Istanbul!

Well ...no pictures of Cesme because the arrival there was not a nice experience. So there were four vehicles on the ferry...3 bikes including me and a very nice South Korean bloke driving a car he bought in England and had driven it here. We go through passport control...all sort of ok...and our bikes are now in a compound outside the building. Then we go to customs...the Korean goes first ...they look at his documents (why do they always turn them upside down...Is it some sort of ritual?) then they get cross. They tell him that because he does not have UK residency he cannot come in to Turkey with an English car. Now they are wrong...way, way wrong almost every lorry driver would break that rule but I shut up. The Korean is convinced the problem is his green card and he is still on the phone to his insurance company as they escort him back to the ferry. Then it is my turn. I hand over my UK passport, my green card and my Spanish metriculation....they turn it upside down.....then they look at the back ...then they look at me....I give them the ficha technica since it is another piece of paper.....then I give them my two international driving licenses....they turn them upside down...then I say 'Oh you want my residency card!' much relief all round....they had never heard of Portugal or seems. So through the first bit of customs now I have to go out into the street...walk to the other end of the port and come back in again through security to get my bike and have it x rayed in case I am smuggling a Syrian in my panniers. At security they say I have no stamp for a motorcycle and cannot come back into the port. I go back to customs walking past all the security and try to explain. They take my passport.....turn it upside down....and then shout at each other, a lot. I come out with six stamps and get out of Cesme as fast as I can.

I stop at a winery and celebrate having just scraped into Turkey with a wine tasting.Читать далее