Discovering Turkey and Georgia

Fries for breakfast. Haven't seen that before. Luckily the other usual suspects were also available: feta, tomato, cucumber, bread, olives. On the programme today: 100 km to Konya. Originally I wanted to take a different route with small back roads. But there was no option to sleep except wild camping. Two things stopped me from doing this. First, it would have been on 1500m altitude and quite chilly at night. And secondly, I wasn't ready yet for camping wild. The latter changed during the day... The choice fell on the major connection between Beyşehir and Konya. I expected major traffic. What did I get? Smooth asphalt (I put some more pressure in my tires beforehand 😀) which I actually enjoyed. The traffic was not too bad. Mescits (small mosques) which reminded me of a space rocket, coloured mosques with LED ticker,  and the "guarding" dog.  But most importantly, I met Max, a German cyclist who's cycling in the direction of th...

Breakfast was under the supervision of Atatürk, who is omnipresent here. Today was the way back to civilization, to the city of Beyşehir at Lake Beyşehir. I knew where I would sleep, what a luxury! It's the first time, that I actually make use of Warmshowers while travelling. Warmshowers is couch surfing under cyclists. I hosted a few cyclists over the last years, but I've never been a guest myself. Tonight I was going to sleep at Mustafa's... that's what I thought. The first half of the route was gorgeous and quiet, along Lake Beyşehir.  But approaching a city means more traffic. Only once in a while I could escape the busy road via a detour over a small village.  The 65 km felt rather easy, my body gets used to cycling everyday. After 4000m of altitude over the last 250 kilometer, my condition is definitely improving. Arriving in Beyşehir, it was time for a break. Instead of çai, I chose Turkish coffee. Actua...

When I opened the window last night, I recognized the smell of the outside air from my studies in East Germany, back in 1997. It was the smell of burning coal. It's cold here at night, about 5°C. The houses are not insulated. They are still using coal to heat. According to Wikipedia, coal supplies a quarter of Turkey's primary energy. And that share is not to be reduced that soon... The cold night became an awesome day. Clear blue sky, about 18°C, ideal weather to get over the pass with a plezant cool breeze.  I left the dormitory and started climbing up to 1800 m. Surprisingly, there was more animal than motor traffic on the road.  I'd expected rather heavy traffic, but fortunately the old road is not used much anymore. And I could slowly manage to get the loaded bike up there. With the satisfaction of a long descent, I arrived at the destination of the day, Yenişarbademli. The ritual of finding a place to sleep is starting to get routine: drinking ...

After a copious breakfast, I passed through a mountain village. Beautiful located but pretty poor.  I didn't how far I would get and where I would sleep. I knew there was a teahouse and pension in Ayvalıpınar. But getting a bit further would have been nice.  In the teahouse, only men were sitting there, drinking tea, smoking and playing games. But the teahouse was run by a woman. A very warm lady, who spoke some German as well. I asked her if there was a pension in the next village, 17 km further north. I had seen two on Google maps. But, too bad, one was men only, and the other one full. The whole teahouse crowd was mingling in the discussion of where there would be some place to sleep. They startet looking on their phones, she started calling. I just waited, pretty sure there would be a solution. After a while, she waved me over, trying to explain that I should cycle to that next village named Aksu. Once there, I should call a certain number. Tha...