Istanbul to Burgas - Gulë Gulë Turkey

June 10th - Restanbul

We started the day in the best way - with a breakfast buffet. After that we walked into town and hit the tourist sites which was a lot more restful than usual - maybe we're getting better at this? I don't think it's possible to see Istanbul in a day and we definitely didn't manage. We did get a bit of the flavour of the city though. 

June 11th - Istanbul to Yassioren - From "the worst place in the whole world" to one of the best 

We’d decided to leave Istanbul via ferry as everyone we’d ever met had said it was horrendous to cycle out of. We chose to take the Bosphorus Tour boat, a tourist trip up the bosphorus river. Most holiday makers just sit on it all day (ahhh to be a holiday maker) and enjoy the views, but we got off around half way up at a place called Saryier. The ferry left at 10:30 which gave us lots of time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and… fight with the hotel owner about the price. On their website it’s quoted in dollars, but they gave us a quote in euros, and wanted us to pay in lira. It was all very complicated and their main technique was to do a lengthy sum on the calculator and hold a number at us. In the end we paid what we knew we had to (we booked via booking.com so it was v legit) and left. We caught the ferry by the skin of our teeth and settled down to enjoy the ride. It was awesome seeing Istanbul by boat – it really is massive. It was specially cool seeing Europe and Asia on different sides of the river. During this journey the crew came round selling these delicious looking creamy things. Practically everyone bought one and obviously I did too. It turns out it was slightly fermented sour yoghurt. What a disappointment. I can’t imagine anyone selling that in the UK with anything like the reception it was having. Eventually we reached Saryier and had to get off the ferry. The road was immeadiately the nicest road we’d been on for a long time. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the countryside without lorries whizzing past. It soon all went to shit though as suddenly the road was only lorries. Waste disposal lorries. With dust spilling out of their (??). The road was covered in dust mud and we couldn't breathe from all the congestion. It was hilly hot and miserable. As Mum said "This is the worst place in the whole world". Eventually we managed to find a turning and got off the road - wherever it went. By this time it was getting pretty late and we were looking for a campspot. The wild exposed terrain was not great for camping so we pulled into a village and asked if we could camp in a school garden! The English teacher spoke just about English to communicate and said it was fine to pitch the tent, so pitch the tent we did! We definitely were the village attraction, with probably the entire population coming to talk to us. Quite a lot of children actually got into the tent, and didn't want to leave at all. When it came to breaking Ramadan time two different families brought us massive suppers, and we'd had a very late lunch so even for us it was a bit of an effort to finish. Don't worry though, we managed it!! Everyone was so nice to us. 

June 12th - Yassioren to Vize - "This is the worst town I've ever been to in my whole entire life" 

We had lots more free food for breakfast and then set out on our way. European Turkey and Asian Turkey have completely different landscapes and the European side of the Bosphorus is mainly rolling farmland which is a nice change.

 For lunch we were on a desperate search for Pide which is delish Turkish pizza. Sadly the search was fruitless so we settled for Moussaka (which is still incredible). The food in Turkey is all amazing but pretty samey - I think that's especially true of Ramadan. I was hoping for things like pita bread and hummus and falafel but they only seem to be available in hipster cafés in touristy places. Anyway we got to a restaurant and the owner phoned the family's English speaker. This is pretty common and usually the person can't speak any English at all and has been lying to everyone. This presents a problem for us as we try not to give them away. It turns out this dude actually not only spoke English, but lived in Coventry! We had a nice chat and at the end of our lunch the owner of the restaurant told us the man had paid for our meal!! This is absolutely classic of Turkish people. After this lunch we headed further towards the Bulgarian border, and went through a horrendous town. Everyone stared at us in a horrible way, and suddenly we were in a different country again. The women were all wearing burqas, which we haven't seen at all in all our time in Islamic countries. Lots of men directly asked us "how much" and blew kisses and made inappropriate gestures. I was back to hating Turkey. We did find this amphitheatre. Eventually we managed to find away out of the town and found some deserted ish looking farmland to camp in. We did go past this amphitheatre 

June 14th - Vize to Bulgaria (just) - Back in the EU! ! ! !

The Bulgarian/Turkey border is on top of a mountain range - who knew? The climb was very gentle though. In the last sign of civilisation we went to a small supermarket and the owner tried his absolute best to upsell as much as possible - in a very friendly way. Most of his suggestions looked absolutely revolting (dried grey fish) but he did convince us to buy some aubergine pesto which was delish. We managed to make it to the top of hill (just) and crossed over the border into the EU. WOOOOOOOOOO. Seeing that beautiful blue with those nice jazzy stars made me soooooo happy. We stopped at the first petrol station and asked if we could camp, and the petrol station owner said no without even looking up from his phone. Mum tried to wash her face in the bathroom and the woman kicked her out. Everyone was ignoring us??? I'd often craved this in Turkey but now it felt so cold. Is this what the UK is like? We cycled down the road and camped in a small forest. There was practically no traffic. 

