Silivri, where I spent the night, was one of the cities who suffered from the recent flooding. One week after the disaster, bulldozers are still cleaning the streets. Mountains of destroyed household pile up outside the city.

These last 80km into Istanbul were by far the most dangerous I ever cycled. A four-lane motorway, later six lanes, mostly without emergency lane. So I could not cycle beside the road, as I normally do. The traffic was huge. Fortunately nothing happened, but it could have happened dozens of times.

I didn’t meet other cyclists for maybe 2 weeks, but Istanbul is different. I have the feeling, that every globetrotter has it on its list.

First I met three from Poland, who are heading for…. Egypt! But they will go further on. They intend to cycle around the world in 5-6 years. No money, just 2 guitars and three voices!

A guy from Australia is on a 16 month tour from Australia to Denmark.

And many more.

I stay in Sultanahmet, the historical centre of Istanbul. So I started my visit with the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, built 400 years ago. It is the only mosque with 6 minarets. Just opposite is the Hagia Sophia Museum. It served as a church for nearly 1000 years, than as a mosque for another 500 years and finally as a museum since 1935.

We are still in Ramadan, and by sunset the parks around were invaded by a huge crowd, who settled there to have food after a fasting day. They were thousands.

But I  also noticed some people queuing up in front of restaurants. They were just getting free food! Giving to the poor is one of the 5 pillars of Islam. If you own a restaurant, you are supposed to be rich, and some restaurants gave food for free. The longest queue I saw was about 200 meters long!

Back to my hotel, I was surprised to be invited by the owner who offered me a free dinner as well!

To finish the day, I fulfilled an old dream of mine: I went to the famous Cemberlitas Hamami; a Turkish bath built in 1584, and relaxed a few hours, lying on the hot marble platform, and enjoying skin rubbing and oil massage.

Flood disaster near Silivri

Hahia Sofia

Polish cyclists

Food after sunset