Items tagged with Turkey
2010-03-07 22:00:00
Written By: Claudine du Plessis
2010-02-20 22:00:00
Written By: Claudine du Plessis
Billy wanted to show me Fethiye and Oludeniz where he and his brother had spent some time after climbing Mt Ararat. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkey with many hotels, boats, yachts and trendy bars and shops set along the beautiful coastline and beach. What he didn't know, was that these towns only existed during the summer and off season nothing goes on there. After a chilly ride we arrived there, only to find an almost ghost town. All the touristic shops and bars were closed and deserted. He still remembered where the room was they stayed in last time, but it was also closed. Even the campsites didn't have a soul in sight. Only here and there you could see a small cafe or barber shop that was still open. We rode on to Oludeniz in the hope that there would be more signs of life, but it was even emptier than Fethiye. By that time it was getting dark, so we drove back to Fethiye to check out a couple of the places that still looked kind of open. Eventually we found a pension that gave us a good discount (not as if they were expecting any other customers). Apparently the tourist season only starts around the 15th of May and before that all businesses do repairs, renovations and construction work. Our pension was no exception, it was full of building materials. Billy was disappointed, because he wanted to go on a live-aboard boat which he saw last time he was there, but they were also not operating.
The next day we rode westward along the coast to Kusadasi, also a very popular tourist city. A lot of the places there were also closed, but there was still a lot more going on than in Fethiye. Because we had planned to stay in Fethiye a couple of days, we had organized couches in Bursa and Istanbul already and now had to stay in Kusadasi longer than planned. We found a campsite for the first two nights and then stayed in a hotel for the next three. We had to bargain the room price down, but the hotel owner was very nice and we eventually got a reasonable price. There were two reasons we had decided to move to the hotel, firstly, our jeans needed a serious wash and secondly, we wanted to use the wireless internet and get some work done. Unfortunately only one of the two worked out, we got our jeans washed, but the internet was down all the time we were there and we had to use internet cafes.
An interesting sight we visited on our second day in the hotel, was the ancient city of Ephesus. It had been inhabited by the Greeks and the temple of Artemis with Medusa's head on its arch is listed as one of the Ancient 7 Wonders of the World. Other impressive structures in Ephesus include the theatre and library.
The rest of our time in Kusadasi we spent sorting out stuff on the internet, trying out different Doner and chicken places, walking along the seaside, visiting the castle and watching movies with the owner of the hotel.
2010-02-22 22:00:00
Written By: Billy van Graan
We left Kusadasi yesterday for Bursa, a big city north on our way to Istanbul. We organized a couch in Bursa (well just before Bursa actually) where we would sleep the night. The guy we stayed with - Timur - was living on his own in a flat and we got there just before he was on his way out to the gym. He only got back at 10PM and we sat chatting till after 1AM. He seemed like a very clever guy and could speak Turkish, Russian, English and German. He also already knew a bit of French and is now starting to study Chinese.
The next day we left late in the morning for Istanbul after having a massive breakfast that Timur made for us. The 250km ride to Istanbul was not the most pleasant of the trip so far. It was damm cold and the traffic for the last 100km was a nightmare. We did however pass over the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul which means we are now in Europe!
We struggled our way through the traffic to Beyoğlu, a area in the middle of Istanbul, where we organized another couch for 5 nights. The people we are staying with is Anna an American girl and Mike a guy from the UK. They both teach English here and have also taught in other countries all over the world. We went to dinner together then for a drink in the main restaurant and bar street in Istanbul.
The plan for we will spend quite a bit of time in Istanbul organizing my Schengen visa and other visas I need on the way up to Norway.
2010-02-14 22:00:00
Written By: Billy van Graan
We spent the last two days driving in some of the most jaw-dropping natural beauty we have ever seen. The road running along the south coast of Turkey is just plain amazing to ride on a motorbike. The very winding road is right next to the ocean most of the time but at the same time runs over mountains, along cliffs and through forests. To ride 300km takes the whole day because the road has so many ups and downs and sharp bend you can never get up to full speed, and the times the road does straighten out a little it is because you are passing through a small town.
The first night we spent at a campsite right next to a massive castle on the beach. When we arrived I left Yuki’s light burning and the battery went flat. The wife of the owner of the campsite ended up helping us to push Yuki around to get it going again but he didn't want to start. A big problem was that the road was full of sand and rocks so the back tire just locks up and slides. The owner called 2 boys working nearby to come and help and we eventually got Yuki going again.
That night while cooking a massive fluffy (and a bit dirty) dog arrived and begged for food and sat with us. I tried to chase it away (I was afraid it will pee against our tent) but it didn't want to leave. We fed it our leftovers and it decided it will be our friend. The next morning before we left we went to explore the massive castle and our dog friend decided to join us. This castle was very big and was built right against the ocean. We explored the castle for almost an hour in which time the dog, called Lassie (the caretaker of the castle told us his name), stole our hearts. It was as if Lassie knew the whole castle and sometimes when the stairs was really steep and small he would be too afraid to continue but as soon as he saw that he would get left behind he summoned up the courage to try and climb or descend.
