve made. It was definitely appreciated all the more having cycled the whole way. The building was a 500 year old Ottoman bath house that had been restored and reopened in 2012. It was like something out of Arabian nights, big domes and marble floors and opulent couches and cushions. The bath itself was a bit odd at first, but once you got over being washed by another (hairy Turkish) man it was fantastic. After changing we were each handed a tasseled, purple wrap to cover up during the bath and then led into another domed, marble floor room with a big slab in the centre and little alcoves out to each side where boiling hot water poured from gold taps.

 

i got these shots from their site, this is the entrance and changing area

  

one of the washing alcoves

 Here we were told to wash (and that we should leave the purple wraps on). When we felt sufficiently clean we walked back out to the domed area and said hello to two other guys also bathing. Turns out these were the dudes who were going to wash us. First, a vigorous scrub with a rough exfoliating glove – after washing in rivers with a flannel for the last few months this was probably necessary. Then a soap soak, which was where you lay face down on the big marble slab in the middle of the room and get cover head to toe in warm suds and the massaged.

 

the main bathing area, with the marble slab om the middle

 
After all this washing was done we were taken back into the main hall and wrapped up in towels and shown to a futon to rest on. The two guys fed us this great line on the walk out of te bathing area: “today, you are Sultan”.After this little break it was time for a final massage (focus on the legs!) before the whole things was over. It took about an hour and is probably the best way to feel rejuvenated after cycling across a continent.
We did go see a lot of the sights during our stay, but I never really like writing about visiting famous landmarks, there’s not a whole lot to say really. 

Aya Sofia is big and cool if you like history and probably worth a visit even if you don’t. It’s a bit price to get in (30 Turkish Lire, about €10) but you’re not going to go to Istanbul and not see the Aya Sofia.

   
   
The Blue Mosque is nice, but it was close to closing when I went and totally packed, it felt like a zoo. Lots of impressive Islamic decorations inside though. I’d say go early morning.

 

outside the Blue mosque, its called blue because of the interior not the outside

  

inside with the blue windows, since it is still a functioning mosque only practising Muslims can enter the centre (the area under the lights)

  

the main dome of the mosque

 
The Topkapi Palace is a great concentration of Ottoman architecture and the harem shows off just how luxurious the living quarters were for the Sultan and the court, it’s sort of like an oriental Versailles. When we went though it was right in the middle of Bayran, a multi day Muslim holiday and national holiday in Turkey so it was packed out and absolutely roasting too. It would have been nice to stay and wander longer than I could hack the crowds for.

 

entrance to the Palace

  

this building was where the Queen Mother, or I suppose Sultans mother lived.

  

part of the palace garden

 
The Grand Bazaar was very cool in some parts, namely the areas for Antiques, Jewllery and Carpets. These were focused in the centre of the Bazzar. The surrounding areas were spoiled somewhat by vendors peddling useless shite. Worth a visit for sure, but the Spice bazaar is much livelier and with more interesting stalls. Big buckets of spices, you could buy a kilo of saffron for 300TL. There were lokum (Turkish delight) stalls and all sorts of other weird treats.
There’s a bunch of other stuff too, the Taksim area north of the Galata tower is quite cool with a long boulevard running from the Tower North up to Taksim square and numerous little alleys and side streets to wander off into.
Kadiköy, the neighbourhood on the Asian side of the city where Ozgur lived was really nice too, and I’d probably recommend to stay there if you were heading out to Istanbul. Not only is it a bit quieter, a bit more sane compared to the hustled and bustle of the European side, since this is a neighbourhood where a lot of normal people (as in not super rich) actually live there’s loads of nice place to eat and drink that are affordable. Plus you get to ride back and forth across the Bosphorus every day and see the city from the water.

