Bicycle touring in Turkey
Lately we have been a bit quiet. The main reason for this is that we have been cycling strongly across Europe. Updates are coming and this is our first recollection of returning to the Asian side of Istanbul and cycling towards Europe. Finally… a decision was made to fly from Nepal to Turkey and continue cycling from [...]
Bicycle touring in Turkey is a great experience! Before we started travelling Turkey by bicycle we had heard from other bicycle tourers the country is one of the best for traveling by bike. We were enthusiastic to reach the country and make our way from Europe to Asia. We entered Turkey on the 1st of May 2014 and left the country on the 7th of July 2014. We have cycled a little bit more than 2440 kilometres and ascended around 20709 meters (2 and a half times mount Everest).
The thing that is keeping me back most on this trip is my mind... It is hard to say but my mind is really screwed up sometimes. The last three days have been the hardest days for me on this trip. I was almost ready to call it quits. My mental battle of bicycle touring, how did [...]
How interesting is it that we make plans along the way of our journey and still they always change all the time. We had planned to stay in Mardin to relax, investigate our route in Iraq or Mardin to Hakkari, update website and explore the town. For the photos see, Mardin and The road to Hakkari The town Mardin is [...]
Leaving Cappadocia towards the South-East of Turkey was tough after a few great days with friends and eating out a lot. At the same time we were looking forward to be back on the bike and in our bicycle rhythm. We had been looking forward to first Istanbul, then Ankara for our visa and Cappadocia because of [...]
The diversity of Turkey is huge. We have left the modern city of Ankara, cycled through parts of Central Anatolia and exchanged the city for very rural and traditional areas such as Selime and small villages south of Cappadocia. We came through Mustafapasa where traditional and modern mixes with each other in a very pleasant way. All [...]
We were ready to take on the rest of Turkey, although saying goodbye was a little bit sad because the stay at Ali, Martin's ex-colleague, had been very nice. Also we had the experience of cycling into Istanbul vividly in our minds. Luckily the way out of Istanbul was a lot more pleasant while following the old [...]
Istanbul is where we met Asia. We cycled in to Istanbul and straight to Sultanahmet, so we were sure that we were in Istanbul and get some great photos with the bikes. We were a bit tired after a bad camp spot in the outskirts of Istanbul and the heavy traffic, so next up was finding our [...]
The Via Egnatia is an old roman road we had been crossing and following since we entered Albania. Via Egnatia was the first road build by the romans outside Italy. We found it a nice thought that people had travelled this way for thousands of years and now we were here as well. As always we have a [...]