#14 Turkey

I was really looking forward to Turkey and could hardly wait. I had no idea what to expect, how the landscape looks like, I only knew that the people are really nice (again a country with nice people 😀 )

Received the stamp and off we went towards Ipsala.

In my first city in Turkey the first impression was: many scooter riders, a little chaotic traffic, even more honking. The honking is not meant negatively, this only signals: I COME.
My heart was pounding and I had no idea anything. All I knew was that it was Ramadan. I didn’t even know if I could get food, if I could eat just out of respect, absolutely nothing.
I took some money off and saw that some Turks did eat something and a short time later I found a small stall that sold me bread with meat. I drank Ayran (what I’ve been drinking every day since). We went shopping for a little fruit and saw that the prices are fortunately not on EURO level.

There was a market nearby, which I visited briefly. A lot of clothes were sold, similar to German flea markets. Then I entered a course and was amazed: Only fruit and vegetable traders, all kinds of great smells, like in paradise! I walked another way back past tables with different cheeses and olives. I almost fell over for joy. Since then I could hardly get my grin off my face that day, even more so later. I went back to the bike and shortly afterwards we started.

Michael left his bike outside for a moment and then looked at his speedometer in astonishment.

We decided not to go to Instanbul, but to Enez to be back at the sea and look at something. After about 20 km, when we stopped at a gas station, because the heat could already be felt and we had heavy legs, we decided to go spontaneously to Erikli to the sea.

The route first took us along dusty gravel paths along rice growing canals, where occasionally we met goat herders.

The thirst was already great and at a little house we asked for water and immediately got ice water in the bottle. WOW! We had to keep an eye on the dogs until then, but normally they just barked next to you, nobody tried to bite.

We went up a small hill over a steppe-like landscape towards the mountains.

Passing the first small villages until it became more and more mountainous, unfortunately still on dusty gravel road.

Despite all my efforts, I still couldn’t get my grin away, I was so excited and overjoyed to be here. I was in a very good mood.

We also use every water crane we found on the way to cool down and replenish the water supplies.
When we drove down a small hill, I unfortunately drove into a small pile of sand, because a car came towards me. I was already in the gravel. Except for a few small abrasions on the elbow, everything was fine. A little bit of dirt is good for the body 🙂 But still smiling with enthusiasm.

Slowly it became darker and the sea was still a few kilometres away and it went up and down again and again, from 50 m to 200 m. That doesn’t read much, but if you have almost 100 km behind you and some luggage, it can be a lot. But we also had wonderful views.

Then finally arrived down at the sea, we went shopping a little and later to the beach to sleep directly. The grin was gone too, because I had to sleep. My cheeks hurt a little bit 😀

That day we did about 107 km.
We stayed here the next day to look around, eat something and just rest for a while. It’s a Turkish resort, almost everyone spoke Turkish. We drank the Turkish tea Çay, ate some food, enjoyed the sun and decided to go to Çanakkale the same day. It would take about 2 days, on the first day we would drive a little, the next day the rest to Eceabat, then with the ferry down from the peninsula.

The route led us over mountainous and stony landscapes, where we found a wonderful place to sleep again on the beach.

But some of my grin was gone, but the joy was only inside. I was very happy the whole time and fell directly in love with the country. Maybe it was the stranger, I don’t know.

In a village where we wanted to order something to eat, we did not know whether we had finally ordered something or not. We spoke to someone who told us in Turkish what that was. We thought we ordered the food. But it was just a nice guest. So we had to order the food from different people a total of 3 times and we hoped in the end that we would also get the right one 😀

Later we travelled along ruins from the First World War, through villages, along gravel roads until we reached a place that could hardly be worse:

On a video while I was driving down a road, I caught a pothole, lost control and lay there again. All on video. Nothing happened to me because I slowed down because of the holes.

What a “beach”, more people than space 😀
Fortunately, we were only driving through the village.

Shortly before Eceabat we looked for a place to sleep, so that we would be a little earlier in Çanakkale. There we would go to a hostel or guest house and take a normal shower. We were looking for a place near a beach that didn’t look very inviting because there was rubbish floating around.
There was a small pasture and that was our camp.

Here I sit in the meadow.

Arrived in Eceabat quite early, we took the ferry and shortly after we were in Çanakkale looking for WIFI to find a hostel. Unfortunately it was the weekend and we found a hostel with a 16-bed room, where there were already about 6 people. We visited the city and looked for the only vegetarian restaurant, among all the kebab stalls. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt. So we had to eat meat (Michael is vegetarian, unfortunately he also had to through it). So the search was unsuccessful in half the centre, one kebab stall after the other. Then we discovered the other half, pizzerias, fish stalls, noodles, etc.. 😀

We just wanted to stay one day and then head towards Istanbul. The trip would take 2 days (about 160 km to the ferry in Bandırma) In Istanbul we could then spend the night with an old good friend of mine.

In the morning we got ready for take-off. The first route would lead over side roads and villages, the following day over a motorway.

We drove along when a gentleman took us off the road and gave us a bag of peaches and water from his garden. Oh, my grin, well, was it again or was it still there? 😀

Over enchanting landscapes the route went, everything was simply so great, it is difficult to put something like this into words.

Then we took a short rest when a few minutes later some older men also sat down on the benches for the Çay. We talked directly and also got Çay to drink. Happily we drove on, until we made ourselves then with Biga (after 96 km) on a pasture wide.

Later we took the last 70 km on the highway towards Bandırma, where we wanted to take our ferry to Istanbul at 6:30 pm. At a cafe we were invited by a US-American cyclist. We had a nice chat (my English MUST get better soon, stupid if you can’t say everything you want).

Later we went on the ferry, then to Istanbul, where my colleague Cem was already waiting for us.

Elections will be held here soon. Again and again there are postered cars with very loud music, which receive lyrics about their politicians, people clapping, etc. Just different than in Germany.
The music is really very loud and the bass speakers are about to break down.

The first time in Turkey was sensational for me. I am so enthusiastic about everything, the people, landscapes, cities, villages, culture, architecture, everything somehow. I’m really glad to be here. But I only saw a fraction. The idea of what awaits me in Istanbul is really blowing my mind. My enthusiasm is growing, one of the most beautiful places, although I am not a city lover.

6 thoughts to “#14 Turkey”

  1. Ja, Chanakale bin ich schon ein paar Mal mit der Fähre rüber und kann mich noch an einem leckeren Esstand erinnern. Auch die andere Fähre rüber nach Istanbul kenn ich. Beim ersten Mal war ich auch von der Freundlichkeit überrascht, besonders auf den Dörfern. Freut mich das es dir so gut gefällt. Viel Spaß noch, wir hören voneinander.

    1. Es ist halt noch der Anfang, wir haben uns viele sehr schöne Orte in der Türkei rausgesucht. Wir fahren nicht einfach nur durch. Ich freue mich schon unheimlich. Doch wir müssen auf die Iran-Visen warten und sind in Istanbul gebunden.

      Gruß nach Deutschland!

  2. Grüße aus Leipzig! Heute mache ich hier n zwischenstop. Jetzt fahr ich los um mir n Trekking-Zelt zu kaufen um ab morgen dann 10 Tage on Tour zu sein. Freu mich riesig 🙂
    Und ja Schildkrötenbabys!!! Gibt es sinnvollerer Babys auf diesem Planeten??? (rethorisch ^^)
    Die erdenklich besten Grüße 😀

    Dein Bro

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