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Well, it's been a fun ride chock-full of classical ruins and sweaty hills, but the Agean leg of my Turkish cycling adventure is over. I made it down to Selcuk, after some 600 km of cycling, plus a bit of help from a bus and a train. In Bergama, you will recall, i had met Rosa, an Italian french-teacher. She seemed quiite happy to tag along with me for the rest of her time in Turkey, while i wasn't interested in a rookie backpacker holding Dreadnought and i back. I'm also a nice guy, however, so i wasn't willing to just ditch her altogether. I was quite relieved, then, when she failed to meet me at our designated meeting time and place in Izmir. Izmir, known in the past as Smyrna, is the third biggest city in Turkey and -incredibly- has almost no foreign tourism. As such, there are no hostels or pensions in the city, so i ended up spending the night in a 1-star hotel (the kinda place that probably has an hourly rate, too). My main goal in Izmir was to do laundry and to get in touch with Keith's relatives... and i failed on both counts (mostly on account of my non-existent turkish)! Instead of spending another night in the cramped (and frankly kinda creepy) hotel, i looked at a map and realized that i was only 90 km north of Efes, the most extensive classical ruins at this end of the Mediterranean. Now normally i would hop on my steed and start cycling, but Izmir is a big city and the 7 km ride from the bus station has been rather unnerving (though on the bright side i scored some free tea after being nearly run into) so i wasn't looking forward to another ride through traffic. Fortunately, the train station was quite close to my hotel so i decided to try out the Turkish rail system. The train was a great choice. Although i had to stand the whole way and was constantly moving Dreadnought out of the way of the washroom door, the ride only cost me 2 dollars, and the fellow passengers (as always in this country) were super friendly. Once arrived in the town of Selcuk, i easily found a very nice pension and a place to do my laundry. This morning i biked over to Efes, and spent many hours running all over the place snapping away with the camera. In the past week i've discovered a better way to see historical sights: rather than flip through a guide book or follow a tour guide, i've realized that the real trick is to drink 2-3 cans of Red Bull and then run around like a kid in a candy shop. Sure, you get yelled at by the occasional anal tour guide, but with that much caffeine in you there's no way they can catch you! After Efes, i checked out the remnants of the St John Basilica, named that way because St John and the Virgin Mary relocated here after JC went to heaven. Some local wannabe punks were sorely dissapointed when i saw through their ruse to buy over-priced water from their lady friend. Anyhow, tonight i leave the Agean coast (on a red-eye coach) for central Anatolia. I'll spend a couple days in Ankara (the turkish capital and second biggest city) with my new friend G�l�in. Then it'll be back to the saddle for more cycling fun! |