Eceabat, Turkey 2015 🇹🇷

Travelled: 496 Klm from Vourvourou, Greece to Eceabat, Turkey
Visited: Turkish War Memorial, Gelibolu.
Stayed: On the waterfront, adjacent a small restaurant Eceabat. N40.18994, E26.35796
Budget: €89 per day at last check before entering a Turkey. Given the TL we will re-calculate on exiting Turkey. 

We enjoyed a pizza in a little restaurant in Vourvourou and a couple of drinks following our afternoon at the beach.  Did I mention every second restaurant in Greece appears to be a pizza place.  Today the long drive to Turkey.  Our plan as far as we do plan is to make for the E90, it’s about an hour from Vourvourou, then head east.  We fill with diesel and LPG, two weeks of travel and our LPG bill is less than €8.

The freeway makes it as easy as a long drive can be.  It’s country and western day, so we listen to The man in black, Wayland, Willy, Glen and Dolly and a lot more as we cruise along.  The Bulgarian border is on our left hand side, just over the mountain for most of the day.  The country is very green and lush most of the way. Lots of solar farms rather than wind turbine, so we presume the Greeks listen to Alan Jones and 2GB.

We arrive at the Turkish frontier about 1pm to start the bureaucratic processes of departing the EU and entering Turkey.  The complexity mostly regarding Australians driving a UK registered vehicle and the various insurances.  There appeared to be something of a mystical feel to the process as I was sent to one window a man would look at the papers and direct me to the next window, after several windows I was told I needed some addition paperwork.  Back to the Hymer to shuffle paperwork about then back to the first man in the window to go through the process again. Finally the secret became self evident, give a man in that office €60 cash (sorry no credit cards) and your in !  By the way it’s now 2 pm.

We feel a bit uncomfortable on our first afternoon, but the people we have spoken to have been very friendly, we make our way to a supermarket to get some fresh fruit before heading on down the Gallipoli Peninsula.  As we turn down on the Dardanelles, the vista is something unexpected as a Celebrity Cruise ship passes quite close to the road.  Ships are busy making there way to Istanbul or perhaps then onto Russia via the Black Sea or back.  Viewed against the dry hills of the Dardanelles it’s not something we are likely to see again.

Passing through Gelibolu we stop at a Turkish War Memorial, beautiful designed and maintained.  On we continue south arriving at Eceabat late in the afternoon.  A random turn down to the waterside we are accosted by a bar owner to stop and have a drink.  He gives us a place to park and that’s our day other than having a few drinks and catching up with grandchildren on the net.  There is a good breeze off the water and it’s a quiet evening for a good sleep.  I hear the final call to prayer about 9.30 pm and again for the first call just before 5.30 am.

Michael and Pam