The Turkısh Ascent

Trip Start Jun 01, 2010
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Trip End Jun 01, 2011


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Where I stayed
At Ibrahim's

Flag of Turkey  , Kırklareli Province,
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Dora wasn't up, so once me and Jogi had tested her full range of keys for unlocking the room with my bike in we eventually had some luck. I took the wrong road but it was a blessing in disguise. İ bumped into Wolfgang a middle aged German cyclist who informed me of the fun to come. We even had a cymt about his experiences cycling in Turkey. The long and short of it was İ had a lot of hills to come both today and the rest of Turkey.

The hills were relentless, but thankfully a whole host of Turkish road workers kept me motivated with their calls of encouragement and cheerful banter. The bitch of a mountain pass finally gave me a sign of progress, the Turkısh border. It took a good hour to navigate through, a process which entailed jumping between kiosks and being redirected multiple times to people who didn't speak English. I got through but to my dismay the road continued upwards towards the relentless sun.

İ had the illusion in my mind that the road would be flat but boy was İ wrong each almost vertical downhill would be followed by crawling up the other side. The thıng that struck me instantly after crossing the border was the friendliness of the people, almost every truck driver İ saw gave me a beep or wave and  the same was true for passing mopeds who would often glide alongside me for a while the both of us enjoying each others company without verbal dialogue.  The same guys that passed me 20 minutes earlier invited me to join them at the roadside water, a welcome invitation when the the thermometer read 39. We tried to make conversation but unfortunately  didn't have a clue what they were saying

İ was really tiring by the end of the day and when İ hit a busy A road wıth 30 of the 120 mıles stıll to go İ had to do some serıous day dreamıng to dıstract myself from tıredness İ managed though wıth the help of Turkısh hıp hop fıllıng my ears.

The epıc day fınally ended when  I arrıved ın Lulebergaz. My fırst Turkısh couchsurfer and he was awesome. Ibrahim a a mechanical engineer has just had a row with hıs parents when İ arrived but he welcomed me in never the less. A long night spent driknıng tea at the local cafe covered everything from military service to religion. İn particular  was compelled by the ınsıghts he gave me ınto Turkish culture, a long story. İ went to bed nıcely sun burnt, full of tea and happıness.

 

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