Lassie was so big and fluffy he was like a teddy bear and his face looked so innocent. When we packed up to leave he really looked sad and we felt sad for him. Since it is out of season there really aren't many guests for him to play with.
We spent another day riding through amazing landscapes and pulled into a small tourist town 30km past Antalya (one of the biggest cities on the south coast) to look for a campsite. The first one was too expensive so we went to another. The old man there told us we can camp on a wooden deck which has a roof right by the beach. We managed to bargain a 3rd off the price so we took the spot which was one of the coolest so far for the trip. The old man was called Mustafa and could only speak German and Turkish. Luckily Claudine can speak a little German (enough to have very basic conversations) so we could communicate with Mustafa. He told us we could use the kitchen to cook our food so we took him up on his offer. While cooking we started chatting and he said we should sit at his table and eat. A friend of his arrived, who was a taxi driver and could only speak Turkish and Russian, and they started drinking Raki. We spent most of the night chatting with them. Mustafa got drunker and as the evening progressed and danced around and kept on feeding everyone around the table with his hand. Me and Claudine each had 2 big beers and once they were finished we each had a glass of Raki with Mustafa. It was a cool and strange evening.
2010-03-10 22:00:00
Written By: Billy van Graan
We left Istanbul on a wet and windy morning. Boris helped us carry all our stuff down stairs and we said our goodbyes. I was sad to leave but also relieved to get going again. Getting out of Istanbul was no easy task, even with the GPS. The GPS doesn't always know when the streets are one ways so that makes it very difficult. The other thing I didn't realize was that the GPS was set to pedestrian mode so it wanted us to take all the tiny roads.
When we finally got out of Istanbul the weather got really cold and windy. At one stage I thought I would have to stop because it felt like the wind was going to blow us off the road. It rained most of the time as well which made things really miserable and made us wish more that we stayed in Erasmus Hostel in Istanbul. By the end of the day when we got near Kesan, the town where we would spend the night close to the Greece border, the wind chill on the bike got so bad that every drop of water on us froze solid. Our shoes were completely soaked and Claudine's feet started to hurt so we had to put plastic bags around then. My jacket was covered in ice and Yuki's whole windscreen, mirrors and hand covers was also covered with a layers of rock hard ice. By the time we reached Kasan my feet were also hurting badly, and I couldn't feel my fingers anymore. We booked into a very warm room and both had warm showers. Luckily the whole day there was no snow and the road never had ice on. Kasan however had very recently had snow and it still lay on all the roofs of the houses and sidewalks.
The next day we had a very long 500km to go and a border to cross so we left early. The weather looked better than the day before but was still very cold. At the border I had to buy insurance for Europe for the bike. On the Greece side they told me it is cheaper on the Turkish side. So we went back to the Turkish side. The insurance was 63 Euros for 15 days. We then had a problem to leave the Turkish side again because we have been logged on the system as entering Turkey and I had to get some paper work done before we could leave again for the Greek side.
The whole day went smoothly until 100km from Kozani were we were going to stay at a CouchSurfer. It started to rain, which isn't an issue for us anymore because we are so used to getting rained on by now, but as we climbed higher and closer to Kozani it started snowing. It wasn't a problem on the highway which is heavily salted and full of cars because the snow never gets a chance to settle on the ground, but as soon as we entered Kozani, the road was covered in slush. We stopped to get the correct direction to hosts - Orestis - house. When we started to go again it was very difficult to drive. We were only 3km away so I thought we could go very slowly and get there. After 1km we went down a downhill and the bike just slipped out under us and we went down. Since we were going very slowly and because the road was icy we just slid a meter or two before coming to a standstill. I twisted my leg a bit but otherwise nothing else got hurt on either us or Yuki. Some guys that saw us go down came and helped us to get Yuki back on his wheels and roll him onto the sidewalk.
It was just to unsafe to carry on so we asked a bingo shop if we could leave Yuki outside and they had no problems. We locked Yuki up properly and got a taxi to Orestis's house. When we arrived he was out and we waited around for a while. I decided to go and look for a phone to phone him but he didn't answer, but luckily on my way back to his flat I met him in the street.
His flat was really nice and warm and he told us he has no problem if we want to stay an extra night or two and wait for the weather to change. We decided that we would stay at least one extra day. The next day the weather was much better and all the snow on the roads melted away. I was able to fetch Yuki from the bingo shop and take him to Orestis's flat. I saw that Yuki lost a bolt which got stuck in the steering system. This caused the steering wheel to have a much smaller turning angle. Luckily we found a shop to help us get the bolt out and replace it with a new one, free of charge.
Trying to rush through Europe to Norway then try and sell the bike and cycle out from Amsterdam all in 2 months is just not going to happen and is something we made peace with. If the weather was better this would be possible but even then we would end up rushing everything and not enjoy the time we have here. We will from now on take it much slower and keep a close eye on the weather and we will only end up in Norway well after all the snow have melted. From here we will go to Albania then Montenegro where we will waste some time before going back into the EU (by ferry into Italy from Montenegro), then we will slowly work our way up to Switzerland. In Switzerland we will stay with Claudine’s family for a while before continuing on to Norway. Once we have reached Norway we will decide what we will do when we get to Amsterdam.
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