Gule Gule Turkey!

17/4/11

Edirne, Turkey

25 miles from Istanbul and the buildings spring up like weeds

Hello folks and folkettes! This is your neighborhood Bobby checking in following nearly a month's hiatus (thank you government of Turkey for blocking the blog website; and thank you Tor for your magical hiding of internet access locations). What has happened in that month, you ask? Why, nothing more than L.I.F.E. Somehow, Laura was able to secure and transport a travel-sized game of Life. That game's amazing, except that there is no bicycle piece – only cars. Then again, they don't really make tandems for babies, and there is very little respect for cops who ride around on bicycles (especially recumbent bikes (CORBS anyone?)). I digress. Oh how I do digress. I also ungress. Haha, jokey joke. It really shows that I haven't written in a while, eh?

Where am I at the moment? Where have I been? What the hell has been going on? I am in Turkey and am sitting within 5 km of both Greece and Bulgaria (wait, you're sitting?).

Ah, the joys of tavuk and kuzu "şiş" aka chicken and lamb shish kebab.

The lady I had scheduled to stay with (via warmshowers) is moving to Canada in a week and so has left me alone in a cluttered house while she spends the night in a more cluttered one in the city. I'm fine with this, except that the washing machine makes weird noises occasionally that make me jump.

Up until the 14^th, Laura and I had been touring Peloponnese, the Greek islands of Rhodes and Kos, and select parts of Turkey. I should stress “select” because all we really discovered was that we absolutely had to return in order to witness all the amazing things you can find here.

Mmm, that's some good vantage point

From the many breathtaking landscapes (huge coastlines, rocky hills with endless olive groves, desolate mountains of the east, wildflowers in bloom along the Black Sea, swaths of forest and farmland near Greece and Bulgaria, many pretty mountain-rimmed lakes, and impressive cities galore) to the insane number of historical sites (I'm talking “Dawn of Civilization” type stuff) and topped with genuine people who can't wait to ask me “What is your name?”, Turkey is the number one place I'd return to out of all the countries I've seen. I must admit that to do it on a bicycle, to tour the entirety of Turkey, could occupy the greater part of a year, but that is the best way to appreciate fully the richness of the land and the warmth of the people. Truly, there is no greater hospitality than that gifted to a young touring cyclist in need of shelter.

Laura and I went about things differently on our tour than I did with Sean. For one, we were happy to take our time, knowing full well that we'd need to take some extra form of transportation as Laura's flight approached. So we had days where we only rode 20 km, stopping to pick wildflowers all the while.

Such a kind Turkish village family that took me in; the full story is worth a post in itself!

But we also took fewer chances while camping; well, I should say that we took different chances, either climbing well out of sight or getting lucky with no one around. Indeed, the disparate landscapes of Greece/Turkey and the whole of Western Europe made the two trips quite different. There were many spots in Peloponnese that were absolutely free of people, especially during this off season. On the other hand, I'd say that only in Spain did we find regions completely devoid of people (at least living, breathing ones); everywhere else we had to either camp in forests just outside of cities where you could hear the motorway all night, or in the backyards of hotels perched on a dark hill and closed for the winter, or smack dab in the middle of a town but surrounded on all sides by a natural fortress of hedges.

Laura's departure was hard to face following the wonderful time we had together, but it was necessary for the both of us; she is now tending to her lovely pup Spartacus and working at her hospital while I am hightailing it to Frankfurt to meet up with Andorf in mid May. Tomorrow, I shall say goodbye to this fertile land of plenty and say hello to the next step in the journey: beautiful, bustling, beastly, bullish, bartending, bra-stealing, bear-chested, bubblicious, bbbbbb, average Bulgaria!

Oh, speaking of “bullish” there, let's all support our local basketball team, the Reed Rockets, who just took 5^th place in this weekend's tournament at Troy Junior High School. Go get 'em, Reed Rockets! Stone them! I mean rock!

Er, what I really meant to say was to be vocal and boisterous in supporting the Bulls, who just emerged victorious over the Pacers in Game 1 of their first series. For reference, they posted the same exact record this year as did our last championship team. Coincidence? You be the judge. Or fate. But don't we make our own fate? Exactly. And the Bulls have made themselves into fated champions of the world.