Bergama

Carlos was dressed like this wall...

Diego and Carlos and Turkish Pizza's.

I finally left Avalık and rode to Bergama. I got stuck in some mud and had to spend 30 minutes cleaning my bike again....The road had been great, then all of a sudden turned to mud....it would have been an hour if I had gone back and taken a different road....

In Bergama I met two Spanish cyclists. Carlos and Diego (Carlos is Spanish for Charlie). Carlos is heading to Iran, Central Asia, Pakistan, etc... and Diego is just along for the Turkey part. They had also stayed at the same place as me in Ayvalık but we didn't see each other.

Carlos and I walked around Pergamum, which is an old Greek city with a huge stadium. It was fantastic. Parts of it are rebuilt to show what it was like, but most of it is in crumbles. White marble blocks lay all over the ground. It's hard imagining what these places used to look like. We ducked the fence to avoid paying....so we didn't get any maps describing what was what....

Ayvalık

Here are some pictures of Ayvalık.

The tires are made of rubber.

My new wool sweater with a hood got a hole where the hood attaches to the shoulder, so I walked around looking for a seamstress. I've visited probably 8 different seamstresses on this trip. I always enjoy it. It's one of the things I need done that never turns into a mass of confusion. I show them my broken clothes and make the sewing machine sound while moving my finger like a sewing machine needle, they always know what I'm talking about, because they're sitting in front of a sewing machine, and they rarely charge me.

I was walking around looking for someone to fix my sweater when I walked into this shop run by an American women who runs this non-profit providing opportunities for women who have never before earned a salary. These women have all sorts of skills that aren't worth anything to a developing nation. In Turkey the markets are losing ground to Supermarkets, because purchasing something manufactured is somewhat of a status symbol, and not something the people have grown up doing. In America people go nuts over homemade stuff because we've had the manufactured products for so long. But the women over here who have needlework and crafty skills can't make any money with it. So this project allows local women to come in and make bags or other things out of recycled material, and they get paid for it. The American told me that last week they all went out to breakfast and it was the first time in the lives of several of these women, who are into their 40's and 50's, to ever spend so much money (probably $10) on something as frivilous as breakfast at a restaurant. They're gaining an identity other than 'mother', 'wife', 'daughter', 'cook', etc...

So I walked in and asked if someone could speak english, the American piped up, her 'workers' fixed my sweater and I hung out for about 45 minutes talking to the lady. The bags were really cool. They receive donated throwaway instant soup packaging and weave them into handbags and sell them at upscale quirky shops in Istanbul. I would have bought some, but I've got enough quirky handbags as it is....

A Break in the Rain

Canakkale the morning I left.

I was about 1 minute away from buying a bus ticket to Istanbul to drop off my bike and then head to Bulgaria...because I just didn't want to deal with the weather on a bike. But I decided to give the bike a few more days and the weather worked out beautifully...well, at least it worked out.

Fisher guys setting net in 40 F weather.

I'm still scared to death of highways so I stick to small roads, which sometimes turn to dirt roads which are really mud roads which piss me right off. It took me 30 minutes to clean this mess up and my fingers felt like blocks of ice when I was done.


A bird's nest.


Some ancient Greek ruins....they're all over the place. I can't be bothered to document what is what...


Turkish Village.


The Greek Island of Lesbos as seen from Barhamkale (Assos). Some maps call the island "Lesvos", but for ease of readability I'll stick with Lesbos.



Bahramkale ruins.


Me in the evening with a bunch of Lesbos in the background.


Tuesday December 15, 2009, in detail.

The night before while looking for a place to camp (it wasn't raining, so camping seemed like a good idea) I was riding on a road right up against the sea. There were olive tree orchards all over, and camping amongst them seemed to be my best bet. I'm not super into "stealth camping" so I found a guy working in his orchard and asked if I could camp there. He shot me down. I asked another guy a few kilometers up the road, he shot me down too. This place gets a ton of tourists so I figured they like their peace in the off season (and off season it is, I haven't seen a single tourist since I left Istanbul last week).

I pulled up to an empty hotel and asked the guy if I could camp on the lawn, he hooked me up with a really cheap room that didn't have electricity or heat or the water turned on (I found out the water wasn't on after I took a dump in the toilet and it didn't flush....sorry man...).

