Bicycle Touring in Turkey

This week’s Travelsonabike2 on this day bicycle touring blog post comes from Turkey on the 5th December 2011. Time to pack my bike away, ready to fly to India.

Monday 5th November 2011. In Istanbul.

It was a productive start to the day; my flight to India was booked before breakfast. I leave Wednesday evening and arrive in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday.

Breakfast finished, and it was off to the shops. I needed a bag for my panniers, a box for my bike, bubble wrap and gaffer tape. And I managed to source everything in less than two hours. That’s one of the joys of Istanbul and the Grand Bazaar with its warren of shops. After sourcing everything I needed, I returned to the hotel and proceeded to pack my bike away.

As it was midday, the bar was empty and shut (unfortunately). So I set myself up there, thinking all I had to do was take the pedals off and turn the handlebars, and the bike would just slip straight into the box. Haha, not a chance. So I took the front wheel off; still, it wouldn’t fit. I went on to take the front pannier brackets and mudguard off. Still, it wouldn’t go in the box. The back wheel, rear rack, and mudguard were next to come off. Finally, I managed to get it in the box, in a thousand and one bits. Who knows if it’ll ever get it back together again.

I Should Be Stressed

I’ve only ever flown with a bike once before, which was earlier this year, to Spain. That time, I had a giant plastic bag. And all I had to do was turn the handlebars and remove the pedals. It was so much easier. Although I was stressing over the flight, I was worried my bike wouldn’t arrive in one piece. Or whether it would even arrive at all. (thankfully, it did) It’s one of the reasons for not wanting to fly from Ankara. I couldn’t take the stress of changing planes.

Funnily enough, it’s not stressing me out at all this time. It might be a different story when I get to India and my bike doesn’t arrive. Or, more likely, I can’t get it back together.

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where you’ll find pictures from all my tours, along with a monthly photo update that I publish each month.

If you want to find out if Garry’s away touring at the moment and check his location, visit the Where’s Garry page.

Bicycle Touring in Turkey

This week’s Travelsonabike2 on this day bicycle touring blog post comes from Turkey on the 28th November 2011. Time to stop playing the tourist and get back on that bike.

Monday 28th November 2011. In Istanbul.

It was a bit of a sad day today, as I had to say goodbye to Julie. It’s been nice playing the tourist for the past few days. But that’s not what this trip is about. I need to get back on my bike and get on with the next leg of my journey, next stop, Iran.

After seeing Julie off at the airport, I returned to the hotel to look at the map. It was then that I realised just how much further I had to cycle. And how little I’d already cycled. I’m not even a quarter of the way.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning and servicing the bike before retiring to the hotel bar for a few hours. As I was leaving the bar to go out for dinner tonight, I said to Ahmet, the barman, that I would be back later. He said, “Fine, I’ll see you later. I just need to get another bottle of gin,” he only got a new one last night. I think somebody in this hotel drinks a lot of gin!!

Dinner was nice. I had a traditional Turkish dish called Testi Kebabi, which contains onion, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and spices. It is made with either lamb or chicken. I had lamb. The dish gets cooked in a clay pot on an open wood fire. The clay pot is then brought to the table, and with a swift blow from a heavy knife, the pot is cracked open and poured onto a plate. It came with rice and bread.

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. I’m also on Flickr, where photographs from all my tours are.

If you want to find out if I’m away touring at the moment and check my location, visit the Where’s Garry web page.