Ergene

In the morning of the 3rd, I slept in at my couchsurfer David's place and spent the day organizing some stuff (upcoming trip to Pamukkale, hosts, routes, washing, fixing things on the bicyclez etc.). In the afternoon, I also went out into the city again for a stroll around before heading back to David's place in the late afternoon. I would move to another couchsurfing host for the next two nights a Turkish family with a four year old son. :) So I waited for David to come home from work to say goodbye. We had a tea together, chatted a little and by 6pm I was back on the bicycle to Bornova, the university area of Izmir about 8km away. It got dark already and I had to go on the city highway, which was really annoying due to traffic but I eventually made it.
Arriving at my hosts place, Olcay, Şeyma, and Güneş, they had ordered Pizza for all of us along with some other food they had prepared. They were were friendly, even though Seyma didn't really speak much English, Güneş obviously neither being four years old. 😅 We were talking until 11pm, when we all went to bed. I was sleeping on a couch in the big living room. Their appartment is located on the sixth floor of the building.

At 3:29am, I suddenly woke up from a weird noise, almost like a thunder but from underneath the earth. Being woken up from deep sleep, I didn't quite understand immediatly what was happening when suddenly the entire building started swinging horizontally for what felt like a long time, but actually only around 10 seconds. It was pretty intense, I cannot really put dimensions onto the movement of the building, but I think I wouldn't have been able to properly walk during the earthquake. I was sitting straight up on the couch in the dark, being very confused until it was over again. Next, I heard the imentire building coming alive, my hosts got up and lights were turned on, also the next door neighbours on the other side of my wall woke up. Luckily, Güneş slept through the earthquake!! I then also got up and met Olcay in the hallway. He checked in on me, making sure I'm okay and told me that earthquakes happen quite often in Izmir since it's a pretty active seismic area. The last notable one has happened just two months ago. However, this one appeared to be a lot stronger than the previous one (4.9 as it was later confirmed). Olcay told me that there may be more but less strong earthquakes following during the night, but the building we're in is built on good ground, so it shouldn't be a problem. We all eventually went back to bed, but I couldn't really sleep anymore. I was also receiving messages from friends in Izmir checking in on each other to make sure we're all okay in the middle of the night, which was comforting. :)

The next morning, I woke up early due to the elevator tests they were running to check if the elevators go through without issues after the whole building has been moving. After some phone calls home and a long breakfast, I took the metro into the city again and strolled around Kemeralti market, clock tower square, and some other nice spots in the city. :) I went back to my hosts around 6pm to cook some sort of "Linsen mit Spätzle", a traditional South German dish with salad, for them with what I could find in the Turkish supermarkets. 😁 Olcay helped me preparing it and by the time Şeyma and Güneş came home, dinner was ready. We are together but I then went out again to the weekly couchsurfing meeting in Izmir with David. :) It was so cool, there were so many people from all over the world as well as many locals! :) It was much fun and around 1am I took a taxi home to Bornova. The taxi driver didn't speak much English and was going to wrong way initially, which I saw on Google maps. 😅 So he had my phone in one hand for navigation and his phone in the other hand for speaking translation while driving. 🙈😅 I got home safely though. :) He also told me about his experience with the latest earthquake. He was in his car driving when it happened, very scary. I generally felt like people in Izmir looked more tired today compared to previous days.. 😅

The following morning I had breakfast with Olcay and Güneş, Şeyma was already off to work. Around 10am I left their place again and dropped my stuff at David's place until the next day. I was going to Pamukkale for one night by bus(es).. 😁

Regarding the photos, I added some impressions of the Kemeraltı bazaar in Izmir. :)

Also, here's more news about the earthquake:
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/earthquake-hi…Read more