Finally in Turkey!

After spending over a month in mainland Greece we took a ferry to Chios Island, we had no special interest in visiting this island but since there are direct sea connection between Greece and Turkey we choose Chios for its "northerly" location. The island itself is not very touristy and it's better known for the Mastic trees that   grow only in there (its resin is used to make sweets, chewing gums, liqueurs, etc.). We decided to explore the island a bit touring around for two days, we really liked the towns of Pyrgi and Mesta with its unique architectural style. 

As we were nearing the end of our island tour my pedals started developing a strange noise, after a quick visual inspection, seeing nothing wrong we continued our way. Shortly after a while as I was standing I heard a "crack" sound and  mi right foot missed the pedal; the crank snapped across the pedal thread!! From that point "skateboard style pushing" and one leg pedalling took us to Chios capital with was just 12km away.  

Having no luck in finding a replacement we booked a ferry to the Turkish town of Cesme. Unfortunately no luck there either so after hesitating we decided to take a bus all the way to Istanbul. Despite not being a fan of bus travelling have to admit that we were really impressed with Turkish buses, each seat had a tablet with internet connection and they even gave us ice cream!!

Arriving to a city like Istanbul is always stressful, all the stories about the horrendous traffic were true but thanks to our mobile maps we managed to take a less conventional route to the bike shop. We were really well looked after at Gesgini bikes, they had the right part and Rahman gave thorough check to the bike.

An once again people from WS community helped us, Bugra and Ali were really helpful via email and they helped me locating the right bike shop as well as offering accommodation in their homes. We spent a night with Bugra who took us to drink beer with his friends whom we had interesting conversation about Basque and Turkish culture and politics. The we moved to Alis place where we spent several days, he has been a great host making us feel comfortable and as he is a very good with electronics he even fixed my phone!!

We spend these days sightseeing Istanbul, we really liked the city and apart from one incident at hairdressers we had a great time (despite my comment on the video about Turkish people 99% of them have been really helpful and kind).

Unfortunately time was up for Ane and yesterday she flew home, I want to thank her from here for the fantastic month and a have I spent with her, now I'm ready to hit the road again!

Thanks also to Bugra and Ali for all their help.

Now the plan is to follow the Black sea all the way to Iran.

Video:

Athens- Istanbul ENGLISH from lander on Vimeo.