After unsuccessfully finding a ride to Turkey by boat, we have to go to plan B and take the ferry up to Kavala from Samos. From there we go by land. The most direct way to cross the border to Turkey is the Kipi-Ipsala crossing. The border splits the Evros river and the Thrace region. Athens ruled over this area before being taken over by the Macedonians and shortly later by the Romans. The area extends all the way to Istanbul. We ride the hilly coast line from Kavala to Alexandroupoli and then inland from there. The riding is good and the scenery beautiful, especially with Autumn in full sing here. We are positivity surprised by the landscape and the route along the coast. The temperature is quite a bit colder than Samos. After a week of holidays on Samos we arrive in Turkey quite quickly; we only need two and a half days to make it to Ipsala. Unfortunately the last day offers up strong head winds and heavy rains. Nevertheless it’s time to leave Greece.
The border crossing itself seems like a big moment in our travel. It feels a bit more serious than our previous crossings in Europe. We are forced to take the highway -we are even now still unsure if there is another other way- and are greeted by a chaos of trucks pushing to get out of Greece. Three lanes into one, they are backed up for 2kms. We pedal past the mess and hand over our IDs. The border controller asks me cheerfully “what are we doing, don’t we prefer to spend the day at the hotel?”. It didn’t really cross our minds, we are used to biking in the rain and wind. As I wait for Simone an official sticks his head out his tiny window and says something to me as he fanatically waves me on, smashing his hand on the window frame as he does. Quite typical of our experiences in Greece, a mixture of friendly and grumpy.
We bike across the river separating the two countries, the bridge is guarded on each side by military. As we arrive on the Turkey side we are very surprised to see a very modern and impressive customs building. A vast difference to the run down buildings on the Greek side. The entry into Turkey is easy, we even get priority over the cars and get moved to the front of the line. 10 meters into Turkey stands a tiny bread stall on wheels “4 Simit for a Euro”. Regardless of the weather, Turkey is warming us up already.
It’s 10-15 kms to the Ipsala. We race to get out of the rain. The town is quite basic but big enough to have many tea shops. As we more up the towns main road we get called by the men to come enjoy a Çay. We found a place that makes Burek and get a table inside. The Çay comes quickly and we manage to order, despite not understanding anything and not knowing a word of Turkish, two plates of fresh baked Burek. The Çay with sugar goes down easily, it’s a nice change from coffee and warms us up good. The shop owner keeps the Çay coming, before we know it we are four teas deep and have finished three plates of Burek plus two other bread snacks. We share a smile and feel rather pleased with our introduction into Turkey.