Day 76: Ünal camping to Istanbul, September 15th.

So that’s it. I’m done!

I’m writing this on my hostel terrace on the 17th. I made it into Istanbul alive (just!). Woke at 7ish and filmed a time-lapse of me packing up for the last time. I decided to keep my tent with me for the aesthetic. On the way out of the campsite I bought some water and the owner gave me a piece of simit – a kind of Turkish pretzel. Then I was off, cycling on the hard shoulder of the main road for many km.

I listened to music and “COMC” and phased out. Around 11 I took the southern coastal road route, and by 11:30 the hard shoulder had disappeared. I lifted my bike over a barrier and noticed a screw buried deep in the tire. A quick (hopefully final) inner tube change later and I was on my way along side roads.

Around 2, when I was still around 60km away from the city, I reached the “suburbs”. These got more and more intense until soon I was cycling on major six lane highways with no hard shoulder and speeding traffic. Here I reverted to maps.me to take quieter routes – which mostly involved a lot of steep urban hills.

Still I had to do a good stretch of these main roads and alternated between being a road user going downhill, and a pedestrian on the way uphill. Weaving through traffic and people for hours was very mentally draining.

At last I turned off and found myself entering a park. A short stretch of cycle path by the sea 20km from the centre deceived me that the worst was over. But soon I was back into the main town and spent the last 20km stuck behind cars, watching my phone battery fade away. No cars seemed to know road rules – endless sudden stops and pull outs from side streets – even reversing up main roads!

Luckily, this meant the rules didn’t apply to me either and I went the wrong way down one way streets many times. Around 18:15 I passed through the city walls into the old city – I think. Half an hour later and I was at the main square, full of mosques and monuments. I was obliged to wheel my bike here. I was surprised and amazed to see the other half of the copper pillar I’d seen at Delphi out in the open. Cool!

I got to the blue mosque and got a photo of me and the bike in front of it, thinking it was the Hagia Sophia, then I rounded the corner, saw the real Hagia Sophia and repeated the process – the same people even turned up to take the photo!

It was around 19:15 when I at last got to the hostel. I was met by a Turkish Londoner who invited me to shower and get a beer. With pleasure! I locked up my bike, showered, got money out, then got a beer, and another, and another. Games of beer pong and slap cup later and I was quite drunk.

I met some American girls and an English guy (Louie) who goes to NCL and was interested in my cycling, along with a bunch of French people. Later the free shisha came out. I got chatting to a Finnish guy, and a Kazakhstani, then two girls from California. The people from earlier went out, but I couldn’t face it.

I chatted with the Californians until about 1am, one of them even offered to help me if I ever wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m considering it seriously.

After that I went to bed. Around 4 someone in here turned on the lights. Also someone snored all night. I put in earplugs and ignored it. Eventually I fell asleep.

***

 So that’s it. That was my cycle. I’m very tempted to come back and continue some other time, on into Asia and beyond. But the end of a continent, of insurance, of a moleskine, and the depletion of money all make now seem like a good time to call it… for now.

I have a week in Istanbul to fill. I need to get into my head that I have plenty of time here. I’m not used to it. I’ll take today easy, explore the city, maybe make some friends, maybe buy a new journal to record the rest (…?). Time will tell.

The cycle has been hard at times, and lonely. But it’s also been amazing fun, and super healing. I’m in a much better headspace now than when I started. We’ll see what the future brings! (Maybe a haircut…).

Bye for now.

Video of this day