After a quick overnight in Dubai from Jakarta, we land safely in Sofia. Emirates airline? Meh.
Our ride is there to transport us to MotoCamp Bulgaria. More about MotoCamp in a later post. As we make the turn to the village of Idilevo we feel the comfort of returning to home. Polly and Ivo are there to greet us and we settle in quickly with friends, old and new.
The first night is spent catching up with the locals who live in the town and other fellow travelers. The new to me bike is here waiting for me. I bought a 2014 Suzuki DL 650, also known as a V-Strom which will be my new ride to leave in Europe. The bike has been named “Gypsy”. We will spend the next few days settling in, getting Gypsy ready for travel and drinking beer with friends.
Our route will start off in an easterly direction, headed towards Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan still remains closed due to conflicts in the area. We hope it opens by the time we get there as there aren’t many options for us to continue east.
We first head south to Plovdiv. Pulling into town we stop at a stoplight and feel the earth move. We had just experienced a 4.3 magnitude earthquake. This city is the longest continually inhabited city in Europe, for 8,000 years. The ancient theater is still in and is hosting a free concert the next night. We find a little hotel nearby and will spend the next day walking and sightseeing in this old city.
Still riding south we crossed into Greece and with plans to intersect routes with good friends Ricardo and Sandra from Portugal. From wherever we meet, we’ll ride together for a few days into Turkey. Our paths finally cross and we find a nice campground on the beach, we visit into the night. The next morning there is an issue with Ricardo’s BMW. They find a shop in town and apart is sorted so they will be on the way the following morning. We’ll meander along slowly and wait for them to catch up to us.
The border crossing into Turkey is non-eventful, as expected. That evening we find a yurt village that is surrounded by a vineyard. The yurts are wonderful and only US$35 per night. There is only one other traveler there. We sit in the restaurant and drink beer, have a wonderful meal and chat with the owners.
Sandra and Ricardo let us know their BMW is fixed. They are riding to Pamukkale where we will meet them for a couple days. Pamukkale is a small town in Western Turkey known for the mineral-rich thermal waters flowing down white travertine terraces on a nearby hillside. The city was first occupied in the 7th century BC. The thermal waters became a healing center in the second century BC. The highlight of being here was taking an early morning balloon ride over the city and the thermal pools with perfect weather. We all wake up early and are picked up before sunrise. The sun is just peeking over the hills as the balloons are being filled with hot air by the massive burners. The large rectangular baskets hold about 12 people. Melanie, Ricardo, Sandra and I find a great spot to ride in one of the corners. As the colorful balloons lift off the ground and ascend above the thermal white travertines terraces we are all just speechless with the beauty. The balloon float last approximately an hour with a pilot superbly managing the balloon down to a height of about 100 feet above the thermal pools. We toast the end of the journey with some bubbly.
In the morning the four of us head out riding towards the city of Konya. We are riding a little fast and go through a speed trap and get pulled over. I argue with the cops wanting to see how fast we were going. Be ignore me and continue writing the tickets. I keep badgering them, while Melanie cringes. In the end we get a ticket and they tell us we have to pay as we exit the country into Georgia. The cops then pack up and quickly and disappear.
The city of Konya is beautiful. We headed out on foot to explore the markets. We also find out that there is a free whirling dervish performance at the cultural center later that evening. Some friends of ours, Garath and Maria from the UK, (aka “Mogito”, the name of their Mog, their blog, and their skillful use of ingredients in mojitos), meet us there and we spend the evening visiting and goofing off. All six of us decided to go to the performance. There is one outstanding example of pure dance: that of the whirling dervishes, and are that has been practiced since the 13th century. The procedure is part of a Muslim ceremony called the dhikr, the purpose of which is to glorify God and seek spiritual perfection.
The next day we ride towards the city of Cappadocia. Cappadocia is famous now for the tourism of the cave hotels and ferry chimneys. The underground cities were built in the area of Cappadocia by Christians to provide protection during periods of persecution. We find a couple rooms in a beautiful cave hotel overlooking the city. We stay in town for 3 days would Gareth and Maria driving down on day two to join in the fun. On the last evening Maria and I get tangled up with a bottle of Turkish Raki, the national drink of Turkey. It is made of twice distilled grapes and distilled upwards to an 80% alcohol content.
Too funny as Maria gets the giggles.
What a great few days we had, surrounded by the best friends you could hope for. We love them all.
Cheers,
2WANDRRs
2WANDRRs 
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