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Varna - Istanbul
So, it has been quiet for a while now. Dont worry everything is fine, we're just spending a looong time in Istanbul. The dutch update was posted 2 days ago I believe and I figured we couldnt let our international friends down either. And so, once again I got behind a computer.
We left varna around 10 in the morning, planning to get close to Burgas that day. But we werent out of Varna yet or we met an old friend once again.
As we almost enterd the bridge which leads to the road to Burgas we saw a bicycle with 4 orange Ortliebs on it and a Radical trailer. It was Christof, whom we met in Enns(Close to Lienz, Austria). He had just changed his mind, and instead of taking the boat to the otherside of the blacksea, he decided to cycle through turkey. So after a short conversation we decided to give it a go and cycle together to Istanbul. We would see how things turned out. But as we left Varna, climbing up a hill, on a highway, we got another suprise(or 2). Suddenly a car slowed down to 10 km/h next to us, and the window opened. Guess what? The Irish Bulgarian(with the Belgium t-shirt) from last night in the restaurant, was in it. He already mentioned that he would go to burgas that day, but I never tought we would see him. He just drove there on the highway for like 4 minutes at 10 km/h. Noone seemed to mind it (I think about 20 cars passed in that time span on a 6 lane highway). If you think that he was crazy, no way. a few minutes later we saw a car driving on the otherside of the highway, in his Reverse! The last mean suprise for that day, was the rain. I forgot to mention it, but we had the wind with us, sadly enough rain wanted some attention aswell. So after cycling through the rain for  quite some kilometers, the sun slowly started to shine a little again. After a nice lunch in a small restaurant, the replacement of douwe's breakpads we felt ready to go again. The rest of the day we mainly spent cycling up and down along the black coast, with some beatifull views aswell. After a long climb we had a nice and fast decend to Nesebar, where we decided to start looking for a place to camp. Sadly enough all of the bulgarian coast is turning into one big party resort. In the end we settled down behind some Orchards. The local people didnt seem to care too much about us, as most of them dont in these countries.

Going through Burgas was easy (in the end), route wise, but looking for all kinds of things in Cyrillic was a bit hard for me, and avoiding gaps etc next to it, made it a lil tiresome. The past days we already saw a tempting road/shortcut on the map. But we where doubting a bit since it was a yellow road and not a red one. The yellow roads in these countries can be horrible, but also pretty good. When the moment was there to decide we figured we might as well give it a go. Gambling does pay off, at least this time, we had a nice and quiet road with nice views. At a certain point a wild dog ran along with us for a few hunder meters, just in a nice way. But then a car overtook us and hit the dog. Hearing a car hitting his brakes and a loud boom kinda scares you. The first thing I thought was, oh shit, someone got hit... looking behind me I saw that all of us where fine. Strangely enough the dog just got up and ran on, just like he did before. Almost as if nothing hit him, but when you looked carefully you could see one leg not fully being used. In such cases it is always hard to just move on, but you cant do anything else. So after a few more kilometers when the dog gave up, we found a place to eat. The
forester stopped and had a nice chat with us, in german. But it wasnt till 10 km from the Turkish border that we set up our camp for the night. And we got found within 30 minutes... a car stopped and the guy walked straight to us. We guessed afterwards it was someone from the border patrol. Luckily all he asked was where are you from? and when you leave, this place is completly clean again. But since we slept close to a small village we didnt feel 100% safe so we locked the bikes carefully. During the night there where actually some guys who stopped their car close to us. 15 minutes later they left, and finally I fell asleep.

