Hanging Up our Fez Hats

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Turkish Babushkas heading home from work

Turkish Babushkas heading home from work

Last roads in Turkey

There are 4 easy steps for paving a road in Turkey:
1. Knock down trees, villages, etc
2) Spread Tar
3) Find the biggest rocks in your regions and drop them on said tar
4) Open road to traffic

As cyclists, we like to be as helpful as the next person, but we're not really into spreading out the loose rocks out for the big rigs that ride next to our heads. First, I don't think that they appreciate our work. Not to mention, we end up feeling like we''re being dragged by horses when we ride over this stuff.

Still our last days riding in Turkey were beautiful. Riding through orchard-covered valley floors... looking up at roman tombs carved into cliff, looking down from steep overlooks into the deep blue water. And ultimately... riding up to a marina, taking apart the bikes, and HOPPING ON A 4 DAY BOAT CRUISE!! We spent an amazing few days with a boatfull of Australian travelers and a Turkish crew. We swam, we baked, we BBQed, we patronized bars tucked illicitly in rocky beaches. We also picked up some fabulous Australian slang.

Bulgaria-Bound

At the last second, we decided to change our plans when
Before shooting out of Turkey to Bulgaria by bus, we had two nice events. One, we met up with friends from school (Joanna, Andy and Stephanie). We shared beers, baklava, and as Joanna says ˝naked friend time˝ when we checked out the Turkish baths. (Joanna and Anne are shown proving that an ivy-league education can't buy class as they model their new free underwear- our parting gifts from the Turkish bathhouse).


And two, we were taken in by a Turkish-Canadian couple (Shevket and Kathy). Both of them were really helpful (they informed us that we'd been ripped off by the Turkish bathhouse, for instance) and so sweet (they shared their apartment, their cats, and their laundry machine with us). Shevket took us halfway across town to get us on the road!

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Photos

Day 14
Relaxing on the northen shore of Lake Gocigiz. Here's to mountain-crested views and lakeside baklava!

Day 14
The ride along the west side of Lake Gocigiz was beautiful, but it came with a price. 10% grade signs signs should only be posted for down-hills.

Day 15
OK, Forest wasn't really into the whole sulfur, mud-bath thing, but when you already have a base coat from riding.... might as well!

Day 15
Annie had to jump in the lake a few times to get all the mud off. Then we hoped right back on our bikes only to find that we didn't quite get ALL the mud off.

Day 15
Lycian tombs carved in the cliffs.

Day 15
Lost... but the sunflower scenery was great. 100 degrees and climbing....

Day 15
The worst chip-seal ever, plus one heck of a pass. Forest looks happy hear because he's narrowly avoided being the victim of a girlfriend-meltdown.

Day 15
Weeee...time for some coasting.

Day 16
Looking down on the bay of Fethiye: Ride more or CRUISE around the coast? Not a tough decision.

Day 16
First boat stop: Butterfly Valley. Didn't see one butterfly. BTW, I'm not sure why I look like I'm going to break out into a rap.

Day 17
Docked in Kas on second day of boat cruise.

Day 17
Captain Forest and his crew of Ozzies. There were 14 people on the boat (all Ozzies except us), including Eddy and Becc. We swear we aren't stalking you guys - see you in Croatia.

Day 17
Despite being encouraged to do so, we didn't ride the bikes around the boat to make the trip "legit".

Day 17
Signal fire or BBQ? Our boat was the one on the right.

Day 17
Us, Eddy and Becc in front of a Lycian sarcaughagus.

Day 17
Party at Smugglers Cove. We had a blast boogeying down with the group to classic Ozzie tunes.

Day 18
Last lunch.

Day 19
Meeting up with some Duke friends Stephanie, Joanna, and Andy.

Day 20
We took a cruise up the Bosphorous. This is one of three bridges that connects Europe to Asia.

Day 21
Kathy and Sevket were great hosts. They live in a really cool neighborhood (Fatih) in Istanbul.

Day 21
Anne is not a morning person. In fact, she's trying to kill Forest, the guy with the alarm, with her eyes. Seriously though..., Sevket generously helped us use the tram to get to the bus station. Thanks again!

Comments

[warnerkallus]

hate
I know you have told me before not to be jealous, but it is hard not to be with beautiful pictures of Turkey and Istanbul. [BTW- I had to look up how to speel beautiful. Be proud].

[Charles]

Erie Similarity...
Sevket looks so much like Forest (Day 21) it's uncanny...

[warnerkallus]

Happy Birthday
I dont know, literally, where you are, and I sent you a text on the actual day, know that you would not recieve it until you got home, but not having any access to a computer on the 21st, or 22nd, but, Happy Birthday Penaut, whereever you are.