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Istanbul!
  • Mark Holbrook
  • Mark Holbrook

Istanbul!

A 27-day adventure by Mark Read more
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  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Izmit

    May 12 in Turkey ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    I am in a city called Izmit and what you see in this rather dull photo is the muddy shore of the sea of Marmaris....Now the most interesting thing...Marmaris is named for the marble which comes from an island in the sea and marble in Spanish is marmol....Now hasn't that made your morning? When I arrived such frivolity was not forefront in my mind at all...JF had tried to kill me all day by tailgating so close I was almost being nudged and then overtaking and cutting in close enough to side swipe me....and then there are the constant traffic check points where you get all your papers out and they turn them upside down and stare at you...very polite but no smiles....so I arrive and they ask for my passport....NO PASSPORT....NO ID CARD....now I didn't handle myself very well, I had had a premonition of dread before I started this trip, it is a long way, I haven't been feeling great and had done precious little prep....I thought maybe the tooth thing had excised that curse but all of a sudden I was faced with it...NO DOCS!....now I expect to have a pretty good dollop of shite spooned on me on my way out of Turkey to Schengen but with no documents?.....So I thought...Last Hotel? They take your passport on check in, but I would never have given them the full folder....then I thought police checkpoints and police wandering away rotating my docs upside down and back to front...but they must have given it back...and then I thought...Given back and then tucked in my tank bag and waved on with a broken zip?......Oh Lord.....heart doing the 'Let's break the 200 bpm thing' I go back to the bike and search all the impossible places and then I look with my drone license and there it is.....And Breathe..(and drink!)Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Shock

    May 12 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    So this has been an extraordinary day. It started with what was meant to be a 90 minute drive from the Asian to the European side which turned on to over 4 hours and absolutely the ride from hell (no bats though) It started with a bus crashing into the side of a van just outside the hotel as I was leaving....well at least that closed the road so I could do the U turn I needed without any problems then crash after crash after crash. Stationary traffic and everyone expecting me to filter like all the other bikes but I see nothing and I mean nothing as dangerous as weaving between moving lines of traffic...all it needs is one vehicle to pick that moment to veer a little and it is all over. Then ambulances and police roaring along the hard shoulder and taxis trying to squeeze you out of the lane. Well I arrived...I had picked the hotel because it has an underground garage and is close to the metro....the station is just over the road....but the road is a multi level 6 way...I tried for half an hour to find a pedestrian way across and then gave up. Tomorrow I will get a taxi. So now I need a beer....the hotel is dry, the two hotels next door are both dry, the street restaurant are not just dry they also do not have zero sugar coke... everything her seems fuelled by sugar. I do end up with food the place being chosen as the only one that does have diet coke. I thought Turkey was secular....well it seems not here.Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Bizarre!

    May 13 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    So a mad taxi ride from the hotel delivers me to the old town where I find the Blue Mosque beautifully restored but not very, well, Blue...Hagia Sophia covered in scaffolding outside and with four massive steel towers inside and no access to the ground floor anyway and actual visiting replaced by a multi media experience so loud it makes your ears bleed. At least the bazaar presented a less bizarre experience by just being full of fakes and hustlers.....No, I have not enjoyed Istanbul.Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Ipsala

    May 14 in Turkey ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    So every gantry over the toll roads in Turkey warns foreign drivers that they cannot leave the country until all tolls are paid. Worried therefore that my toll pre paid card may have run out I make another unscheduled detour to a PTT...the Turkish post office. Once more I arrive at 12.31 to find them closed.....I wait....then I wait some more...when they open again a nice lady says she in fact cannot check my card and has no idea how much the tolls would be to the border...she does however put TL 400 on my card. I carry on and meet 5 km queue of trucks at the border....I ride down the middle...at the border I push my bike through because it is overheating...I get shouted at because I am foreign and not paid my tolls...I hand over my toll card...it is turned upside down and back to front and then I am sent to the cash office.....They ask for TL 200...I give them my toll card....they ask for TL200...I give up...TL200 is the largest denomination bank note on this country and it will just buy a cup of coffee. Having cleared Turkey I then head into a militarized no mans' land...Tanks, razor wire and temporary bridges and then I get to Greece and another 5 km queue of lorries....Here two Greeks take great interest in my brakesRead more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Thessalonika

    May 15 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Well....I seem to be doing an epistle tour...Romans, Ephesians and now Thessalonians! The city...by the by....named for the sister of Alexander the Great. I had high hopes for stunning pics but the traffic was 'orid so all I snapped was a tourist boat..... Byzantine tower in the background thoughRead more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Barcelona

    May 19 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    My eyes tired and gritty.....sure there is a lyric in there somewhere. So finally got back to Barcelona and since I have this fear of slippery steel ramps in ferries I was mildly interested to see how this guy with landing gear would fare....Not Well as it turned out and he fell at the off ramp.Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Andalucia and snow?

    May 21 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Back in Andalucia ....but that definitely looks like snow to me

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Antequera

    May 22 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    The heart of Andalucia and very pretty too except I was more preoccupied with staying upright on the cobbles following the ridiculous route that Google was sending me on.....Will come back and explore more.Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler

    Bobastro

    May 22 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Perhaps more exciting of it had been Astro Bob....This is the fortified capital of a rebel state setting itself against the Caliphate of Cordoba. Lead by Umar ibn Hafsun who was born to a visigothic family who had converted to Islam...a one time officer in the caliphate's army he then lead the insurrection which at its height included Malaga, Granada, Jaen and Cadiz. He then converted to Christianity and this brought in Mozarabic support and he ordered that this church be cut into the rocks of his fortress above the El Charro gorge.Read more

  • Mark HolbrookIstanbul!Traveler
    1

    Home!

    May 22 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    My bike....which had been tolerably well behaved throughout the trip...boiled over on the dreadful centennial bridge in Sevilla so a bit of a limp home. Nice welcome though!

    Trip end
    May 22, 2026