June 15th - Bulgaria (just) to Burgas - We meet our second favourite ever German Daniel 

We were rolling down the hill into Burgas thinking how weird Bulgaria is when a German cycle tourist called Daniel caught up with us. Bulgaria is full of neglected Soviet apartment blocks and everyone was drunk. At one point I got chased by a drunk man with no teeth on a folding bike. Luckily he wasn't drunk enough to forget that he was going to go back up the hill... We were enjoying the descent when a German cycle tourist called Daniel caught up with us. We're predisposed to like Germans called Daniel and we liked this one, 

He'd learnt English by listening to political podcasts and was much more up to date than we were. We got into Burgas and went to a restaurant for lunch, and he said that not only was it the first proper meal he'd had on the trip (he eats dry bread and drinks milk) but also the first restaurant he'd been to for over 10 years!  He was saying in hotels every night so he clearly wasn't short of cash. I don't really understand people who don't prioritise food in their daily lives - but cycle tourists? What is there to look forward to apart from eating? Everyone we'd met in Bulgaria seemed to be mean!! Without exception. The waitress was really snappy and had lots of scary piercings. After this we checked into a cheap hotel for an afternoon off, and Daniel continued up the coast. We spent the afternoon trying and failing to do jobs, cooked in a disgusting kitchen and went to bed.. 

Samsun to Istanbul - Is this the final leg?

June 3rd. Samsun to Havza – The mountains were calling and we couldn’t resist.

We had a dilemma in Samsun, there are two routes from there to Istanbul, with different pros and cons. The other cyclists we’d met had taken the route all along the black sea, which has lots of short steep hills. This is also the longer route (by about 200km). It’s meant to be very scenic with lots of small villages providing a genuine insight into Turkish culture… The shorter inland route hits a much higher altitude, but the climbs are more gradual. This is a much more main road meaning more traffic, and also doesn’t go through many towns, so it’s less culturally interesting. Anyway Mum and I have had enough culture, we want to get to Istanbul ASAP, and we hate short steep hills so the choice wasn’t a particularly hard one – we turned left and went inland. The road was very nasty to start with and we were wondering if we’d made the right choice, but we’d committed by that point. It quickly got nicer and the scenery was pretty good. The best part was though, we had a roaring tailwind! We went uphill very gradually, ending up at around 900m. 

When it got to the evening we decided to camp in a petrol station. This has the advantage of being safe, with easy access to food/water. We actually ended up in a town with a dearth of petrol stations after it, so we camped in the gardens of a restaurant. We had kofta and endless cups of çay before sleeping. We had a nice chat with the owner who spoke some English. We were telling him how beautiful Turkey is and he told us how ugly the UK is. He did say he’s seen pictures of London Bridge, which looks “quite beautiful”. I’m the first person to diss the UK but I really did feel quite affronted by this. Some of the countryside in the UK is up there with the rest of the world! I found some pictures on my phone of the beautiful welsh hills, and St Mawes in glorious sunshine. He wasn’t very impressed.

June 4th. Havza to Ovakisusu – The most beautiful petrol station in the whole world

We left the petrol station and went downhill for ages. This was very frustrating when we knew we were going to have to climb again. 

On our way we met a peloton of cyclists out on their club run. Seeing them I got real pangs, I miss clubruns so much! (shoutout to my VCM pals for the most fab clubruns ever). Anyway we rode with them for a bit and then we stopped for tea all together. We couldn’t say no to this but we were a bit reluctant because we’d barely done any distance, and stopping for a break too early really kills morale. Anyway we had a fab time! Apparently they didn’t have to do Ramadan because they were cycling, which they all seemed okay with. There are a lot of excuses for not doing Ramadan it seems. They all worked at the local factory which made buttons for Topshop clothes. They showed us endless pictures of these buttons. And I mean endless. After this we had the obligatory selfies and then went our separate ways.  We went down some more, and then started going up. We had a picnic lunch and kept on up through the mountains. We went past the Ankara turning and the traffic halved. The scenery was also gorgeous, a mountain valley.

 We found another petrol station and asked if we could camp. Lots of people came over and one of them was doing all these weird gestures. Eventually we worked out that he wanted us to sleep in a pullout bed in his truck. Hello, no. The petrol station owner suggested that we sleep in the women’s prayer room, which we were a bit worried about because we thought the women would need to pray. The owner was very clear that they wouldn’t so we decided to go for it. Once in bed the disadvantages became obvious, the entire building’s lights were in a series circuit with one switch miles away from our room. The light was also the brightest light I’ve seen outside an operating theatre. No joke. Also, at 3:50, just before breaking fast, many groups of women tried to come in and pray. Why the owner thought this wouldn’t be a problem I will never understand. Anyway they were very shocked to us in our sleeping bags and had to pray in the men’s room. I imagine this is a first worldwide.

June 5th. Ovakisus to Ilgaz - Not so nice.

Neither of us slept particularly well with the bright lights and the praying women, and we perked up with the obligatory cup of çay. We carried on along the road, which was very beautiful with rice paddies and mosques and other exciting things.

