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Showing posts from July, 2011

The Black Sea Coast and Shumen

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Madara Horseman near Shumen Our drive down and up the Black Sea coast was relatively uneventful given the past few days. South towards the Turkish border are some remnants of old soviet industrial institutions that lie abandoned now on the seashore. North the road gets much better though still two lane almost to Burgas. There are a smattering of seaside resorts some leftover soviet construction ones, others recent additions. There is no road construction going on though in the country and it seriously needs it. One of many 9th century churches in Nessabar  Burgas itself is a large industrial centre and it is here that you start to notice more common European store names. We decide to continue north to Nessabar, a place that Diana had suggested we visit since it had a beautiful old town. It does, Nessabar while a tourist magnet for the famed Sunny Beach and the Old town is again tour bus heaven. What struck us here is the architectural difference of the town. Stone wal

Leaving Istanbul ( And quite a Border story)

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We left Istanbul at about 10:30 am in the morning, about the same time we left Athens. What a difference though. We drove out from our hotel located in the Sultanahmet to Kennedy Caddesi and headed northwest. Beautiful road next to the Marmara sea, a well kept park on the seaside of the drive made it very picturesque. Traffic was light and flowed well until well past Istanbul and into another town where road construction ground things to a halt and delayed us by about 15 mins. All told, we drove out of Istanbul in 1 ¼ to ½ hrs in mostly trouble free conditions. Pretty good since it is twice the size of New York City. Our drive through the countryside was fairly boring as the area north of Istanbul toward the border is flat and farmland. However as we crossed this area we stopped at a service station/market to buy something to eat and get out of the heat.  As is customary on my part I always wave to the service staff. We picked up a large bottle of Coke and some chips. Immediately th

Istanbul - Old Constantinople

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First of all Istanbul has 17 Million people. Istanbul and the Galata Tower Our research and expectations about Istanbul certainly didn’t reveal what we found on our arrival. We had expected a very cosmopolitan city, something that would live up to the fact Ataturk, the father of modern day Turkey had wanted the country to look west and modernize and set it on a course. It appears that course may now have been altered with the present government.   Roman emperor Constantine conquered the city in the 4th century and had it named after him. This stretch of land has been fought over in almost every war and became home to the Sultans of the Ottoman empire in their day as well during the 15th and 16th centuries. Constantine even shipped an Egyptian Obelisk from Luxor to the Hiipoodrome as part of his re-dedication of the city.  Serdar Gürcan, Bahar Altun and US at Bandirma Ferry We arrived via ferry crossing the Sea of Marmara from Bandirma and arrived virtually in the Sulta

We Bought New Shoes

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Bora, friend and Sandra in office talking tires   Horizons Unlimited is an excellent resource for getting great advice on world motorcycle travel and the development of contacts. One such contact made was Bora Eris in Bandirma.  Bora runs what on the surface looks like a small tire shop, and has a penchant for motorcycling. Just ask to see his certificates for classes he has taken. But beneath that friendly exterior is a smart business person as well. Now he sells Metzeler, Pirelli, and Continental tires and K&N filters. And he is associated with OMM. I knew I was going to need a couple of tire changes on our trip based on past tire performance but the Continental rear tire that I put on in Canada has lasted almost 22000 kms. in some very tough use. I had coordinated getting the tire with Bora along the way and he has kept one aside for me. Baby gets new shoes Making them fit Yesterday we pulled in to his shop and were greeted by one of the friendliest Turks w

Travellers Cave Hotel

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Travellers Cave Hotel At Night Watching Balloons from the Balcony Zoom in to find Sandra Our Room on the Left Sandra has done a lot of research for this trip and the Travellers Cave was no exception to her great picks. Matter of fact it rates as one of my favourites. As mentioned before we don’t make a bunch of reservations because plans change. So while we were in Side I emailed them and Bekir got back to me right away that they had one room left. Great, good luck remains with us. When you get into Goreme you’ll discover that the fairy chimneys dictated the streets so we stopped at Voyager Balloons and they called Bekir and 5 mins later staff was there with a van to show us up to the hotel.  Now the Travellers Cave is the highest located hotel in Goreme and wonderfully situated. We were shown to our room, which is carved out of the rock. It was very nicely done and made you get in to the mood of Goreme. Next a briefing on what there was to do, hikes, tours, bal

Derenkuyu and Cappadocia

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Fairy Chimneys at Night - Cappadocia Derenkuyu Derenkuyu is an underground city located about 30kms south of Neveshir which is 50 kms east of Akasary where we stayed the night before. Goreme, the centre of Cappadocia is 15 kms to the east of Neveshir. The area forms a triangle of interesting stuff for the visitor to see. Cave dwellings above town We went to Derenkuyu first. As we headed out of Neveshir there is a eery feel when you look up at the cliffs and see cave doors carved out of the rock facings. This was evident both going out of and back into Neveshir from every direction. Later we’d drive by these same kind of cliff dwellings in Zelve and they were inhabited until 1952. Derenkuyu was an underground city built by the early Christians to seek protection from persecution by the pagan Romans of the day. It was 8 storeys in depth, and apparently the population was thought to be around 20,000 at it’s height (pun) depth. There was a 90M deep well shaft dug,  ventila