Retrospective

We’re slowly starting to recover. After four days of hibernation Istanbul and Tekirdag seems so distant in our memory that it feels like a story we’d tell our grandchildren. It seems almost unbelievable that a few days ago we were bathing in the Marmara Sea or wandering in the Istanbul bazaar. It’s time to read the blog again, and refresh our memory before the presentation of the tour on the 20th of August.

This expedition was certainly worthy enough to be our anniversary “bișiklet turu”. Cycling to Tekirdag, even if we skipped Bulgaria – who would have thought a few years ago that we will be cycling through the village of Cakmak, or visiting the Rákoczis on bike? 800 kilometers (~500 miles) of riding the bike, the rest with cars and an unbelievable country.

But let’s begin with the Transylvanian/Romanian part. Țara Moților, Roșia Montană, Ilia, Banat, Orșova and Wallachia. This was the part of the expedition most similar to previous ones, since we’ve slept mostly in tents or under the stars, we cooked our own dinners and team was permanently together (as opposed to hotel rooms). This is an important part of the Bike Expedition, this is what gives it a „wild” flavor and helps build the community. This certainly benefitted us this year, we formed a team in the first few days and we’ve arrived to Turkey as a well-oiled machine. The first few days, to be honest, passed really slowly. After the exhaustion of cycling 160 kilometers (~100 miles) in two days, Tekirdag still being a thousand kilometers (~ 600 miles) away, we started to ponder the challenge we have set out to accomplish. However, nobody was thinking of turning back.

The rain followed us almost until Calafat, we got a little rained upon every day. If wouldn’t have had to build our tents or wake up wet, it wouldn’t have been a problem. It’s still better than riding the bikes in the summer heat, though. At around the middle of the expedition we left Romania, and the second part followed, crossing Bulgaria in cars. Naturally we got no rain this time, we were cruising on the highways in the sunshine. We’ve already said a lot about why we haven’t cycled here, and crossing our southern neighbor we feel our reasoning being justified. It seemed like we were going through a ghost-country – lots of abandoned settlements, collapsed buildings and somewhat unfriendly people. Outside of the cities we haven’t really seen signs of vibrant life. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t, only that we haven’t found it. In a sense it was OK this way, Turkey was our goal and we’ve spent three more days there instead.

But the essence of the expedition followed now: our one week adventure in Turkey, similar to the Hungarian exiles of the Rákoczi War of Independence, began in Edirne. Wherever we went we met helpful people in this country, who were always ready to invite us for a tea. True, we haven’t spent thirty years here, but we feel in love with Tekirdag to such a degree, that for a week we’ve forgotten Cluj-Napoca. We’ve been to places where tourists don’t really go. We’d highlight Cakmak again, since it was probably to most beautiful event of our expedition – while eating melons in the village center we’ve befriended the locals to such a degree that the local religious leader, the imam, opened their mosque, explained the essence of their rituals and sung us some of their religious songs, praising Allah. We had a similar welcome in Pehlivanköy, where the local school’s courtyard was given to us for the night. And Tekirdag was the zenith of the expedition. Hotel rooms by the sea, wonderful sights and beautiful Turkish city. Only one house was left of the Rákoczi ancestry, which is today’s Rákoczi museum. Our dear friend, Ali Kabul the museum director was our host and he told us the story of the exiles, in Hungarian (!). After that Istanbul was the cherry on top, though one day is hardly enough to discover a city of more than ten million residents.

This was Turkey and the 10th Bike Expedition, we went home on cars in two days. We’ve enriched ourselves with lifelong memories during the sixteen days. We thank everyone who helped make this expedition possible, sponsors, parents, the press and everyone who has contributed in any measure to this megaproject. Thank you for reading the blog and commenting every day to our posts.

You are all welcome at the 20th of August Bike Expedition Day at 3 PM, where we will be presenting our adventures!

Day 16

We have arrived! The essence of today is that we have arrived successfully to the courtyard, riding in cars as opposed to on bikes as in previous years. The tour is over, the 16 day period in which we've learned a lot - everyone contributed and we've returned luckily and happily to the courtyard of the school.

We've started in Giurgiu this morning, and traveled for more than 400 kilometers (~250 miles). This is a lot, even with cars. We evaluated the tour in the hotel, everyone shared his positive and negative experiences, insights during the tour. We've all agreed that Turkey is wonderful and cycling all the way down there was definitely worth it. It was a great talk, we've played back a few of the memories of the past days, and tried to understand what had happened to us - though from what has been said it seemed that we would need a few more days to realize, what a great thing we have accomplished.

