December 7^th 2021

Nikolovo, Bulgaria – Kuzucargadi, Turkey

Miles: 130

Miles total: 5’520

To actually get away from the lake and drive towards Turkey, we had to engage 4x4 and differential lock. The rain during the night made the path quite slippery.

December 8^th 2021

Kuzucargadi – Ucmakdere, Turkey

Miles: 110

Miles total: 5’630

We decided first to go the coast, since we weren’t really in a hurry to get to Istanbul. So, we left after about 10 miles the highway and drove cross country along flat, heavily used agriculture land, directly South.

We cruised towards the first coastal town called Sarköy. First, we drove through countless holiday-home-settlements (At this time of the year rather ghost-town-settlements) until we arrived in the town center. We found a nice restaurant at the beach road where we got familiarized for the first time with the Turkish cuisine. We fought our way through the Turkish menu with google-translate. We content us with some starters since the entire menu was quite meat-heavy.

We couldn’t resist the desserts that were displayed nicely. The Tiramisu-cake as well as the Turkish dessert „Trilece“ were both really yummy :-). After a quick visit at the beach we continued driving and started to look for a spot to spend the night.

The coast was covered in houses and the short sequences without any buildings weren’t also not feasible, since they were too close to the road. The coast got rockier and the road was winding up the hills. A steep side road led us down to a beautiful bay, where we found a nice place to spend the night.

The place was unfortunately really trashed. Truly a shame and absolutely incomprehensible! Even though there are waste containers, many people just leave the rubbish laying around after a barbeque. As many times before on this trip, we asked ourselves how this indifference can be explained… Also the rubbish (mainly plastic!), that is being washed ashore every day from the sea is catastrophic. We just hope that human kind gets this immense waste flood all around this planet somehow under control.

December 9^th 2021

Ucmakdere, Turkey

Day at the sea :-). Besides some small hikes, we observed the tandem-paragliders landing at the beach. They had their base there. During the day and during the night some fishing boats were coming quite near the beach and we could study the art of fishing through our binoculars.

Then we cleaned the trash a bit around our van. Such clean up sessions always need tons of optimism :-). Our thoughts are constantly changing between “yes this helps” to “this is absolute nonsense”. But also small steps are helping.

December 10^th 2021

Ucmakdere – Istanbul, Turkey

Miles: 170

Miles total: 5’800

The drive to Istanbul led us first, far north around the mega city, to the Asian side.

Passing new windmill parks, over nearly empty 4-lane highways, driving besides the world’s biggest airport and across a colossal suspension bridge that leads over the Bosporus. A gigantism in a country where some people live in poverty.

The reason for the detour was the official Iveco dealer ship at the other end of the city and the organizing of a new 12V-230V Inverter. We could schedule an appointment for a large maintenance intervention without problems at the Iveco shop.

Now to the Inverter. We found near the Iveco dealer a Caravan shop. The store made a descent sized and professional impression on the internet. When we arrived, we found a small shop where 2 Turkish guys were making interior works on vans :-). Then it was going on like this: Nobody understands each other. We were asked to sit down. Then we received a tea. Then finally one Turkish guy called someone who spoke English :-). At the end, we ordered a new inverter and gave a 50€ down payment. Everything of course without any receipt or guaranties, but hey, we did have a tea together ;-). The inverter we bought in Ukraine is by the way still good. But unfortunately, it was no “true sinus” inverter, and it broke after several months our laptop charging unit.

We continued to the ferry across the Bosporus to get again to the European side. Well, now this sounds funny; from Europe to Asia and back to get to the Iveco dealer :-).

Our campground (actually a parking of a soccer field with facilities for campers) for the coming 18 days was absolutely in the center of Istanbul! I guess that exists nowhere else! We are in 5 minutes walking in the middle of down town of a 15 million people city! The location and the price of 8$ are making up for the street noise and the crappy toilets :-).

December 11^th – 28^th 2021

Istanbul, Turkey

Miles: 30

Miles total: 5’830

Since this report is very extensive, we have divided it into different chapters: Istanbul in general; neighborhoods; garbage collector; Dogs and cats; Concert; service on the Iveco; covid

Istanbul in general:

Istanbul definitely cast a spell over us! In the first week we immersed ourselves fully in the lively, chaotic city life and we were absolutely amazed by the diversity of the city. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the weather, the first week it mainly rained, accompanied by cold temperatures (around 45°F, 5-8°C). We looked forward to the second week of sunshine forecast. But unfortunately, it turned out very differently. More on this under the chapter "Covid"...

Of course, we visited the city's most famous landmarks: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) and Suleymaniye Mosque. All impressive architectural structures.

The Süleymaniye Mosque towers over the city on a hill from where you have a fantastic view over the city, the Golden Horn and the Bosporus over to the Asian side. The roofs and chimneys of the adjacent building make the view particularly photogenic.

