Where did these hills come from?

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Total Distance Cycled: 254km

We are finally on the road today. After two bike rides in Istanbul, I was itching to head out in to the countryside. At the very least, my pocketbook would enjoy it. The first 15km was along a so called bike trail. This trail changed character too many times to remember. It would go from asphalt to concrete to brick to dirt and back again. In between all of this, there were the odd 9” curbs to crawl up and down. It was still probably better than Kennedy Cad, as there was no shoulder there and the 80km speed limit would have been a bit too much for our nerves.

Traffic got quite congested in between two bridges after the airport. We decided to take a few breaks throughout the day to try out some new food. I have really taken to the soups here. The one I had today was a lentil base. All the soups are served with lemon wedges. At every restaurant stop today, someone would give us a handful of wet napkins. I could seem to say no, but not Shauna. She ended up with about 20 of them!

We really never made it out of the metro Turkey today. The traffic and density did subside, but like everywhere, people seem to want to live next to the sea. While we didn’t really have any material headwind, the big “tailwind” I had been hoping for didn’t really materialize; or, perhaps the hills killed any chance of us using the wind to our advantage.

Today was going to be our longest day at just over 100km, but I changed the destination at the last minute after I realized a miscalculation in my distances. I found a town that, after a bit of research on the internet, was a small beach side tourist town. We weren’t disappointed. Outside of the industrial areas at the tips of the cove, the setting was ideal. While Shauna rested, I checked out the four premier looking seafood restaurants. They all served the same thing, but with all a different ambience and presentation. I picked the most modern of the four, where I ended up having a grilled blue fish like none other. We stopped at little café for tea afterwards. It was quite interesting, because here we were on a Friday night and all the young people were upstairs singing songs and sipping on tea. Actually, I have yet to see anyone drunk in Turkey so far… Perhaps there is something to be said for the Muslim culture.

I gave Shauna the option of taking a day-off here, because it was so pretty or to press on. She choose the latter. We were off to Malkara, a small regional capital half-way between the coast and the Greek border. I wanted one day off in small town Turkey, because I knew Istanbul would not be the lasting impression of Turkey that I wanted. While we got our tailwind today, we did get a lot more with hills than I ever imagined. I had been too focused on winds and not enough on hills, and I didn’t do enough research on the topography. While nothing rose more than 300 meters, there was a lot of ups and downs on this day - it was a tough one. For example, our longest uphill climb was 2,800 meters. Shauna’s butt and knee were hurting.

It is funny here, as I can’t recall going more than 5km without seeing a gas station (in Alberta we seem to be fine going 50km without one). That was fine by me, as it gave us lots of options for drinks and food. Most of the gas stations also have a restaurant next to it.

After a very hilly day, it was only fitting that Malkara was also at the top of a hill… By the end of the day we had done a whole lot of hills and a 250m to boot. Fortunately, we will get that back tomorrow, as we head back down to the coast again. Scoping out this little town was tough, as I didn’t have a map of it and it set on a steep hill. I can only think that they did this for strategic reasons. As I have learned, the history in this area goes back thousands of years. All the great armies of the past seem to have passed throughy this area.

For dinner, we tried some Turkish pizza, which really hit the spot. We had it with a small salad and a bruchetta like side dish for 11TL ($8CAD). Our costs have dropped by more than half in the countryside. While most of this can be attributed to food and accommodations, we also aren’t spending money on the big tourist attractions, which was never cheap in Istanbul.

Sunday was a much needed day off. We rested and got caught up on our reading and blogs. There are certainly no other tourists in this town. I can’t think of why anyone would stop here other than for business or because they were travelling by on a bicycle. One interesting site in Turkey is all of the older men sitting outside of tea shops sipping tea, smoking, and chatting. The women don’t really seem to socialize publically here. I guess their place is at in the home - isn’t that how it is suppose to be… ;-)

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Photos

Elevation Sign
Aren these signs idea for cyclists!