9th May (Joe's Birthday)
I had stayed up late trying to upload an update to Blowing Away The Dust and had not been lucky. I awoke early and started up the laptop close to the WiFi point to try again before breakfast, or at the latest departure. Tick. Tick. Tick. My time in Turkey was soon to end.
The upload was progressing slowly so I had a relaxed process of packing and loading my bike while it completed. I was on my bike and on my way towards the Turkey/Greece border at around 11am.
I covered most of the distance relatively easily and quickly and realised I was getting close to the border and still had some remaining credit on my Turkcell Prepaid SIM and a spare phone that it still worked in after my BlackBerry had been blocked.
I decided to stop before I got into Greece and it stopped working, stretch out a little, and do my best to use up most of the credit. I called a few family members including Joe (for his Birthday), Sophie (apologised for not calling on her Birthday) and Ian who was in the house. I also called few Abu Dhabi friends who I had missed several times on Skype to see how things were back in my 'old town'.
(Out of a total outlay of 100TL (approx. $55) I had had full internet/email access and calls and texts for almost 4 weeks before the combined forces of the mobile phone companies and government blocked my BlackBerry from working on my way into Ayvalik on 3rd May.)
Meanwhile, the gypsies in the camp behind me seemed to be getting a little unsure of what I was up to….maybe the camera frightened them….
A gypsy camp beside the highway.
As I readied to depart they were gesturing and shouting something at me.
Best move on.
As I continued down the highway and checked the GPS I was getting quite close to Greece. I checked several times because I had seen a few signs directing me to "Yunanistan". I was confident I was going to Greece so I wondered what the Turkish are doing calling a well known country by a completely different name……..
Apparently Yunanistan means: land of the Ioanians and
was used by Persians before becoming common in Turkey.
I continued on towards Yunanistan/Greece hopeful that the border crossing would be a simple matter. I knew I had all of the possibly necessary paperwork and had even paid my speeding fine. Obviously I didn't understand a word of what the Police or Customs officials were saying amongst themselves or over the phone so when they simply asked for my passport, confirmed the registration plate and stamped my passport I wondered if they think it is easiest just to allow me through.
I stopped before the final Turkish gate for a couple of images indicating Turkey was almost finished (for this time….)!!!
Almost through Turkey.
Still coming to grips with tripod timer photos.
That's a better one.
After I crossed the last checking and stamping booth I headed for the Greece border checkpoint just down the road. I wanted to stop for another photo or two but the guards with their rifles made it clear I had to move on. A short distance later I crossed the bridge over the Meric River (also known as the Maritsa or Evros since it starts in Western Bulgaria) and was ready to pull up and the Greece border crossing.
I had considered my starting odometer reading for the trip as 12,144km when I first filled-up with petrol in Istanbul back on the 6th April. When I crossed the Turkish border my odometer was reading 16,107km.
I had travelled 3,963km around Turkey in around 5 weeks.
Time for Greece.
(Summary of Turkey to follow.)