Back to school

On my first day back on the bike I set my sight on Antalya. It was about 110 km so I didn’t know if I would make it all the way there since I hadn’t done that much cycling in a while and that I would have to go over some big hills on the way. But after reaching the top of the hill and starting to go down again it felt good and when I didn’t find any nice place to camp along the way since the ground was very wet at most places I continued on and soon arrived in Antalya and found myself a cheap room for the night. 

The next day I had a couchsurf host in Manavgat and cycled on mostly flat roads to get there, only having a headwind to fight with. I met up with Mehmet at the school where he was a English teacher. And after dinner at the school cafeteria we went to his place at the school ground. He had the night shift at the student dormitory, so I rested ut at his place that night. The next day I met up with Mehmet at the school and participated in the class. I talked a bit about my travels and was questioned by eager students. And after doing the same thing with another teacher I got on my bike and went down to the sea and the town of Side. The ancient ruins and the huge theater was beautiful but it felt nice going back to the non-touristic Manavgat after half a day among big hotels and more tourists that I thought would be here at this time of year.

The other teacher that I helped at the school had a friend in Alanya that I could stay with. So this day I only had about 60 km to go. So I had a nice day on the bike with great weather. But the road between Manavgat and Alanya isn’t the most exciting. There are endless massive hotels along the way, and it’s hard to grasp how many tourists there are here during the high season. I arrived in Alanya early and had some time to look around before meeting my host. I was here on a vacation about ten years ago but I didn’t recognize anything but the castle on the Peninsula. This town have really grown since I was here. 

In the evening I met up with my host Ali, he didn’t speak English so we met up with a friend of his and had dinner. Yusuf knew a bit English but I still had a little trouble understanding. Ali, who I thought I was staying with went home and I followed Yusuf on his moped through Alanya to a apartment belonging to the school which they used for meetings and such. And after a while I realized that I was staying in this apartment for the night. Later another teacher named Ömer also came, and he knew some more English so that we could have some longer conversations. I was spoiled with lots of sweets, fruit and of course many cups of tea.

After a nice breakfast with Yusuf, Ömer and Mehmet I got back on the bike on another warm day. I had about 140 km to my next couchsurf host in Bozyazı so the plan was to find a place to sleep somewhere in the middle. A couple of km from Alanya the road stopped being flat and it was back up in the hills again. In the evening I came by a little run down place that had rooms and since I could hear the thunder coming closer it felt like a good idea to stop there for the night. And this morning I woke up listening to the rain pouring down. But there was nothing to do but put on rain clothes and get back on the road. And it was a tough day with lots hills a rain that wouldn’t stop. Eventually I made it to Bozyazı just as the rain stopped. And from here I only have about 110 km to Taşucu from where I’ll get on a ferry to Cyprus. 

And today I passed 9000 km!! Only 1000 more untill the big celebration=)