Welcome to Turkey

Sunday (3/27). The morning started as the night had passed…calm with the gentle sound of waves lapping the beach. We are so far ahead of the tourist, the beach villages are deserted.

Hills steep enough to require walking lay between us, Chios, and our ferry to Turkey. We gave ourselves plenty of time to enjoy the ride back to town, and one last tasty gyro for the road.

For newbies like us, there is always some uncertainty surrounding border crossings. Are we in the right place? Where are we supposed to go? Do we have the right paperwork? Etc. Fortunately we met a couple from Istanbul who gave us a crash course on everything Turkish, and even followed us through the Greek exit and Turkish entrance, just to make sure we had no problems. Tesekkur (thank you) Zeynep and Bob (originally from Philly).

On our way from the port, a young man looked at us, stopped his scooter and said, “Welcome to my country! Enjoy! Another young man opened his cell phone store and spent an hour getting us hooked up with new sim cards. The owner of a hotel/apartment insisted we take a much larger room for the same $24, “so we would be more comfortable!” Enough food from a market to provide a filling dinner set us back $3. So far, we’re liking Turkey!

Monday (3/28). Today is a day to explore Cesme, get our bearings and plan our next few days. Not even 24 hours in the country and a shop owner brought us cups of tea while we enjoyed her (amazing) baklava.

Tuesday (3/29). Today we begin our Turkey tour properly. It was not the day we planned. The riding was  unremarkable as we made our way east off the Cesme peninsula. Just before lunch I picked up a large screw in my rear wheel! Whilst changing said flat, I noticed that my rim was cracked in several places. Only a matter of time before the rim completely fails. Didn’t plan for that! With global bicycle supply chain issues – and in a foreign country – what are the chances of finding anything compatible??? Zero to none, right? But hope springs eternal so instead of turning south down the coast, we headed east to the awesome Bisiklet Izmir shop. Ibrahim and crew searched their inventory, and after some trial and error, found and installed a replacement rear wheel. Can’t say enough good things about everyone in the shop. Enjoyed chatting with Ibrahim “Tuna” while work progressed. He and Guiseppe gave us a list of “must see” places along our route.

It was getting late by the time we got back on the road. No problem. We’ll bike a few miles down the road and find some place to camp. We’d seen plenty of likely places all day. Miles later we still hadn’t found a good candidate. Eventually we rolled into the tiny village of Bademler  and a small park of sorts. “Why not?” we thought. We asked a shop owner across the street (with Google translate) did he think there would be a problem? No, but we needed to talk to the muchtar (village headman) for permission – and wait – here’s his brother right here! He’ll call. “No problem!” We were told – but we have to notify the gendarmerie. Mr. Oz (the shopkeeper) happened to know the sister of the police chief. After an animated phone call, all appropriate permissions were received, all appropriate parties were notified, so we rolled into the park. Mr. Oz accompanied us, and with more help from Google translate, made sure we were properly settled. By the time we had our tent up, a very sharply attired business man drove up and introduced himself as the village muchtar (thanks again Google translate). He checked our passports, made sure we had everything we needed, and said good night. The perfect end to a perfectly unplanned day.

Wednesday (3/30). The park would have been lovely – had it not been for the pack of wild dogs who barked and fought outside our tent much of the night. Oh…and except for the birds with intestinal distress who crowded onto the one branch overhanging the tent.

After a rough night in Bademler we enjoyed a relaxing day wandering along the coast. Made even more relaxed by the Turkish army. They were conducting live fire exercises that closed the only road south for two hours. Fine…we’ll sit on the beach and relax for two hours! Many hours and many, many hills later, we ended the day perched on a perfect hillside (of course) above the Aegean Sea. No dogs. No birds. Nice view. Perfect!

Other than the steep nature of the country and the abundance of wild dogs, we are falling in love with Turkey…and we’ve only just started. More to come later. Until then STC!