The border crossing in Ipsala is easy, contrary to all accounts. A traffic jam of lorries for kilometres, but we are kindly asked to drive through. There are only three or four cars in front of us. We get out, show our and Felix's papers, hold our faces up to the cameras.
And wait.
At some point we move on. To the next counter.
A similar procedure.
And wait.
After about an hour, the three or four cars are dispatched and we roll unspectacularly over to Turkish soil.
We remember: a lot of military. That's right, it was like that. There are roundabouts to turn off at on the motorways. Right, we remember that too. Turkish tunes are playing on the radio and the incomprehensible news (or is it adverts?) sound like music to us too. We are here. And it feels good!
In the first town we try to buy a SIM card, but that doesn't work. Our passports have to be in the country for 24 hours, i.e. officially registered. So tomorrow then.
The hustle and bustle in the first town is somehow also great, pedestrians are criss-crossing and nobody has even a hint of respect for our big Felix. So Gerd drives through the town at 5 or 7 km/h, his foot always on the brake. That's good, I have enough time for "driving" window shopping.
When I want to buy a sesame curl, they give me 4 - the look when I only wanted one, simply divine! - And we're probably paying far too much. But what the heck. It's a border town, we're tourists and 4 sesame curls cost about 1.20 euros. Okay, I'll freeze three of them now, we can toast them later. We laugh. What country bumpkins we are!
Our route takes us to the Dardanelles. We have decided against Istanbul for the time being. Somehow we feel like resting. We remember our first crossing to "Asia". Because the Dardanelles Strait is also the transition from Occident to Orient (sounds more dramatic than it is), or rather, we will soon be leaving Europe and travelling on to the Asian part of Turkey.
On the way to the Gallipoli peninsula, we pass the large bridge called "1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü", as we did in 2021. It wasn't finished back then, but this time we could cross it. Instead, we just take a few photos of the imposing structure and continue southwards. We find a nice parking space in the harbour of Kabatepe, order our first Turkish Çay and are surprised to discover that we now have a 2-hour time difference to "home".
We retire to our Felix around 6 pm, play a few rounds of rummy and are in bed shortly before 7 am. Minus two hours means we go to bed just before five. Well, I'm curious to see when we'll be at the museum entrance tomorrow, well-rested. Because one thing is certain: tomorrow is Gallipoli sightseeing!
A little addendum: black tea in the evening is not a good idea if you want to fall asleep.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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