Rain and thunderstorm day. Welcome back in Europe

Yesterday was just a day to scrub kilometers. They were still partly very nice routes, unfortunately not good to drive in the rain. The asphalt is absolutely grippy here in Turkey when it's dry, but a catastrophe when it's wet. During a break in a parking lot in a curve, a semitrailer came rushing in. The driver had serious problems. The trailer pushed the rear axle of the tractor unit in front of it. The driver had a lot of work to catch his train again.

In the hotel in the evening, I had to dry off first.

Today we continued towards the Turkish/Greek border. First on beautiful narrow mountain roads, but also with a lot of construction sites and corresponding construction site traffic. (Here, work is often done on Sundays, especially on construction sites)

Since it rained a lot, the roads looked accordingly.

Then I turned onto one of these four-lane highways. It was progressing quickly and soon the ferry across the Sea of Marmara was reached.

The crossing took about 30 minutes. There was a lot of ship traffic that the ferry had to navigate through.

On the European side, it continued on four lanes.

Once again, a thunderstorm was approaching, I sought shelter at a gas station. Not just me, there was also a Turkish couple there, the rider and the pillion passenger were completely soaked, as both were wearing jeans, sports shoes, and fashionable jackets, typical of the country. At least they had helmets, which is not so common here. Then there was a Bulgarian couple and three Turkish drivers from Unna.

We chatted a bit, and when the rain stopped, I continued. Soon, I was overtaken by the three guys from Unna at an insane speed. The lead quickly increased, but then a new thunderstorm front came. Driving in the rain did not work well for them. I caught up with them relatively quickly and overtook them. I didn't see them anymore, I suspect they stopped at a gas station again.

The rain got worse, accompanied by extreme side winds. The obligatory truck traffic jam at the border came into view, fortunately I thought, because then there would be some shelter from the wind. It was a fun ride, yes, there was shelter from the wind, but only one truck length at a time. In between, there were heavy blows from the side, so strong that even the Velcro fasteners on my jacket couldn't hold and the rain could penetrate through the now exposed zipper.

Just before the border, the rain and wind calmed down a bit. Until I reached the first of three checkpoints.

Checkpoint 1 is passport control.

Checkpoint 2 is customs.

Checkpoint 3 is police control, where they check if there are any outstanding fines to be paid or if any traffic offenses have been recorded by one of the many surveillance cameras.

Passport control, helmet off, glasses off, look into the camera, all in heavy rain and storm, against which even the generous canopy provided no protection.

Checkpoint two, the rain and storm became even more intense, and customs control was canceled, I was waved through.

Checkpoint three is about 200m from the previous ones. I was in third place under the useless roof. The rain and storm intensified even more. I got off the bike, squeezed into a niche to find at least some shelter.

I was waved from the border office and told to come in. A really kind gesture from the two officers. I was allowed to present my vehicle documents and take a seat. Due to the storm, the computers were down, and we had to wait for a technician to get the computer system up and running again.

I could see it, but the border guards couldn't, a blinding flash of lightning and almost simultaneously the thunder. The border guards took cover, looked at each other in confusion, looked at me, and realized that it wasn't an attack, just lightning 🫣

The rain and storm, like I had never experienced before, subsided, the computers were running again, and the lump in my throat became bigger. Two days ago, I received a traffic ticket, but since it was the weekend, I couldn't pay it yet. But apparently, it had not yet been recorded in their system, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to cross the border.

Lucky me, I saved 36€, as there is no agreement with Turkey.

So, there he is, soaking wet in Greece, went to the first hotel and dried off, that felt good.

Dinner was in a family-run hotel. The Greeks are a completely different breed. Much warmer, not so reserved. Let's see if this picture sticks.