Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WnJTZjuZAu64bk3h8
Turkey is one of my favorite countries I’ve been to because of the friendly people, amazing food, and beautiful scenery. I spent five weeks riding from the border with Bulgaria to Antalya, which is a lovely town on the southern coast surrounded by beautiful mountains. Two of the weeks were with my dad, who met me in Istanbul with his bicycle and together we rode 650km to Izmir (where he flew home from). I also took a road trip (in a car) to Cappadocia with a bicyclist friend I met in Albania whose parents live in Antalya.
I had some great luck on my first day in Turkey. The first ATM I went to said it would charge some large fee to take out 500 lira (about 85 USD), so I decided to cancel the transaction and go look for an ATM that charges less. I took my card and walked away. 30 seconds later, an out-of-breath man tapped me on the shoulder and handed me 500 Lira. Apparently I had chosen the “No, I do not want a receipt” option instead of the “No, cancel this transaction” option and I had walked away before my money was dispensed! This guy totally could have pocketed the 500 lira but instead chased me down to give me my money.
I had another interesting experience just after this. There was a large Arabic-speaking group of people about my age at the hostel I was staying at. I thought it was a bachelor party or something like that because they seemed to be joking around a lot and just hanging around the hostel during the day (which I thought was maybe because they were tired from staying out late partying). None of them spoke english but they were very friendly and made a big meal each day and shared it with whomever else was at the hostel. It turns out, it was not a bachelor party or even anything remotely close to that. These guests were immigrants from all over the middle east who met each other recently and were trying to get into the EU to find jobs. Many of them were on their 3rd attempt to get into the EU and had been beaten up and robbed by police in Greece and then put in jail for a few days before being sent back to Turkey. If they had spoken english I totally would have asked some ignorant-sounding question about what’s the special occasion for this trip or asked about where else they’re planning to visit while in Turkey. It was a thought-provoking experience to be sharing a dorm room with these guys who weren’t sure when they’d again see their friends and family back home because they left to search for jobs in the countries I had so easily just visited on my bicycle. The French guy who informed me that these guests were immigrants was very amused that the facts of their situation were not obvious to me.
