What a day yesterday, how will my mother react today? I’m hoping that she’s got full batteries and that she’s prepared to cycle 75Km and to cross the boarder to Bulgaria. I’m ready!
It’s time to wake up and to leave. We need to find a place to eat breakfast, but how do you do that in Turkey? We decided to find a grocery store and to buy a bread and something good to have on.
We start cycling after filling up our bags and after eating a breakfast. I don’t have a map over Turkey, so we’re just cycling in direction to my waypoints on the GPS. I stop in a hill to speak with two persons who said hello. They are from England and have cycled from London. My mom just continued when I stopped, since the hill was so steep that she wouldn’t have been able to start again.
I continue after saying goodbye. I need to find my mom, and I don’t want her to be too much alone in these streets. She’s not around the first corner, but it’s still hilly, so I continue further. There she is, but WHAT’S HAPPENING?
She’s standing there with two police officers… I’m wondering what this could be? I’m cycling up to them and join the conversation. They are friendly and have a smile on their face. They ask about the trip, at the same time there is a police woman hanging out of the window of the police station, she’s curious as well. My mother have told them that we’re going to Bulgaria, and probably that we don’t have a map. They are talking about getting a hold of a police motorcycle to escort us out of here. They call one guy. Suddenly they invite us in for a cup of coffee or tea. We park our bicycles and follow them into the police station. We end up in a office with 4 police officers. They have a helper in the kitchen, she brings us us turkish tea and some water. AMAZING! The police officers are so friendly, but not so good in english. A bus driver comes into the office, they have probably asked him if he speaks the language. He translates the conversations for us and there’s a lot of laughing. How friendly people!!!
It’s time to leave. First we’re allowed to take a picture with these friendly police officers. We’re following the officer who will escort us out of the city. We’re standing outside and are thanking them for all the help, the tea and the company. At the same time the police woman is coming out, she’s brought a police t-skirt and police caps to us. They wanted us to take a picture and put on the blog.
We’re following the motorcycle. He takes us through the streets and to the main road to the boarder. It’s not the road I had in mind, this is the european road and will be full of heavy traffic. We thank him for the help and he tells us that this is the best option, and that it is allowed. He’s standing there to see that we’re going in the correct direction. Luckily there is a really good road shoulder to cycle on. We’ll feel safe here.
The road from here is going up and down, up and down…. Nothing exciting. The traffic is using the horn everytime they are passing someone here in Turkey…And just imagine how many who are passing us, awww I’m tired of the horn from trucks and cars.
It’s climb, downhill, climb, downhill. It’s going so slowly, no flow at all. It’s not easy to keep a good average speed on a road like this. At one point, maybe about 7Km from the Bulgarian boarder, one Bulgarian car is stopping, he comes back and asks us where we are going. We reply Bulgaria, and he tells us that within the next hour it will come heavy rain. We’ve been waiting for this. We have felt small rain drops and hoped that it wouldn’t come. The temperature is not high today, maybe around 13-14 degrees, so rain will be cold.
We’re continuing towards the bulgarian boarder. We have put the rain jackets on top of our bag, we want to have it as close as possible since the weather can change really quick here.
Turkish side of the boarder gives us no problem, customs look at us and ask if we’re coming with bicycle. Go go go go is what they tell us with a smile.
We’re arriving the Bulgarian boarder control. They are checking the passports and wishes us a good trip further. We’re stopping at the customs, and after 1 minute of just standing there, the officer comes out and says custom check complete, have a nice day.
It’s getting colder, and we’re getting colder because we’ve stopped cycling when passing the boarder. We put on the rain jacket and start cycling down towards Malko Turnovo. It’s not much to see, the road standard is really bad compared to the good turkish roads.
The rain is coming after we gave a call to the guest house we’re planning to stay at today. It’s still 25Km left.
It’s climbing, climbing and we are so cold. But it’s possible to get the temperature back when you are cycling up. The road is horrible, full of holes and trees are laying in the road. Sheeps and cows are crossing the road in front of us, but no dogs, FINALLY.
It’s not easy to describe a booring part of todays ride. It suddenly became a huge downhill. I tell my mother to keep cycling, keep her legs moving, it’s really important. After maybe 10Km down, freezing cold it’s back in the climb again.
Finally we’re here. We know that we don’t have enough bulgarian lev and are hoping that they would have an atm. They didn’t. It’s 350 people living in this village. While I’m asking some of the guys standing outside the grocery store about atm and so on, my mom is speaking to another guy. She tells me to come over. It’s the owner of the guest house we’re spending the night at. We tell him that we need an atm, he replies that we will fix something and we join him to the house.
How friendly. They make you feel like home, they made a really good dinner to us and most of the vegetables and meat were from their own garden and animals. Incredible!