Inside the mosque, a sober elegance prevails; the interior, flooded with light from 130 mostly colored windows, has a friendly effect; the small, round lamps contribute to the lovely impression.

Now to the world famous and historic Hagia Sophia, former church and museum.

As has happened several times in history, the Hagia Sophia again became the subject of symbolic politics in 2020. As a "gift" to his voters, President Erdogan ordered Hagia Sophia to be used as a mosque again. This is a highly controversial act. In the beginning, all Christian mosaics were covered with canvas.

Since the conversion, the usual rules for visiting a mosque, such as wearing a headscarf, wearing appropriate clothing, taking off your shoes and no entry for non-Muslims during prayer times, are of course also applying again. The latter was handled rather easily; we just had to go back to the rear area.

It would also have been planned to convert the famous former Chora Church, which was previously also a museum, into a mosque. This was also allegedly revoked after the UNESCO visit, despite the already completed renovation. The church (or the museum) is now to be extensively renovated. Since we wanted to visit the church and had not inquired beforehand, we stood in front of a totally covered building with locked gates.

When the weather permitted, we enjoyed strolling along the Bosporus, watching the busy shipping traffic, the screeching seagulls, which flew behind the ships in swarms, and simply enjoying the view and atmosphere on the wide river. By the way, we crossed the Bosporus 3x by ferry, 1x over the bridge and as well once by taxi (tunnel) and once by train (tunnel) to pick up the ordered 12V – 230V inverter.

Absolute madness in this city are the tons of goods that are traded here.

From the traditional oriental bazaar in the historical buildings, to western style shopping streets, to the luxurious shopping malls, you can find everything. We were particularly impressed by the huge shopping districts and bazaar streets. For the first few days we almost couldn't get out of this chaos. As wild as these shopping streets may appear at first glance, they are actually quite well structured. Each product group has its own district. Textile products dominate, such as children's, women's and men's clothing, shoes, jewellery, bedding, but there are also handicrafts, electronics, etc. Basically, you can get almost anything in these gigantic shopping districts. We assume that most of the advertised textile products are made in Turkey. The textile industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Turkey and currently the country's largest export sector. This fact makes Istanbul a huge hub. In addition to many wholesalers who have their textiles produced in Turkey, many small traders probably also come to Istanbul to make their bulk purchases. Small forwarding companies are hidden between the clothing stores, which send the packages to all countries in the world. We also often saw young men who transported the large packages with handcarts through the streets to the next delivery truck.

Also amazing is the density of restaurants, cafes, food stalls and bakeries with sweets. We diligently tried the exotic-looking, sugar-sweet Turkish delicacies, usually accompanied by a glass of Turkish Çay (black tea) or Turkish coffee.

Traditional Turkish cuisine is generally very meat-heavy, with kebabs and köfte being omnipresent. But with a bit of searching you can always find very tasty vegetarian food. We also benefited from the international culinary offer in modern Istanbul; we treated ourselves to e.g. Italian pizza, vegan sushi, Turkmen lagman (noodles), Pakistani curry, Yemeni fish curry etc.

City districts:

What is interesting about Istanbul are the completely different characters of the different quarters. On the European side, south of the Golden Horn estuary, are the districts of Yenikapi and Sultanahmet, among others. There was also our sleeping place. This part of the city seems to consist only of shops, restaurants and the UNESCO old town. On the one hand, extremely touristy and on the other hand still very traditional.

Then we move to the northern side of the Golden Horn. In the district of Karakoy there are restaurants and bars like sand on the sea. But a lot more comfortable than the being in the masses of the old town. A short walk takes you to the Beyoglu district, where you walk through a long, very Western European shopping street.

And now we move to the Asian side of Istanbul and we end up in Kadiköy. For us, Kadiköy was the coolest neighborhood! Since there are countless residential areas on the Asian side, the locals are also around there. Kadiköy is a hip neighborhood with lots of charm and character. The hip character is of course reflected in the restaurants, bars and shops and we felt really comfortable.

So, for everyone who wants to visit Istanbul; it is extremely worthwhile to leave the tourist districts and experience the hip places in the city :-)!

garbage collectors:

We also try to generate as little waste as possible while traveling and to separate it if possible. The further east we go, the more difficult this becomes. As already mentioned in previous reports, the environmental awareness of the Turks is low and waste recycling is in its infancy. Most of it still ends up unsorted, in the best case in an official landfill, in the worst case in an illegal/wild landfill. Therefore, we consider it particularly important to recycle the recyclable materials whenever possible. A drop in the bucket, of course, but we don't just want to give up! A lot has certainly been done in recent years, there are some recycling stations. However, these mostly look run-down and the contents resemble a normal dumpster. Again, a lack of environmental awareness. Only the glass collection seems to work to some extent. Now we have noticed that in the cities there is a parallel system to the traditional collection method. And these are the countless human collectors who run from container to container with large handcarts and rummage through them by hand. Paper/cardboard, plastic and metal are collected. The collectors receive a few bucks for the material and like this they earn their living. They are among the poorest of the poor; mostly Kurds or Roma. These collectors are omnipresent in Istanbul.

