Day 16 - Border Hopping

Day 16 Monday August 29

Starting from Hotel Novotel, Istanbul at 8.30 am we plan to cross over into Europe.

Prachur leaves the group to go back to India and Amit joins us.

I noticed an interesting thing in Turkey.

Driving on the highway, we pass through small towns / villages. As we are entering the town, a sign shows its name and as we get out, the same sign is shown with a red stripe across it.

Entering Yarabasi

Exiting Yarabasi

The Turkey Bulgaria border is said to be the busiest and the crossing could take 4 - 5 hours. We were fueling up at a petrol station and along with our guide, Ozi, T & S had a 'Eureka' moment. As Turkey also shares its border with Greece (which is less busy / crowded), let's enter into Greece and from there into Bulgaria. So from the Pazarkule border of Turkey we went to Kastanies in Greece. Now we will be  visiting 21 countries, 20 + 1 free 😎😁🚗. The exit took 1 hour and we had a veggie cheese roll  for lunch in no-man's land before entering Greece. Driving 41 kms to the border we were out of Greece and in Bulgaria by 3.30 pm. Ab chai break to banta hai.

Greece is also called Yunanistan

Bulgaria border control

After a diesel stop we reached the Grand Hotel in Sofia at 8 pm. For dinner some had Bulgarian food and most of us vegetarians went to an Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal. For me, Indian cuisine is "soul food" and we were very happy to partake of it after quite a while.

Figures for the day:

Istanbul 8.30 am

Diesel break 10 am 48.24 L TRY 1300 (INR 129 per litre) - 121 kms

Turkey Greece border 11.45 am - 139 kms

Enter Greece 2 pm exit Greece 3.00 pm - 41 kms

Enter Bulgaria 3.30 pm

Tea break 3.30 pm - 4.15 pm

Diesel break 6.45 pm - 7.15 pm - 44.97 L 154.70 BGN (INR 155 per litre) - 266 kms

Grand Hotel Sofia 8 pm - 14 kms

Traveled today 581 kms

Total distance 5369 kms