Along the Aegean, Part 2

"The most scenic part so far" is a sentence I will be writing a few more times, I hope. The good thing about that: it feels true every time I write it. There is just so many things to discover!

Izmir

Izmir welcomes me with 2 flats. I'm not sure how exactly those altogether 90+ thorns got stuck in my tires, but either way I consider that a few too many punctures to patch. Unfortunately I'm also out of spare tubes at this point so I really need to go to a bicycle shop to get some replacements.

As luck would have it just at this moment, another cyclist passes by and chats me up: Kemal helps me pump my tires and guides me to a bicycle store where I stock up. The shop only carries Chinese brand tubes but at this point I'm not even sure if those are worse than my Schwalbe ones...

I spend one night in a hostel downtown and another 2 nights couchsurfing in Izmir with Selman and his brother. The two guys are in Web/Android development and have kindly offered to host me. They live on the 13th floor on the hilly part of Izmir, making for a nice view of the sea and city from their living room window.

On one day when cycling along the Izmir waterfront I meet a Turkish cyclist, Mehmet, who speaks fluent English due to his previous time living in the US. He invites me for coffee + cookies where I meet his friends, some of which are also cyclists.

By now I'm so used to pedaling with the sea on my right that when leaving Izmir it takes me a while to notice that I'm going the "wrong" way: the coastline stretches from West to East now and from Izmir I should actually be going South to get to Bodrum. So I turn around again to make my way through the crazy Turkish big-city traffic.

A few days later I reach Bodrum, a cute touristy town. From here I take the ferry onto the Datça peninsula. There aren't many cars on the road which makes the journey a real pleasure. Some of the nights are now getting colder and I'm glad I bought some long underwear back in Istanbul.