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Back In The Saddle
Its never a good sign when only a few kilometres into a day of cycling you find yourself pushing your bike up a steep hill. Its perhaps even worse when this particular day is the first day back on fully loaded bikes heading east from Istanbul to Trabzon along the Black Sea coast. – Posted by Justin
Leaving Istanbul
If all goes to plan we’ll be leaving Istanbul early on Saturday 26th March, taking a ferry across the Bosporus and cycling towards Russia. The panniers are half packed, the flat is half cleaned and we’ve got just one load of washing left to do before we farewell our fridge, washing machine and much appreciated central heating. – Posted by Emma
Reading, Istanbul
Istanbul may have a lack of quiet green spaces and respect for cyclists on the road is scant at best but it is great for readers. Despite ‘Shutter Island’ being the only English language novel to be found in the vast French and Turkish library of our rented flat, books are one thing we haven’t been short of this winter. – Posted by Emma
Istanbul Cycle Tourist Updates
Over the last six months of living in Istanbul we have had the chance to met many cycle tourists. Some of them were bravely cycling eastwards through the winter while we huddled indoors, some were ending their summer cycling holiday and others were figuring out where they were headed on the road. All of the cyclists we met helped keep our enthusiasm for cycling topped up and the time spent swapping stories was always entertaining. – Posted by Justin
Molasses Experiments
Of all things we’ve heard of cyclists being given on tour, a large glass jar of molasses fits into the less practical box. In Turkey, a grape molasses called pekmez fills shelf space next to tahini in the supermarket isles – equal parts of both are mixed together to form a sweet spread. – Posted by Emma
Istanbul Winter Walk
Our last five months in Istanbul has seen lots of sunshine and temperatures high enough to make us wonder at our decision not to continue cycling east. As we stay in touch with some of the passing cycle tourists we have met their photos of snow clogged roads, frozen tents and icy rain have seemed a long way from our toasty warm apartment and serve as reminders of what we were trying to avoid by sitting out the winter. – Posted by Justin