Thursday, July 9, 2009. Day 21

Stats:
Total Distance: 1595
Day Total: 87.93
I was on the road by 10:00.
Here is a photo of the Silfike castle

I was moving fast. No wind, acceptable road pavement, and flat road. Miles were going fast.

As I was biking, a motorcyclist acoasted me and started talking to me. He must have been in his late teens. He wouldn't go for about 15 kms. He was getting to be a nuisance. He kept saying he was in the advertising business for tourists and other things that did not make any sense. All the time I was wondering what he was up to. Finally, he asked for a donation for his advertising campaign!!! This is when we parted.

And then it happened again. The back wheel was flat. Fortunately I was near a gas station where I pushed Spithas. The two attendants were more than friendly. They helped me change the inner tube and when I was ready to go one of them noticed that the wheel was loose. It had to do with the axis and the small metal balls that are in there.

Taking the advice of one of the attendants I decided to slowly make it to the next big town, Edemlim, which was 23 kms away. After stopping for a couple of times to recover from the heat and have misir (corn on the cub) I reached Edenli and it was not difficult to find a bike store. The mechanic seemed to really know what he was doing. Even though he could not speak a word of English we had perfect communication. He took care of the problem and of another four problems that I had intended to fix. However, when the time came to ask for the bill I remembered Jener's "not all fingers have the same length." He asked for a huge amount. Maybe five times as much as he should have asked. I bargained him down but still paid lavishly.

Like I told you in the past, most signs have both the Greek as well as today's name on them.
Rather upset with the incident I biked on and covered the remaining 40 kms wıthin reasonable time. As I entered the outskirts of the city I noticed many thatch weavers selling their goods.
Mersin seems vast. There was a 16 km stretch of buildings on either side of a wide avenue as I entered. At some point I realized that a road hugging the seaside was running parallel to D400 that I was riding. Biking on that promenade made everything more interesting but still not impressive. As I was biking and looking for the town center another biker approached me and started talking to me. This Biker turned out to be very nice and helpful. He actually called his friends on the phone to get info and led me to the hotel that I ended up staying, Star hotel.

After showering I went out foraging and to the internet cafe.