Midday Express - Istanbul on the hoof

[Guru Gora]

Day 12

Hotel room to Hotel room

5 miles, (Walked)

Great find this place.

Beach on doorstep, free sunbeds and brollies.

If you’re passing and need a couple of quiet days, but with decent enough facilities it ticks the box for sure.

Had good long walk and few swims in sea. (Thracian).

Admin all sorted.

Laundry done , bags repacked.

The central locking / alarm remote thingy for bike has stopped talking to its sensor.

Reprogrammed post battery change , (being a bmw its about as complicated as splitting the atom…..blindfolded).

Reminded me of a somewhat complicated sobriety test …..

Again, god bless the internet, manual saved as pdf on phone…….. what did we ever do etc etc etc etc

Turkey and Istanbul tomorrow.

Trying not to recall too much of Midnight Express

Be safe all…

 

[Guru Gora]

https://youtube.com/shorts/JxH0EQzCf-U?feature=share

 

[Guru Gora]

Apologies for the short videos, you’ll have to press the link I’m afraid

https://youtube.com/shorts/DDLJEkU-zLM?feature=share

 

[Guru Gora]

This may be teaching you to suck eggs, if so I apologise.

But my non biker friends liked it

But then what …….

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[Guru Gora]

Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed being a normal holidaymaker for a day, as comfy as the RT is, long hot days are long days any way you slice it.

Somewhat excited about tomorrow I’ll admit.

No doubt I’ll be awake early raring to go.

I’ve booked a staggeringly long 3 night stop in a hotel, so a genuine chance to see the city a bit.

I’ve rechecked my insurance and docs, all sorted, we shall see how long they survive contact entering Turkey.

Surfing caravanning forums, there seems to be a bit of Brexit backlash at the border, us leaving and them trying to get in and all that.

I can enter on my French passport, but I have UK insurance, UK bike etc so that could lead to more problems than solutions.

I’ll see how it feels at the time, smile, nod, agree, get stamped in, leg it.

I’m remaining flexible ………

See you in the morning. ….

 

[MartinK]

Excellent! Good to know the Transalpina is already open! Fabulous pics. Hopefully be down there in a month's time

 

[Guru Gora]

Hi Martin,

Apologies I may have inadvertently misled you, this trip took place last June but I’m writing it up as if live as it were.

This may be of use to you……

https://romaniawow.com/transfagarasan-opening-times/

It has decent info on Alpina and Trans F



Have a great trip.

PM me if you need further

 

[Guru Gora]

Although having jumped into present day…..

I’m off to collect this …..

Hopefully give her a go at keeping up with a certain Teutonic KTM legend from off here soon ……


Right back to the past …………

 

[Von Stolberg]

Hopefully give her a go at keeping up with a certain Teutonic KTM legend from off here soon ……

Enjoyed the Laundry Tutorial. I just shower with the undies ON, and then dance about on them for the rinse cycle

 

[Guru Gora]

Very last year that technique

But I cannot argue with the Teutonic efficiency you describe

 

[Guru Gora]

Day 13

SE Greece Beach to Istanbul

187 miles.

Woke to …….. rain !!!!

Mooched along the beach until it gave over. Not long and refreshing , when not on bike.

Wet cobbled roads first few miles, my arms on the handlebars shaking like a shitting dog

Easy going to ipsala crossing point. A queue of about 300 cars I’d say. Mental.

A local on a bike went past me and blasted through the lot, I followed in his wake until joined queue in about 6th place.

Knowing what I know now that saved me about 4 hours I recon. Maybe understaffed on a Sunday.

Anyway proper border this, intimidating to a lot of people. Barbed wire, soldiers with M16s guarding local bridges and then a spanking

modern crossing point.

Out of Greece , no dramas.

Into Turkey and a bloke who looks looks like Simon Cowell pre teeth whitening gets my docs.

I go with UK passport and all well.

Efficient but not friendly, I can deal with that.

Drama with insurance though, video tells….. if I can load it …..Ron Burgandy assistance required.

Into Turkey and I’ll admit to a bit of a sense of magnitude

First stop is the beach and there are 2 KTM parked up so I join the bikes and go and sit at the cafe.

They come over and the nicest people in the world, interested in the trip thus far, they insist on feeding me and buying me drinks.

What a nice first impression to make to a tourist…

Easy run to Istanbul, last 5 miles hideous traffic but made it to hotel.

Chill shower and off to town on tram and bus.

No idea how you’re supposed to pay no machines at this small stop so I hop on and wing it.

Can’t get out of station at other end but jump over barrier “helping” an old lady , and pop some money in the machine

Big mosque tick

Smaller mosque tick

Kebab tick

Bosporous walk for 2 hours tick

Headed east side tomorrow.

Keep it real you all ….

Great day…..Over to pics

 

[Guru Gora]

Wonder how this will go …

Answer is successfully


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[Guru Gora]

First stop and Uber friendly bikers.

This is to happen quite a few times ….

Hotel shower, mandatory mosque photo


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[Guru Gora]

So the insurance thing…

My admin is sorted but it’s still computer says no, so I amble inside and suck it up.

Bloke at the insurance desk is brilliant, I learned how to say hello how are you last night, never a bad thing I guess.

The cost probably reflected the level of cover, I pledge to myself to ride sedately, and try not to have a prang.


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[Guru Gora]

Back to bed, not a long ride but a tiring day.

Oh the bike is parked in a tiny covered car park belonging to the hotel and is blocked in by cars, v happy with that.

Tomorrow shoul be interesting, walking into Asia

 

[Guru Gora]

 

[Guru Gora]

Day 14

Istanbul

20000 Steps

Well, hustle bustle etc etc

Walked into Asia, that was cool.

Bazaar, mosque etc

Tomorrow is headed to east coast of Bulgaria.

Istanbul has been just what I’d imagined. But for me, a crowd hater, it’s a 2 day place

Onwards ……

Oh got an official bmw hat, the sticker says so …..


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[Guru Gora]

Genuine article this …..

Next stop Asia


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[Guru Gora]

A foot in each continent …..

And made it to the tower …..

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[Guru Gora]

Top bit of literal Hotel naming ..

A fabulous few days….

But looking forward to getting back on bike too

Locals crashing out on rocks on the Bosporus


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