Summer Vacation 2014: On the road and first days in Tekirdag

This years family trip to Turkey was done by car. The decision to travel in a four wheeler instead of a plane was made based on the logistics of things and the fact that we could save some honestly earned money, my reasonable uncle would say. This claim of his is correct but overshadowed by the truth that many in our family are simply afraid of flying. It's cute how everyone in the family decided not to use this fact in our little discussion.

There are some major advantages to driving by car: 1) no baggage limits (hmm let's say nearly none - we don't want to make border control suspicious) 2) freedom to change locations at anytime and travel all around Black Sea area - but most importantly 3) roadtrips are so much more fun and adventurous. 

It took us two solid days with an overnight stay in Hungary to get from Hanover to Tekirdag. We started our journey midday and drove through east Germany first and then entered Czech Republic where we were stunned by beautiful landscapes. Slovakia followed and finally at midnight we found a hotel on the side of a highway in Hungary for cheap 32€/night. We woke up early in the morning, checked out of the hotel and brewed hot coffee with our camping equipment (which is limited to duck tape and a small camping cooker) before heading out to Siberia at 7-ish am. At 4 in the afternoon we entered Macedonia where mum took over the drivers seat and only 1,5 hours later we had made it to Greece. As little as Macedonia was, the autobahns were just as perfect as Greece's, so the ride could not have been smoother. Upon the arrival in Turkey, in a city called Ipsala we celebrated a wee bit too early how we have beat my uncle with 3 hours who took the rougher path through Bulgaria (has no autobahns to speak of). Karma got us back and we immediately got stuck in horrible traffic in the area of Tekirdag and finally arrived at my grandma's house at 2 am.

The following days in Tekirdag were part 1 of our farm life experience in Turkey. Our morning breakfasts consisted of freshly collected farm eggs, organic tomatoes, hand picked pepper bells and cucumber from grandma's lovely garden - accompanied by Turkish black tea and white bread. At noon we climbed up a fig tree and hand picked blushing green figs and serve them with Tekirdag water melons. Our afternoons consisted of napping time, a short visit to the beach or some hiking at the hills behind the house. Dinner is served pretty late in the day (compared to German manners at least) consisting of traditional Turkish dishes like Black Sea style beans and pilaw or Tekirdag Köfte at the famous restaurant called Yengenin Yeri in marmara egrelisi. For dessert we usually had baklava, helva or ice cream all served with hot black tea of course. That's the one think you won't miss out on no matter what time of the day or where you are at.
on the road in czech republic


view from the back seat
Tekirdag breakfast


my lovely grandma showing off









grandma's beautiful garden