When we left istanbul it was raining heavily. We tried to sit it out as long as possible with a looong breakfast but we had no choice. We put our monkeysuit on said farewell to our holland friends and got on the road.

We arrived in Istanbul in the dark and it took us another 2 hours to find our hostel in the small alkeyways of Istanbul. Just in time when a rainy storm started. And the weather should stay like this for the next days - rain on and off with a few sunrays in between. Not ideal - but better sitting in a cafe and smoke a shisha than sitting on a motorbike in the rain.

The problem was simple.
A cable connection from the starter was just rusted off and had to be replaced. Easy fix and so we where out of Ankara in the early afternoon.
Our plan: ride all the way to Istanbul today - the roads are good but its still around 400 km from the capital to the cultural capital of turkey.

As the pictures of the last blog post show we had some good weather in cappadocia - next stop Antalya and the mediteranian sea. That was the initial plan - but the weather forecast said rain, rain, rain for the next week in this area.
Its not fun to ride in the rain -especially when there are beaches and stuff but you cant really enjoy, because the weather sucks. So we decided to skip the southern area of turkey and with it the the old roman city of ephesus. Its a shame. But its not getting warmer in europe and we still hope to get a little bit of beach action in greece and italy.
So next stop - Istanbul!

One if the most surreal landscapes and biggest tourist magnets in turkey. Cappadocia is a surreal place with its significant rock formations, underground cities and houses carved into the sandstone.

It was still freakin cold when we woke up. It was raining all night and there where still thick rainclouds in the sky. The travellers restaurant was already busy with busloads of locals stopping for a morning teabreak.
Turkish service in restaurants has a very high standard. Its way better in a truck stop in turkey than in a fancy restaurant in germany. The waiters are well dressed, friendly and polite. We had a big breakfast and decided that even if the weather looks still bad we have to keep moving and get out of there. There is no point in sitting it out and It should get better in the west.
So we packed up put our raingear on and went back on the road.

Day 91:
Enough with all these kids and angry parents! Enough with Batumi! Let's get out of here! Georgia was great, but we feel we've had it all. Turkey lies just around the corner and we can't wait to get there!

We leave the dense city behind us and reach the border after only a short ride along the Black Sea coast line. It's an easy crossing and everything is done after only an hour. 

Welcome to Turkey! 

Overall it was an easy ride - at least for us. Kim had some painful moments when he had to shift gears on mountain roads or the worst nightmare was when there was a red light coming up and he was supposed to put a foot on the ground to stop.
But he took it like a cowboy efort and made it without complaint, almost- big respect.
So in Batumi he deserved a Restday.

Next morning kims foot was swollen and it was already painful to only watch him walk.
But he and us didnt really want to stay in the small village another day. The old granny was nice but there was nothing, really nothing to do and somehow there was always fighting and shouting going on between the other inhabitants of the village.
So we gave Kim some painkillers, sat him on his bike and pressed continue.
Next round.
We will go on slowly and try to  finish the last 20 kms of the treatorous dirtroad and then we will ask Kims foot again if he can keep on riding.

On todays menu was a dirtroad mountain pass. We wanted to make it all the way to batumi today - the georgian partytown on the black sea coast. From mestia it would be around 300 km. Should be easy...

Next stop Kutaisi - Georgias second biggest city. We filled up on precious 98 Gas and Cheesebread and got onto the highway - very smooth riding

Later we exchanged the highway for some gravel road along an old railway and a beautiful river. Was a great ride - Just the few cows and pigs on the road seem to be not used to 

Motorcycle Tourism and tested our skills with their suicidal escape manouvers.

The capital of Georgia is a very intersting city. Its somehow a mystical mix of old and new. There is a shitload of old churches and well-dressed pedestrians will cross themselves when they pass by the church - and you are surprised by streetart on the most unexpected places. We think it might be compareable to a city in the south of Spain maybe. It has style, charm and history - and something where you couldnt quite put your finger on. Maybe its the very unique georgian way of writing, or the contrast of a strip bar next to a church - its hard to say but defiitly a cool place to spend a few days - four days to be exact.

We left Vladikavkaz and the Caucasus mountains immediately started.
Finally some mountain roads again. We hadnt seen that since we left kyrgyzstan.
Next stop - Tiblisi, the georgian capital and the beating heart of the Caucasus region.

The main Reason why we made the detour to Maschatkalla was a experimental Aircraft that lies in the military port in the Caspian Sea. Its a Ground effect Aircraft developed in cold war times and meant to transport troups and weapons with 300mph over the sea. It was able to carry double the weight by using half the fuel of conventional airplanes. We saw pictures of this thing a while ago but would have never believed that we would have the chance to see this thing once in real life.

But why care about all those boring facts -when you see this picture above you will understand why we nerds are totally down for this.

Russian experimental cold war weapons anyone?

Of course!

No mechanic could be found and our plan was to plug the radiator with quick-fix metal putty after breakfast. After our usual eggs and sausage meal, we heard a big "crash-boom-sqeekh" sound and as we turned we saw a big truck sliding on it's side next to the road. Damn! We ran there to discover he had taken a 90 degree turn to fast, came off the road and tipped over. Broken glass and scattered trucker home supplies everywhere. Driver lying on it's back in the grass obviously being in pain. The second passenger seemed fine, expect for being shaken up and ripped sweat pants. 

There is not much to say about our stay in Astrakhan. We relaxed, caught up on the blog, did some laundry, tried local beer and made a sightseeing trip to MacDonalds - first fastfood since China.

Rise and Shine in Atyrau. Today is Russia day - our time in Central Asia will come to an end and we will be on our way to Europe pretty soon.