Day 445 – EU – Turkey [Silivri to Avcilar]

23/06/21

46.5km

  From Silivri (Turkey) to Avcilar (Turkey)

Europe

Leaving all peace and quiet behind to run into a mega urban area of over 15 Million people

If I thought yesterday’s traffic to Silivri was getting busy, then what should I qualify today’s situation on the road! Silivri is the westernmost district of Istanbul and I ran today from this district all the way east to Avcilar, which borders the central districts of the megapolis. It felt like I was hit by noise and constant movement and speed and agitation everywhere. The hectic life of a bustling city… it has been a while!

Up the Buyukcekmece hill

I focused on keeping safe and there were times where the wide shoulder I had enjoyed since entering Turkey literally disappeared, leaving me to run dangerously close to the fast moving traffic. There was a mighty uphill to climb when I reached Buyukcekmece. The view from up there was superb, but alas this is also the last I saw of the coast as the weather took a turn for the worse. I arrived in Avcilar, a very busy district, under heavy rain.

A dive into a mega urban jungle

Logistic wise it’s the second time in 3 days that the address mentioned on the Booking app is not the actual address of the property. I have no idea why owners would not want to display their address accurately but anyway, it meant I had to run an extra 3km when I thought my day was over, and I was wet and looking for a place to rest and get into dry clothes! There are worse things, this is still a minor impediment 🙂

Tomorrow is the day I will finally run the final page of the chapter of the European crossing. This is quite unnerving, it has been such an epic journey… Well it’s not over until it’s over, and I keep my fingers crossed that tomorrow will go as planned (for a change)!!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: