Balıkesir

The next morning, Mujdat prepared some traditional Turkish breakfast called Kahvaltı, with fried egg, self-harvested olives, cheese, and a salat. I love Kahvaltı. :)) We then went back to his van, where the motorcycle is parked. Mujdat also plans to travel south with his van during winter time, apparently that's a thing in Turkey. Wearing a helmet at least, Mujdat showed me around the area of Dikili first: We went outside the city to the village where he was born and where his family still owns some land to grow olives. Then, we went inlands into the Kozak region on a narrow winding road up the mountains.
Along the way, we stopped somewhere near Nebiler to go for a little hike to a remote cave and waterfall. We were the only people walking this way. You had to follow up the stream of a river, and after just 20min of walking on a little hiking trail we found a pretty nice little cave with beautiful stone formations. The shallow water inside the cave was warm from thermal activity in the underground. After taking some pictures and exploring the cave, we continued our hike along the river. We had to cross on stones and fallen trees a few times. At some point, we heard a really weird sound near by, like a grunt of a bear. We stared at each other, confused, and weren't sure what to do. Mujdat said that he has no idea if there's bears in this area, also, we couldn't look it up because neither of us had reception on the phone. We decided to slowly continue and soon heard the sound again - this time it was clearly coming form the other side of the little hill and sounded more like an engine. :D I think we both freaked a little for no reason before. :D Continuing our hike, we soon arrived at a beautiful waterfall where we also spent some time, before heading back to the second waterfall near the motorbike. After about 1.5h of hiking, we continued our trip up the Kozak mountains.

We drove through endless pinetree forest, if I remember correctly it's even the largest connected pinetree forests in Turkey, with stunning views into the valleys. Not many people living up there in a few little villages that are all spread around the area. Mujdat still has relatives in some of the villages, so we stopped in Kaplanköy and went for a Turkish coffee and çay under an amazing 100+ year old tree. Funnily, Mujdat's uncle and some other people he knew were also sitting there enjoying a coffee, so they joined us. I didn't understand a word, but Mujdat translated anything interesting for me. :) Apparently, the Kozak people owning some land in the region were rather wealthy people, since pine nuts are pretty expensive on the market. However, for many years now, the pinetrees have stopped producing and they haven't figured out the reasons yet.
After almost an hour, we continued our trip up the mountain (by that, I was already a little worried that we won't make it back in time for me to continue cycling the same day..), but it was just such a beautiful area. We stopped in another little village soon again, where we visited an older lady who's also part of his familiy. It was really hard to convince her that we really had no time to stay unfortunately, she wanted to invite us for food but Mujdat said, it would take hours to leave again if we accept the invitation. :D So after a quick talk, we went through the neighbours garden to a viewpoint of the area. It was already past 2pm and I had to start riding by 3pm, otherwise I wouldn't make it in the daylight. So we decided to head back to his place. :)

I'm usually not this much in a rush, but since I had to plan a day or two in advance for finding couchsurfers or people through warmshowers to stay with, I didn't want to change plans all the time. Turkish people go above and beyond when it comes to hospitality and I didn't want to cause any inconvenience in changing plans. ;) Also, winter was slowly catching up on me, so if I wanted to make it to Istanbul still, I had to keep on moving.

I started cycling to Ayvalık just shortly past 3pm, where I would stay with a gril called Seda through couchsurfing. I was pretty hungry when I left Dikili though and beakfast seemed like a long time ago. Being in a rush, I just bought some sort of baguette and ate it while cycling. :D Fresh bread is incredibly tasty in Turkey, so I didn't mind having plain bread.

The ride was pretty easygoing, 38km, almost no elevation but partly along the main road again. It wasn't busy though. I arrived in Ayvalik with the most beautiful sunset I've seen along the trip. I locked my bike near the harbour and joined a crowd of people who were also amazed by the colours and taking pictures. Seda lives right next to the harbour, in a beautiful loft-like appartment with her three cats and a beautiful stunning view onto the water from both the living and the bedroom. :) She insisted on me having her bedroom, since she and her boyfriend, who came by later, mostly sleep in the guest room anyways. Seda and me got along super well from the start, she's such a fun person and with a lot of stories to share! She's the daughter of a police officer, like me. She told me that she had to move every couple of years within Turkey since her dad's relocation. Apparently, depending on the rank within the police, officers are being relocated every three years to prevent corruption and maintain an authority. Very different to Germany..
We ordered some pizza and chatted until late, while Seda was packing for her travels the next day. She was going to the Greek islands for a week but offered me to stay in her place anyways - second time in Turkey I'm having an appartment for myself. :D Since I had plans for the next six days, I was continuing my trip the next day though.Read more