First day o'riding



The next morning we found out what a typical Turkish breakfast consisted of. Bread rolls, feta cheese, olives, cucumber and tomato. This was made better when we found out it included unlimited free coffee. After enough coffee to send an army of stray cats to kitty heaven we rolled out in search of spots.

We rode some step setups that we’d found the night before. The steps were just after a main bridge so was constantly busy with foot traffic. Getting a run in between crowds of people was tough; they’d often stop right in the landing just out of curiosity. Two little street urchins took time out from selling junk to climb all over mine and Perry’s bike, trying to get a lift on the pegs. This was alright until one of them hurt their knee and started shouting and crying pointing at me. We had no idea what he was saying but was causing a lot of people to stop and stare so we packed up and left before things got sketchy and expensive. Shady street rat.

The sky was overcast and threatening rain so Robin quickly fired out a gap over a dumpster and Ze tweaked his ankle trying to spin a decent set of steps that had a tight, car-dodging run up. The clouds started to spit so we took cover in one of the many outdoor kebab cafes. As soon as you’d sit down a Turkish waiter would appear out of nowhere with a menu and a tray of Turkish tea, called Cha (Ch-eye). Looking completely out of place we’d always be given English translated menus. The translations were mis-leading at worst and hilarious at best. Upon seeing there was a burger called ‘Returns to Fatso’ we all ordered one. (I think Robin got a vegetarian Fatso). My favourite was a meal we found in another café titled ‘Lamb Blown Up’ I’d have paid good money to watch them make that dish!

Having eaten we went looking for an indoor skatepark we had read about on the internet. There was a lot of walking up hills in the rain with no real idea where the park was. As we were ready to give up Rob looked up a side street and saw the park’s name written on a sign. It was built in the rooms under a kebab shop which excited Rob with the idea of being no more than 10 metres from ramps and decent Turkish kebabs. Shame it was closed…

The rooms the park was in weren’t huge and had quite low ceilings. But despite this the people that ran it had made use of the space very well getting a variety of ramps into every last square inch of the place. It was more skateboard orientated but completely worth a session whilst it was wet outside. Rob was the first casualty of the low ceilings. He head butted a beam coming back in from a wall tap, taking him clean off the bike. A six year old kid challenged me to an epic game of chess, which ended in him being victorious. He must have been from Mensa or something, when I was six I couldn’t even spell ‘chess’ let alone knew which way the horse moved.

In the evening we had a walk around the restaurants near our hostel getting offered cheap food or free beer if we ate at their place. What the Turkish lack in pork products they make up with their mixed grill. A large plate full of meat was placed in front of everyone and we left feeling very full.