Peter & Judy's European Bike Trek Update - Hello from Turkey!

Sunday, 23 May
Because of the weather we thought we would forego any further island hopping and make our way to Cesme (Turkey).
It was only about a 40 minute trip and when we arrived at Cesme The Petes spotted a hire car place and suggested we zip up to Ephesus, so as to make maximum use of our time.
And so, we met the inimitable Mr Smelly from Blue Rent A Car. Although a bit on the smelly side, he is just the nicest person and a great introduction to Turkish hospitality.

While we went off in search of Ephesus, he offered to look after our bikes and find us a hotel room. What a nice Mr Smelly!!!
After a bit of practice, The Petes caught on to tooting etiquette pretty much straight away, but he felt his technique needing refining, to he continued to practice the whole time we had the car.
We managed to find Ephesus without too many wrong turns and upon arrival we were conned into believing it was much too far to walk to the site and we should hire a horse and carriage to get us there, for the princely sum of 15EU. As we discovered later, it would have been quite an easy walk through the ruins. Will we never learn?
The ruins are quite incredible. They contain the largest collection of Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean and for many years during the Roman period, it was the second largest city of the Roman Empire and was famous for the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Grand Theatre, where the gladiator fights were held, and which was capable of seating 24,000, is quite amazing.

Monday, 24 May
Another bus trip today to Izmir, as the only way to get there was on the main highway - not the most pleasant way to cycle. Had a bit of a ride though as we mistakenly got off the bus before we reached the city centre.

Tuesday, 25 May
Again, the only way to Canakkale was by the main highway so decided to bus it.
I have to say it was quite challenging getting to the bus station by pushy. Combined with the fact we were relying on the locals to give us directions, the traffic was horrendous. Strangely, the local cyclists were riding into the traffic, so, at times, we were in danger of having a head on with an oncoming cyclist.
Finally reached the Otogar (bus station), a bit frazzled, but in one piece.
The buses here are absolutely wonderful. It's as if you are on a aeroplane - prior to serving drinks and snacks a steward distributes a lemon scented hand and face wash, there are personal TV screens, and they distribute newspapers. It certainly makes bus travel reasonably pleasant.

Wednesday, 26 May
Today we toured Gallipoli.
Canakkale is separated from Gallipoli peninsula by The Dardanelles, the strait which was so important in the 1st World War.
We crossed the strait by ferry and then bussed it to the memorial sites.
One of the Aussies commented at the end of the day, he felt the experience was quite under-whelming and I have to agree with him.
Although I felt very emotional about the loss of so many young lives, it was difficult to really feel the horror an despair they must have experienced as the sites were crawling with tourists and the local people were selling all kinds of trinkets, food and drinks. Unfortunately, I felt this created a rather carnival type atmosphere - quite unintentionally, I am sure.

Thursday, 27 May
As usual we are making plans on the run and decide that we will leave the pushies at the hotel, bus it to Istanbul (7 hours), catch a train to the airport and then a flight to Keyseri (1 hour). Sounds like a piece of cake!!!
Everything was going according to our hastily arranged plan until we hit Istanbul Otogar. Although the bus stopped at the station, it didn't actually pull into the terminus, but everyone except us and three other Aussies who were staying in the Sultanamhet area (the old area of Istanbul) were not sure whether this was the end of the line for us or not, and we couldn't get an answer from the driver.. But, as the driver doesn't remove our luggage from the luggage compartment (as they usually do) we all decided it would be best to stay put. Surely they would let us know if we should hop off.
Sooo, off we go on an unplanned grand tour of Istanbul. We even cross from the European side to the Asian side, which caused some concern. The bus finally stopped at some non-descript place and the steward frantically indicated that we should all get on another bus, and off we went back to the main terminus.
Here we farewell our Aussie friends and without too much trouble find the Metro, arrive at the airport, catch our flight to Keyseri where a nice man meets us and takes us to hour hotel at Urgup (about 1 hour from the airport).

