When things don’t go according to plan and not in your favour, it’s so easy to let them drag you down. You can become angry, frustrated, manic even. We all have different levels of tolerance. Different ways of reacting to trying situations. Dealing with those associated emotions, overcoming and letting go of perceived ‘disasters’ is crucial in ridding yourself of negative energy. Easier said than done though.
Today we say goodbye to Bulgaria and say hello to Türkiye.
We’re mentally prepared for a four hour border crossing. Anything less will be a bonus. Unaware of a series of events that will test our coping strategies.
It’s one of those situations, like being pushed in at the deep end. We’ve all been there. A spot of on-the-job training. First day a confusing nightmare. Seven lanes. Full to the brim. No real signage to help first-timers. It’s a guessing game. Which lane? Beastie’s not a bus. He’s not a car. Does that mean he’s non-binary?
No other MOHOs to follow. I choose car.
All’s going well until we’re approached by an official. I think he’s saying we’re in the wrong lane and is asking me to reverse all the way back. The car immediately behind doesn’t fancy being butted in the face by Beastie’s backside, so slips through on the nearside as I start the ponderous manoeuvre. Which is where I continue looking, in case more decide to do the same. Don’t notice the bus trying to get through on my side. Until a huge blast of his desperate horn shakes my concentrated focus. My foot hits the brake pedal so hard it brings Beastie to a body shuddering full stop. Mrs S is jolted out of her seat and sure I’ve pranged the bus.
I’ve not! There’s at least three inches to spare.
We eventually move through All Passports – we’re now Brexiteers. Then head for D3. Auto Insurance required. They seem to love paperwork more than the French. We show all documents. Pay the fee. Move on to window two, where exactly the same process follows, but without the fee.
We’ve heard they sometimes X-Ray vehicles. Beastie gets herded into a RI-RO hangar. No electronics in sight. It’s going to be a personal hands-on search. A hatchback in front is loaded to the hilt with stuff. Some of it is brought out to aid inspection. One man passes with a dozen cans of beer and a couple of bottles of spirits. Confiscated no doubt. Then it’s Beastie’s turn. He’s inundated with alcoholic hiding places. We tell him to keep a straight face. Don’t give the game away.
She steps aboard. Looks in one food cupboard. Sees food. Steps down.
“How many glasses of alcohol do you have on board?” – A calculator is not at hand, so I lie and say eight bottles. I’m then asked for vehicle documents and escorted to another window, where once again Scoot’s and Beastie’s V5C details are keyed in. Nothing like having things done in triplicate.
The green light is given. We roll Beastie onwards very slowly, for fear the sound of clinking bottles may give the game away. Just over three hours. Two happy bunnies.
At Edirne, today’s destination, there’s a lot of road works on the go. We (I) become discombobulated when our route is supposed to take us through a pedestrian only thoroughfare, with a bollarded entrance. I turn left instead of right. End up in a narrow dead-end street. A couple of surprised military look on. During the course of my embarrassing twenty point turn I prang Beastie’s backside on a low lying (but not that low lying, bollard) His tender trim gets a split lip. BOLLARDS!#!$*
We back track and by chance see Otopark. A huge gravel carpark, overlooked by a new and massive raised section of motorway. There’s one other MOHO parked up. He’s moving on before mid-night. It’s his last day of ninety. He says it’s safe. We decide to stay for the night. Take a breather. Calm down. £5 – a no brainer. It has modern European style loos. Sorted.
It continues to be one of those Bizarre days. We head into town. In search of a couple of SIM cards. It’s an almost typical centre. One that you’ll find anywhere. But with it’s own unique peculiarities. Packed with shoppers. At Vodaphone we can buy 20GB for 1,000 TLira (£25) However, first we can only buy one card. Then, not even that. Their system is playing up.
Turkcell shop offer is 20GB 1,700TL, so we buy only one sim. Thinking that in Istanbul we can get a better deal. Come across a second Vodaphone shop, where 20GB is going for 2,000 TL. We go back to Turkcell.
Essentially Otopark is like wild camping in the middle of a city. The almost final straw comes when we discover a fault with Beastie’s onboard boiler. It won’t switch on. We need it for dish wash-up and wash/shower. An hour later, an internet search discovers an old thread, with a suggested cure. We turn on the engine and then the boiler – hey presto! We can go to bed clean.
Our sweet dreams come to a nightmare ending at 5am with the call for prayer.
We agree not to go . . .