 

taking the boat back to Kadikoy from the European side of the city

  

some nice wall art around Kadikoy

   
Now since this holiday Bayran was going on a lot of people were leaving Istanbul or coming to Istanbul to see their family. The were two things we had to buy while in the city, a good winter sleeping bag and a map of Turkey. Unfortunately it turned out that all the book shops and camping stores were closed overt the holiday, which ran from Wednesday to Sunday. Fortunately Ozgur was complete relaxed and welcoming and let us stay with him much longer than we planned. We waited out the holiday for four days until the shops were back open and we could get what we needed.
We had a good time waiting it out though. Ozgur place was jammed over Bayran: he had us two, his friend Šefaq who was hanging out for a couple of weeks, his two cousins Yevuz and Görgen and at one point two more Couchsurfers from Germany, but they decided (probably wisely) to go with one of their friends to the Black Sea instead. So we had a great time, even if our plans were delayed a bit.

 

photo with Ozgur on our last day

 
We did manage to pick up everything we wanted in the end, we even found an English Lonely Planet for Iran. The days leading up to our departure and the day of were windy and rainy. The day we left started out overcast and blustery in the morning but by late afternoon it was drizzling and the wind blowing hard. We had spent most of the morning reorganising how our bags were packed since we now had a huge winter sleeping bag to contend with. We also finally fixed the tent poles (the tent poles that broke on the first night in Wales). 
We seem to have a curse on this tour, no matter how hard we try we can never leave a city in a timely manner. The day of departure finds delayed somehow and in the end we only ever make it a couple of kilometres out of the city, if at all (see: Munich, Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Sofia). This time it wasn’t a freak storm (though the weather was bad) or bikes breaking, we just plain got lost. Or rather, we lost eachother. At a certain junction I went right while Finn went straight and it took two hours before we found eachother again. 
The rain and wind were still going strong and it was getting late, daylight was starting to fade. There was a big park by the coast beside the road out of town so we made our way down there and waited for it to get dark before riding in and camping behind a building to get some shelter from the rain. We were woken in the middle of he night by a guard in a big black rain poncho with the rain still pissing down. Once he heard us spouting English though he smiled and let us be. 

drying our gear out after the rain, the building we sheltered behind on the right

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Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Cycling into Istanbul

Istanbul was a fascinating city where we took a big break and ended up staying longerthan anticipated due to a religious holiday. But before we get into our stay there I have to go over the cycle into the city.
As I mentioned yesterday we had teamed up with English tourer Josh and American tourer Abey just outside Silivri. Both of them were on their first big tour. Today was their last day and they were excited to arrive in Istanbul. We were excited too as we knew a nice long break awaited us once we got in.
We left the BP we had camped at, 40km outside the city and started the run into the centre. As soon as we were in the road we were in developed, urban area and it didn’t let up all the way in. The road was, of course, bust and only got busier the closer we got to Istanbul. We had avoided the motorway into the city, opting instead for the quieter highway D100 (which was still, at its peak, five lanes wide on either side). The difficult part of the ride wasn’t the traffic or the size of the road, in fact navigating this was fun in itself. The real difficulty was the frequency of two lane wide on and off ramps that required a lot of concentration and speed to get across safely.

 

taking a break, this was before the road really got busy

 
Josh was supposed to meet his mother at the airport at noon today but he also really didn’t want to miss cycling into the centre of the city with us. The airport was right on the route into Istanbul for us so we figured, he why not check out Istanbul airport. It also served as a nice break from the traffic.
After the brief rendezvous with Josh’s mother in arrivals we were back on the road. During our time at the airport we had looked up what we presumed would be a nice ride into the centre than the road we had been on. We joined up with a road that ran by the coast which was considerably less busy and actually we soon found a park next to the sea with a cycle path through it. Suddenly we could relax and enjoy the ride and watch as we got closer to the centre with the mouth of the Bospherous drawing ever nearer.

