June 24, 2009. Day 6

Stats:
Trip total: 494.4
Day total: 59
Avg speed: 16.4
Tm riding: 3 hours 32 mins

Got up around 9:00 victualized and walked around town. Aliaga is an OK town of 55,000 but nothing is special about it. As one driver was beeping his horn, I did realize one thing though. I was alerted to the fact that Turkish drivers will rarely use their horn. That's a sign of consideration.

I hit the road at 11:30 and as the hotel was near the highway I was on my way to Smyrna (Ismir) in no time. I had planned to cover the 60 kms to Smyrna in a few hours and walk around town the entire day. I was very arrogant, I admit. In general, if one ignores the house's host, he will have to pay a penalty. The penalty was heavy. The wind would not stop and, as usual, it was a head wind. It made everything difficult and frustrating. I was moving very slowly and made many stops. At the first real stop, at a gaz station, I parked my boat and sat against the wall and produced some food. The attendants looked at me in a friendly way and waved to me that a chair was availiable, which I declined. An old lady in traditional clothes and a head scarf passed by me into the gaz station's store several times carrying some type of food. The last time she waved to me and as I approached her she produced a plate of food for me. I had no words to say, figuratively as well as litterally. I uttered the only relevant thing that I knew and that she would understand "te secur ederim," she nodded and left. After I ate the food and when I was ready to go I looked for her gave her back the plate told her the same phrase, she nodded again, and I biked away.

I wished the wind were as considerate as that lady. To make you understand what it means to make an enemy of the wind I'll quote an incident from yesterday. As I was going downhill, I stopped pedaling and left the bike roll freely. The odometer showed 19. Suddenly there was a gust of wind (not that strong,) and the speed of the bike went down to 10, in seconds!!!!!

A few miles further down I was so frustrated that I decided to stop again. I stopped at a bus stop that offered adequate shade. I ate a little more, inbibed some liquids and then went behind the bus stop stand lied on the ground and napped for about an hour and a half. Naturally, I had very vivid dreams of calm weather. Unfortunately, when I woke up and had to face reality, that was very different. Good thing though was that I had miscalculated my distance form Smyrna which turned out to be much closer than I had originally thought.

Pretty soon I crossed the city limits but had to bike another 17 kms to get to Basmane train station in Chankaya where the hotels are. I found lodge at Laleli hotel at a reasonable price, couple of dollars more expensive than yesterday, but there is no comparison between the rooms, the comfort, and the people. After resting for a while, went out and walked around. I ran into a local market place. I have noticed that the stores are open at all times. You can find a barber at 23:00, for instance, if you want to.

No pictures today. The scenery was not pretty enough to induce me to take the camera out and two pictures of Smyrna that I took are at the panoramic mode which for some reason will not load.

See you tomorrow w/ pictures and more incidents.