Distance: 104km
Elevation: 696m
It had rained during the night. It was great to finally stay in my own tent again. When I woke up at 6:30, the sun was already rising, and the sky was crystal blue.
Whenever I had been awake last night, I had heard the shackles hauling nearby.
Today was the last day before my rest day and supposedly a shorter distance. My legs still hurt from the days before and I was going to take it easy today. 
In the kitchen of the campsite, I met Bogdan, a fellow cyclist from Slovenia. He had been working his way to Istanbul and was now on his way back home. We quickly exchanged some war stories from the road.
He also had suffered from the cold and the wet weather along the way. Also, he mentioned that the traffic coming into Istanbul was only for cyclists with a strong death wish.
I told him about my plan, to travel via a ferry to a peninsula on the Asian part and from there take a ferry to Istanbul downtown. I had borrowed this plan from Rob, a cycling colleague who had been travelling from Albania to Istanbul and was about a week ahead of me.
Bogdan approved of this plan. We shook hands and he ventured off. 
After my morning routine, I decided to go for a swim in the sea.
I was already pretty late when I started having a chat with my neighbors, a couple from Germany, and one from Slovenia. They were driving two Toyota Land Cruisers converted into camping mobiles.
Armin was a medical doctor from Kassel, Germany. Together with his better half Hella and their shepherd dog Ziva they liked to travel to remote destinations that required 4×4 drive.
They had just returned from Georgia, which is towards the east of Turkey. My information had been, that a land entry was currently not possible into Georgia and Azerbaijan. Armin confirmed that it was in fact possible. Those were good news for me.
I would’ve loved to stay and chat much more, but it was already past 10am and I had more than 100km to cover until Alexandroupoli.
The blue sky was exchanged to heavy clouds around midday, which made cycling easier. The route was relatively flat with one major climb in the afternoon. However, I felt that my legs were tired.
I came by a lot of snakes today, most of them roadkill. Some of them had been really big.
Today, my navigation software Komoot found an abandoned road that was running more or less parallel to a highway. There was zero traffic. It was great cycling. Well done, Komoot.
In the afternoon, it looked like a thunderstorm was brewing up. However, I remained dry today.
As I was approaching Alexandroupoli, I looked out for a tavern to have dinner. I found one and inhaled an incredible amount of food without any issues. It was so good.
I had taken the cheapest hotel in town with some questionable reviews. However, I was welcomed by a very friendly young lady, the hotel was clean and relatively modern, and in fact, I had sea view.
We also found a safe and dry space for Rosinante. 
After washing, my clothes, I sat on my balcony and watched the evening sky as the sun went down.
I worked out my plan for the remaining four days. Again, kudos to Rob for sharing this plan with me.
I would cross the border and head South to Gelibolu. From there I would take the ferry to Lapiseki. Then across the mountains to Bursa, and then on to Yalova. From there, I would take the ferry into downtown Istanbul avoiding all the traffic
Later that day, I learned that a good friend of mine had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Shit! I went to bed with a heavy heart.
Still, it had been a great day.