Inspired by the Museum of Innocence that we visited in Istanbul this post will structured in small chapters…
Istanbul? We should go there…
Or should we? Somehow, even though we always avoid big cities, much preferring to cycle through villages and mountains in the countryside, we both had in our minds that we should visit Istanbul… Little did we know what we were getting ourselves in to …
The empty train station
Arriving in Edirne in due time we visited the train station first to try ensure we got that essential train ticket to reach Istanbul… The only train departured at 7.40 in the morning and we wanted both us and our bikes to be on it (which is somehow always rocket science in a train…). However, even though it was not at all late in the day, the low volume of train traffic actually using the lines meant that the ticket office was already closed. We were told it would open again at 6.00am the next day so we aimed to be there at opening time…
The bike mechanics saga continues
After many unexpected bike mechanical hassles back in Bulgaria we thought we would be finally bike mechanical hassle free. In fact, the big hassles were only just about to begin. Storing the bicycles under our warmshower host’s staircase revealed Sarah’s rear hub might be broken… Well, maybe it was a good thing that we were going to a big (mega) city….
Waking up really early to not catch the train
6am there we were, at the train station, sun still not up and actually even before the station staff had arrived. Not that their arrival made things any better. On seeing the bicycles, the few English words said to us were “bicycle” – “problem, problem” – “autobus”.
From the train station to bus station
So that’s how it came to be, that two cyclists go along a stretch of highway, where in fact they weren’t allowed to be, to get to the bus station. If the train saga wasn’t annoying enough, at the bus station some dodgey folks seem to squeeze extra money out of us for the bicycles … but, atleast finally we are on our way…
What we got ourselves into
As the bus progresses into town, gets stuck in traffic and takes more time just entering the city than crossing a massive stretch of the country, we started to wonder again, why exactly did we suddenly decide to go to a huge town when we always try to avoid them?… Eventually the bus arrives and we are in the middle of…. chaos…
And how do we get out of here
It tooks us thirty minutes just to find out a way out of the bus station…! Every way seemed unlikely but in the end the dark tunnels passing by bus garages was indeed the way. However it unloaded us in very very big and busy streets. So we had to carry our heavy bikes up and down a long staircase.
Dear metro…
After sitting down for lunch and contemplating how we would cross such a huge city, a kind soul, seeing our distress, told us much to our content, that us and our bikes could take the metro… It involved using approximately 10 elevators but it was well worth it!
Loaded bicycles and busy cities don’t get along
Finally in the city center, after exiting the metro we still had to struggle through the city center at busy rush hour* plus all the wondering tourists…
*in Istanbul, every hour is rush hour
Warmshowers at last (literally and figuratively…)
At last we found our amazingly kind hosts, Cansu & Ceyhun, who gave us refuge for our stay in Istanbul and introduced us to their excitable dog Bonbon and allowed us to have a calm place to rest.
To find a bike shop… With the parts we need…
The next morning after an amazing night of much needed rest we started our next adventure: Where to leave our bicycles to be fixed?? Both of our rides had their ailments and each needed somewhat specific replacement parts… And it was not appearent that a bike shop would have them.
A river crossing and suddenly all feels better
In the end, we found a bike shop that seemed promising on the Asian side of Istanbul and headed there… As we sailed away on the ferry, with our civilian tourist clothes on, the sun in our eyes and the sea breeze in our faces, we finally relaxed and embraced being in this enormous yet historically and culturally rich city…
Great bazaars, great mosques, great corn
After leaving our bicycles in what seemed good and experienced hands, and having had a relaxing day being tourists, just picnicking in parks and chasing graffiti in Kadiköy, we embraced the city and headed to the city center. In fact it wasn’t as busy as we had feared and we could easily find ourselves wandering pretty much alone in the backstreets. Eventually we through ourselves into the whirlpool of people, smells and trades in the grand and spice bazaars, visited the main mosques and we had some tasty street roasted corn, twice. Although we visited some museums, perhaps what we did the most was really people watching, be it locals or tourists.
Culinary exchange
Cansu and Ceyhun introduced us to the delicious mixture of tahini and grape molasses which we did not realise at the time would become a staple in Turkey (nicked named by us “Malini”). In exchange, we introduced them to the British classic (vegetarian) shepherd’s pie and Pedro’s mum’s tasty lemony dessert.
Finally the bicycles, finally “on the road again”…
Despite our initial overwhelming fears, our time in Istanbul had turned out to be a quite an enjoyable experience, not least because of our super welcoming and helpful warmshowers hosts. Nonetheless when, after some further days and parts were needed to attend them, we were told the bicycles were again ready, we were eager to be back on the road. In fact, although we had been now in Turkey for more than a week, we had done very little cycling at all…
