Day 4

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Created on Tuesday, 08 September 2015 23:11

09/08/2015 Edirne - Istanbul (Türkei), ca. 160 miles

Today we saw every kinds of traffic, from empty highways at the beginning of our stage up to mega jam in Istanbul.

After departure at Edirne the trip was 90 miles through empty (toll) highways, apparently the majority of Turkish drivers use the free public roads.

Near Istanbul, a 20 Million megacity which continues to expand bigger and bigger, more than 30 miles all cars drove almost only at walking pace.

In any case, you can not die in starvation or thirsty, because every few meters drinks and meals are offered by hawkers  right in the middle of the freeway.

Shortly after the Bosphorus Bridge which connects Europe and Asia (we are now already in Asia!), we drove to a nearby residential area and met Uygar, the founder of the Turkish Back-to-the-Future Club.

We had a Turkish lunch and after that we went for a short sightseeing trip to the Bosporus.

Later that afternoon we joined a 'Back-to-the-Future'-Party at Cafe PI, a bar on the European side of Istanbul. The Turkish fans were completely 'crazy', our cars were photographed thousands of times and we answered countless questions about the Delorean.

Shortly before we left suddenly all traffic stopped and a huge demonstration by thousands of Turkish nationalists past us and chanted slogans loudly. We used a short gap to escape quickly.

On the way back the same mega jam as in the afternoon... We have not experienced normal traffic in Istanbul – does it really exist?