Onwards! One month in Turkey!

One month and 2251 km already! The last week was a week of extremes. We left the orange trees behind and cycled through banana and strawberry farms and stayed on the D400. White polytunnels and green houses as far as the eye could see. And we cycled through Antalya and Alanya and all the resort places in between. Ultra all-inclusive, one more elaborate than the next. We saw the Doge Palace of Venice, the Royal Kremlin hotel and something with 4 Empire State Building towers. The spaces in between were filled with leather and fur shops, shoe shops and souvenirs. The big billboards were mostly in Russian and German. The tourists staying there, while observing us cycling by, must have thought: “What a weird way to spend your holiday”. And we thought exactly the same of them. To each their own.

It also became harder to find spots for camping. One night we found a rocky outcrop on the cliffs just next to the road, and were hidden in plain sight; we shared the same view with the hotels on the other side of the road. We also got sent away one evening by the Jendarma (local police) when we found a deserted beach. They couldn’t really tell why we were not allowed to stay, but they had us packing at 6 pm. This forced us to set up camp in the bushes next to the D400, as the sun sets at 7.30 pm and we really don’t want to cycle in the dark. The next night we were luckier. Around Mersin we were again afraid not to find anything, as it was town after town. Just before sunset (Julia was already frantically googling hotels), Kevin saw an office of the KGM, the turkish road authority. We asked and yes, no problem, we could set up our tent behind one of their buildings. We could use their toilets and soon they brought us food and tea. We came just in time for their iftar meal. As we cycled 130 km that day, we were very thankful for that. We are thankful for every calorie we can get, really…

Eating all the food!

Let’s be honest; one of the best things about traveling is trying all kinds of new and exotic foods. Well, I can tell you now, traveling by bike is even better, because we are HUNGRY all the time. We not even just want to sample all the delicious food, we kinda HAVE to, otherwise we tip over. But as we are camping most of the times, it’s not only delicious turkish food we are having. For instance, we start the day with overnight oats (oats, mixed with raisins or dates and yes, peanut butter, soaked overnight). And coffee, obviously. After a couple of hours on the bike we are ready for second breakfast, preferably at a dingy roadside place. It could be “Tost” filled with sucuk (the famous turkish sausage). Or Gözleme. Or pide. Or börek. With lots of ayran.

Then it basically is dependent on how hard the cycling is, but lunch is mostly a bread and cheese affair, picnic style. Two hours later and Julia really needs something sweet. If available, fresh baklava is awesome (and leads to instant diabetes), but if not, Kevin carries an emergency packet of cookies. Which he can throw from a distance, in case Julia is really hangry.

Kevin is also responsible for dinner, while Julia sets up camp. Nothing fancy here, but we discovered packages of ready made dinners of the brand Yayla, and we quite like them. There are different sorts; bulgur with cheakpeas, bean stews, pilav or pasta. The packs say “2 portions per pack” but that’s a joke in our opinion. Sometimes we mix it up with ramen noodles, or a can of beans. Cheap and filling and very salty. We eat like broke students, basically.

Of course, every once and a while we do get “real food” and we enjoy just pointing at stuff on a menu without knowing what we are ordering. And once a week we treat ourselves to künefe, which is the weirdest dessert. It’s mozzarella-like cheese, surrounded by thin, noodle-like pastry, baked to a perfect crispness and then soaked in sugar syrup. Nomnom!

At the start of Ramadan (April 12th), we probably have to rely more on supermarkets and take out services. Turkey has imposed stricter Corona measures during the holy month and restaurants only are allowed to offer food to go. If they are open at all. We now have some non-cycling days in Adana, before we head further east to Hatay. We are curious for this other side of Turkey, already the last couple of days we noticed things get a bit… rougher.