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<\/a><\/p>\nI took the first shift driving and piloted us toward the Kazakh Embassy. Part way through the drive, we realized the tank was completely empty and pulled over to fill up. That was our first encounter with Turkish gas prices, which are some of the highest in the world. We paid well over US$120 to fill the 50 liter tank. Admittedly, we were buying some more expensive variant called Euro-Diesel, but that\u2019s really no excuse. We just hoped this tank would hold us for a while. The Doblo reportedly got amazing gas mileage\u2026 we\u2019d have to see.<\/p>\n
We got to the Kazakh Embassy and dropped our stuff off. This time we were introduced to the Kazakh Consulate General himself, who also coincidentally favored pink shirts, and personally reviewed our papers to see that they were in order. He decided they were and thanked us for our submission. We resisted the urge to give him a huge high five<\/a><\/em>, and left.<\/p>\n Back on the road, we spent some hours battling Istanbul-related traffic before we hit the open road. The Doblo had a CD deck and we were listening to Wu Tang\u2019s Enter the 36 Chambers<\/em> like the good old days, and just letting the little 1.3 liter engine of the Fiat Doblo eat road.<\/p>\n We stopped for lunch at a little roadside diner, where we were treated to our first affordable Turkish meal of rice pilaf, kebabs and salad.<\/p>\n Claudia\u2019s incoming wisdom teeth were becoming infected. We\u2019d been monitoring it for some time. It had been waxing and waning in its severity, but today it was getting bad. Her face was beginning to puff up, and she was quickly chewing through the AsiaWheeling supply of pain killers. She was, unsurprisingly, no big eater at that meal. When we headed over to a nearby grocery shop to find some more painkillers, we unfortunately found none and were forced to resist the temptation to just fill the entire excess capacity of the Doblo with Vitaminli drink.<\/p>\n So teeth swollen and stomachs full, we pulled back onto the road.<\/p>\n We began driving through sunflower country, just endless fields of sunflowers in every direction for hundreds of kilometers. It was enchanting.<\/p>\n When we reached the city of Gelibolu, we purchased tickets for the Doblo on the ferry to Lapseki and began our crawl across the sparkling blue Marmara Sea, toward Asia Minor.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n