Day 50 (Turkey): leaving Istanbul I

today’s distance: 45km
total distance: 3863km
riding time: 2h

So, it was time to head out of the maze that is Istanbul. I had two choices: Autobahn (a serious one) for a bit and then into a maze of secondary highways and the like or the coastal road. I chose the latter, still with crazy traffic, but at least an occasional view. I bid my farewells to Gokce’s parents and owe them and Tolga (Gokce’s brother) a big thank you. It is his apartment actually and his parents were there for one month. On top of things, he was bumped not only from his bed by his parents, but also by me and slept on the living room couch.

I slugged through the traffic, looking a last time at the European side of Istanbul. Was it a sad moment getting away? Not really. I am looking forward to the sort of unknown, not sure what lies ahead. After getting further south, there was a good bike lane for part of the way, broken only by incongruent planning here and there.

I eventually reached Kartal, the place of Hussein’s family. As I said before, he was part of the group that made me bike again after having mono in February. He was my massage therapist and a great person. A good part of his family lives in Kartal. I found the house and had to wait until Fatih would be back from work. Internet cafe time and updates to the website. Then I hung around the house and soon enough heard someone talk about a German being here. A couple of minutes later, someone approaches me, says something about Markus and it is Fatih. We lug the bike into a garage, the rest upstairs and have dinner. I find out that many of Hussein’s and Fatih’s uncles (they’re cousins) live in the same street and with one of his uncles we drive to a traditional teagarden with a great view over the Sea of Marmara .

We then also go to his aunt. All of a sudden, I hear German and ask whether she speaks my language. She replies: “A bissel.” Which is perfect Gengenbach dialect and we have a drink and some cookies. She also has my harddrive replacement.

Fatih and I go back to his place to talk to Hussein over instant messenger. Thanks a bunch to everyone who has worked on this - place to stay, great hospitality and bringing the harddrive in. To top the day off, had a really wonderful conversation over skype … and peacefully went to bed.