Day 210 – 212 | Nice times

Day 210 | Monday October 10

As we couldn’t charge the car at night we had to find a place to do it now. Hassan had a friend at a restaurant and we could plug it in for a couple of hours. As I only needed to do 70km today I didn’t need a full charge so it didn’t loose much time.

Around dinnertime I arrived in Lüleburgaz where I met Levent and his family. Wherever I come I am mostly received with open arms but this time it was a very very warm welcome. Turkish people like to take care of you and the whole family and neighbors came by to see me. Levent’s mother Yurdanur was born in Spijkenisse, the Netherlands so she was especially interested in my story and background. She even showed me some Dutch books of which I had to explain what is was about. Levent’s father didn’t speak English so well but he wanted to show me all his relics he gathered over the years, very sweet. They knew that Holland was playing France this night and they managed to get it on TV! 

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Day 211 | Tuesday October 11

The Yilmaz fam offered me to stay one day more and I took that opportunity as I had a lot things to sort out. There are some difficulties on the road the coming months and I need to have a solution for that. For example how to cross Myanmar and how to get from Dubai to India, it’s a practical thing and most of all money thing. Working on it.

Day 212 | Wednesday October 12

I told that I was looking for a place to get a vaccination for Hepatitis A. I didn’t do that before I left and should actually already had this one and before going into the Middle East I figured out I had to get it in Istanbul. Luckily the fam already had a solution, we jumped into the car, drove to a pharmacist and had to wait a few minutes. On a scooter the vaccin was delivered and now we had to get to the hospital for the injection. Not even 45 minutes earlier we were talking about how to get it and now everything was done. Impressive how things work here.

Than I had to say goodbye to the family, it was very special to stay here and hard to leave this time. It felt very warm and how they treated me was unique.

Emre, one of the neighbors had a friend in Istanbul and I could stay at this place. He is a teacher and I had to meet him at his school. It was a 3 hour drive to Istanbul and he lives on the Anatolian side of the city, which is the Asian side. So after 7 months I arrived in the second continent this trip and I will probably be here for another few. To reach the Asian side I needed to cross a bridge which was not free to pass. To pay for it you need some kind of card on your windscreen which I didn’t have so when I passed the tollbooth some alarms went off, don’t know if this would have any consequences.

In the afternoon I reached the school where Hakan is owner and teacher. He had to stay there a few hours so I joined the English teacher in his classes and explained to students what I was doing. The kids (teenagers) were very interested in my story and my experiences so far with Turkey.

When Hakan was finished he introduced me to his wife Bilge and together with Torgut, another teacher we went for some food and sightseeing. On the top of a hill we had stunning views over the entire city. At night with all the lights it’s even more vibrating. Did you know there live 15 million people in Istanbul? That is almost the same as in all of the Netherlands!

Pictures