Turkey

Facts

Capital: Ankara

Population: 76.06 Million

Language: Turkish

Currency: New Turkish Lira

2 Wheels to China Ratings

Food & Drink: 7/10

We were in Turkey for over 6 weeks, so we had the chance to sample a fair amount of food there. Even if you are quite adventurous with what you eat, there is still the danger of becoming kebabbed-out, especially in smaller towns were kebab or pide salons are often the only places to eat. Having said that, the variety of kebabs is quite wide, and they are not at all what we Brits think of them to be. Pide (Turkish flatbread with a variety of toppings) makes a great snack, is cheap and is always made fresh.

One way to escape the ubiquitos kebab and branch out a bit, is to visit a lokanta, where pre-prepared food is kept hot in large trays, cafeteria-style. You get the chance to see what you are ordering, to try smaller portions of a range of dishes, and eat very cheaply. The food is also of a high standard - some of the best meals we had in Turkey were in lokantas.

There are two main local beers in Turkey, Tuborg (owned/brewed by Carlsberg) and Efes. Draught beer is cheaper than bottled, but harder to come by. Tuborg tastes like it is brewed by Carlsberg.

Road conditions: 5/10

Although there were some exceptions, the roads in Turkey were generally not holey or cracked. The problem with them is that are often very bumpy (painful), and surfaced with large stone chippings which makes for some ridiculously bad cycling. This even applies to some major roads. The road from Edirne to Istanbul was well and smoothly surfaced.

The shoulder by the side of the road is generally quite big, though sometimes disappears and sometimes it is not surfaced. It is at its worst on newly surfaced (stoned) roads, where all the chippings gather on it, and on the edges of the road proper, meaning that you have to cycle virtually in the middle of the lane, annoying everyone else on the road.

Traffic: 6/10

The traffic is generally quite heavy on all the major roads, but very quite off them. The busiest stretches were the route from Edirne to Istanbul, and the final day's cycling into Izmir. On some of the 'B' roads we hardly saw any vehicles at all, even horse-drawn ones. Drivers are actually surprisingly courteous to cyclists, particularly those in lorries and trucks. Expect to be beeped at continually by larger vehicles - they will do this when they are behind you to let you know they are there, or just to say hello.

Scenery: 7/10

Turkey is very hilly, nay mountainous, which on the whole means some great views. The Aegean coast is also very scenic, and there are smaller roads that run right alongside it for some of the way. Turkey is also quite hot and arid, which means that away from the hills and the sea, the landscape is monotonous. Some people like that though...

People: 8/10

The Turkish tradition of hostpitality has quite a reputation, and we certainly found that this is deserved. We were constantly invited for tea when on the road. In one town a van driver stopped and handed us a couple of cold bottles of water from his window; at a roadside cafe on of the workers came running out with a dozen packets of peanuts for us.

Istanbul, in particular, is renowned for its vociferous carpet sellers and other merchants. Whilst it is true that as a foreigner you will be targeted, it will generally be in good humour, and if you take it as such the banter is quite amusing and never a problem. We did hear a couple of first-hand stories from women who experienced some verbal hostility in the bazaars, but we never encountered anything like this.

A couple of our favourite street-side chat-up lines:

Waiter: "This table has been waiting all day for you to sit at it."

Carpet seller: "So, just how many carpets are you going to buy from me today?"

Bureaucracy

Visas: A Visa is required for all British passport holders which is obtained on entry. We entered at the land border with Greece. Wherever you enter the fee is 10 English pounds and the only method of payment is a 10 pound note, so make sure you have one! The process of actually getting the Visa involved visiting several offices in the same building - one bloke takes your cash and puts a 'postage stamp' in your passport, and another bloke puts an ink stamp over the 'postage stamp' and finally another bloke checks the stamping has been done correctly - a bit of a job creation scheme!

Miscellaneous

Dogs: This is a real problem, especially on the road from Edirne to Istanbul. They also make an appearance outside most other large towns on the west coast. There are two types of cyclist-chasing dog: The standard, dog-sized dog, similar to the ones we encountered in Romania, which chase you but are more a nuisance than a threat. Then there are the pony-sized, sandy-coloured, viscious toe rags, which chase you to rip you apart. You can tell that this is their aim by looking at their eyes, and then at their teeth. We noticed that the first type did not attack when we walked past them on the street, but did when we were on the bikes. So we developed a strategy which dealt with them. Approaching them slowly, ambling by and then accelerating slowly away doesn't really give them anything worth chasing, and they barely even notice you as you go sailing by. We never tried this on the second category of dog. We found that the best defence against them was to panic, swear, and hope that the fear-induced adreneline will be enough to power us to unimaginable speeds, even up sharp inclines.

Overcharging: In cafes where there was a price board rather than a menu, a couple of times we were charged a higher price for our drinks than what was printed. Point it out, and it will be corrected. In restaurants where there is no menu (fish ones, mostly,) make sure you agree the price of your food and drink before you order, and check the bill carefully. These incidents really were very, very rare though - the majority of Turks are scrupulously honest.