 279,67 km parcourus |
 20:38 heures sur le vélo |
 2 840,00 mètres d’ascension |
 197 mètres altitude maximum |
 5 jours sur le vélo (55,93 km/jour) |
 13,55 km/h vitesse moyenne |
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The Greece / Turkey border! 1 km of no man’s land between 2 countries and two completely different worlds. Soldiers from both countries are watching this narrow corridor, searching very slightly our bags… this is our first « real » border since the beginning of the trip. Upon entering Turkish territory, we feel that we have changed atmosphere and scenery
No more churches, hello mosques and minarets!
Our evening destination is Edirne, border town with Greece (a little to the south) and Bulgaria (a little to the west), charming city that was once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, it was about 700 years ago.
Entrance into the city is marked by a very pretty bridge:
We will spend our first night at Enes, a very friendly Warmshowers host, who lives with 3 roommates. On the program: Discovery of Çay (tea in Turkish, a real institution in this country), local gastronomy, sense of hospitality of the Turks and gratings to Ashmet, the cat.
You know our love for wandering doggies and the various encounters we’ve had with them since Serbia. We are excited to announce that dogs have doubled in size since we crossed the border! An excess of kebab or baklava maybe?
Fortunately, this one was nice …
Tuesday, April 23, is holiday in Turkey because of « Celebration of national sovereignty and children » but everything seems open. That’s good because we decided to stay in Edirne one more night to do some paperwork and discover the city. This first day is, again, marked by the kindness of the people we meet. We have to make identity photos for our Iranian visa and while we are « Photoshop »:
We patiently waited with a cay gift for both of us and flowers for Emilie:
For lunch, we have the misfortune to order a dish without knowing what it is, serious mistake;)
Do you see Emilie’s embarrassed smile? It’s because she does not like the fried veal liver that makes up 90% of the filling of our sandwich!
And the smile below?
it is thanks to baklavas for desert maybe, hum delicious !
Still hungry ? Let’s continue with a Tavuk Durum (chicken kebab) ?
And for breakfast ? It will be Börek (kind of cake/bread filled with cheese, meet or spinach) with some Ayran (kind of yogourt drink) :
In 24 hours in Turkey, we have not been idle and have already tested many dishes that make the reputation of Turkish cuisine … even when we do not expect it:
We were able to test the Turkish coffee while the Vodafone employee registered our new SIM card!
We reassure you, we also visited the city of Edirne which is very charming and very pleasant :
The bazaar of Edirne, very calm compared to what we expected:
Talking about mosque, Edirne counts several. And the Selimiye Mosque is a famous one, with some of the tallest minarets in the world:
Wednesday, April 24, it is time to return on the bikes because we must be Sunday in Istanbul. A little more than 200 km to go and we were promised hell!
A last goodbye to Edirne:
before attacking a succession of climbs – descents to no end. The road to Istanbul is rather simple:
Just follow the highway and that’s how we will spend the next 4 days riding on the hard shoulder (emergency stopping lane), when there is one, with trucks and cars passing by us at more than 100km/h! What happiness 🙂
We have priority or not?
Leaving from Edirne the traffic is not very dense but it will go crescendo to reach the complete traffic jam when arriving on Istanbul.
Après this first hard day (heat, noise, climbs) we have the happiness to be received by a cycling association in Luleburgaz:
By a happy coincidence, a demonstration is organized for the children, and we will have the honor to be welcomed by the mayor of the city!
Then sleep time in the cycling academy, a real little paradise for all cyclists:
The next day, we experiment the small country roads to save us from the trucks gases that accompany us on the highway.
The first km are nice but we will soon be disappointed: the dogs are there too, in number (at one time we must cross between 5 dogs in the middle of the road) and sometimes very aggressive. Between the plague and the cholera we chose and will finish the rest of the day on the highway.
In the evening, the consolation does not come from the city (Corlu, industrial town without interest) but food 🙂
We discover the « Pide », turkish and the « Lahmacun »… once again we are very happy with turkish food !
Friday April 26th, we are back on our favorite hard shoulder :
The good news of the day is that we have reached the sea! First time since the beginning of the trip and it cheers us up:
On the traffic side, it is getting worst :
After traffic road, we reach sea side roads, much more pleasant :
Content of our 70km of the day, we savor a delicious Baklava warmed with butter (yes because otherwise it would surely not be enough fat!) …
… when our host Warmshowers of the day tells us that he sent us the wrong address and we have to re-do 10km more back! Arf hard for morale especially as night falls.
Emilie looking for the house of our host … who had gone to meet us but we had not crossed. In short, early evening a little complicated but the kind welcome of Kaya will catch all this:
He also offered us dinner and breakfast. Kaya is very interested in our trip and the blog is projected on the wall. Some will recognize themselves in the photo below:
Saturday, April 27th, we will only have 40km to do to reach city center but we will take a long day to do this short distance. We knew that getting to Istanbul by bike was a challenge and many cyclists take a bus to finish the last 100 km to reach the city. We wanted to try and we were not disappointed! In the program: highways, interchanges, steep climbs, an endless stream of vehicles, traffic jams, slaloms … everything is there to ensure remember it for a long time.
Photos are not showing the reality of the roads :
Where is it ?
A short video to illustrate :
Fortunately, by getting closer to the center, we manage to make a few kilometers on a bike path by the sea:
And then appears the Bosphorus! We are finally here. The end of Europe, the beginning of Asia. Magical.
This day has exhausted us and it is delightful that we will enjoy the calm of our mini room of 10m ² in the basement;) Out to eat a kebab, we will make a quick tour of the mosque Laleli:
Sunday is the holidays! Youpi, after 2 months, we will be able to enjoy a week of rest with the arrival of 2 distinguished guests. Jez, a friend of Romain, they have traveled one year together 6 years ago, and Nadiya, his girlfriend, come to spend the week with us in Istanbul. They will arrive a little later in the story!
We have only 5km to reach our Airbnb in Beyoglu district but, by the greatest hasard, we fall in full cycling parade:
Our yellow vests allow us to pass almost incognito in this parade that we follow with joy. The roads are ours, what a pleasure!
Then, it’s a little less funny because the Airbnb host does not answer :
Oops, where are we going to spend the week then? Fortunately everything will finally work out and the holidays can finally start with a magnificent view:
Did you notice the close proximity of the minaret and the speakers? Wake up every morning at 5am with the call to prayer garantee !
For the beginning of the holidays it is skewer and vegetables:
Then we will take a tour of our neighborhood: Beyoglu. It’s very lively, with lots of bars and restaurants.
The Galata Tower, 68 meters high, dates back to medieval times and dominates the entire Bosphorus shore:
Sunset from our « living room »:
On Monday, we are impatient to welcome Jez who arrives in the evening. To pass the time, we will take a tour in the district of Sultanhamet.
Visit with personnal interest as it is in this district that is the consulate of Iran. We decided to do our visas for Iran in Istanbul and after asking for a letter of invitation a week ago we can come to file. A hell of a mess! There are not really any other words to explain the procedure of obtaining 🙂 It is to the one who will play the most elbows who will pass first. We do not get too bad and we will have the answer 5 days later. Wait and see …
Mountains of pastries for how many pounds of sugar and oil?
In the evening we had a drink with Tom and Sabine, 2 bikers from Holland. Do you recognize them?
We had met them few weeks ago when we were in Serbia. Then we get to the famous Taksim square :
To find our friend Jez, freshly arrived from France!
A très bientôt !
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