40. Parting Shots

By Don

The SIM Card Saga

So all in all I bought 5 SIM cards on the trip. Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Outside of Turkey they were all very cheap. As it turned out the biggest challenge was that the people selling them were not well versed in how they behaved outside of the country.

In two cases they said they would not work once you left the country, but they did. However there was an additional charge added for data and calls. Since they came with some money on them and the additional charge was very little we continued with them through other countries.

In one country they said it would work in the next, Bulgaria, but it stopped at the border.

In Bulgaria they said it wouldn’t work in Turkey and they were right. We didn’t ask in Turkey so don’t know if they would have known, but we just assumed it wouldn’t. I’m now in Italy and have acquired my 6th SIM card which will work all through the EU. Of course it costs as much as my other 4 EU cards combined, but still cheap by Canadian standards.

The reason for the inconsistency, I have read, is the Eastern European countries charge so little that either a surcharge is added in other countries or they are blocked completely.

The Ring In Our Nose

I’m not sure how one used to do trips like this before sophisticated route planners, Google Street View, cell phones and GPS chart plotters. But I can assure you it would be much harder and take longer. On the other hand you get so used to these devices you frequently don’t know which way is north or where exactly you are. You just blindly follow their directions, led by the ring in your nose.

I had a Wahoo bike computer which has an integrated chart plotter and my phone mounted on my handle bars although I rarely had the phone on. Dennis just used his phone. The advantage of the Wahoo device is it is black and white and you can easily see it in bright daylight. It also has lights the flash red, green and white to tell you things, like you have gone off the route. The disadvantage is it is a very small screen and you have it zoomed right in so you really have no perspective of where you are in the big picture. Also it is difficult to know wether it matters if you are off course, as frequently the roads will rejoin. If you have to reroute you need to go to the phone to do it and then download the new route. Alternatively Dennis would use his phone and have it zoomed out so that he had the big picture but then would often miss a corner. I really liked the Wahoo, but you must also have a cell phone app for the bigger picture.

You Can Leave Istanbul But It May Not Leave You

As I mentioned I’m now in Italy where I have met up with Sue. Our first night was supposed to be dinner in a quaint restaurant with a fine bottle of wine. Not.

On my last full day in Istanbul, Dennis and I treated ourself to a lunch on a roof top terrace overlooking the Marmara Sea. It was lovely. The waiter talked us into some fresh pomegranate juice which was also lovely.

Well we aren’t sure if it was the juice, or something in the food, but two days later and it is still not a pretty picture, either for Dennis or me. I could leave nothing to your imagination, but I’m not that mean. But I will likely lose more weight in the few days after the trip than I did during it. Hopefully poor Dennis is better before he gets on his flight home. Did I mention it leaves at 4 am?

And?

All in all it was a great trip. The caveat is that it was a long time in the planning and now it is over and it is hard to keep the different parts clear in your mind. Fortunately we have pictures and the blog so we can try and sort it out, reflect back and savour. And Dennis and I are still on speaking terms.