Well, I’ve done it – I’ve crossed Europe by bicycle. Had to battle days and days of headwinds across the plains of Romania, and crossed over to Bulgaria. Had a few good days ride across Bulgaria, with a particularly good day today. Crossed over to Edirne, where I’ll rest tonight before heading to Istanbul tomorrow.
As I crossed the border, the call to prayer went out from the mosque – a very clear sign of the change in culture. Everyone is very friendly, checking into the hotel was interesting – had to sit down for tea with the manager, and chat for a while first.
When I get to Istanbul, I’ll put up some more detail about my last couple of weeks riding
2 replies on “Turkey at last!”
Fantastic achievement Lindsay Boy!
I wonder what you will find to drink in Turkey, as the rest of your trip so far seems to consist of lurching from Hotel to seedy bar!
Lew
Raki is the drink of choice in Turkey, but it’s better avoided, in my experience.
As it happens, I haven’t been drinking much recently – probably only one beer in over a week. The hotel I stayed in last night was very much in the seedy category though – the toilet and shower was an…experience.
But anyway, I’m in a reasonable hostel now in Istanbul, after some fun with the traffic this morning. I’ll stay here for a few days and try and get my Uzbek visa sorted – really should have kicked off the process a little earlier though. Oh well, could be a bus trip back to Ankara coming up a few weeks down the road.