On The Road

Today I had to cover quite a few kilometers. I left Kastraki in sunny weather, heading in a northeasterly direction towards the Turkish boarder. I took advantage of some sections of the newly built “Olympic” highway, which didn’t get done until after the Olympics and some sections are still under constructions. The highway is so new that they didn’t even have time to finish the toll system. I drove through a brand new toll plaza near a heavily tunneled section that will sure cost serious Euros in the future. Only once, near Thessaloniki did I have to pay the outrageous amount of one Euro. At some point dark clouds moved in and it looked like a serious downpour was about to happen. I got off the highway asap and took an extended lunch break/nap in a simple taverna in a small village near a lake. After I got back on the road I did get a few drops but my clothes were dried out by the time I reached Alexandroupoli just before the Turkish boarder. They also forgot to build any gas station on the highway and one has to get off to get gas. The gas stations can be pretty far off the highway and the exits are pretty far apart or still under construction. That seems to be a very strange system.

Little gorge along the way

Many of these shrines are along the roads

I waited out a thunderstorm

Greek Rittersport imitation. “Quadratisch, praktisch, gut” is catching on in the rest of the world.

The sun is shining again

The Communists still seem to go strong in Greece, calling everyone to the mayday parade.

Quaint little fishing town along the way

A short ride from my campground in Alexandroupoli brought me to the Turkish border. I had heard much about the Turkish bureaucracy and drawn out customs procedure and thus was very pleasantly surprised that it took only 15 minutes. The customs official thought I wasn’t the brightest though. I have a little New Zealand sticker on my bike (I live there) and he pointed out that I am a day late for ANZAC day and the big bike convention on Gallipoli. He didn’t believe me when I told him that I didn’t want to go to either one of these. I also kept trying to push my carnet de passage on him. I had heard that otherwise one has to pay a fee for some other piece of paper. Since I have a carnet for Iran anyway I thought I should use it. Turns out none of this is required. He just entered the details in a computer and put an extra stamp in my passport. No fee at all. I’ll see how it goes when I try to leave.

Countryside near the Turkish border

Another short ride brought me to Gallipoli, where I paid my respect at the NZ monument at the Hill 60 battle site and at ANZAC cove. Workers were busy removing the grandstands from the dawn ceremony the day before. Today the whole area was practically deserted.

Hill 60 New Zealand Monument

ANZAC Cove

Monument with view of ANZAC cove

I took the ferry to Canakkale and continued on to the ancient city of Troja.

I got a room in the village next to Troja, unloaded my bags and went for beautiful sunset ride on the dirt roads in the area.

Countryside near Troja

Later we had dinner at a small restaurant with the owner of the pension and another guest. The owner was a great host and gave a great introduction to Turkish culture and hospitality.