Day Fifty-Nine

August 27, 2025

10/07/25 - Day Fifty-Nine

We rose at 7ish in unison, and with barely a word said between us, packed our things and left. No talk of breakfast, we had a job to do. The wind continued and thankfully it was still to our rear so we enjoyed speedy cycling along the wide hard shoulder of the dual carriageway. After 12 miles or so we stopped in a town for coffee and some breakfast, as well as to relieve ourselves. More hard shoulder miles followed until our next stop for a bit of lunch. We sat in a park and had a comical encounter with a man who we couldn’t quite figure out if he was trying to sell or gift us some lemons. He didn’t seem to be giving them to us by also wasn’t really insisting we paid. I suspect he was waiting for us to take them, before costing us for money. Anyway he was good humoured and bid us a friendly goodbye.

We had been flying along, and hadn’t far to go till we reached the Lüleburgaz Yıldızları Bisiklet Akademisi! Isabel had told us of this place, since she had stayed there before. It was run by the municipality, renting out bikes for free to the community and teaching them to ride bikes. It also doubled as a haven for cycle tourists! Inanç, who ran the show, was hilarious and oozed charisma - being the purist, kindest of men. He ran the place with such passion, and longed to go on a tour of his own. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as it all seemed. Visas were really hard to get hold of for Turks and were often expensive and short. He wanted to visit all the people who had come to stay at the bike academy, from all over Europe. I told him he’d have to visit the UK and try a deep fried mars bar, much to his bemusement!

The academy was a wonderful place, where hundreds of tourers had come to stay for free with toilets, showers, games, a kitchen, washing machine, book exchange, spare parts and tools. A map of the world was scribbled all over with people names and hometowns. Two thick hardback books, were full of visitor entries. On arrival we all took turns to shower. Then came some admin: stretching, charging devices, washing, blog updating etc etc.

In the evening the full house of tourists sat and chatted away (two French much couples, Isabel and Sam, Henry and an Austrian named Manuel). One of the Frenchmen was cycling with an accordion and could play it well. We all joined in learning a dance that apparently scared away bears! Noé, the accordion player, then showed me a book he had literally found on the street floor. It was a crazy story of a couple who had spent 14 years cycling the world in the 80s, even having a child part of the way round! Noé was a very interesting character, having sailed much of the world, learning on the job as he helped to crew a boat on a whim. He recalled a time when he was caught in a storm, everyone falling silent, as he stared glassy eyed into the distance. A powerful experience he said after a few moments. Manuel, was the only other non French speaker present, so we bonded over that. As the bloody French chatted away in their mother tongue, Manuel and I agreed to ride together for Istanbul in the morning. With our alarms set, we headed for some shut eye.