  
The cycle lane ran out abruptly and dumped us back on the road. Fortunately, or perhaps by design, the cycle track ended just opposite the turn off for the Sultanamet, the centre of the historic old peninsula on the European side that house the Aya Sofia and the Grand Bazaar. This was perfect and we made our way up to the Aya Sofia to get some end of trip photos of the two guys and some end of Europe photos for us two.

 

getting ready for the photoshoot

 
 

at Istanbul at last

 
We said goodbye to Abey here and then waved Josh off after we got to the Galata bridge on the the other side of the Sultanahmet. Our cycle through Istanbul wasn’t over yet though, we still had to get over the Bosphorous and onto the Asian side of the city.
Clearly, the best way to get across would be to cycle across the big bridge that spanned the two continents so we made our way towards it. Our plan of following the bank of the Bosphorous until we came to the bridge didn’t really work out as the by the time we arrived at the bridge it was far above us. 
Trying to cycle back up the hills away from the river to get on the bridge didn’t really work out either. A bit of a struggle up some steep roads took us away from where we presumed we could get onto the bridge, but did lead us to a lovely panoramic viewpoint where we had a great chat with the guys working in the car park.

 

looking across to Asia, thats the bridge were trying to get on

 
It was another hour navigating on ramps, overpasses and roundabouts before we finally made it onto the road that would take us to the bridge! We were very pleased with ourselves and were soon riding downhill, the Bosphorous and the bridge spread out before us. 
At the last merging lane before the bridge we were stopped by the police. Even though the sign before the bridge said we could ride over it on a bike, they didn’t want us to. But we were at a but of an impasse. We couldn’t go forward, the police wouldn’t allow it, but we couldn’t really go backwards either. They didn’t really know what to do, and we were kind of hoping they’d just let us go and be done with it but that didn’t look likely.
In the end we got lucky, a friendly guy in a van pulled onto the little triangle island between the merging Kane and the main road and offered us and the bikes a lift over the bridge! So we didn’t get to ride it, but we did get to cross the bridge a way which was a little victory in itself.
Our driver brought us over the bridge and all the way to the turn off for the neighbourhood where we Couchsurfing, the very pleasant Kadiköy. Anyway, to cut a long post short we finally made it to our hosts Ozgurs place. It was a long day cycling into Istanbul, but I wouldn’t really expect any less.

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Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 55: Lülbergaz to Outside Istanbul

The riding today was the same as yesterday, a bit flatter but through a lot of industrial areas which signalled the started of the sprawl spreading out of Istanbul and the surrounding towns. Once again I ended up only taking a couple of photos that signify what the riding was like for most of the morning. 

you can see the start of thr industrial sprawl on the horizon

 
There was going to be a significant event today though: reaching the sea, we’d been away from the coast since leaving Split almost a month ago. We got the first glimpse of the sea shortly after we stopped for lunch. We had covered a lot of distance again this morning, and we were planning on continuing our practice of camping a little bit outside the city we intended to stay at so that next day we could spend most of the day in the city and not riding to it.

 

first glimpse of the sea

 
Istanbul was not only 50km away and it was mid afternoon so we had some time to kill and decided to ride into and spend some time at the costal town of Silivri.
Silivri was a busy place right by the sea, it had a nice promenade right by the coast that was packed with people and a main square a few streets up that was equally busy. We posted up in a cafe by the sea, I had got a puncture at some point riding into town so I went to fix it. While fixing it a group of kids came over and watched, enthralled by the act of patching a tyre. One kid had shown up on a pretty nice bike and once I had finished, followed me back into the cafe and sat down with me and Finn.

 

the Silivri waterfront

 
After some google translate conversation we learned he was from town, it was summer break and he wanted to ride his bike around with us. He wasn’t very impressed with the leisurely break Finn and I were taking. The poor guy just wanted to cycle , but we here we were lounging about a cafe! We did, eventually, get going and he had a great time following along on his bike and leading us back to the road to Istanbul.

