Dikili

The next moring, Yuksel had to leave early for work, I quickly got up to say goodbye but he had already offered me in the evening to stay as long as I want in the moring and just close the door behind me when I leave. :)

Around 9am I texted Yuksel that I'm about to leave to find a bakery for some breakfast, and he responded to me: "Well, not now. It's Atatürk's moment of death soon everything will be closed." 9:05am, I heard prayers from the mosque, followed by people singing, and I could see people on the street suddenly stopping for a minute of silence. Everyone in the entire country put down work for some time, in the school close by I could hear that there was a big event going on due to his death. I went outside to look around and watch the happening. My bicycle was there still by the way. ;) Around 10am, I was back on my bicycle to grab some breakfast and water from a supermarket on the way out of Aliağa - honestly, I spent hours on this trip just sitting or standing infront of supermarkets eating something. It's not always a beautiful spot by the water but most of the time just some random place.. :D

After having such a horrible ride along the main highway, I really wanted to get off the main road on a beautiful little road along coast and through the countryside. I wasn't sure though whether it's possible with my foot to go along the coast regarding kilometers, elevation, and road conditions to go along the coast. So I decided to stop in Çandarlı first, which is kind of half way to Dikili and see from there which of the two options (along the coast or through the country) I would take. Çandarlı is a beautiful little city, maybe even more like a big village, that seemed pretty authentic and not touristy at all when I got there. I got there around 1pm and walked around the center a little, before having lunch in a nice little place serving pide (Note: it got pretty hard to stick to my vegetarian diet in Turkey, anytime it was possible for me to get veggie options I'd choose those, but sometimes people have already cooked something for me so of course I'd eat it as part of the cultural experience. Also, like this time, I ordered pide without meat, but got meat anyways..). I then searched for a nice sunny coffee shop by the water to have a çay and ask locals about the road conditions of my planned route. I found a pretty cool bar with the owner sitting in it playing guitar. He didn't speak English but again, thanks to translation apps, we managed to comunicate and he told me that the route along the coast is super steep in parts but the views are absolutely beautiful. Also he insisted on not letting me pay for my çay, we took a photo and I promised to leave him a great google reference, which I did. ;)

So I went for the scenic, steep route along the coast and it was really worth it!! It was quite steep though but I managed to get up in zig zags without having to push my bicycle. :)) The views on top were amazing, it was a sunny day and you could see some tiny islands just off the coast - the only islands that belong to Turkey, the others all belong to Greece even though they're so close to Turkey mainland. On top of the hill, I took a break on the side of the road in a gravel pitch to enjoy the view. I think that's when I puntured my back tyre.. I continued riding on the ridge of the hill with my headphones in but soon felt like somethings's weird. After travelling with my bicycle for so long, you can feel any little change in riding, and of course usually the sound of it. Annoyed by another back tyre puncture, I stopped to fix it. Just a few minutes after I stopped, a guy in a van coming the other way stopped asking whether I'd need help. It wasn't a busy road at all and the only one who came past during that time, but you can really count on people being super supportive whenever you need help in Turkey and the Balkan countries!! :) I didn't need help but enjoyed the talk and company. Volkan owns a kitesurfing school, which is only open during summer. He's on the way to travel south with his cat in the van to escape the cold winter weather. He helped me fixing the tyre and we chatted a little. I found a tiny little piece of metal wire stuck in the outer tyre, it probably punctured the inner tube. Lucky I found it, if I hadn't found it, it would have punctured the new inner tube, too. :D The back tyres take a lot longer to fix due to chain, so I gave my host in Dikili a heads up that (again) I would arrive just around sunset. :D

The last part of the ride was the most beautiful of the day though! First of all, it was a lot of downhill riding, also there were amazing views on the island and the sun slowly setting over the ocean. I was mostly riding through olive yards with the locals being busy with the harvest: The woman would sit on tarps on the floor under the trees and removing the leaves and sorting the olives that had fallen to the ground, while the man get the olives off the tree by shaking the branches.

I arrived in Dikili with the sun just setting and bumped into Mujdat on the street, my host for the night who I approached through the app "Warmshowers". He seemed to have immediately recognized me and invited me to his campervan first who was parked in the city center for some homemade traditional food that his mum gave him. :) Mujdat has lived in the UK and other parts of Europe for many years, working as a talent scout for soccer clubs. We had some nice conversations while eating and went to his appartment close by after, where he gave me the choice between two of the guest rooms - such a luxury. :)
I then had a shower and settled in one of the rooms (which turned out to have a traditional bed with only 1.60m in lenght), while he went out again. Later, we enjoyed some more conversation over a çay. He also invited me on a tour with his motorcycle to explore the area the next morning. The route for the next day was comparably easy and short, it wouldn't take me all day so I was happy about the offer to see more of the area this way. :) I went to bed around 11pm and slept quite fine for the size of the bed, surprisingly. :DRead more