Friday, 28 May
Cappadocia occupies the centre of Turkey, between the Black Sea in the north and the Taurus Mountains, between the capital Ankara and the city of Malatya to the east. It is famous for its spectacular natural rock formations and valleys, Goreme National Park, as it is known today, is strewn with underground cities, stone chapels, monasteries and houses carved out of the weirdly eroded volcanic rock from as long ago as 400 BC.
Today we took a guided tour through the Valley of the Pigeon Lofts one of the underground cities. I
What an astonishing experience!
In Cappadocia, pigeons have been a source of food and fertilizer. The advent of chemical fertilizers has reduced use as a fertilizer. However, some farmers still maintain their lofts because they insist that the reputation of fruits as the sweetest and most succulent in Turkey is entirely due to the pigeons' droppings.
Thousands of lofts have been carved into abandoned caves and the walls of collapsed churches.
It is not certain how many underground cities exist in the area or who actually built them. However, it is thought the Hittites may have excavated the first few levels in the rock when they were under attack from the Phrygians around 1200 BC. Later, it is believed, they were expanded by Christians escaping Arab invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries. The upper levels were used for living quarters and the lower levels for storage, wine making, flour grinding and worship in simple chapels. Everywhere, walls have been blackened from the use of torches and cooking. The rooms are connected by tunnels which are only wide enough to allow one person at a time to pass and we had to double over in order to get through. At the access gates of these tunnels there are huge stone boulders which were used for closing the tunnels to prevent the enemy from entering.
It is believed people lived in these underground cities for 3-4 months at a time. When our lovely guide informed us of this we were, of course, all secretly wondering about toilet business. Someone actually had the temerity to pose the question, whereupon our guide, who was completely unfazed by the question, informed us that the 'doings' were stored in clay pots topped with straw. Imagine, four months of stored 'doings'. I certainly wouldn't want to be the person in charge of 'doings'.

Saturday, 29 May
Today we are off to Goreme, The Valley of Fairy Chimneys, and the Open-Air Museum..
Thousands of years of wind and rain erosion has created a fascinating landscape of rock cones and pinnacles that are known as ‘fairy chimneys’. The chimney formations are quite remarkable - some have conical shaped bodies with a boulder on top, some are mushroom like and some pointed rocks. I must say, to me, some resembled phallic symbols.
The Goreme Open-Air Museum is one of the most famous sites in central Turkey. It is a complex comprising more than 30 rock-hewn churches and chapels containing some superb frescoes.
Cave dwellings, ancient monasteries and painted chapels are well camouflaged, with entranceways that are barely noticeable and houses of volcanic stone blend unobtrusively into the natural surroundings. Many people still inhabit the cones and chimney formations. In tourist towns such as Goreme, hotels and pensions are built partially into the rock or are housed within a rock cone and offer accommodation in cave-style rooms.

Friday, 29 May
This morning we took a balloon flight over the area. I think it is probably one of the best experiences of my life.
I must say I was a bit dubious about doing it, as I am a bit afraid of heights, but can honestly say at no point did I ever feel unsafe or the least bit afraid.
There were twenty people in our basket and about 60 balloons in the air at the one time.
What a magnificent sight and what a wonderful view of the area.
At one point a small concern regarding landing did cross my mind. You can imagine my astonishment when I realised that the pilot was going to land the craft on a trailer hitched to the back of a 4WD. To my amazement we landed without a hitch and all had to jump for joy to ensure the basket settled onto the trailer correctly.
Naturally, we celebrated our successful flight with a glass of champagne.
In the afternoon we flew back to Istanbul where a driver was waiting to take us to our hotel.
The highway into the old city (Sultanahmet) followed the coast and I must say I was surprised to see so many beautiful roses in full bloom. The median strip is planted with beautiful standards of many different colours and the footpaths with beautiful blood red rose bushes.

Saturday, 30 May
Our accommodation was within walking distance of all the must see tourist attractions which is very convenient, cos the traffic here is idiotic.
Just around the corner was a bazaar with many carpet and pottery shops - the first of many we were to encounter all with touts trying to entice us inside to look at their wares.
We visited the Archaeological Museum which was fascinating and then wandered the streets trying to avoid being accosted by touts. It was difficult to just look in a shop window without being harassed, but it was all good natured and a bit of fun.
The carpets, of course, are beautiful, not to mention the pottery. Probably just as well we are on the pushies, but, of course, as we were continually reminded, we could have anything we wanted shipped home. Oh well, guess I can’t holiday for six months and spend money on stuff.

Sunday, 31 May
It was our intention to visit the Blue Mosque today, but were informed by a carpet seller that it was closed until 5.00pm. We returned at 5.00pm but decided to give it a miss due to the number of bloody tourists and return at 8.30 (opening time) in the morning, when we thought most of them would probably be still in bed.

Monday, 1 June
Woe is us!!! The other bloody tourists get up early too. When we arrived there was already a queue a mile long. Oh well, nothing for it but to wait patiently in line. It was actually my very first visit to a mosque and I found the simplicity quite peaceful, compared with the clutter of all the icons usually found in Christian churches.
Later we visited the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar - both interesting experiences.

