Türkiye

Yet again, our expectations were confounded when we arrived in Turkey. After Albania and Greece we had been expecting a less developed country, but straight away Turkey felt like a richer, more prosperous place. There were a huge range of shops and services, properties were smartly maintained and it was generally more bustling (certainly compared to Chios). We also weren't sure how conservative the people would be, but as tourists we had no problems.

Our first impressions were that Turkey was friendly, relaxed and h-o-t. We got through 8L of water on the first day's cycling. The drivers treated us like superstars, giving us friendly beeps and waves. The hotels we stayed in were lovely with very welcoming owners. Men were extremely deferential to Kat, not allowing her to carry anything. One car even stopped as she was riding up a hill and asked her in English if she needed anything.

The couple of days cycling from Cesme to Izmir along the last stretches of the EV8 was enjoyable, but as the cycle lanes gave way to highways it was clear that riding this part of Turkey would be more challenging than fun. We got a minivan transfer from Izmir to Bandirma which confirmed that it wasn't suitable for us: very hilly at first with huge swathes of forest, and then endless wheat fields with nothing in between. The final leg of our journey was a ferry to the European side of Istanbul.

Istanbul was vast and beautiful, and we loved exploring it with our friends when they arrived. We had never visited a mosque before and were a bit concerned about committing a faux pas, but they turned out to be very welcoming places. Ten days was probably too long, at least to stay just in the old part of the city, and avoiding rip-off restaurants and bars and putting up with their constant entreaties to come in became exhausting and tedious. However we left with the impression that Istanbul is an exciting melting pot like nowhere else in the world.