 

getting our little buddy an ice cream

 
Here we said goodbye to our little friend and not thirty seconds had we said goodbye to him did we see two cycle tourers riding along on the road we were about to join. We shouted some hellos and the rode up to them.
These two tourers were Josh from England and Abey from the US. They were both on tour individually across Europe and had ran into eachother in Albania and decided to team up for the remainder of their ride, which was finishing in Istanbul. All of us were in the same page, looking for somewhere to camp before heading into Istanbul tomorrow so we decide to team up for this last night and day of their journey.

 

rolling out with the Josh (in the hat) and Abey

 
We rode out of Silivri together looking for, once again, a petrol station to stop at. We found one maybe thirty minutes later, a BP that had a small area off to the side with a canvas roof and a couple of tables – the little area seemed made for our purpose. We cooked dinner for Josh and Abey with the remainder of out pasta and talked about, well pretty much one, thing for hours: how darn fantastic cycle touring is. Josh and Abey were noticeably excited to be finishing their tour tomorrow, it was great to spend some time with other tourers after so long cycling and camping just the two of us.

  

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Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 54: Edirne to Lülbergaz

This will probably be a short post as not much really happened except towards the end of the day and the cycling wasn’t all that interesting.
Leaving the Shell after a morning of taking photos with Erdem we got onto the main road that we took out of Edirne yesterday. We were going to be in this road for the next two days until we got into Istanbul, we didn’t have a map of Turkey yet and it was the quickest route to the city. So it was good road, direct and well signposted. The downside was the the riding was dull and the scenery too. It was all rolling land for miles, and the road not exactly busy but certainly not quiet either. I took on photo and it looked like this for the rest of the day, so that’s about it for the days cycling.

  
In condition like that you tend to just cycle without stopping much and as such cover a lot of ground quickly. By lunch we had reached the city of Lülbergaz about 70km away and pulled in for lunch and then a look around the city.
It was smaller than Edirne, but nice in its own way with a very busy Main Street that we walked around. At some point we realised that the first Ireland game of the World Cup was on so we spent some time looking for that.
There was one sports bar in the city that didn’t really understand what rugby was or what we wants to watch so we couldn’t get them to look for it on the tv. After a bit of wifi research we found out what channel was showing the rugby World Cup in Turkey and returned to the bar asking them to switch over to ‘tivibu sport 2’. This channel was showing the match so we sat down to watch at, and were soon joined by most of the staff. These were a bunch of young guys who were really curious as to what was going in and got a real kick out of trying to figure out the game.
By the time we left the city it was late enough and the sun was setting. We had figured out while riding that there probably wouldn’t be any good camping spots so we figured the best option would be to check at the petrol stations we passed if we could camp there.
It was dusk by the time we found one that had enough space we felt we could comfortably camp at (if they allowed it). We asked one of the staff if we could camp the night there and he seemed ok with it, but then said he couldn’t since his boss wasn’t around to ask. We didn’t want to push him so made to leave after using the toilet. As we were about to go he came over and pointed to an empty lot beside the station and told us we could camp there is we left in the morning. This was great news, we knew it was going to be hard to find camping so we could now go to sleep easily. We spent the evening in an empty lot next to the busy road to Istanbul.

waking up at the petrol station lot

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Bulgaria, Dublin to Nepal, On Tour, Turkey

Day 53: Popvets to Edirne (Border Crossing: Into Turkey)

Border crossing day is always exciting, but today’s crossing into Turkey was particularly significant: we were finally leaving Europe! It was also the first count that we had to get a visa for, though it was an e-visa we just had to purchase online and didn’t even need any additional documents for.
We were following signs (in Cyrillic) for the town nearest the Turkish border called Svilengrad. The ride was much like yesterday evenings, along quiet roads by farms and pastures and through leafy woods. At one point we passed an old Bosnian roady in the full bib and Jersey who had suffered a flat tyre out here in the comparative isolation of the Bulgarian countryside. We offered him a patch to fix his tyre but all he needed was the little bit of sandpaper to prepare the tube. 

