After a few days of waiting out a cold front in Thessalonaki, Greece, we crept towards the border of Greece and Turkey to a town called Alexandroúpoli.
There’s a free beachfront spot that allows for wild camping / boondocking which is exactly what we like to do.
Kids immediately went into ‘collecting treasures, digging holes and covering themselves with sand’ mode.
Yes, Ava is very busy. And she also stole this sweatshirt from me. 🙂
Trying to time their jumping shot.
Trying to keep sand out of their beds is impossible with this one.
Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeee!
Cheese!
Hey, wait for me too!
There are always stray pups around which makes us sad and happy all at the same time.
The next morning we headed to the Turkish border. It was the longest border crossing so far on our Europen adventure. We came prepared with e-visas (printed out) which cost us $20 each. Agents at the border almost didn’t accept our car registration because our vehicle document displays the month before the day unlike most other countries. Took over an hour to settle. Once sorted, we bought liability insurance at the border for 3 months at 110 euros. There wasn’t a choice for a shorter duration. Our plan is to be here for two weeks.
Our first stop in Turkey was Istanbul. In hindsight that might have not been the best decision. Not only were we in a foreign country with no cell service, we were also driving into a crazy busy metropolis in the dark with height restricted tunnels and underpasses. Dan and I both exhaled once we were safely parked at our spot for the night. We decided right then and there that we will be staying for a few nights and not driving an inch. It was a super exhausting border crossing / driving day.
Once all settled in a the campground (which was a gated outdoor soccer field parking lot), we walked to the nearest cell phone store to pick up a couple SIM cards and a few snacks as well.
When we returned to our van, we noticed some new furry friends.
Some who were insistent on climbing all over our home.
Here’s a video Dan put together covering our drive from Greece into Turkey. Enjoy!
Thanks for following along,
Marlene
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