We entered Turkey at Edirne and there were a few things that were notable about it: (i) we had left our final “European” country (even if we had not left the European continent quite yet); and (ii) it felt like a bit of a homecoming with all the mosques about and the vaguely middle eastern cuisine (if still being vastly different from the food of the Levant with which we are more familiar). Both excellent developments.
Some way through our time in Bulgaria, Tom had been asked to consult on a proposal for the team he previously worked with in Yemen. On thinking about this a bit and taking into account the weather and lockdown restrictions over New Years in Turkey, we figured this may be a good opportunity to sit tight in one place and for at least one of us (not me) to do something productive. On arriving in Turkey this plan came to fruition. We hung out in Edirne for a couple of days (there being some good mosques worth seeing and a bazaar and because we never do much quickly). We then determined that we had better get ourselves to Istanbul for the start of Tom’s contract so that we could settle comfortably into an apartment in an area we liked for the duration (admittedly not too difficult in Istanbul as we like a lot of areas).
This resulted in a bit of a slog across European Turkey in the space of 4 days. We did not really feel like there was too much to see in this inland section as we covered 300km of seemingly endless productive farmland (wide rolling plains as far as the eye can see with neatly ploughed fields efficiently creating a repetitive patchwork landscape). That said, things I feel worth noting about this section of cycling include:
1. HIIT Training – This cycle felt like one large High Intensity Interval Training session at the start. Tom did not know what I was talking about, but once I explained that the relatively short steep inclines quickly followed by a downhill which repeated themselves interminably for about 100km pretty much replicated a HIIT training session at spin class, he was inclined to agree with my analysis. He was not particularly happy about it though (and neither was I).
2. Dogs – The Dogs in Turkey are next level. The particular unpleasantness of such canines arises from: (i) there being packs of them; (ii) their being HUGE; and (iii) their giving chase (often with a somewhat admirable, if not preferable, persistence). Any town one cycles into (and sometimes outside of town too), one encounters at least 10 dogs. They are very large, often snarly, and, in most cases, a pack of them would chase us down the road. As there are villages at least every 10km or so, a lot of any given day was spent being chased down various country roads by various packs of very large dogs. After a while, we realised that this was mostly just intimidating, and they were not really going to bite, but we definitely had a fair few encounters that we were not so sure about. I understand from other cycle tourists that this is (unfortunately) pretty consistent throughout Turkey. Lucky us.
3. Call to Prayer – The call to prayer rings out across the countryside throughout Turkey – not exactly a surprise. However, I would note one thing that was unique (for me at any rate) about the call to prayer in rural Turkey. I guess because they do not necessarily have an imam doing the call in the very small rural mosques, they instead play a recording at the required times (actually pretty typical in a lot of countries). What was more atypical was the fact that in order to play the recording, they must use internet streaming, which results in an old school internet dial up tone being played across the loud speakers immediately before the call to prayer ringing out in any small town. I very much enjoyed this dialling in to prayer times.
4. Camping – We had heard a lot of good things about free camping in Turkey. So, we figured that as the weather was very slightly warmer, we would give it a go on the way to Istanbul (this decision being assisted by the lack of conveniently placed towns and accommodation en route). In our limited experience wild camping spots were easy to find and really pretty good (we managed even in endless flat unbroken farmland) so we expect to be doing a bit more of this in Turkey in the next leg of the trip.
5. Hospitality – Turkish hospitality is really quite next level. The people are universally lovely and it is impossible to stop anywhere for a break without someone running over to treat us to tea. Not to mention the countless times that we have sat down in a small tea/coffee house to enjoy simit (sesame pretzel/bagel thing) and coffee or tea, only for the proprietor to staunchly refuse any payment when we leave. We typically feel pretty guilty about this – but the nature of the hospitality is such that refusing would ultimately be pretty insulting to the proprietor and ungrateful on our part.
So, after the slog to make it to the Istanbul area, we spent Christmas Eve in a smoky hotel on a highway on the outskirts of the city, with 50km of cycling left over for Christmas day. This did not really seem very much to us before we got started. As such, we began Christmas day in good spirits ready for the last leg of the trip and were promptly treated to a lovely cycle over an amazing Ottoman bridge (see featured image at the start of this post and another below, for good measure). We felt very lucky to be entering the city this way as it was one of the old bridges used to enter Istanbul and designed by the Chief Royal Architect at the height of the Ottoman Empire, Mimar Sinan (more on this guy in my next blog post). However, getting into Istanbul then included the following (in order): (i) intense hills; (ii) cycling along some big highways with fast cars; and (iii) once we got off the highways, tiny streets with lots of traffic and people everywhere. Not a problem so much as incredibly exhausting and somewhat unanticipated.
We were very grateful to finally catch sight of the mosques of the old city and, shortly thereafter, Galata Tower. I actually felt a bit emotional as we took selfies on the bridge across the Golden Horn having travelled all the way to the edge of Asia from Amsterdam by bicycle – something I had NEVER pictured myself doing. Suffice to say, between the final push to get there, the total awesomeness of arriving and the fact that we both truly love Istanbul anyway – we were very excited to get to base ourselves here for a few weeks. We found an apartment near Taksim Square in Cihangir, cracked open an excellent bottle of Bulgarian red we had been saving for the occasion and marked our arrival in Istanbul and Christmas 2020 in tired, but appropriate, style.
December 2020