From Gyros to Baklava
So, there we are; from the 1st apartment into the other. In the past three days we had more action than in the previous two weeks. The plan was that we would leave Greece as soon as we left the building we stayed in the last month. As usual we got to confident while planning this, and so we had to spend an extra night in Costa’s garage. It’s always a pleasure to wake up with the dust on your eyes in the morning, isn’t it?
Due to a few unfinished commitments, Minne decided that he had to stay in Greece for a while. We, Henk and Mukkes, where pretty fed up with the everlasting gyros and went on to pack the bus so we could finally cruise towards the baklava. We barely were awake when another awkward image was burned into our eyes. On the road towards the garage a cute bunny was brutally killed by a hammer and a knife in order to provide Costa and his friends with a nice meal. Quite stunned we witnessed the former cuddly animal being butchered, totally disregarding any hygienic rule on the planet. After the first shock however, we realized that this could be a valuable lesson for our trip. So we watched closely how the bunny got rid of his skin and organs. Offcourse we didn’t hesitate to ask for the paws so we can make key chains out of ‘em.
At last, we could escape from the Greek people, who seemed to like us less and less. We didn’t see it as an coincidence that the local police stopped us twice that day. Without a proper reason, but obviously on the stakeout for us. Anyway, after a long and really beautiful trip along the coastline we met with the first customs officer that we fear so much for his lack of humanity. Leaving Greece, no problem. First Turkish cabin, no problemo, acquiring a visa, zero problem. Well, so far so good, and we got really excited so henk threw the car papers very enthusiastic over the next counter. A little too enthusiastic according to the ugly officer that began to yell at us. ¨No authorization, no Turkey.”. That sort of phrazes. Luckily we remained calm and focussed, so Henk was just able to whitness how some of our (expensive, irreplaceable) papers got put away. Thanks to an indestructible smile we got our papers back and got chance to escape this wretched place.
Driving trough Turkey, we decided we wanted to eat, and then sleep near the coast. Hence, we stopped at Kesan to grab a bite so we could later move for Tekirdag. In Kesan however, we ate like shit, and still amazed by the ugliness of the city we lost track. Suddenly we drove into a pile of garbage the size of a small village. Thanks to our indestructible faith in our own ability to find the right road again, we drove further into this pile of shit. Actually, it got quite scary. Very dark, and an uncomfortable silence, you know? So we decided to drive back, what got us even more lost. At last we saw a group of dancing gypsies, or so we thought. Offcourse! Sugarfest, the end of Ramadam! Thats fun, so we stepped out of our car. Naturally, nobody spoke English when we asked for directions, but when we said ‘Istanbul’, everything changed. People gathered around the car and started shouting at us and eachother. We weren’t used to that and got even more amazed when a yelling Turk jumped in our van, jerking on the steer while pointing at us, making clear he wanted the carkeys. Well, hell no. It’s our car and thus, we started to shout back, but that didn’t make the situation any easier. After a few minutes however, a man who left a minute earlier drove by in his own car and made it clear we had to follow him. We were quite surprised that the people took us back to the road. It was a 15 minute drive, and they just left their party to help us. Well, see if that happens in the Netherlands (The answer is no.). After a beer that we got from them, we could continue our way to Tekirdag, where we placed the car on a beach and happily fell asleep.
