3150 km into my bike tour- and I crossed the border of Turkey! It’s a new milestone in my trip – marking the end of the western mindset and the start of Islamic countries.
I’m excited. It definitely feels further away from home. I’m more alert, but also more curious. And the bike is doing ok so far. My first is in Istanbul – the “biggest city in Europe”, literally the crossing point between West and East.
As I’ll bike into more religiously conservative regions such as Iran, I’ll have to double down my efforts not to see things from a western point of view. Middle eastern culture has, I believe, as much to teach us as it suffers from prejudice.
