Another battle field...

Istanbul was a bit of a city where you have to fight for your life. And i left it last monday.

After a 90 minutes boat ride to Yalova, i decided to go in the direction of Bursa through the hills. I could have 70 km with hills or 130 without... and now i can say i do not dislike hills as much as before :)

So i took the D575 road to Gemlik. As the night was going to arrive i then decided to go along the coast and try to find a good camoing spot. The day was sunny and quite warm, the evening would be long but not cold.
I went through a few olive tree fields where people were collecting the fruits, sometimes by hand, sometimes with the big machines that make the tree vibrate and let the fruits fall on a big net you just have to collect. Yes, Turkey has a quite industrial agriculture compared to Romania & Bulgaria.

At 5 or so, when the sun was already down, i found a beach with some ground around and a spot without water. The past days of rain made the whole countryside very muddy and full of water. Not the best to camp. But these trees around had hepled to drain the water.

Nice evening listening to the radio and trying to sleep, then early morning waken up by the closeby mosque and the light comming next.
At 8 am on tuesday i was on the road, direction Mudanya!

Nice hilly road along the coast with some 10 per cent up hills and down hills of course. Then a small town and the indication to the main road to Bursa.
I ate, then took the up hill road to Bursa again, and arrived there around 2pm. Then i tried to understand this 1.8 milion inhabitants town, and tried to find the place where Meriç lived thanks to the bus stops' info.
At 3:30 pm i finally found his neighbourhood, at 5 i had finally posted my chrismass presents to the family, after having to split the box in 2 because the small post office could not send more than 2 kg and i had more than 2 kg... 2 guys helped me as the postman did not speak English, and all went fine. Now i just hope the packets will arrive back home!

Wednesday i went down town to the old city center by bus. 9/D.
I found the tourist info and made a tour around the city center and its parks looking at the bi mountains around.

Some christmass decorations but... we could easyly miss them.

I then faught to back home and had a free meal in a big hotel with Meriç and his girlfriend thanks to DHL who they work with... good food, nice music, Raki... my 1st here, just the bath was missing!

Thursday i hesitated to go to Çanakkale but finally staid home and watched a few DVDs then asked for a place to go in Çanakkale...

Friday, under the rain, i finaly found the bus terminal after 2hours' cycling and asking my way... then enjoyed the confort of the local long distance buses which have huge space to put bikes at no extra cost...

In Çanakkale, Mustafa took me and brought me home just in time to see a full double rainbow!

The evening went watching tv but next day i joined a guided tour of the peninsula, organised for the local Erasmus students, but which i could join as a few of them were back home and there were free seats...
After Verdun i saw another site with tranches from the 1st WW, with thousands of humans who died there...

Then... next in another article!

This one had been left unpublished and i am actualy now in a bus with wifi... on the way to Izmir!

See pıctures related to thıs artıcle here !