We spent the evening talking to the owner, his wife was in the kitchen. They report extreme rain tomorrow, so we’re trying to motivate ourself for a ride in rain. We’re not too late in bed, we need a good night sleep.
Good night!
Mammas litla comeback hjørna!
Etter ein emosjonelldag, kan det vel bare bli bedre tenker eg 🙂
Frukost kunne me ikkje få på dette Hotellet, så me bestemte oss for å finne ein butikk og kjøpe brød . Me sette oss på fortauskanten utafor butikken og fekk i oss litt mat. Så va det kun til å følge den blå stripen på gps’en til Stian og den skulle lede oss på rett vei ut av byen. Etter nokre meter stoppa Stian for å snakke med eit engelsk par, det viste seg til å vær sykkelister også. Eg valgte å ikkje stoppe pga det va ein ganske så bratt bakke og eg sliter litt med å komme i gang med den tunge hengaren bak.
Eg stoppa på toppen av bakken for å vente på Stian, da kom det gåande to politimenn mot meg. Dei lurte på kor eg va på vei, eg sa me skulle til Bulgaria. Det vart mykje peiking og masse snakk med dei som eg ikkje forstod. Stian kom og lurte på ka ialle dager har mammo rota seg opp i no, han
stoppa og dei inviterte oss inn på te. Etterkvart forstod me at dei ville gi oss eskorte ut av byen 🙂 Inne på politistasjonen vart det masse preik og dei fekk historien til Stian og meg. Ein pensjonert busssjåfør kom inn og var litt oversetter for oss, han fortalde masse gode historier og me hadde det veldig koselig på ein politistasjon. Politiguten som skulle ekskorte oss ut av byen kom og va klar, før me gjekk fekk me oss kvar våras t-shirte og ein caps med POLITI skrevet på. Bilde blei tatt av oss alle og me fekk lov til å legge det ut på nett, dei hadde jo fått adressa til bloggen til Stian. ( rekne med dei kommer til å følge oss videre på turen )
Eg sykla etter politiet med eit stort smil rundt munnen, for ein fantastisk opplevelse, så til dåke alle på politistasjonen TUSEN TAKK !!! Han geleida oss opp til motorveien og hilste oss vel avgarde 🙂
Da blei ruta ltt forandra, me skulle egnentlig sykle på grusveier langs grensa men me fortsatte på motorveien det va ganske så god veiskulder. Me såg til tider veien me skulle sykle på og va egentlig litt glad det vart denne veien. Trafikken va snill og grei så det gjekk strålande, formen og beina kjentes sterke ut i dag.
Sytti kilometer hadde me foran oss i dag med ca 1500 høyde meter. Det seier seg sjøl at det va ganske masse klatring idag, opp, opp ,opp litt ner og deretter opp, opp, opp :))))))))) Det stoppa ein bil på motorveien da me nett hadde vinka og hilst på ein grensemiliter mann, mannen stoppa kun for å sei at om ca ein time kom det til å regne kraftig. Tusen takk og me viste at me måtte bare ta imot det. Me stoppa og gjorde klar regnjakkene våre og sikra mobil telefoner og andre elektriske ting.
Grense overgangen fra Tyrkia yil Bulgaria gjekk veldig fint, rett etter grensa så kom regnet og det va ikkje lite. Me stoppa og ringte til han me hadde bokka overnatting hos og sa at me ca va to timer fra han. To timer i slagvatten og ikkje særlig god vei, men her va det bare til å stå på. Jo kaldt og tung vart det men det er bedre å ta fram smilet enn å klage, for det hjelper ingen. Me kom omsider fram til ein liten landsby, Stian gjekk for å leite etter ein minibank ? nei nei den gang ei. Ein mann stoppa og sa til meg your are cracy people, come with me ! eg sa at me hadde bestilt Hotell og da lo han og sa at eg er Hotellet. Me følgte etter han og kom heim til hans private hus
og hilste på Margarita hans snille kone. Me kjente på atmosfæren at her kom me til å få det godt, og det stemte !
Dei viste ikkje ka godt dei skulle gjer for oss, kortreist mat ! Det fekk me her, alt me åt kom fra deiras hage og dyr. Eg har vel ikkje ord, dette må ein vel bare oppleve for å forstå. Margarita va full av gikt men sto på og klagde ikkje, dei hadde aldri vert på ferie. Det einaste han ønska seg var å få gå på konsert. Musikk betydde enormt masse for dei to flotte folka. Så Sissel Christensen her fant eg din likemann når det gjelder musikk. Me hadde konsert på pceen til Stian, spelte ein god del norsk musikk og masse av Marte og dei storkosa seg. Hadde eg kunna fått det til så skulle eg meir av alt i mitt hjarta fått gitt dei goe folka ein billett til ein konsert. Det hadde kosta så lite men vert så FANTASTISK !!!
Picture album from todays ride:
GPS Data from todays ride:
Norwegian