Maybe it was only a matter of time, but this week we found ourselves in the back of a police van staring at our feet. As the police van hurtled along the Turkish highway, we were in the back with our bikes, bags and a heavily armed police officer. We sat in silence and wondered if we should try to make friends with the police officer. We usually make friends by comically miming riding a bike, saying slowly “from iskoçya” (Turkish for Scotland) and then pointing to the person and asking “do you cycle?” while doing the comical cycling mime again. But it didn’t seem like the time or the place for comedy.