I woke up Tuesday morning to rain. I only planned on doing about 40 km of flat riding, so I figured I could tough it for 2 hours or so. Besides, there was nothing to do in the 'beach resort' (the beach was pebbly and beautiful, but it was too cold to enjoy it as a beach).

The night before I had arranged with a cafe owner lady named Emine (pronounced similarly to Armine...Emynay) to make me breakfast. She had also made me dinner and then roasted chestnuts, mushrooms and some other nuts on her stove for me. She didn't speak any english. For breakfast she gave me fried eggs, bread, tomatoes, cheese, butter, honey, two different kinds of olives and ketchup (I'm not sure for what...the bread maybe?).

After eating the rain had died down and I headed out. After 4 minutes I took off my rain pants, because it wasn't raining, they aren't even waterproof, and I was hot. 3 minutes later I took off my rain jacket, which also isn't very waterproof. 3 minutes later I took off my mittens and my beanie. It was overcast, I don't remember the temperature, but I was cycling in pants, a t-shirt, my long sleeve seer sucker shirt, and socks. And a helmet. I hate wearing helmets, but I got hit by a freaking car....so I wear one now....There was a bit of a headwind.

The road was small and empty for the first 10 km then turned into a 6 lane highway, 3 going each direction. The added lane made me feel nice and comfy because all the cars were swinging plenty wide. I was in and out of bays the whole time and right up against the water.





40 km in I pulled into Akcay and went into a Converse outlet...my converse are ripping apart. It wasn't an outlet in that stuff is cheap. It was only an outlet because they sold stuff...I don't think they know what outlet means. So I didn't buy any.

I tried asking the lady working there were I could buy a new map. I have a big one of Turkey, but I wanted a smaller one which shows more roads, because I like the small roads, which aren't on the big maps. This turned into a huge fiasco. I kept showing her my small road map and then trying to explain that I was almost going to ride off of it, so I needed a new one, but she just couldn't understand me.

I went across the street to a grocery store, they didn't have maps, so I bought 2 banana's and a coke.

After I ate I went into a taxi booth and asked about maps. Nobody spoke english, but one dude could speak a little german (I'm actually using my german more than my english). He didn't speak enough german to help me and it turned into another fiasco with guys listing towns I would see on my way to Izmir or pulling out big country maps. I tried drawing a box with my fingers around the area I wanted a map of and then making my best 'zoom in' sounds I could think of, but it wasn't working.

I went to get on my bike and one of the drivers walked up to me and told me to follow him. Another taxi guy said he would watch my bike and me and the guy walked all the way across town to the tourist office. It was closed for lunch, for another 10 minutes, so I walked back to get my bike.

The tourist office didn't have any maps to help me. But I did find out about a small road that was a huge shortcut and I wouldn't have to go all the way to Edremit and ride big roads.

The next section of road was on sidewalks right up against the water. It was all summer resort places with volleyball courts, picnic tables, bars, cottages, etc....but everything was empty.


Heading out of Akcay the terrain turned swampy and there was garbage all over the place. When I was putting my camera away after taking this picture a van passed a truck while the truck was driving past me and the van came within inches of hitting me. I flipped him off, but I don't know if flipping off people makes sense in Turkish. I should have thrown a rock....

The road continued through swampy areas of nothingness crossing bridges and greenhouses.

I came into a small town and asked a guy the best way to get to Ayvalık without getting on big roads. He didn't even think I could get to Ayvalık from where we were....I pointed to the road I thought would work, but he disagreed. He walked me over to a shop and asked them and they pointed to the same road I had pointed to....

I stopped and bought some water and a candy bar.

The only way to get where I was going now was on a big highway. There wasn't a ton of traffic, but enough to stress me out. There were several big hills and the descents had headwinds, so I never got very much speed.

I passed several farmers collecting olives that were falling from the trees. When I was on the Italian Riveria a few years ago they set up nets to catch the olives, but I haven't seen any here.

I got to Ayvalık and was looking for a hotel when I bumped into a german ex-pat. He's a carpenter. He showed to a place, which was closed for the season. But that owner showed me to another place, which was also closed for the season. But this owner showed me to another place that let me in.