Eager to reach the Turkish border we got up and packed our stuff pretty fast, knowing we still had some altitude to gain. After 10 kilometers we saw the first border control post. Showing our passports was just a matter of formality, same with the second, and at the third(the first turkish) they actually took a closer look, but again just allowed us to pass. Then we finally got to the last checkpoint. Here the real fun began, but getting the visa appeared to be just a matter of paying 10 euro each and voila we could enter turkey. We had a 4 lane road all for ourselves, so you can imagine that most of the parts it was really fun and easy to go down. even the climbs could be made while cycling next to each other. it was a matter of 40 km to the next city where we could get our turkish money and actually buy food. We ran out of everything after breakfast. In Kirklareli we found a small restaurant where we had some Kofte(meatballs) and ayran(bit like yoghurt). Then it was time for our usual Supermarket plundering process. But, how do you find a supermarket in a city where you dont know the language? Well it appeared to be just a matter of asking and the turkish people would call around to find someone who speaks some english. Within 15 minutes Mufrat showed up, and brought us all the way to the supermarket. All the way to there he was saying: "I am so hippy" after 5 times I figured he meant "I am so Happy". the rest of the day we just cycled, and waved back to all the people while answer the same 3 phrases over and over again: hello, how are you? where are you from? welkom to turkey. Even drivers where waving at us, often with 2 hands. Poyrali was the place where we found our next camping spot. 

During the next two days the traffic increased exponentially, but not before we saw a muddy road with tanks and soldiers on it. And what I forgot to mention was the attention we get from little childeren. Everytime we stop somewhere to buy some food, they start to swarm around us, repeating the single sentence they happen to know over and over again. Most of the times its funny, but after 15 minutes it gets tiresome. Especially when Martijn, Aafke and Christof went to a market. We where standing there and half a school was standing around us, yelling bye, walking away, just to return within a minute. But besides that, and the scamming turkish people love while selling stuff, its a really nice country with very friendly people. We also encounterd a french lady was was cycling back home from Istanbul. On a Optima dragon.(one of those lying bicycles) We are curious how she will do, but she had the right mind and spirit for it. It was really funny to talk with another cyclist once again.

While setting up our stuff for the night again around  Akalan, we got actually found by a farmer. Who didnt talked but just looked at us hidden behind some bushes. Feeling uncomfortable with this, we decided to move, and through the rain, with the night falling we got on our bikes again. Luckily there was a picknick place after 3-4km, where we could sleep. But not after we accidientally disturbed a young couple :-).

It would be the last night with Christof, so we ate some chips again and he shared the local schnaps from swiss with us. Which I actually liked a little. That night, I heard the sound of howling wolves for the first time in my live. But it isnt that frightning, its just nice in a certain way to listen to. Just like the ezan's(the start of the Islam prayer's, you know the guy standing in a minaret yelling ;-). Nowadays I dont always hear them anymore, but its a nice thing when you open yourself to it. Planning to arrive in Istanbul early we got to bed early.

So the last 65km to istanbul, to actually the border crossing with Europe and Asia! The dogs became agressive again around istanbul. In the rest of turkey they are just lazy, they dont even get up, maybe 1 bark, thats the maximum. But while entering istanbul we actually needed the pepperspray once. Being used to driving a motorbike, and thus moving between the traffic in high or low speeds, I still had a hard time to get into Istanbul by bicycle. Because the smallest road into Istanbul is a 12 lane carway(90 km/h top speed). Most of the times things went ok and we could cycle together, up and down the hills(Istanbul is anything but flat!). Switching 3 lanes as a group did appear impossible, all the cars who got themselves between us, so in the end we all safely made the switch, but alone.

When we enterd the region of Topaki in istanbul, it was just a matter of walking to the Tourist information, and christof said goodbye. He was gonna sleep in a hotel, while we had an adress in Beylerbeyi. But to get there we needed to take the ferry. Asking around we got there slowly. Tired as we where Dilara, the cousin of Turkan, who is a colleague of my mom, welcomed us. We had a complete appartment for ourselfs! We'll share our days in Istanbul later on I guess. But for now it suits to say that we have a great time and that the people are really nice.
Tomorrow we're leaving again, since we aquired our visa(I hope, we have to pick it up tomorrow morning)
adios
 
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