İstanbul and leaving

İstanbul is a romance of waters: the blackish, dolphinned Marmara, the Golden Horn's natural harbour and the Bosphorus of East meets West cliche. Everywhere are ferry boats, bridges and fish sandwiches. Expressions like I'll meet you for lunch in Asia are de rigueur amongst tourists. I don't want to make too much of the collision of worlds thing but it is intoxicating - think Chanel-drenched burqas, cold beer with mussels full of spiced rice. Shopping malls pausing crap pop for the muzzein. Lemon cologne hand wash and evening picnics on Çamlica gave me pangs of sentimentality for my almost forgotten Üsküdar childhood. Sometimes it is enough to know you've done something before, however long ago. It was a joy to be back and a sadness to leave again. But perhaps I have had rather too many city weeks. I've been off the bike as much as on it. Not that it matters, but I blame the hospitality.

After three quietly reflective days with Margaret talking about grace and migratory birds I swapped continents to stay with Kerem who has turned his flat into a free hotel for cyclists. We were six guests, from France, Germany, America and England. Days were bike talk, ferries and errands of a last-major-city-for-indefinitely kind (new pliers; sagas of spare spokes and replacement keys). Nights were gin and minarets, cobblestone seaties and fish restaurants. I have picked up a riding companion through a mutual friend. Laura from Germany, or Austria I'm still not sure. It is day two, so far so good. There is economy in sharing and last night was my best camp meal since the Belgians' impossible Carbonara. I have resolved to eat better and bought a small bottle of olive oil which already seems indespensible. But it's not only culinary. It's nice to laugh not only to myself, to have an excuse to wait on hills and somebody to watch the bikes while I take too long writing in the internet cafe. And two tents feel a little less vulnerable than one, like I'm one of a party now.

We took a boat from İstanbul to Yalova for a day's training loop around the stout and scenic headland at Armutlu. Enjoying a last bit of sea before heading inland to Bursa and Turkey's central plateau.

should you need it

storks on a thermal