Dogs and cats:

Another topic worth saying a few words about are the four-legged friends in Istanbul, who regularly made us smile. In no city have we seen so many cats. But street dogs are also among the permanent residents of the city. Unlike in some parts of Eastern Europe, these animals are almost always well fed here. In addition, they are mostly beautiful animals that would outperform certain expensive breeds :-).

Istanbul's street cats have it good. The residents of the city feed, pet and treat the animals. Then the cats go away again. There is always food somewhere for the armies on four legs. A dream for the little predators! Small houses are even built for the four-legged friends, where they are protected from the cold, wind and rain. The dogs are all well-behaved and peaceful. Also living together with the cats does not cause any friction! This shows us once again that dogs are very loving animals and are only made aggressive to some extent by humans. In a Muslim country, it is not a matter of course, that dogs are also tolerated and fed, since dogs are considered unclean in Islam. Virtually all the dogs we see have a tag on their ears, meaning they have been spayed and vaccinated. The various municipal authorities are responsible for this.

Concert:

Already in Bulgaria we surprisingly discovered on the internet that one of our favorite musicians, Sophie Hunger from Switzerland, will be playing in Istanbul in December. We didn't know that the Turks have such a good taste in music ;-).

The cultural offerings would certainly have been available in the large cities we visited, but the events were not easy to find here either. In addition, we mostly stayed relatively spontaneously and briefly in the cities, which doesn't really make event planning any easier. In any case, there would have been some interesting gigs in the concert hall in Istanbul, where Sophie Hunger also played, of course also by Turkish musicians. However, our desire for crowds in closed rooms was rather moderate due to the rising Covid numbers. We made an exception for Sophie Hunger :-). Now finally to the concert itself. We were able to book the tickets over the Internet and picked them up at the concert venue days in advance, just to be on the safe side. With the current precariously low exchange rate, the entrance fee per ticket was less than 10$. It was estimated that around 400-500 people attended the concert. We asked ourselves how high the fee for the musicians will be? Do they play out of goodwill and pleasure for such a small amount? Or are the concerts cross-subsidised in some way? Probably not from the state. Lots of unanswered questions about this. The venue is part of an ultra-modern and luxurious shopping complex, where there is a hall for large events and the small concert hall. As Covid prevention, masks were distributed at the entrance, which you had to wear. Although we wore our own FFP2 masks, we had to switch to the orange event masks, which seemed too big and rather cheap. During the concert, we switched back to our own masks. The mask requirement was also not followed by everyone during the concert. So, this is more of an alibi exercise. The concert was sensational, the music, as always, great! The audience was a colorful mix, from old to young, from music-loving alternative people, elegantly dressed party-goers to young women in headscarves. In the beginning the audience was very attentive, but over time some people disappeared to the back and from the chatter in the breaks between the songs you could tell that not all the visitors came for the music. In view of the applause and the cell phones pulled out, the cover song "Le vent nous portera" was the highlight of the evening for many people ;-). All in all a great evening, we enjoyed it very much and are amazed that Sophie Hunger has a small but fine fan community in Turkey.

Preventive maintenance for our Iveco van:

The time has come to treat our van to some new filters and new oil after about 6’000 miles. Also the main battery has come to its end of a lifetime. We had an appointment, so we started before 8AM and took the ferry over to Asia. After 20 miles (30km) (Actually still in Istanbul!), we arrived at the official Iveco dealership. We had to wait for 3 hours until our home on wheels finally rolled into the shop, even though we had an appointment and they had all the information before. We did however use the time to work on our web page. There were also some other people besides us that waited the entire day in the waiting room. At lunch time, a food delivery came and gave all of the people free lunch, how nice :-).

Now a bit about the prices. The maintenance for us was really cheap, also since Turkey is currently in a heavy financial, inflation crisis! Replacing all filters, new synthetic oil and a new 145AH good battery for 220$!! In Switzerland we’d be in the 4 digit range. Hourly rate in the official dealership: 18$!

We dived directly into the time-consuming rush-hour traffic of the 15 million city with our freshly maintained van, after 8 hours in the waiting room (was raining the whole day).

COVID:

Unfortunately, it caught me, Stefan. Although we were double vaccinated 5 weeks earlier. Luckily Maryse had nothing (probably because of the vaccination)! When I was positive and Maryse negative, we thought about what isolation in the camper van could look like :-). A few days, just over Christmas, we spent on the beautiful ;-) campsite only in the camper.

I had a bit of everything: fever, loss of taste, sore throat and swallowing pain, headache, cough, etc. We probably picked it up in some restaurant.