Friday 2 September 2016

Byzantine Empire, day 21, around 10200 km, Thessaloniki in Greece

I left Pamukkale by following my own road to Çannakkale, all road signs were telling me to turn left but I went straight forward, exactly what a rugby prop must to do.
Most of the road was one lane, and it was clearly visible that I was near the sea: the smell of salt was in the air mixing with the smell of larches, that was lovely. An awesome road. Then in Çannakkale I had to find an atm because the ticket seller for the ferry was just accepting cash and I had already run out of Lira. The short trip on the Bosphorus was nice, some big ships pass from this channel. 

Çanakkale - Ecebat ferry.
Çanakkale geçilmez! | Çanakkale is impassable!


The Gallipoli peninsula was a nice ride but with some traffic. After few kilometers I was alrwady at the border with Greece and the customs have been very funny, I had to pass a number plate check, a passport check, and a number plate & documents check in order to exit Turkey. For entering Greece they have just checked my passport and I was in. Totally no sense. Then I took normal roads till Sapes, were I entered the motorway because I got almost lost (yes, with a GPS) and it was getting dark. I spent the night in Kavala. This morning I went to the honda dealer in Thessaloniki and sadly he told me he had not the spare parts and it should arrive Tuesday. It is funny that he has such spare parts in stock and anyway no problems, I thought I would have to wait till next Friday. So now I'm in Thessaloniki for 4 day and the TCS ETI will pay the hotel. Luckily a friend of mine is in Kriopigi, so we will meet and explore the area. I have already changed the oil, here the policy is that for an oil change the customer has just to pay the oil and the filter. Nice, thanks Greece!

Back to the west food culture!

Θεσσαλονίκη, they have just founded some ruins during some excavations in the middle fo the city.


Wednesday 31 August 2016

Where Empires Rose, day 19, around 9050 km, Pamukkale in Turkey

Vaftizci Yahya Kilisesi.

During the night I made up my mind and I decided to go to Pamukkale. During the breakfast, the hotel owner passed by and we started talking. At the end we talked for more than a hour about everything, a very kind, smart and openminded person . He showed me a longer but nicer way to Pamukkale, this way was passing near Eğirdir lake, where my offroad track were also going nearby. So I left Göreme around 0930 direction Konya. There are 3 words for explaining the road to Konya: Bloody fucking boring. A straight road in the mittle of a flatland. At least the weather was nice and not to hot, with temperatures around 26 degrees celsius. The police stopped me and the 3 cars in front of me just before entering Konya . The officer came and asked me the documents in Turkish, when I realized I could not speak Turkish, he easily said: "Documents!" . I gave him the driving license and the document of the motorbike and at the same time an officer with higher grade came and started screwing up with him. The only word I understood was Isviçre (Switzerland) and I think the point was: "Why the fuck did you stop him?"
After 30 seconds of arguing, I had for sure a worried face because I was a little bit worried that I might have done something wrong but the higher grade officier said to me: "No problem, goodbye!".
I told him that we have also control in Switzerland, so no worries and I left.


The funny thing is that they were looking for guns...controls in Switzerland are looking for Parma-Ham, Alcohol, condition of tyres, lines, blinkers, etc...I think the Turkish policemen wouldn't belive me if I say them this difference. Every country has is own problems.

The road after Konya was in a park full of pines and nearby the Beyşehir lake. Then on the Eğirdir lake (awesome road and place, similar to some lakes in Ticino, but more natural) and after it the road was Alto Adige style: going through apple trees in a valley.

 D330 & Eğirdir Gölü.

 D330 & Eğirdir Gölü

Pamukkale was visible from far away, a lot before reaching Denizli. I took a walk up there and on the Hierapolis (ticket 35 TL, reduction just for turkish students...). Impressive and very relaxing: water was flowing down the path. I thought that the museum and the therms were included but it was 5 TL and 32 TL more respectively. Moreover I discovered that the old pools are not always filled with water, so they were empty. No worries, when I went down I took a bath on the artificial pools. Another must see place.

Hierapolis.

Pamukkale

Tuesday 30 August 2016

Where Empires Rose, day 18 Göreme in Turkey

Göreme is amazing, it looks like a fairy tales city. All cave houses are something uncommon but they look very warm and cosy and they are cool inside. I took an Ignoranza Enduristica tour of the Cappadocia, the region is stunning and seems magical. I really suggest you all to visit it once in your life!


 Kapadokya

I went up a hill behind the open air museum of Zelve. The road was tough, but I made it with tank top, WRU shorts and sneakers. Thanks Wales for giving me the power! From the top of the hill there was a really nice view of a nice slice of Cappadocia, the view the King of Kings deserves. I went back, I washed the bike, checked the tyres pressure and filled the tank. I've cleaned and oiled the chain and changed the air filter, because the bike was really running to much reach . The old air filter was completely black.

 After 20000 km it was the right time for changing it!

 Tomorrow I will go directly to Pamukkale or go south in Adalia to Ölüdeniz, I have some offroad tracks for there but no idea about their difficulty. I don't know yet, but anyway I will keep the throttle open!