At around 10 we headed out, and after nearly 10 hours of riding in a car we have arrived to Cluj-Napoca. The rad was tiresome and long, but we are happy to have gotten home and that the parents could welcome us on the courtyard. We thank everyone who has come, and waited for us, we thank you for following this blog. This will be all for today, but we will be putting up a longer, more fleshed out summary of the expedition this week. Enjoy the last round of photos, and as for the messages, just ask your sons and daughters. J

Day 15

Romania, are we there yet?! This last sentence characterizes the penultimate day of our tour. Cars, heat and Bulgaria was today's menu, but fortunately we're already reporting from Giurgiu, where we are eating our fish dinner.

Gün 15, or day fifteen began on the coast of the Marmara Sea. The sun was shining beautifully at 8 AM, the sea enticing us for one last bathing - we had to pack however, so we skipped that. We took photos with the banners of every separate sponsor on the coast to thank everyone for their support. Before going, we said goodbye to Tamás Szerémy, the DunaTV reporter and his dad. During the five days we've spent together they completely integrated into the team. For Tamás, the Istanbul life being today, because he will work in Turkey as the employee of the MTVA. We wish him good luck!

At around ten we set out for the long journey. Fortunately we had no problems at the Turkish customs, we didn't even have our trailers searched. The Bulgarian part, however, as expected, was really long, boring and hot.   Taking many stops and a longer eating break, we got to Girgiu at 11. We will come back at a later time to discover Bulgaria, however now it's sure that we wouldn't turn around no matter what. We perhaps never waited this much for the Romanian border then on this tiresome day.

Today's post will be a short one, because not many things have happened to us, but we have to mention that today will be our last night together. The evaluation of the tour will be tomorrow morning, because everyone is really tired now - proving once again that riding the car is more tiresome than riding the bike. We are eating dinner at the moment and going to bed, because tomorrow early in the morning we will be heading home. We won't be sending messages today, because we can tell them personally tomorrow morning on the courtyard of the school. At 6 PM we are waiting for your on the school courtyard, where, as has been the custom for a few years now we ask you two bring us some delicious cookies, because we will be arriving home very hungry and there will be some who will not have the opportunity to eat dinner tomorrow evening. We thank you in advance!

Also tonight an important event has happened to the team: We are saying goodbye to Gyula, a.k.a. Júlia Jobbágy, one of the principal organizers of the tour, one of it's bloggers, our mother. Tomorrow she will be in a different camp that's starting in Odorheiu Secuiesc, so she will be getting on a bus in Bucharest tonight.   We thank her for all she did during this tour and we'll meet her at the Hungarin Days in Cluj-Napoca, where we will be presenting our tour!

Gün 14

We could possibly write a novel of our day today, not that we couldn't of the others, but today we were in Istanbul, which is quite something. We'd have much to tell of all the pretty, colorful, loud and kind things we have seen.

To start at the beginning: We ate breakfast at 7, and around 8 we got on the road to the city of two continents. The trip was a tale in itself, along the sea, so we had what to look at and didn't miss the bikes.

We arrived to Istanbul after 11. To be more precise, we arrived at 10 but the city of is so large that getting to the center takes more than an hour. But all that waiting was not in vain.

Arriving to the city center, we parked the cars and got to the old town on the Galata brdige, where we were starting to sense what was awaiting us.

Our first stop was the square between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, where we rested and noted with satisfaction that the two weeks of effort were already worth it for this sight.

We wanted to visit the Blue Mosque together, but we accidentally got there during praying time, so we couldn't enter. Also here we met Kamil Özer, an ethics teacher in Istanbul who is Tekirdag, who stayed with us for a short while. From here we went to the Basilica Cisterns together, which amazed us from the first moments. The photos can tell you more about that.

Having finished our visit, we split into groups and set out to discover the city. We saw mosques, bazaars, ate as much as we humanly could, walked around on the noisy, small Turkish streets, inhaled the spice bazaar's heady Eastern smells, we drank tee and Turkish coffee and some of us have even been to Asia. So all that could be seen, tasted, experienced and felt in Istanbul in one day, we have done so.

We've met again at 8 PM at the Galata bridge, with lots of bags and even more stories. We'll pack both and carefully take them home.

We are currently in cars, going bak to Tekirdag, and as we are leaving Istanbul we feel that we are leaving Turkey too. Tomorrow morning we are going home, waking up twice, going to bed twice, writing a blog post, and we are home.