122km, 5h37, 748hm
Our hotel on the 26th day. We had breakfast across the street and then we hit the road.
Hotel Prima was prima indeed
Svilengrad was the Bulgarian border town, from there we would enter Greece for a small section and then go t Turkey.
Strictly speaking this was our sixth day in Bulgaria, although the first and the sixth day do not really count
One straight stretch to Svilengrad
After yesterday's downpour, the weather seemed promising today
9 km to Greece, country 12 of the trip
Approaching international borders
Almost there
Bye bye Bulgaria, thank you for some unforgettable times
Riding under the flag of Hellas
Welcome to Hellas
In Greece we just had to follow the E85, which would take us to Turkey
The E85 had a nice wide shoulder for us to stay out of trouble but traffic was very low
These few miles within Greece did not come close to unraveling the mysteries of Sparta and Tessaloniki but at least I have formally ben here
There was only one feeling raging inside of me now: We are leaving the EU and cycling into Turkey!!!
Turkey was already indicated on the map
Turkish immigration went well. We could cycle until the border post past all the cars and the check up went fast. We both had a visa and they did not create any troubles.
Chapter 1 The Euopean Union is officially done. Chapter 2 Turkey will keep us busy for at least three weeks
hey used the EU style for the speed limits.
Roger is now officially cycling in Turkey
The first town on Turkish side is Edirne, very crowded and bigger than anything we had seen before.
We had a break in the town, got Turkish Lira, had lunch and found mobile phone cards.
Radim, the boss of the tiny restaurant where we had lunch, insisted that he joined us getting the Turkcell cards and the flags. He walked through the streets with the aura of a mobster boss, everyone on the streets was greeting him. He said he lived in Edirne for 72 years.
Very nice that Radim offered his help. Having mobile internet in Turkey seemed surreal. Off to a good start!
We got Turkish flags from this tiny store
A big bazaar that sold a lot of stuff
Then we decided to leave Edirne and find a camp spot somewhere. We still had time.
Although the skies looked very troublesome. It even looked like the hell gates of Mordor
From Edirne, we headed to Istanbul, which was still a few hundred km away. There were basically two roads to Istanbul. The D0100 is the heavy freeway into Istanbul which many cyclists advised not to take. The alternative D020 is a more rural yet hilly road. I insisted we took this one.
We had hills from the beginning, and the skies looked epic
A heavy storm never materialized but it looked very epic!
Between Edirne and Istanbul there was one big city called Kirklarelli but we were not in time for that one. We had to stay in a small town.
Kirklarelli in 42 km, Istanbul is 240km. None of those were possible today. I saw a tiny town called Inece on the map. We would cycle there and see what happens.
This wigger cycled from Belgium to Turkey, crazy fool!
I believe this bridge was a crossing over the D100.
A small town... We decided to add 10 more before we called it a day. Then we would have a lovely 120+ km regardless of the two border crossings today.
A feeling of victory burled inside of me. We were already in Turkey and even ahead of schedule. This was going so great!
In the town of Inece we had dinner in a local place, the people were friendly and the food was tasty. Roger used his tactics to ask that guy where we could camp. A local guy drove his scooter to show us the spot, which was back up the hill where we just came from. We found a small spot in the middle of the forest and we felt safe here. Safety is what I wanted most for my first night in Turkey. Good job Roger!
Hopefully this flag will bring me more luck during my time in Turkey
No comments:
Post a Comment