On The Road

Today I plan to catch the ferry from Yalova to Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara. The guys in the shop gave me some directions yesterday and I get lost only once. When I get gas just before the ferry terminal a couple of guys in a car with German plates buy me a soda. They were born and bread in Germany and are here to visit the grandparents.

Checking in for the ferry is easy and I have some time to kill in a little restaurant by the terminal. There are a few other bikes on the ferry as well.

The Sea of Marmara is qualm, which makes for an uneventful crossing. The first view of Istanbul is spectacular.

The bikes are off the ferry first and just one right turn, a few kilometers along the shore and a left turn brings me into Sultanahmet. This part of the city seems fairly compact and I park the bike to walk around and look for a room in one of the many hotels. Just as I unmount a guy walks by and starts talking to me about the bike. He’s a biker and co-owns a couple of hotels nearby. He gives me a good deal I can’t refuse. He also hops on the back of my bike to take me to a Yamaha dealer to check out my throttle sensor. The guy at the shop plays around with it for a while and increases the idle revs. On the way back to the hotel the engine cuts out again when throttling off. This was clearly not the solution.

The hotel is a stone throw from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and I just have a stroll before dinner.

Cenk, a local rider I met on AdvRider.com was nice enough to receive some mail for me that I missed in Van. We meet for lunch and when Cenk hears about my throttle sensor problem he makes a few phone calls to some of his contacts at the local Yamaha importer and by the end of the lunch I got a shop appointment for the next day. He also helps me to find the address on my GPS. While the Garmin map of Istanbul is great, finding an address in Istanbul on the Zumo is anything but. You have to know the part of the city and the spelling differences don’t help either.

The next day I head over the Galata bridge to the Yamaha shop. The shop owner shows up shortly after I arrive and starts looking into the problem. He actually breaks out the service manual and a multimeter and tests this and that for a long time. He works a bit like a brain surgeon. He has a whole bunch of assistants, the youngest maybe 11 or 12. He yells quick orders to them while he is working and they run and bring him the parts and tools. Initially he doesn’t think there is a problem but after a few test rides he agrees and installs the throttle sensor from the demo Tenere they have in the shop under warranty. After a tip (hard to find anyone who is willing to spend that much time on problem these days) it’s smiles all around and more tea. The assistants clean my bike, which seems to be part of the service in Turkey.

Riding in Istanbul is not as bad as people told me. If you know where you are going it’s no worse than most big cities. So I spend a bit of time riding around the city and taking in the views.

There is so much to see in Istanbul that I have to make some hard choices. I take a whole morning to explore the Hagia Sophia. Completed as a Christian church under Emperor Justinian in 537, it was converted into a Mosque in 1453 under Mehmet the Conqueror. Ataturk had it secularized and turned into a museum in 1935. It is so impressive that words fail me and I let the pictures speak for themselves:

Inside I run into an Australian couple I had Camel burgers with in Yazd, Iran. It’s a small world indeed.

The Blue Mosque, just a short stroll from Hagia Sophia, is equally impressive. It was constructed between 1606 and 1616 under Sultan Ahmet I.

By the time I reach the Topkapi Palace I’m burnt out and not motivated enough to take good pictures, but there is a nice view from one of the balconies.

Another highlight for me is the Basilica Cistern, built by Justinian in 532. It’s supported by 336 columns and could hold 80,000 cubic meters of water. It is not however, unlike James Bond will have you believe in “From Russia with Love”, underneath the Russian embassy.

Another odd place to see is the Church St Stephen of the Bulgars, built completely out of cast-iron in Gothic revival style in 1898.

My last afternoon in Istanbul I spent strolling near the Galata bridge, with a short visit to Yeni Camii (New Mosque).

Oh yeah, there is always that one weird tourist that makes everyone chuckle or raise their eyebrows

The ride form Istanbul on the main highway is fast but boring. I only stop for a very dodgy lunch in the last village before the border.

Border formalities are straight forward. The very friendly Bulgarian official hands me a USB stick at the first window and a checklist. I work my way from station to station handing in the USB stick every time. I have to wait a few minutes for the customs inspection and talk to an officer who tells me the road to Tsarevo is very bad. After the inspection and a “Welcome to Europe” I’m on my way.

Turns out the road is really not that bad, has no traffic at all, nice turns and views. For some reason I seem to have lost most of the pictures though. This is the only one I have.

I get a cheap but very nice beach view room and go for a dip in the black sea.

A little beach side shop sells the essentials like ice cream and the biggest and cheapest plastic beer bottles I have ever seen. There are lots of Russians around and I’m glad to notice that I still understand some Russian.