About 30 minutes after I checked into my hotel it started to pour outside....

Marmara

I've been back on the bike for a few days now, and it's cold and rainy.

My first day I took a 7 am ferry out of Istanbul across the water to Bandirma. I headed towards Biga and had no choice but to ride on the big highway. Sometimes it was divided, sometimes not. Sometimes there was a shoulder and sometimes not. I was only able to get on smaller roads for about 8 kilometers or so, and they were fantastic. I rode on farming roads through vineyards and right up next to the Sea of Marmara . But the farm roads eventually led back to the big highway. I hate the highway. There is a lot of traffic and big trucks and everyone goes fast, except for me, and I'm just counting the cars until another one slams into me....I'm pretty sure I have some sort of complex with this....I don't know what to do about it except avoid the big roads, but that isn't always an option. It's freaky.

It's very humid in Turkey so I sweat a lot. It's chilly, 40's or 50's Fahrenheit, so I layer, which makes me sweat more. And the hills. I go uphill for about 8 minutes, then downhill for 45 seconds then it repeats and repeats. So I'll get sweaty and cool down with the breeze, then get sweaty, then cool down. In China when it was cold I don't ever remember sweating. I don't even remember changing my shirt that often because I wasn't ever sweating. And when I went up hills it took over an hour and then I had a nice long descent, so it was easy to change my layers between the ups and downs. It's completely different here. So far, I like it the China way more. (Except for the food part....the food in Turkey is super good and the food in China was super crappy).

I overslept the next morning. For some reason I can't wake up early than 10 am...and the sun sets at 4:45, so my days are really short. I spent the whole second day on small roads, which do a lot more zig zagging and ups and down, but doesn't have the traffic, which is way worth it to me.
I was carrying a little bit of food, but nothing that sounded good, so when I rode through a small hill town and the old guys waved me into the tea house I went. There must have been 20 men sitting inside this tea house just chatting. I have a feeling they do this everyday. Nobody spoke any English, and it wasn't a restaurant, but they gave me a loaf of bread and something to drink. When I asked about a store to buy food they just shook their heads. As I was leaving a short 55 year old guy (he told me his age later) invited me to his house for lunch. I left my bike in front of the shop (this place was maybe population 400, so my bike was fine) and walked to this old guys house.

Inside his wife was praying, they're muslim, so I hung out in the living room until she was finished. Then I went into a small TV room with a stove and sat on the floor. He brought me out a bowl of beans and some yoghurt. He later brought out some bread and some black liquid in a bowl that he told me to drink. I'm not sure what it was, but it was really sugary. It tasted like melted down liquid brown sugar. The thickness made it really hard to finish, but the guy just sat there watching me eat, so I finished it.

I camped out that night in a forest in the hills. It rained all night and all morning. I didn't even get out of my tent until noon....

When I did get out of my town it continued to rain. I didn't have enough food to hang out for the day, and the forecast called for nine days of rain anyway, so I just rode through it.

I stopped in a small town and bought some doritos in a shop and the shopkeeper and her son gave me handfuls of free oranges and a sandwich. I'm now friends with that kid on facebook. Everytime I get on he chats me up, but he doesn't speak, read or write english, so his messages are always "mrgh" "aefh" "tiljr" "hi".

Then I had to finish out the day on a big highway to Canakkale. A beach town....but it's rained the whole time I've been here...

I seriously seriously considered hopping a bus back to Istanbul, ditching my bike and taking a bus to Bulgaria. Cause....why not? The forecast has been calling for rain as far as they forecast and riding in the rain just sucks the fun out of it. But right before I got on the bus I saw online that tomorrow is hail and the next day is sunny. I think hail sounds better to ride in than rain...so I'm going to put Bulgaria on hold and ride a little more.

It's been overcast the whole time so my pictures never turn out.



The woman whose husband invited me in for lunch.



The man who invited me in for lunch.



 First campsite in the woods.


My new facebook buddy.





Looking out across the water from Canakkale.
Small Turkish village. There is never anything in these towns but a few houses. I rarely even see people in them.

