Overland to Asia: this is a dream I’m proud to say we’ve made our own! We’ve left Europe and are now starting a new chapter of our great journey, exploring the vast and wonderful country of Turkey as we head further and further east. The sun is shining brightly outside, the temperature is around 15 °C and I’m writing these lines sitting in the camper we’ve parked in an olive grove, because it’s been extremely windy the last two days since we set foot in Turkey, so we have to admire the view from inside the car.
With heavy heart, we’ve decided not to go to Istanbul for the time being, and instead to head further south along the Aegean coast of Turkey. We found our stay in Thessaloniki with Apollo extremely stressful. Obviously the car accident didn’t help, but even without that we realised that big cities are going to be relatively difficult with him. We don’t want to leave him in the apartment for more than five hours, which makes long walks or visits to museums quite difficult. And even when we’ve been outdoors with him, the noise, cars, smells, stray animals and lack of green spaces to walk him in have been extremely stressful for him and we could see that he wasn’t having a great time. Also, he was too distracted to listen properly because of all the impressions, which made it an exhausting experience for us as well. Knowing that Thessaloniki was nowhere near what we would find in Istanbul, one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world, we decided that there was no point in going there with him for more than a few days, which was definitely not enough to experience the city properly. We also didn’t want to split up so early in our trip, so we decided to visit Istanbul on our way back, hoping that Apollo would be a few months older, calmer, less excitable and reactive, more obedient and therefore easier to handle in such a big city.
So, on day 12 of our journey, we set off from Alexandroupolis and crossed the border into Turkey. The border crossing went relatively smoothly. The only unexpected thing that happened was that our car had to be x-rayed, which made the crossing take about 1.5 hours. Luckily, they didn’t seem to find any broken bones, so we were able to drive on soon after. The customs officers also seemed to have never seen a Carnet de Passage, which the ADAC says we need to cross into Iraq, and they tell us we don’t need a stamp at the Greek-Turkish border. Well, we’ll see in a few weeks when we’re at the border with Kurdistan-Iraq… But there is no point in worrying about it now.
An hour later, it is time for us to set foot in Asia. Leaving the gigantic 1915 Çanakkale Bridge on our left, we take the ferry from Kilitbahir to Çanakkale at the narrowest point of the Dardanelles. Not only is this point super exciting for us because it means we’re leaving our home continent behind, but there are few geostrategic locations in the world that have had such historical significance. In 480 BC, on his way to conquer the Greeks, the Persian king Xerxes built a floating bridge across the 1250 m-wide strait, and some 150 years later, Alexander the Great was so fearful of the rapids that he poured wine from golden goblets to make Poseidon favour his passage. As one of the few crossroads between Europe and Asia, East and West, Christianity and Islam, it has played a pivotal role in countless wars and battles ever since.
In the late afternoon we reach Troas, the region between the ancient cities of Troy in the north (not far from Çanakkale) and Assos in the south. We stay here for a few days to find some peace and quiet among the olive groves, blossoming almond trees, lush grass, open fields and steep cliffs that lead down to the fine sandy beaches of Aegaen, and to let the strong winds blow away the troubles of the last two weeks.