Thessaloniki to Istanbul ... A few words from the road...
So, the end of the road was reached. After 6 years of epic
riding, 6 years of incredible exploration of some of Europe’s further flug
reaches, we arrived at the Turkish border, as a more worldly wise crew of
riders, than we had set out. Some had transformed their cycling, some had
transformed their bikes,
Some had even learned how to mend a puncture on this ride
across a continent.
As the huge white crescents fluttered on their red
backgrounds overhead, we entered Turkiye, and pedalled towards our first set of
towering minarets. Paul and Jason avoided a full body examination at the
border, and trundled through to join us at the roadside, where we had been
greeted by the Turkish Police. Immediately bristling with some misplaced sense
of guilt, another sense of guilt overtook us all as we realised that the only
reason the police had stopped was to wish us ‘Hozgeldniz’ – or welcome to
Turkey. The chief of police for the local area, who was driven by his junior
around the border complex, offered us an escort to Edirne, our first overnight.
‘Is there anything else I Can help you with?’, what a fantastic first
impression of this bustling country!
From the border, the town of Edirne is just a short ride.
Comfortably within an hour we had crested the final hill, and the enormous main
Mosque marked our evening’s destination. The sense approaching a new continent
here in Turkey is palpable, people’s faces are different, the air is laden with
the smell of different spices, and the spires of churches have now been replaced
with slender space rocket minarets. But the biggest thing that hits home as we
ride through to Edirne, and then Corlu and on to Istanbul, is that this country
is firing on all cylinders.
Somehow under the radar, Turkey has been marching forwards
on its own economic wonder journey. But it was something that few of us in our
cycling group were aware of. We fumbled for Wikipedia over the next three
evenings here in Turkey as we rode closer to Istanbul, to find out more about
what is happening. Firstly, the small road that I had taken from the border to
take the quiet road to Istanbul some 13 yrs previous, has now been replaced by
a smooth tarmac dual carriageway, which runs perfectly parallel to a big
motorway just a few kilometres away. And as we pulled in to Corlu the next
evening, we already had a sense of coming into range of Istanbul, at a distance
of well over 100km from the city centre.
After Corlu, on the final day’s ride to our destination, we
had a few short kilometres of countryside, before soaring towerblocks, gleaming
hi tech factories, and ostentatious retail and hotel developments engulfed our
progress. We had tried hard to plot a way through the madness on quieter
routes, but the bottom line is, that Istanbul is the 8th largest
city in the world, and is a city well and truly on the move, so cyclists had
better be intrepid to cope with what it is going to offer! We crossed two
causeways, where we were obliged to follow the D100, our guide towards Istanbul
for the last 2 and a half days, the latter one
being gridlocked by traffic, before we gasped for breath and took a
sharp exit down towards the coast once again.
We reached lunch on our final day easily, and were treated,
as we were throughout Turkey, to some most fantastic fare. Turkish cuisine, for
the uninitiated, is with out doubt one of my personal favourites, laced as it
is with good hearty flavours, complimented by simple but exotic spices. We were
able to take our time over lunch, and enjoy a full range of freshly prepared
kebabs, fluffy middle eastern rice, lahmacun Turkish flat bread topped with
tomatoes and herbs, and delicious pastry stuffed with Turkish cheese and
potato. For a simple roadside spot fronting on to the roaring D100, it was
somewhat surprising to be fed such a gourmet feast. By the time we remounted
our two wheeled transport, we were well and truly stuffed. And of course, as
everyone quite accurately predicted, directly after lunch, as is traditional,
we were greeted with the steepest hill of the whole trip.
The good news, however, was that this was the final hill for
us, and from here we soon found ourselves riding a pleasant coastal cycle
route, enjoying the fresh air wafting in from the Sea of Marmara. This route in
for the final 20km, is a beautiful ride, and after looking straight out at the
enormous numbers of cargo ships anchored just offshore, our eyes, on rounding
the final headland are drawn to Turkey’s Mediterannean Jewel. Finally, we see
the distinctive domes and spires of Sultanahmet. We gather by the water’s edge
for a team photo, and pedal the final couple of kilometres into town. Up one
last steep cobbled street, and we emerge miraculously beside the Blue Mosque.
In fact, we actually emerge inside the blue mosque complex, and the
celebrations begin. Big hugs, stiff handshakes, and slaps on the back. The team
are to be congratulated… no crashes… no incidents, just great riding, and good
times…
Just one question remains. Where are we going next year? You tell us... info@adventure-cafe.com !!
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