Cycling in Turkey

After crossing into Turkey and having lunch in the bustling city Keşan, I turned south towards the peninsula of Gallipoli.

I turned south west, right in to the wind coming off the Aegean. A line of wind farms indicated to me that the wind is heavy and consistent here. Then when I turned north east 2 days later, almost comically, the wind was also from the north east--another direct head wind. And there were again wind farms in the mountains indicating how heavy and consistent the wind was in this region 😂.... it made for a hard slog of a finish to the trip. It's never easy!

Despite what the wealthy of Cape Cod, MA may say about wind turbines being an eye sore, I think they are beautiful. Especially because of what they represent--including a viable future for us on the planet. 

Ironically, just beyond the mountain ridge windfarms, were a nuclear and coal fired power plants. As I gazed at them I observed a procession of 18 wheeler dump trucks arriving with loads of coal and others leaving for more. So gross. So wasteful. All so that, for example, city shops can run their AC with the doors wide open, letting the AC rush out without regard for what environmental impact it has.... 

My route through the peninsula of Gallipoli took me on a rural road through farms and small villages. 

Reaching back to the straight of Dardanelles, I had to take a short ferry to the city of Çanakkale. 

Cannakale 

Some marked differences I noticed in Turkey include: the almost constant sound of men preying over the loud speakers positioned atop mosque minarets scattered around every city and town. Women wearing hijab and burkas. Everyone @ cafes drinks black tea, almost exclusively. 

I stayed with a fellow via warmshowers in a small city, Biga and then finished cycling, into the wind, by going to the city of Bandirma, on the south side of the sea of Marmara. Where I would catch a ferry across to Istanbul. And boy was I glad I did not attempt to cycle into Istanbul - it is a mega city. From the ferry I could see some of the length of the city and it is so massive. So many downtown clusters of large buildings. Over 15 million people. 

(From inside the boat) 

In Istanbul 

I did not wait in the multi hour line of the Hagia Sophia mosque, in the distance here. Istanbul is super touristy. 

Balaclava for miles 

Garlic 

Man selling fish by cart in the city 

On my last night of the trip, I met a coworker of a friend of mine in Boston for dinner. He happened to be in Istanbul when I was and was interested in meeting. And he spared no expense on me. We had by far the fanciest dinner and drinks of my trip @ his hotel. The view from dinner below.