Riding a bicycle into Istanbul is definitely an interesting (and in many ways very stupid) way to spend your day. Even though I had taken a one day detour to get to approach the city from the “calm” north, traffic was… intense. To put it nicely. By now I’ve been riding in to quite a few big cities in Europe, but Istanbul makes them all seem like small villages in comparison.
I only had a 40 km ride to do, but still it was more exhausting than going three times the distance or have a full day of riding somewhere in the mountains. However, everything went great, and in late afternoon I found my Warm Showers host Ali’s place and could finally relax. And relax I did. Actually I ended up relaxing for a full week.
My host Ali. A professional model train repair man…
…who proved to not only repair trains as he fixed every little piece of my broken gear
There are one million things to do and see in Istanbul. And any other time I would probably be running back and forth between monuments and bazaars to try to check off as many of them as I could. But this time I pretty much spent the week trying to do as little as possible. Apart from sleeping in every morning, eating crazy amounts of Turkish food and cuddling with Ali’s dog Dino that is. And I think I needed that.
No cleats, and a passed out dog. Just the right level of intensity for a week off the saddle.
Just some 10 K’s from the loadness, hussle and busy streets of central Istanbul
Well, of course. I did do some tourist stuff. And I did start working on the paperwork for my visas. And I did (well, mostly Ali) give my bike a well needed overhaul to get it ready for Asia.
Some pics from the week:
On my second day in Istanbul the Turks were celebrating one of their big national holidays
Ali and I decided to make it a little more Swedish…
…and snuck in a couple of new colors in the big ocean of Turkish flags
I got short but sweet visit from Swedish Kerstin and Jörgen – representatives from The Bike Ramble’s sponsors SDC. Together we went in full out tourist mode for one day.
And maybe most impornant of all. The bike. It had been taken care of me for more than two months without complaining. For sure it had made itself worthy of the spa treatment of a lifetime.
No matter how nice it felt to not think about cycling for a while, I got restless a lot quicker than I thought. After just a few days I was already feeling eager to get going, and after a full week I could almost feel my legs pedaling in my sleep. I’ve gotten so used to the constant movement of life on the road, and in some way I’m starting to feel like I not just want, but actually need it.
After being room mates for a full week, it was sad saying goodbye to Ali. I think we both had gotten used to having each other around, so leaving felt kind of weird. At the same time my mind and body was so damn eager to hit the road again. I have a feeling that these mixed emotions of sadness for leaving and excitement to keep going will accompany me for this whole experience.
So. Deep breath. 1.. 2.. 3!
And I was off. Waving to Ali in the rear mirror as I was slowly taking my first pedal strokes on big leg number two.
Warm up is over, and the real adventure has now officially begun.
I’m cycling Asia!
