OK, bike not moved today just sightseeing around the city so I'll fill in the gaps on the ride yesterday.
I left the hotel in the north of Sofia and headed to the ring road and on south. I still had to do 600Km to get to my hotel that night, and the time to get through the border was uncertain. I had been warned that there may be potholes on the Sofia ring and the warnings were well founded. Some potholes were the traditional ones caused when the road is getting worn out and breaking up but some more scary ones were about 20 - 25cm in diameter and deep with sharp edges. These circular potholes could certainly cause wheel damage and although I touched a couple of them did not get any head on. I found it helpful to leave a gap to the vehicle in front to get a chance to avoid the potholes also if following a local car then sometimes they would move to avoid the danger and give a warning. Anyway was pleased to get off the ring road, which is a standard road with 2 way traffic, on to a motorway heading to Plovdiv. This was promising and I hoped to make some good time. The mountains above Sofia were covered with snow and glinted in the morning sun and it was good to have started this 4th leg of the run to Istanbul. The motorway only lasted for about an hour and then we were back on to a normal road going through towns etc and with frequent speed restrictions. There were a few firsts on Wednesday, one of these was seeing a horse drawn cart on the road and there is even a local sign warning drivers they may find them on the road. Another first was spotting a storks nest in Bulgaria. I know these nest over a broad stretch of south eastern Europe but the last time I saw them was in a tour of Morocco in 2010, a special moment.
After this slow stretch of road it then improved. It is worth mentioning that it seems that some the nice people who drive in the middle lane of the motorways in UK at just below the speed limit, may have holiday homes in Bulgaria. Because drivers with Bulgarian plates were hogging the middle lane holding up the traffic. I believe they may find it a good lane to use while on the phone as many of them were on calls as I passes and staring at them shaking my head. Anyway the run up to the Turkish border was OK and traffic not too heavy so I wondered even if the border may not be too busy. Arriving at the border it was very confusing. The Bulgarians were quite relaxed and one of the guards asked if it was beer I had in my drinking bag but I said it was something stronger... There were more of the Bulgarian checking booths than I expected and I even thought I had already arrived on the Turkish side but was told I needed to go a little further. Driving on through the border I came out into a big wide space, similar to a peage area on French Autoroutes near Paris. I think there were about 12 newly built lanes for checking in to Turkey. Clearly a lot of money has been spent to put this in place. There was one lane open for cars but there were only about 3 cars queuing. At the first booth I had my passport checked and my bike registration number recorded. I was then told to leave my bike to the side and go to another booth and get a visa stamp. This cost 15Euro and I had to take back the stamp to the guy with my passport. He put the stamp in the passport and stamped it, so i now had a visa and was sent forward to the next booth where as well as my passport my bike documents were checked, including my green card I'd got in the UK. The documents seemed to be OK and I was feeling optimistic, but... The nice lady told me as she handed back my documents that I had to take my bike to be x-rayed, oh joy! Off I went to the x-ray team and the lady came out to greet me and told me I'd have to first take off my luggage. I did not ask her to be specific but grumbled. I began with my loose bag, then started on my GS tank-bag, which is a pain to get off, and in my case it is also wired to the battery and even more difficult to detach. She saw me struggling and came to have a look into it and let me leave it on. She then looked in the Givi topbox. My topbox was always known as the Tardis on previous tours as it seems to expand to contain about twice it's volume and was pretty full even early in the tour. She shook her head and smiled and agreed to leave it on. I did not even mention the TT Ali panniers.... So I then had to drive the bike into this shed and up this steep ramp, park up and retreat out of the shed. I noticed the lady kept well back from the shed. The ramp looked a bit daunting but it was a GS I was riding so just go for it. She wanted the bike to go up the left ramp, close to the x-ray machine. So up the ramp I went and put my foot down on the right and it landed on the dripped oil from the cars and vans and I nearly dropped the bike. Anyway, I got it on the side-stand and got out of the shed. Once the process was finished I was sent back to another booth, he sent me to a further booth, who sent me to another guy who stamped the passport and said "finished". Great! I got back and rode down the scary ramp and parked up and loaded up.
Had a coke and a marathon bar and prepared myself for the ride into Istanbul. So put the documents away and headed off out to the motorway but it seemed I was not finished, another booth and passport had to be checked, and the bike documents again. So off the bike, get the documents out of the Tardis and present them again and all OK. So this time I really was on my way and began to take on board that this was another first for me, first time in Turkey and I rode here in 3.5 days. I was so keen to get away I had not thought to fill up before joining the motorway. No great problem as I expected to see a service station one pretty soon. In Croatia and Serbia there were service station every 20 – 30 Km. However no services appeared and took one of the exits and asked the GPS for the nearest station and it took me to one about 4Km from the motorway. Its a good GPS function. So back on the road and closing on Istanbul. The motorway was mostly quiet until I neared the city. However before I left the motorway we hit a traffic jam, we were still 25Km from the centre of Istanbul. I nudged forward in this traffic but the real fun happened when we neared the tool booths. The queues for the booths were chaotic, in fact to call them a queue is incorrect. A 5 wedge shaped lines formed aiming for one open booth and I was in the middle of it. People would leave the back of the queue, overtake everyone and force their way in front. Horns were tooting all around. Now normally on a GS1200 I feel I have a reasonable road presence and am not intimidated. This approach had worked in all the 10 countries I had passed through so far on the trip but was not going to work here. I was not going to be a push over but had to remember that lorries and vans are harder than bikes and had to give way at time to avoid an accident. As we know bikes are not ideal for slow manoeuvring so this added to the challenge. In the end we got through and then moved on to the queues on the city roads.
I observer a couple of things about Istanbul driving, you need to keep right close to the bumper in front, or someone will cut in on you or the car behind will toot his horn to nudge you forward. It seems that anything you can do and get away with, is OK. On a fully laden bike this was a barrel of fun... It reminded me once of driving my brother-in-laws car through the Tunis traffic many years ago and coming home all stressed out. He asked me what the problem was, I said I didn't understand the system with the Tunis traffic. He then gave me the key, and said there is no system, it's every man for himself. I took this approach out to the Tunis traffic the next day and in his old Renault 4, it found it quite liberating and competed like the rest and in fact enjoyed the experience. However, with a bike and the Istanbul traffic it's not so easy.
Lastly the fun was not over as I neared the booked hotel. I could not believe the roads the GPS was directing me up, they were cobbled, narrow, steep and resemble those in Mont Saint Michel or Clovelli, and then I saw the hotel on one of the steepest roads and no room outside to park, great. Eventually parked in the road and saw the hotel manager. He did not see a problem, he would move his car, I would drive up on the pavement and job done. Well that's what happened and it's been parked up outside since then. It is worth saying that the Hotel Coliseum is ideally situated for the sights. The Blue Mosque is 5 - 10 mins walk away and the other main sights are all close. It's very clean and modern, rooms small but well appointed and less then £60 for a single, which is good for this part of town. But if you are nervous about parking your bike on the road it may not be ideal.
So off again tomorrow towards Cappadocia and more experiences with the Istanbul traffic. I have to cross a pretty famous piece of water first…
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