 We also met two men on a motorbike, one Russian and one Turkish, and had a fight about the EU. This is quite a common theme as brexit is obviously the hot gossip. Unusually both of these two were pro brexit. The Turkish man told us that in 6 years we’d be really grateful, and when I tried to fight he kept saying “you’re 22, you know nothing”. Anyway Mum said I got a bit “Sally Somers-ish”. He says Turkey are going to try and join up with Russia. It all got a bit heated and then we went our separate ways. The road was really beautiful, winding its way through a valley gorge. In Turkey there’s been a lot of unwanted male attention, like cars slowly down and blowing kisses and asking “how much?”, and lots of cars overtaking us multiple times to get a good look. Two boys came past me on a motorbike and I waved at them, and then they were stopped further ahead. When I went past they blew kisses at me and I shouted “NO” at them. Then I got to a downhill and was speeding along at 30mph ish (probably not) when they came alongside and grabbed me. I screamed at them and they let go, and then drove ahead of me for a while laughing. I swore incredibly loudly and they rode off. I was literally shaking with anger for so many reasons. Then it started raining very heavily. We went into a petrol station and camped in a building site which provided a bit of shelter. I was still absolutely livid. I really tried to remember their numberplate but all I can see is a red hot fuzz of rage. Ughhhhhhhh. I felt so betrayed because of all the Turksih people I’d been really nice to when I just wanted to read my kindle. Obviously that’s ridiculous.

 

June 6th. Ilgaz to Bayindir - The nicest petrol station in the whole world

More of the same today. Although the main road has a considerable wide shoulder and feels very safe, it does slightly ruin the beautiful scenery. I was also feeling pretty negative, mainly because of yesterday, and also because GU9 is SO FAR AWAY, and I really really really miss lots of things now. I don't want to go home but I do want to feel like home is in grasping distance, and it just didn't feel like that. It also rained pretty solidly all day. We only had one more hill at altitude but we got to the bottom and both decided we wanted to do it the next day. There was a petrol station right there and we stopped for the night. The petrol station was run by a woman called Finjan who was kurdish, and the most sassy person I've ever met. She kept hitting us and rubbing our cheeks and spoke constantly in very loud kurdish(??). She was doing lots of useful actions but Mum and I differed in our translations. Once I thought she'd told us she'd had dental work done in Georgia, and Mum thought she'd said her daughter was about to start wearing the hijab. They gave us free supper and breakfast, and endless cups of tea, and I felt a lot better about people and the world in general. 

June 7th. Bayindir to Bolu - We can practically smell Istanbul

We'd been looking at the hill all night and it wasn't pretty in the morning. Eventually we made it to the top and then it was rolling all day. Still very beautiful though. I also rescued this tortoise from the middle of the dual carriageway. 

We camped at another petrol station, played backgammon, and the petrol station staff wanted to play. It became clear that they were up against an opponent of a very high calibre, and they quickly resorted to cheating. They literally picked up the dice and put it down on a different number, whilst speaking very seriously in Turkish. The cheating escalated I was defs going to win, and in the end they were just moving the counters shamelessly. It wasn't even jokingly. In the end I only won by 1 throw. Outrageous. 

June 8th. Bolu to Sapanca - Down and down and down. 

We descended horribly quickly from Bolu. Days and days of climbing gone in an instant. Gutted. 

The road also became hideous quite quickly. Lots and lots of traffic and slip roads. Although we were still 200km away from Istanbul, you can really tell 11 million people live there. On the way down we were stopped by a man who said he owned a "riding room" 20km down the road and we should come and find him. I was very reluctant to do this, I'm really sick of having frustrating conversations with people aided by google translate. And what even is a riding room? We did go though, and it turns out it was a horse themed restaurant! They gave us a free breakfast and generous slices of Baklava. (I don't think I've written about how much I love Baklava, I've eaten so much over the past month I'm practically a piece of Baklava at this point). 

After this we cracked on, stopping for an Iskender kebab for lunch. This is deep fried bread cubes, tomato stuff, donner meat and yoghurt. Delicious. (I can feel Alison and Sally wincing).

June 9th. Sapanca to Istanbul - Back on European soil and IT FEELS SOOOOO GOOD. 

I woke up with the call to prayer, and checked the exit polls for #GE2017, and then obviously couldn't go back to sleep. I was really really really happy. I'm not going to say anything else. Just before we left Sapanca we booked a hostel for Istanbul for that night. If we hadn't booked this we definitely would not have gone there. Anyway we set off, and it poured with rain all day. We'd met a Malaysian cyclist the day before who'd told us there was rain forecast, and he wasn't joking. It wasn't nice rain, it was horrendous. To start with nothing could stop me from smiling, but it turns out it definitely could. The roads were rivers and we kept being overtaken by massive lorries throwing up spray. We decided it wasn't safe and we had to stop. We waited until the rain got a bit better, and then had to cycle solidly for 5 hours to make the ferry to Istanbul. It was really bad. Eventually we got on the ferry and sped towards Istanbul. When we got to Istanbul it was dark and rainy and the hostel was through the town. We had a bit of a dodgy ride there, including disturbing an actual gunfight. Not joking, actual shots. As soon as they saw us they all shouted "No problem no problem!" and ushered us through. Eventually we made it to the hostel, discovered the advertised "bicycle parking" was on the street, carried our bikes up a flight of stairs and fell asleep.