Thursday, 4 June
Well, today we took to the pushies for some serious riding and what a day it turned out to be.
We had a fair bit of climbing to start with, but were plodding along quite nicely. when we came over, what I was hoping would be the last steep hill, only to be nearly blown away by a fierce wind. There were some very ominous looking clouds not too away and it looked as though we were riding into a pretty decent sort of storm.
What can one do but keep cycling. We eventually saw a village in a valley only about 3 kms away, so thought we had better head for it before the storm arrived.
Oh dear!!! There were a lot of ups and downs to negotiate on the way to the village, but we eventually made it. Actually, I sort of wobbled in, cos by this time I was getting a bit past it.
Ooooh, this was a strange place. Practically every house was deserted and those that weren't were uninhabitable. Eventually, though, we came across a small pub (yes, even in Bulgaria every town has a pub) where there were about half a dozen people, none of whom could speak English, of course.
After much gesticulating, the owner understood that we were looking for accommodation and indicated that there was nothing in the village but there was a village about another 20kms further on which had a hotel.
So off we went, and just as we reached the outskirts of the village (Simeonovgrad) The Petes, who was ahead of me, of course, stopped to pick something up and as I cycled past he indicated it was a mobile phone. Next thing, we were accosted by a group of about twenty gypsies - they just seemed to come out of nowhere. The group who had surrounded me were saying; "telephone, telephone". I assumed they were referring to the phone The Petes had picked up and so I indicated that he had it. She then said; "no problem" and they all started making their way to a shanty town on the top of a hill.
Well, The Petes' story was quite different. They kept asking him for a telephone and one guy shoved him. However, once he produced the phone, they seemed quite satisfied. Unlike me, who just thought they were looking for their lost phone, he felt very threatened and concerned for our safety.

Bus from Sofia to Belgrade
　
It would seem it wasn't their phone he had picked up, they were, in fact, asking for our mobile phone. We read later that this is what they do.
How fortuitous that The Petes had found the phone a few minutes before they came on the scene and how strange they weren't asking for money.
Anyway, as a result we decided we would give cycling the Bulgarian countryside a big miss and tomorrow we would cycle back to Harmanli and bus it from there to Sophia.
So, our first day of serious riding, did indeed turn out to be quite serious.

Friday, 4 June
When we arrived in Harmanli we met a really nice man at a coffee shop (a local bank manager), who decided to take us under his wing. He escorted us to the bus station, established a bus would be leaving at 10.00am and told us he would meet us back at the station at 10.00 to ensure we could get our bikes on the bus.
As we had a bit of time to kill we did a quick cycle around the town. The difference between Bulgaria and Turkey is quite unbelievable. The villages here are dirty, unkempt and mostly in a state of disrepair. There are many abandoned industrial buildings, probably a hangover from the communist era, and the country generally has a very depressing feel about it.
As promised, our very helpful bank manager, turned up at the bus station and negotiated with the bus driver to take our bikes and deliver us to Sophia in one piece.
On arriving in Sophia we found a nice hotel near the bus station and once settled, The Petes returned to the station to get tickets for the trip to Belgrade, or Beograd, or Beograde, whichever takes your fancy.
And what a chore it turned out to be. But, not to be dissuaded, he eventually acquired tickets for us and the bikes for 7.00 next morning.

Saturday, 5 June
We dutifully turn up at the station in morning only to discover the bus is only a mini bus and no way in the world are the bikes going to fit.
It turned out one of the young girls on the bus spoke English so she acted as an interpreter and we were informed that there would be another bus at 4.00pm and it would be a biggie.
So, we decided to go back to the hotel, as check out wasn't until noon, and hang around there for a while.
Indeed there was a big bus this time, but the driver was none too happy about taking the bikes and we are informed that we will have to change buses at Nis and he doesn't know if the changeover bus will be big or small.
We decided to take a chance and, if need be, overnight in Nis.
Oh joy, the bus was a biggie!!!
There certainly is no comparison between the Bulgarian and Turkish buses, but mustn't complain, at least they get you from A to B, albeit a lot less comfortably, but that's life.
The Serbian countryside is really quite beautiful and the difference between the Bulgarian and Serbian villages is quite remarkable. I feel I am now in a country that is cared for and its people are proud of it.

Sunday, 6 June
More serious cycling today. We hope to reach the Danube where the cycling should be more enjoyable and more cycle friendly.
Well, I must say the getting here was not pleasant, except for about the last 20 kms.
The roads (if you can call them that) were a minefield of potholes and at times it was easier to ride on the 50cm dirt verge than to be constantly dodging potholes while hoping you weren't going to be run over by the never ending traffic.
We were both very excited to see the Danube again and we found a lovely hotel in Novi Sad overlooking the town square.
Tomorrow we will explore the town and get a few jobs done. Yes, even when on holiday there are still chores to be done.