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Published: October 7th 2013
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Sorry for the late update – Hotel didn’t have Wi-fi – actually they did, but no one seemed to know the password. We left Marmarereglesi after a late start and some breakfast… I do love sleeping in! The day started off pretty good – we had the first 20 K knocked off in about an hour and it looked as though we would have a good tail wind for the remainder of the day… We hit our first big town, Tekirdag, and the hills started. Hill after Hill, warning signs for trucks – “Steep Hill 7%grade 2800M” F@$k!!!!!! There is nothing more disheartening, that finishing a 2800m climb, and seeing another 700M to go. The downhill portion was of course a bit of payback, but it didn’t even seem enough. The tailwind didn’t help, except that we were thankful we weren’t cycling into it. I think I would have thrown myself in front of a semi if It was…TORTURE.
So my ass was pretty much already bruised from the previous day, my knee had started to swell, and there were hills… Let me just say that I was NOT having fun. We stopped frequently enough for breaks, but I thought
the day would never end. After another steep climb, we swooped into the town of Malkara, about 50 or so Km from the Greek border. To add insult to injury, the town is situated in a freaking cliff! So we had to keep climbing all the way into town. Somebody please just shoot me! At some point, I just decided I was done. Barry read the warning signs correctly and saw how swollen my knee was. He decided to take pity on me; he sat me on a park bench, bought me an ice cream and went to find a hotel on his own.
After a bit, he came back to get me. There were only three hotels in town, and all of them kind of grouty. Not the Cambodian Sleep with all my clothes on and shower with my shoes on grouty, but kind of gross… It’s only $40/nigh so whatev. Unfortunately, we do have to take a day off tomorrow – I’m not sure my knee can handle a third day so it will have to do.
In a rare show of kindness from Barry – He sent me up to shower while he went out
to get me some ice for my knee, a snack and scoped out a restaurant so I wouldn’t have to walk far later on. It was actually pretty sweet of him. SO I lay there reading my book with the ice pack until we were ready to go out for dinner.
I think we both slept 10 hours… We were both exhausted. The one thing we didn’t anticipate, the hotel is right across the street from a Mosque, and thus across from the Minarets (equipped with loud speakers). So we were rudely awoken at 6:10 by the LOUD call to prayer. I have come to get used to this, and actually find it quite soothing, However, NOT when it’s literally in your bedroom window!
Didn’t do much in our day off – not much to do around Malkara. Walked around, snacked a little. I finished reading my book – The Secret Life of Bees…Practiced my Greek a little… That’s about it. Tomorrow we set off for Alexandropoulos – Our first stop in Greece. Actually kind of excited for it! Get to try speaking it again. The border is about 50K from here, given the past animosities between the two countries; there shouldn’t be a lot of vehicle traffic to the border. We shall see… Hopefully will have Wi-Fi tomorrow…
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