Monday 3rd – Wednesday 19th of October

Goodbye Greece …

Time again to be alone with my bicycle! It and me left Athens by ferry boat. To go to Turkey, there are different options. I chose the quickest one, it is already the beginning of October, winter is coming soon and I still haven’t reached my goal. I take the ferry by night to Lesvos island, a Greek island located in front of Turkey. “Sadly”, I am stuck on the island for the next 48 hours, there is no ferry to Ayvalick, in Turkey, before Thursday morning. There is worse, you will tell me, than to be stuck on an island. But to find motivation, I wanted to ride on the way to Istanbul. Instead, I will ride on the island. It is too big to ride all around the island in two days. So I do a little loop before to find a room for the night with seaview. There is no campsite on the island, I don’t have the morals, so I decided to pamper myself. And I am very well welcomed by a little grandma, Ana, who pampered me. As soon as I arrived, she offered me a lunch meal, Yemistas – stuffed peppers with rice. I love this Greek dish. Her husband offered me grapes and marmalade. I spent an afternoon and a night in this calm and quiet place, it was very relaxing. In the morning, I speak with my neighbor, an Australian who gives me advice about how to travel while saving money. I try to remember all his advice but I stopped to understand everything when he started to speak about investment in English…  it is already hard for me to understand in French… But the clock is ticking and Ana starts to rush me. She offered to let me sleep in a flat at the top of her son’s shop in Mytilini. It is from there, early the next morning, that I have to take the ferry to go to Ayvalick. But her son closes his shop at 2pm (like all the shops), I have to go, I have to ride 20km. Ana offered me another meal to take away, this time it was stuffed squids. So nice!

I raced to Mytilini where I met her son who is not speaking English. He showed me the flat, perfectly. I am not alone, there are some insects, I have some company. I enjoyed the dish made by Ana before going for a walk in Mytilini. I have to hurry, the castle of Mytilini close at 3.30pm. So I have a little hour to visit this big fortress. I have the castle for myself, so can I declare myself Princess of Mytilini?! Ok, I stop dreaming and leave the castle, 3.30pm, the big iron doors close behind me. I enjoyed the last Greek sunset and the delicious Greek pastries to end my trip in Greece.

…Good Morning Turkey !

At 8am the next day, a little ferry took me to Ayvalick. My bike was watering with some salty water, the sea is a bit rough today, there is lots of wind! 1h30 to cross the Aegean sea. I put my feet in Turkey ! New continent, new country, new benchmarks to find. Unfortunately, I was thinking of going quickly to Istanbul but I have to ride against a strong wind. And I try to ride on little roads which are finished in a dirt road..  it becomes a real ordeal! So I decide to go back on the main road, lots of trucks and cars but luckily, there is a large lane on the side so I can be more safe. First mission : finding an ATM to get some Turkish lira. Then I rode to Havran, a little town 50km far from Ayvalick. It starts to be late, I start to find somewhere to sleep. I ask directly to the locals. I speak with a bank guard. He asks me which road I am taking to go to Bandirma. He told me this mountain road is not good and advised me to take the main road. More kilometers but no dirt and less elevation. Before leaving, he offered me a coffee. I am now inside the bank, on a couch – Turkey loves couch. Then a banker who has a better English came to speak with me. He offered me a Pogça – like a brioche with sausage inside and hot – very nice. Then he wanted to offer me a meal ! So now I am in a little restaurant next to the bank on my own eating little flat meatballs, Köftes – this is a typical dish in Turkey. Not so alone, a guy came to join me. He speaks English very well and after 2 minutes chatting, he told me that I have to go to a Turkish bath. I am in short, he saw my hairy legs (yes, after 3 months traveling, epilation is not my priority). He told me that “I look like a man but luckily I have the shape of a woman which helps to see that I am à woman”. I answered that the opinion of people (especially of him), I don’t care at all. But a remark like that stays in my mind. And this same man, little bit sticky, offers me to pay a room in a hotel but 20km far from here and not on my way. I didn’t know where I was going to sleep, so I was almost ready to say yes. But firstly, doing 40km to go and return just to sleep seems not a good idea. And secondly, an offer from someone who just told me that I look like a man, I prefer to say no. So I left and kept going. It is starting to be night time. I ride on the main road, looking for somewhere to sleep. I have to find a place to put my tent along the road. But maybe not … I stopped to ask in a restaurant along the road. Like lots of people in Turkey, they don’t speak English. I imitated “sleeping”, they understood and sent me next to the petrol station. The gas station attendant shows me a little mosque. Perfect to be warm for the night. Then the waitress of the restaurant came back to see me and asked me if I wanted dinner! I am not hungry, I ate meatballs not long ago, but I was extremely touched by this gesture. I said yes with pleasure. Then she offered me Turkish coffee (a first for me…) and finally offered me to sleep with her in their village. You have to think that everything it says in silence. We are speaking through Google translate. It is how my relationship with Cansu, her parents and her brother started. They have a restaurant along the road, they are very generous people. And instead of being there just for one night, I stayed with them for more than a week!