Happenin

Does anybody remember my friend Armine? I blogged about her once or twice....remember? she's that girl from Georgia who was riding on the back of my bike when I got ran over by a drunk driver? Then she had an MRI and they found a tumor on her spine? Then she was offered free spinal surgery? Then she got to the states and had a piece of metal snaked up an artery from her goin to her neck, that will block that artery off for the rest of her life? Then she got to see Salt Lake and come to my house for Thanksgiving? Then she had the tumor taken out of her neck? Well, if you don't remember, I blogged about her a few posts ago.

Here she is on the news in San Antonio....

Istanbul

I'm back. In Istanbul. Safe and sound. Though my bags got lost, damnit.

My bike is where I left it. My tent is where I left it. If I can get my bags out of Germany I should be going for a bike ride on Monday....

I watched a stupid movie on the plane about some guy who uncontrollably travels through time and goes into the past to start dating the 6 year old version of his future wife...I nearly gouged my eyes out it was so lame. Then I watched about 25 minutes of an equally lame video called "Ski to the Max" starring pop star Pink driving an Audi. I switched it off about 10 minutes after Pink attached a parachute to her Audi and launched into the sky. However, she did drive said Audi under what I'm mostly positively sure was Corona Arch in Moab, and I was just barely there with Brian a couple of weeks ago.

Then I read an article in Outside magazine (why do I always think I'll like reading Outside....I don't think I ever like reading Outside...) about this guy who wrecked racing on skis but has the guts to come back and compete again. My wreck was likely way more intense than his, I slid way further, on asphalt, but I'll admit I'm a bit apprehensive about getting back in the saddle. We'll see...I'm still excited for it...

incorrectness

Armine just called me and said "why do you always write these wrong things about me in your blog?"

If I'm remembering correctly, she is referencing two instances in which I, innocently, lied about her operation.

1. The doctor did not remove the tumor in a non-invasive manner. Originally I wrote that he would make a small incision on the front of her neck and a small incision on the back of her neck. He ended up not doing that. He opened her up and instead.

2. I think I wrote something about how her tumor wasn't on the nerve and so she didn't have any complications with her nerves. And that is all really wrong. Her nerves were wrapped around her tumor. Her doctor, Dr. H has a partner who does the surgery with him (it was a 4 or 5 hour thing), and the partner does this type of surgery all the time and he's never ever ever removed this type of tumor without either cutting or damaging the nerve. And usually the nerve is merely up against the tumor. Armine's tumor was tangled up in nerves, and they didn't cut or damage the nerve at all. Dr. H's partner was amazed. Armine is a badass.

Cut Me Like Surgery

Armine had surgery yesterday. It took a little longer than they thought it would, but went better than expected. Whenever they do this type of surgery the tumor is almost always right up against the nerve, and the nerve has to be cut. They then take some nervous tissue from the patients leg and 'patch' the nerves in the neck (or something like that.....). But Armine's tumor wasn't on the nerve and so there wasn't a problem. They were surprised that it came out as easily as it did. They did nick her artery, as they thought they would, but because she had that artery blocked there were no problems. She lost a lot of blood, about as much blood as any normal person would lose during this type of surgery, but because she is so tiny is was a lot for her. But she'll be ok and they aren't planning a transfusion.

She wasn't at all nervous for the operation. She's been staying with the doctor's family and trusts him a lot. That and the fact that she is used to Georgian hospitals, which to an American walking into a Georgian hospital feels a lot like walking into a really old bowling alley. She was only nervous for the pain she would feel after spinal surgery....what a sissy....

She came up to Utah for a week and saw all the stuff there is to see in Salt Lake and then went with me to my parent's house for Thanksgiving and Katelyn's wedding. She never thought she would get to see the Salt Lake Temple, so it was fun showing her that. I wish everybody could meet her, she's super cool. It still blows my mind that we got hit by a car, walked away and then she got a free trip to America for free spinal surgery....I really wish I could take her to Vegas....

She'll need a couple of weeks resting and then she'll go to Florida to spend Christmas with her cousin. She flies back to Georgia in February.





I fly to Istanbul tomorrow and will be back on my bike in about 4 days.....I can't wait.