Izmir Part 2

After leaving Simge's place, I found my way back to the Denizli bus station and got a bus ticket back to Izmir. This time, the bus wasn't as comfortable and much smaller. Weirdly, we got stopped twice along the way and the police came into the bus to check ID's. Maybe they were searching for someone, but I actually think it's more like a routine procedure. Half of the time on the bus, a little girl was sitting next to me sleeping. The other half, her mother was sitting there, a young woman. Thanks to google translator we could have a very basic conversation. Arriving at the bus terminal in Izmir, there was no shuttle bus back to the city center of the bus company, and it took me ages to to find the right bus stop. I asked around and everyone seemed to know where it is, but it turned out many times that it wasn't there.. :D After some time I got on the bus and made it back to David's place, who had cooked some delicious pasta by the time I arrived. :) I initially planned to stay one more night and continue my trip the next day, but with my sore foot and the weather predictions, it didn't seem like I could cycle to Aliağa the next day. David kindly offered and actually convinced me, that it is absolutely fine to stay longer, he had another couchsurfer coming, Ilkin from Azerbaijan, for some nights the same day and said it would be fun for the three of us to hang out a little more. So I decided to stay a little longer and help David finishing the setup of his living room furniture. :D

The next day, David was at work, I decided to join Ilkin on his walks through the city and showed him some of the places that I discovered and enjoyed in the previous days. Also, we were trying to find this very famous coffe fortune teller at the Kemeraltı bazaar that Simge has told me about. Apparently, people come from all over the country to get his advice! ;) We didn't find him, but still found some great places to have Turkish coffee. It was great walking around with Ilkin since he could speak to the Turkish people. I learned a lot from him and we had lot of fun finding cats in the weirdest places (in shop windows next to wedding dresses, watches, etc.) In the evening, when David was home from work we cooked some sort of improvised German "Spätzle" together, had some drinks and really nice talks. :)Read more