Day 54 – Istanbul to Asia

I was up before sunset to try and get over before the light for my camera was too bright. I felt a little guilty, the night porter was fast asleep on the sofa and had to wake him to open the door and get my bike. I cycled all on 200 metres down to the port to catch the ferry over. The light coming up over the city was incredible and taking the boat, you get a great view all around the place. As I came into port on the Asia continent, I was trying to reflect on my time, it had been 54 days since I started and it had been a rollercoaster of a trip covering eleven countries. I had met so many amazing people doing all sorts of things and very rarely met someone who I wouldn’t want to engage with again.

Once I arrived on shore I took my bike along the shore looking back on at Continental Europe, I wasn’t feeling too good so once I had a look and a wonder round I jumped back onto the ferry and back to the old town.

I went back to the hostel and fell right back to sleep, the days camping, and cycling was catching up on me, and now that my body knows it has finished it was shutting down. I was woken when a gentleman said that he was going to the other end of town and if I wanted him to show me a barber he had recommended from the night before. He took me to the streets showing me everything along the way; it was like my tour guide. When after an hour or so we found a barber and that was when he left me.

The rest of the day was back to the hostel to sleep then after quite along nap, I decided on a Turkish bath in the evening which was an unusual experience. For some reason, this completely knocked me, I came feeling exhausted, I struggled for the rest of the night but I was drained, and the massage from the bath seemed to have stiffened up my legs rather than relax them!!