Solo Ride To Istanbul Day 9 - The Final Ride Across Greece To Istanbul

I woke up in a beautiful greek hotel in polykastro, about 20 minutes from the border of North Macedonia. The hotel was cheap, but it still held all the standards of a more expensive hotel. 

The walls were covered in Greek art and the corridors filled with greenery and vases. The wind blowing the hanging vine leaves and the birds tweeting outside gave me a moment of serenity. I’ve travelled so far and I’m about to make it to the border of turkey today. 

I packed up my things and headed downstairs, where I see a familiar face. It was Patrick, whom I’d met in Croatia only two days ago! Patrick was also travelling solo to Istanbul, only his journey didn’t end there - Patrick is planning to ride all the way to Indonesia. 

Seeing a familiar face was very comforting, and on my final day of getting to Istanbul - I really needed that push. After one last selfie with Patrick, I got on my bike and rode away. My first stop was Thessaloniki, where I was hoping to see Mt. Olympus, I read online that on a clear day you can see the godly mountain from here. Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky, or I didn’t find the right spot. So I enjoyed my ride along the coast of Greece and enjoyed Thessaloniki whilst listening to Disneys Hercules on my Cardo headset. 

The riding in Thessaloniki was crazy, but I don’t know what else I expected. The further east you go, the worse the driving gets, especially in city’s - and this is from my own experience. I managed to get out of the city unscathed and back onto the highway that leads you to the Turkish border. From Thessaloniki onwards, it seemed there was no tourist industry left. Except from the few islands dotted around the ocean, everything else was a dead zone. 

I looked at my phone as I pulled over and I’d received a message from Patrick on instagram, he told me there was a storm coming my way and I should prepare for it. He kept calling me his adopted “on the road” daughter, so everytime he sensed I could be in danger, he messaged me to warn me! It’s a good job he did to, because I was wearing full summer gear and the sky further east just got darker and darker.

I pulled over on the side of the road and swapped my Knox jacket for my Halvarssons, then put some plastic rain pants over the top of my Bull-It jeans. I rode a little further then on came the storm. It was really warm so I was happy for the rain, but I was in and out of it quite quickly. As I was in the midst of it, the temperature dropped by about 10 degrees, and I was then super thankful for the message Patrick sent. I would have froze otherwise! 

I drew closer and closer to Turkeys border, my petrol tank of course got emptier and emptier. I tried searching for a petrol station when I had about 50 miles of range left, but there was nothing. So I rode a little further until I was completely on reserve. The closest station was 20 miles further, and usually I have about 30 miles in my reserve tank until the bike stops completely. 

I rode further towards the petrol station as fuel conciously as I could. I finally made it! And guess what? It looked like a zombie apocalypse had got there first. All of the fuel pumps were ripped out of the ground, but the shop still had loads of products in it. Like it had just been abandoned! At this moment I was panicking a lot, riding here had taken me 20 miles into reserve, I only had 10 miles of fuel left. I was only 10 miles from the border, where I know people would be. So at least if I broke down, I’d be around border police who could help me? That was my logic anyway. I searched again for fuel stations around me but it said the closest place was 40 miles away. My heart pounding, what do I do?

I decided to head for the border anyway. Thank god! A petrol station had appeared on my Garmin. Only 9 miles away. I made it to the border and I asked the lady to confirm “is there a petrol station this way?”. She said no, there is no petrol there, but if I continue to the next border then there would be one there. (I was currently in no man’s land - the part of earth that nobody owns between two countries). I had to decide, trust the local, or trust the Garmin. I put my faith in the Garmin and thank god, Garmin saves me. The petrol station, with a big gold aura around it, like a mirage in a desert. I started laughing away to myself, like no way had that happened. Imagine if I had got to the Turkish Border and broke down.

I filled up and went towards the Turkish border, where I encountered my biggest queue yet.

The whole process took me about an hour and they also made me pay for their insurance which cost £20. It was about 6pm by this point and I really didn’t want to ride in the dark. So I went just a litttttttle bit over the speed limit, we’re talking about 5 miles and guess what? There were border police waiting for me about 30 miles down the road. They fined me for going too fast, they didn’t tell me how fast I was going and I certainly didn’t see any cameras. The whole thing felt like a bit of a scam. They’d pulled me over along with 4 other bikers and gave everyone tickets.

Oh well, I thought. They told me I’d have to pay the fine (1000L - £34) at the border as I leave. Could have been worse I guess. 

The night got darker quickly, as I approached Istanbul city. I didn’t want to be riding in the dark, especially in a city I didn’t know. At this point I was beginning to get quite scared. Alone, in a vibrant, busy city, with no internet. My data stopped working at the Greek/Turkish border, and the data packages were crazy expensive. I decided to stop at a Shell petrol station, they usually have Wi-Fi there. It didn’t.. So I stood outside, trying to figure out why I was lost and why my Garmin wasn’t taking me to the right location. As I stood, slightly panicked - a guy who worked at the shell brought me a Turkish tea and started chatting to me, in Turkish - to which I obviously didn’t understand. I couldn’t translate anything on my phone because of the lack of data, so I played charades with him until he figured out I needed to use his phone to get to google translate. By this point a whole crowd of people had gathered around. I think about 6 in total, none of them speaking English, but all trying to help me. I had two scooter bros letting me use their phones for internet and to get the address up again to enter into my Garmin. Unfortunately my Garmin wasn’t accepting this address, so another guy in a car - said to follow him and he would take me to this address. My gut told me it was safe to do this, and if I was taken down any scary alleys then I would just ride off. But the whole thing felt more like a GTA mission where you have to follow the character in crazy traffic without losing them. We got to a big junction and two scooter guys came up right next to me saying “come come, we take you we take you” and I pointed at the car driver - to which they rode upto and then gave the thumbs up and left. The car took me to the address, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right place, again. 

I kept wondering, why did my Garmin keep taking me to the wrong place? And now this car driver has also taken me to the wrong place. 

I had to give up in the end and pay for data from EE, £12 for 750mb, so I had to be quick in my actions. I turned to WhatsApp and gave Dan a quick message to send me his location. He did, it was a good 3 miles down the road. I later found out that AirBnB was illegal in turkey, so they put a fake address on the account and then create a WhatsApp group for you to send you the real address. By this point Dan was already safe inside the flat and he said the whole thing felt very “sketchy” and he was told by the owner that if anyone asks, you are “friends of Mehmets” LOL. 

I slowly made my way to the correct address, and seen Dan standing in the street waiting for me. He’d been waiting there for almost an hour, listening for the sound of an MT07. I jumped off my bike and ran to him, crying, completely overwhelmed by what I’d just achieved. 

We embraced in the deepest hug for about 5 minutes and then made our way upstairs. Dan, the sweetheart that he is - had blown up about 20 balloons, got me a card and a few gifts which were all laid out on the table. I was just happy to see him. 🥰

We talked about my travels whilst watching the city lights sparkle and listening to the Mosque prayer calls, which were echoing throughout the city. 

We then made our way to bed, and that was the end of the first part of my journey. What a journey it was, but there’s still part 2 to come. Heading back from Istanbul to London. 

Thanks for reading again, I’m sure I’ll have many more stories to come!

Ride safe,

Waifu x