Istanbul

I don't particularly like big cities. Still the European part of Istanbul is nice. The Asian part not so much, it is not unlike other big cities in the Third World Developing Countries. Hagia Sophia and Blue mosque are okay, although I did not like the 25TL entrance for Hagia Sophia, it is essentially a mosque after all, although now a museum. The other parts of the Golden Horn are less charming, a bit like Chandni Chowk in Delhi, which I also don't like.

Hagia Sophia

Blue mosque

Taksim Square was nice

Galata Tower

Istanbul's take on Mona Lisa

Like I said before, not a fan of big cities, some exceptions are Boston and London. So I only like the big cities whose names rhyme with my last name :-)

Riding in to Istanbul

"We should call a third rider (Mert) to accompany us. We will ride in close formation. Blah blah".

If this was an organized tour I would demand a refund on this dull ride. Riding in to the city was no more challenging than riding in to SF in the rush hour, actually a bit easier I think. There were no cars flying at 160-200 mph (yes MPH!) as claimed on a certain blog... No suicidal drivers, people cutting us off etc. GPS worked flawlessly and lead to the right address the first time. EZ PZ.

Getting out of Istanbul was even easier for me the next morning, around 9:30 am on a Friday. Granted this is going against the traffic, but still. In fact the most exciting part of the last day of my ride was getting chased TWICE by 2 different pairs of dogs near Luke's house in Sofia.

Now I am not the one to question someone else's experience, so I will say only this much. Istanbul traffic MAY NOT be bad, but than it may be bad, depends upon your luck :-)

Accountants are not good with math, explained

At various food/rest stops when it was time to divide the bill, I heard that it is a misconception that accountants are good with math. Okay. Sometime in the ride, Nancy's saddlebags got lose, hardly any overlap between the velcro straps from the 2 sides. After looking at them, I decided to add some long zip ties to better secure them to the bike. So she made me this offer, "I will trade you one small one for 2 big ones". Now folks I didn't need the zip ties, I had short ones, long ones, even Stainless Steel ones. She needed the 2 long ones from me and I am getting one 10" in exchange. If this does not prove that accountants are not good with math, I don't know what will.

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is so nice it deserves an entry all for itself. You can point the camera in any direction and get a postcard shot. We stayed for 3 nights at Panorama Camping. I hooked up with Andy (621andy), a hot air balloon pilot, and that made the stay in Goreme even more enjoyable!

Dinner with Andy and his wife

Andy's balloon over our campsite

Action picture thanks to Andy, near “Time and Space,” the Turkish leg of Andrew Rogers’ intercontinental “Rhythms of Life” art project in Cappadocia

Fairy Chimneys rock formation

Impersonating Ataturk

I found covered parking at Uçhisar Hill near Goreme!

Met these Slovenian riders (Katarina, Marco and Uros) at the campsite. They were on a marathon ride covering Romania, Turkey, Georgia and Russia in 3 weeks!

Inside the Kaymaklı Underground City

Video from the underground city

Be careful with the Turkish Herbal remadies

or you may end up with an offspring like this

Ride to Anamur and Konya

E90 / D400 is a bit like the Pacific Coast Highway. So I shot a video of the ride after the ticket, on the scenic part. I was riding slower than usual but still enjoyed this part of the ride.

Mamure Castle near Anamur

Anamur was hot and very humid. At 7am, after taking a shower, I was drenched in sweat within 15 minutes.

The ride from Anamur to Konya turned out to be fantastic! We took the local roads (33 and 705), lots of twisties through the mountains and no traffic

Konya was nice and we found the Konya Pizza after walking around for over an hour looking for it. It must be more readily available outside of Konya!

From Konya, it was a boring ride to Capadocia. The only interesting place on the way was Sultanhanı, Aksaray

ATF is the Fountain of Youth for the chain

yes ATF as in Automatic Transmission Fluid is the best lube for a motorcycle chain. It cleans the chain at the same time as it lubes it, it also removes wrinkles from the rider and as you can see right here, it oven improves my grammar and speeling. Well this is the gospel on ChainGang and SpecialAgentNancy subscribes to it. I shall not question that...

Now the 3 riders we met in Pamukale made fun of it. "All the dirt talks to each, go away, go away, ATF! ATF!" They all ride GS Adventures (well so do I back home), what do they know about lubricating a chain!

So folks, ATF is the new Teflon, use it liberally on your chain :-)