 

not pictured here: the swarms of flies that followed us whenever we were climbing

  
It wasn’t long after this encounter that we came to Svilengrad and we passed through quickly, pausing only briefly to spend the last of our Bulgarian coins on some ice cream.
Leaving Svilengrad was a bit of a challenge. A motorway bypassed the town and went straight to the border, but we had entered the town expecting to pick up a smaller road that would take us to the border without having to ride on the motorway. We got to the edge of town and onto the smaller road to the border only to find it closed and in an awful state.

   
 We could have doubled back into Svilengrad and tried to get on the motorway from there, but we could see it from where we were now, plus we had already cycled a not insignificant distance from Svilengrad, so we didn’t really want to double back. We pushed on along the old road and it curved promisingly towards the motorway and then…passed over it. Now that we we here though, right on top of it we could see it was pretty much devoid of traffic save for the occasional truck so it seemed like the best option get on it for the last few kilometres left before the border.
There was one way to get on, and that was by wheeling our bikes through a gap in the fence and down the embankment onto the road. This process was delayed slightly when one of my front rack bolts sheared off and had to be replaced as we were shimmying through the fence but after that short delay we were on the road and finally making progress again.

 

trying to get onto the road to the border

 
We got to the border maybe half an hour later. We saw the huge tail back of trucks before we even glimpsed the border, the queue for the trucks tailed back for almost three kilometres, but was limited to only a lane of traffic. Getting over the border was a relatively painless procedure, we had to unload our bikes and open the bags for customs but we didn’t have to dump the contents out which would have been a real pain.

   
   
It was dusty highway from the border to the city of Edirne 30km away where we were going to finish early for the day and take a look around. As the old capital of the Ottoman Empire it warranted a stop. 

 

Approaching Edirne with the Selimiye

 
The ride to Edirne was pretty uninteresting but the city itself was amazing. I don’t doubt part of the appeal for us was it being the first Turkish city we had visited. Edirne was the old capital of the Ottoman Empire before they captured Istanbul and has some impressive buildings. We only spent a couple of hours there and got to walk around the old town but what was really impressive was the Selimiye Mosque built by architect Mimar Sinan who seems to be a national hero. As the first mosque we visited on the trip it was really something special.

   

the interior of the dome

  

in the courtyard

  

sunset over Edirne as we left the mosque

  

It was getting dark as we left Edirne. Early when we arrived we had looked up Warmshowers to see if anyone was around to host and came across a post by the staff of Shell Gas Station Edirne. They had set up what they called the first bike-touring station where tourers could camp in a small lot out back and make use of the facilities offered by the station. It was only 20km outside the city on the Istanbul side so was perfect for our needs.
We arrived and knew we had found the right place thanks to the kids bikes placed on poles all outside the station, around the area where the tall board displaying the prices was. Then as we wheeled up to the shop we saw a touring bike propped up outside it. We knew we had found the right place, but who to talk to about staying here? Almost immediately a smiley, portly Turkish guy came out with a huge grin in a red She’ll shirt (unbuttoned to the chest) and introduced himself as Erdem.

 

these photos were taken in the morning, it was dark by the time we arrived

 
Erdem led us around back where there was a small grassy area with a couple of short trees where we could put our tent up. He then brought us back around front where he showed the staff kitchen and shower we could use. His English wasn’t great but we communicated just fine and he was so smiley and friendly it was hard not to get along with the guy.

 

the spot out back where we camped

  

us with Edrem

  

After a very welcome shower we shared photos and talked as best we could with Erdem. He was a bike tourer himself and enamoured with the new service his workplace now provided. He even, when we were about to cook dinner, sat us back down and brought out a delicious impromptu spread: bread, rice, yogurt and Kofte (a kind of sausage). We had never camped at a petrol station before but this was a great introduction to the practice and wouldn’t be our last time either.

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