Cradle of civilization 2.0

Cycling was terrible today, as traffic between Adana and Mersin is a pain! And there's not really any secondary roads to avoid it.
However, we experienced Turkish hospitality at its best again. In the morning, Asiye took us out for breakfast. Tekin, the leader of the cycling group came by to say goodbye. He asked us, if we want to have a look around in Tarsus and meet one of his cycling friends. And as Tarsus is about half way and we knew the way to Mersin was relatively quick, we agreed. Because, why not stopping for a tea for an hour and meeting a local?
But here, we had ignored all our previous experience again. The hospitality was overwhelming again. Of course, the guys in Tarsus had prepared a full program for us. It started with a reception at a primary school, the workplace of Göghan, our contact. The director of the school invited us for coffee, biscuits and tea, another teacher and cyclist brought lunch and we also got a tour around the school. They tried eagerly to convince us to stay in Tarsus for a night and were very sad when we insisted on continueing those 30km to Mersin.
After the school, Mehmet Ali, another cyclist came by to show us around the city. The first stop was at the American Koleji where we met the director who spoke fluent English and gave us some background information Tarsus. The settlement itself is already some 10.000 years old and has been populated ever since. And centre of Tarsus is really quite nice: some excavations, old stone houses, covered markets, a Roman church, and a waterfall. So instead of 1 hour, we spent about 4 hours here and met many nice people again.
In Mersin, we were welcomed by Süleyman, another friend of Tekin's. We had coffee at his wedding dress shop in the centre where we also met his girlfriend and her son. Afterwards, all of us had fish and Köfte for dinner at a supermarket where they prepare your meet on the bbq straight away. Maybe not the nicest place to sit, but the food was awesome! We finished the evening with a picknick at the sea before going to their apartment.Lue lisää