It was like doing “woofing”. After the first night with Cansu in her grandparents house, I will stay the other nights in their house. I am embarrassed, I am sleeping on the couch, Cansu insisted on sleeping next to me on the floor. I discovered Turkish food with them, it was so delicious! I have never eaten so much as in Turkey. They start the day with the best breakfast ever : Kavalti, very copious. It is a little bit different every day. Some sweet food (honey, blackberry jam, tahin) and salty food (scrambled eggs, tomatoes, olives, cheese) and other specialties, everything is put in the middle of the table and we all eat with bread. In Turkey, they eat lots of bread, a big competitor of France! All accompanied by tea, of course. Tea which I learn to serve to customers. With the language barrier, it is not easy, but everyday I can do more and more things. Nermin, the mother, is cooking. I helped her a little bit, with sign language, we understand each other. Cleaning tables, setting the table, cutting bread. In a week, I have already learned some Turkish words! They spend lots of time in their restaurant, they only go back to their house to sleep. I spent my days at the restaurant, I accompanied Cansu to her driving lessons in Havran, I met lots of people and everytime my story surprised them. A girl by herself riding a bike going to Istanbul is not common. At night time, I visited lots of houses in the village! I loved spending the evening with the women, eating sun-flowers seeds – they eat them so quickly, they have time to eat a lot while I am still eating the first, using my fingers to take off the shell, they were laughing at me! It was not always easy with the different languages, there were some boring times and a lot of frustration to not be able to say everything I wanted. But I spent wonderful moments and learned a lot with them, about Turkey, its traditions, its food, its language. Turkish culture is very rich and different from France, it was a pleasure to share this week with them. It was hard to leave because it is my home, like they said. But I have to take the road again. Before I leave, they offer me warm clothes for winter, some food for at least 10 days and even some money! They helped me until the end because Galip, the dad, put my bicycle inside his car and with Cansu they took me a few kilometers further away so I could escape the climb. I say thank you to them, my first days in Turkey couldn’t be better!

After more than a week without riding, my legs are almost rusted. I have to find the pleasure to ride again. It is Sunday, it is cloudy, it is cold, it is windy and I am alone. I take a “shortcut”, a dirty road, it starts to rain, “what am I doing here?”. I am so dirty. Back on my bike, it is quite difficult and sad. I miss the nice summer weather! The temperature changes too quickly. I didn’t have time to be ready for it. But the evening will restore radiance to this morose day. When it was time to find somewhere to sleep, I went to see the only house which was around. There is a couple in the garden. I try to say the only few words in Turkish that I know but mainly with the help of Google translate, I ask them if they know where I can put my tent. After they advised me not to do wild camping because of wild animals, they asked me where I was going. Bandirma! And it should be written because it is where they are going as well, they live there. Here, it is their country home. They invited me to come with them. Immediately my bike is in their truck. And before we went to Bandirma, naturally, they offered me some food! Warm, near the chimney, Güler made some fries and other nice food. Bandirma is half an hour by car, we drive during night time, and thanks to Google again, we learn about each other. I told them I want to take the ferry from Bandirma to Istanbul. And then, they proposed that I stay one more day to visit the city with Güler before taking the ferry. I accept with pleasure. After à nice evening with them and their daughter Sude, this Monday morning I discovered Bandirma by walking with Güler. We walked along the sea, and there was lots of wind. I discovered the market. Güler spoiled me, I discovered more and more Turkish specialties, salty and sweets. Instead of riding, I am eating!

So Istanbul is there, I almost reached my goal! It is only 2h30 by boat! But Istanbul makes itself desired. While I was going to take the ferry on Tuesday morning, it was canceled because of the wind. The ferry of the afternoon, canceled too. So I stayed one more night with Erol and Güler to take the ferry on Wednesday morning. Finally I say thank you for their hospitality and take the ferry, only a few hours from Istanbul…

So you understand, I didn’t ride a lot during my first ten days in Turkey. Instead of riding, I take time for meetings. When I travel by bicycle, I have to accept passing quickly by the house of people who are hosting me. It was nice for once to have time to get to know the people who I meet. Know their culture and their quotidian. Cansu and her family opened their house with so much kindness. Like Erol and Güler, they proved that Turkish hospitality is not a legend! They all invited me to come back, and for sure, I will be back to see them again and learn more about Turkey, but when the days will be warmer! 

But for now, it is time to go to Istanbul !!! 

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