Let's talk about the Kebab Index: in Samsun I've eaten 2 Kebabs in 2 different places, both were equal and they were the best tasty Kebab so far and they were also the cheaper (3 TL), in Diyarbakir it costed 3.5 TL, but the taste was kilometers far away from the one of Samsun. In Göreme was good, but the price to high (7 TL). All were Tavuk Kebab.

Monday 29 August 2016

Kurdistan & Where Empires Rose, day 17, around 8350 km, Göreme in Turkey

Today was a long day. I left Diyarbakir around 0730 local time and I went to the Nemrut Daği Milli Parki. There is a road that reaches almost the top of the mount Nemrut, at more than 2000 meters above the sea level, the mountain is dominating the area and the whole park is full of different things to see.

 Nemrut Dağı.

 End of the road almost on the top of Nemrut Dağı.

I left the Park and I headed to Adana: a very long and boring way. Two things happened: I was stopped at a police control (there were no cars, I think they were bored), they wanted to see inside the right side bag and it was fine. Then we talked a little bit, there was a civilian, a mechanical engineer, working as translator at the check point. At some poin I realized that both policemen were keeping the AK unsecuredse, at least in single shot and not in full auto. 
No rules here, it's creepy.
The climax was at a Petrol station, where a man asked me if I could bring him to Switzerland by bike. We spent a half hour discussing with the help of google translator and his soon, who is studying medicine. Then after Adana I took the road through Kiralan and Belemedik, a very nice road till it turned into a short and tougher version of the most famous Dead Road. 




 Old unused road near on the Çakıtsuyu Çayı.

The road was going along the railways, and at some point it started descending steepy and the problem was that the ground was made of broken rocks, there were no points of pure earth for finding some grip. I turned off the engine and "rode" down slowly. A normal size man with a maxi Enduro would have been fucked. Then the road continued in very dangerous situations but with a better grip. Once the rear wheel slipped and gained grip after a little bit, as result the bike was heading outside the road: luckily there was grip and I could brake. But no worries, I'm like Schettino and I was ready for "abbandonare la nave!"...don't tell this to my beast!
When I reached Pozanti it was very late, so I went to Göreme by paved roads. I reached it around 22.15, what a long day. The next two nights I'll stay here.

Sunday 28 August 2016

Kurdistan, day 16, around 7500 km, Diyarbakir in Turkey

I'm seriously missing an Espresso or my Latte macchiato for breakfast. But it is healthier without them, so let's go on like that!
I left Iğdir direction Van and I could finally see the Ağri Daği (mount Ararat). It's amazing, a giant with the top covered with snow. Due to the snow and the position of the sun at that hour, I couldn't take any photo, but is going to stay in my mind forever.

 Ağrı Dağı(Mt. Ararat).

Before Doğubayazit I've met the first military ckeck point: one lane was closed, there were 2 APC and some armored-armed cars. The soldier was like worried when I told him I was going to Van. He wished me good luck. I went to Ishak Pasha Palace and then to south, on the road along the Iranian border, along all mountains there were watchtowers on top and some bigger bases.


İshak Paşa Sarayı.

In Çetenli, the road was completely closed because it is passing on front of a military base. A soldier waved me to go back and then left, I went back and asked in the village, the persons tried to explain me the same thing with a lot of good luck, thank you and goodbye. They were very friendly. I found the new road and I was able to reach the D975 and ride to Van. The military base had some big artellery pointed torward Iran, very different the border here from the one I'm used to in Europe.
Along the road there were a lot of Check points without soldiers. This will be a constant in this part of Turkey and they occupy them randomly. The road was at some point along the Van lake, which is really huge!
In Van I stopped to tank and I was offered a Çay, I passed some times with the people that were drinking tea while their car was washed. All were surprised and happy that I was there. I left and the road passed along the huge lake and there were a lot of families and people having bbq and a bath. It is Sunday also here afterall.
 I found a manual car washer and I was able to wash the bike my way and to oil the chain. A boy was curious and he was keeping asking questions in Turkish about my bike, I let him turn it on. The naughty boy revved it up to 10 k rpm (red zone starts at 8750 rpm). Un fermone di domani.

 Karabek Geçidi, Mütiullah Caddesi on google maps.

 I rode the Karabek Geçidi, the highest motorable pass of Turkey, the top is around 2980 meters over the sea level. Awesome road and views on these spectacular rocky mountains.

 Karabek Geçidi at 2985 meter over the sea level.

Karabek Geçidi.

Somwehere on the Bahçesaray Hizan Yolu

 Then from Baçhesaray I took the road to Bitlis, it was under renewal, so most of it was unpaved. In the middle there was a pass about 2500 m.
Then here I realized why the temperatures were so low ( maximum around 35 degrees celsius): until now I was always above 1500 m!
Now I started descending and the temperature started rising and it hit a maximum of 45 degrees celsius with a mean around 43 deegres.

Please can somebody turn the world AC on? 

I stopped some kilometers before Van in order to fill the tank and again they offered me a Çay. The men told me: Welcome in Kurdistan! We both laughed and we spoke a little bit, in the same way I did till now. In order to enter Diyarbakir I had to pass two polis/milit check points, in the center they were just letting in minibus and me. Diyarbakir is a small turkish town, more than 1 milion of people live here...it is the biggest kurdish city in Turkey!