3 day car ride to Türkiye (part 2)

18.33

So we crossed the border of Serbia. It wasn’t as bad as I initially speculated. First of all, the queue wasn’t all that long, plus when it was our turn they just looked at our ID’s and then at us. Gave them back and let us go. They hadn’t even asked for our travel documents. I guess we aren’t really their usual suspects.

18.50 

Got some frozen strawberry icecream :3

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19:58

I have been looking outside for almost the entire trip. Hoping to spot something Interesting I can write about, but for now, nothing remarkable pops up in my head. Maybe it all slipped in the unconsious part of my brain.

Well, I did see a few huge signs talking about “Milos the Great”. My father pointed it out and then he told be about how that guy is like some sort of folk hero for Serbians because he killed an Ottoman sultan, which resulted in Serbia winning back land.

Also, I keep seeing these cute villages next to the highway. When I first went to Türkiye with the car I was really captivated by them. How the the red rooftops were standing out among the greenery of trees, bushes, hills. A ton of red, like poppy’s in a field. Poppy’s are my favorite flower. They are the symbol of world war 1. A historical event that I share great interest and sympathy in. You have these villages in various Balkan countries, I’ve seen them in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. I liked the ones in Bosnia the most. 

It’s a pretty sight from my car, and I hope the people who live there aren’t bothered by the highway. (Sound, pollution ect.)

Look were going in a tunnel! 

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00.43

My father is resting in this tanking station parking lot, we’re still in Serbia. I am bored so let me tell you about that one time we took a different route to Türkiye, in 2022. We took the Montenegro route AT NIGHT. It was extremely scary and dangerous. We kept driving at those abandoned mountains at nighttime, the roads were bad as well and there was not a single other car in sight. At some point I started hallucinating as well due to the fact that I hadn’t slept for like 40 hours. 

When we finally made it out, there was a police station nearby. We asked the officers if we could rest in their parking lot and they said ofcourse. In short, I think all my family members were traumatized by that night.

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09:43

We slept in that parking lot in Serbia till 5 AM. The reason we took our break in Serbia before entering Bulgaria is because we don’t want to be in Bulgary for the night. Nothing bad has happened to us, thankfully but we’ve heard stories about fake “cops” stopping cars then demanding them for money. 

After my father got enough sleep he started driving again. We eventually reached Bulgaria 🇧🇬 with no problems at the border. It was something like 7/8 AM, which meant it was time for my chronic morning sickness to act up. This wasn’t as bad as yesterday’s, where I actually heaved into a plastic bag. This morning the sickness went by quickly especially because I drank tiny sips of cola, which immediately made the Nausseausness go away.

Look at this foggy mountain :0

Bulgary went by pretty fast. There was nothing, really. Well, when I went to use the restroom in a tanking station the lady who worked there stopped me and said I can only use it if I give her one euro in Bulgarian. I said no and proceeded to ramble in a language she doesn’t understand, about how I saw people go in without paying, and that this is actually my second time and the first time I already went in for free (which is all true btw). She eventually gave up and let me go for free, so I’ll keep this tactic of being a stubborn foreigner in mind.

Oh also, I saw one of those scary biting ants. They were large and fast. 

Also, one of them was charging towards me so I panicked and ran to my car. My father was talking to some other Türkiye travellers and my sister and brother were pestering eachother like always. As a matter of a fact, they are still doing it as I am writing this.

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11:00

Aaaaannnddddd…

WE ENTERED TÜRKIYE!! 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

When I tell you, we barely waited for any of the border queues, you gotta believe me. We took the most travelled route for Türks visiting Türkiye with their car and still waited for a total of 15 minutes. We literally took the best times to leave/rest. 

Also, I kept whining about the border controls in Serbia, but turns out Türkiye is the sternest of all of them ;—;. 

We had to do 3 different check ups, and the officer also had to check our trunk. But he changed his mind and said “I’ve seen enough, don’t keep the kids waiting under the sun.” I really wish that officer a wonderful day 💗

I was kinda dissapointed when I didn’t see any soldiers in uniform located along the border, but my father told me you only have those at the Greece-Türkiye border. Which is the border of the route we usually take. But since we have my sister come with us this year, and she is a whiny and hyperactive child, we decided to take the shorter and more popular route. Anyway, we did see a few military bases along our way, so it’s fine :P.

21.29

So, I have the chance to continue writing now. We are currently in a highway, on our way to our city. Shitt, the only reason I am writing this right now is to distract myself from looking around me, at the windows and mirrors. Checking if the cars around us aren’t acting strange. Imagine we’re a few hours away from our city and get into an accident now. Man, I really need some Xanax rn. (I haven’t tried it and never will.)

Okay the roads are a little emptier now, which is relieving. We still got an hour and a half before we officially arrive.

Now let me tell you some remarkable things that happened during this day.

• The toilets of the tanking stations we arrived, were INCREDIBLY clean. First of all, they finally had bidets built in and second, they have this plastic thing attached to the toilet seat which is strapped to a machine and it renews when you push a button, so you have a clean toilet seat. FINALLY, I don’t have to waste time covering the seat with toilet paper.

• We saw a lady sitting on the side of the highway on some sort of cloth. Which is really unusual to begin with. We went by too fast to determine what exactly she was doing but I saw her tampering with something at the inner region of her arm. I have two theories, either she is a hitchhiker, which is not gonna lie a useless thing to do next to a highway of all places. Or she was going to do something much darker and you can fill that part in for yourself using the information I gave you.

• We saw the wheel of someone’s truck producing smoke, thankfully the driver noticed it on time and lift up that particular wheel.

• Damn there are so many traffic officers located along the roads of the highway. Yet that doesn’t stop from accidents happening, for example, we saw a car in the middle of the road that underwent an accident. There was debris scattered everywhere and the car itself had lost it’s wheel and 25% of it’s side section. I don’t know if anyone got seriously injured, but if they did I hope it wasn’t all too bad and hope they recover soon.

• While driving next to Istanbul airport, we saw three huge planes fly over us! They were close!! Oh boy that was so exciting yet a bit scary. They were all three from Turkish airlines, an excellent plane company. They were also flying in sync, ofcourse distanced from eachother. I remember asking a flight attendant of Turkish airlines if they had a trading card of the plane a few years ago, because I saw it on youtube shorts once. But she just looked at me concerningly and said no. So I guess I gained nothing from that except for embarassment.

• While driving on the mountain road, there was a storm. We saw distant lightning from behind the mountains. Oooohhh gloomyyyy o_O

I looked up at the night sky and am actually able to see the stars! Wowie!! I love it when a country has minimal light pollution so you can actually see whats up there.

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19 July 2025, 00:34 

We arrived to our city safely! I am so happy. We are now going to my grandma, to rest, and the next morning we will head to out own house to clean it :) This was a nice journey and I hope you guys enjoyed reading about it as well! ^^