Till Bergama

Finally -after Albert could sort our his dilemma about whether taking a ferry would be cheating or not- we crossed the Marmara Sea to Yalova on "feribot".  I couldn't mind any less about cheating.  Indeed, I enjoyed it.  Leaving behind the crazy traffic of Istanbul was a relief.
 
Albert has a talent to enter the wrong rooms.  In Istanbul, we once passed by a small traditional hammam (Turkish bath).  Above the door, there was a very long word starting with the letters „Bayan-“.  I knew that „bayan“ meant „women“ in Turkish, so I went inside to ask for prices. Albert had only read the first three letters of the word „bay“ (meaning „men“ in Turkish), but didn't give much thought on why I was going in.  He simply followed.  A woman agitatedly pointed at the door, doing some quick movements and signs with her hands, saying something in Turkish -which of course we couldn't understand.  Albert, impressed by all the steam in the room and shocked by the woman´s gestures hurried back to the door and quickly shut it behind him -not noticing that she was telling him to get the hell out of there, NOT to shut the door behind him because of all the steam... 

And here on the feribot, once again I saw the same shock in his face when Albert came back from men's bathroom -there were men praying on the floor!  He is a fun travel partner.
The trip took only 40min or so but it was already getting dark by the time we arrived in Yalova.  We camped on a field near a few houses from where kids were pointing at us with laser pointers.  Being quite close to a road, it wasn't the most romantic place to camp.  But it didn't matter.  It felt soooo liberating to be outdoors again, in our small castle, after having spent more than 3 weeks in Istanbul. 

The next day, we made a detour to Termal.  After "Termes" in Greece had been a real lucky hit, we thought we'd give Termal a chance.  It made sense to us (we like being optimistic). 
I am a big fan of hot springs.  Over the years I have found out that there is a huge variation of hot springs though: outdoors, indoors, hot, hot, hot! or merely lukewarm.  The colors, the smell, even the tastes vary. In some countries you go in naked, in others you have to wear a bathing suit.  In Iceland, hot springs can be  yellowish-gray mud holes with bubbles that release an unbearable smell when they plop on the surface.. (the image of hell). ..many so-called „hot springs“ are qualifying as hot springs, in my opinion...  Here in Termal the choice was as follows: get a tiny private room (around 2mx1,5m)  with a bath tub filled with spring water for around 20 Euros or swim in an artificial pool in bathing clothes (which we don't have) for 6 Euros. 
-We figured that we were still clean enough and passed on this one ; )

It was a winding road going up a mountain.  Steeper than expected.  I had to push my bike up sometimes.  On the peak, we found the first snow.  The air was crisp and cold.  The view over the other mountains was astonishing. 

Our next destination was going to be Bergama.  We passed through many small mountain villages that I think could have hardly been more authentic.  They usually consist of a main square with a mosque and a water well, a few tea houses, sometimes a small shop or even a restaurant.  Most of the inhabitants seem to be farmers.  In Turkey, there are weekly markets everywhere.  This is why it can be difficult (for us) to find fresh vegetables, milk, eggs or bread sometimes.  There are also mobile bakeries, that come in the mornings to sell bread, even mobile pastry shops.

the eco-farm..

2nd of January... great way to start the year!

Whenever we stop to fill up our water bottles or to buy something, we can expect at least one person who'd walk up to us and invite us to a tea.  When there is a market and we leave the bikes on the side of the street, usually by the time we finish our shopping, there will be a crowd of people around the bikes.  They would ask questions in Turkish and we would try to guess the meaning and answer somehow.  We barely understand what they are saying or asking, but there's always a lot of laughter and good vibes.

Once we were invited to a tea on this ecofarm when we stopped to ask for the way.  Indeed, we were not only invited to a tea.  Yusuf showed us around on his farm, showed us the vegetables and fruits, his two dogs named princess and king, and his other animals: one baby cow and one baby horse, a few geese and chicken, some sheep.  He spoke very little English but we somehow managed to communicate with gestures.  He gave us a paper bag full of dried flowers and herbs and several lemons.  He said a tea of all these things would keep us warm in the evenings.  Then he gave me two grapefruits and a couple of apples, "for the vitamins".  While we were chatting (?) a little longer, his friend came back from the field (the man who was calling something to me in Turkish from a distance for quite some time, while I was waiting with the bikes for Albert to come back).  He was very happy to see us there and asked us to sit at a table.  He unfolded a newspaper, brought two bowls of soup, some bread, cheese, olives, honey and butter.  A typical Tukish meal.  Amazing. We were hungry and really enjoyed the meal ..and suddenly got interrupted by a computerized voice that said something in broken English!  I looked at Albert.  There was the voice again.  Spooky!  Weird, weird, weird!  Traveling in rural Turkey in 2012 brings many unique experiences.  It was Yusuf using google-translator! 

Before we left, they gave us more apples, some oranges, tons of almonds, a jar of honey and „tarhana“ (crumbles of dried dough, made of yoghurt, tomatoes, peppers and spices. A kind of homemade natural instant soup). We were speechles.  Overwhelmed.   We really didn't know how to thank them.
...I guess we left with 3 or 4 kilos of love!  Albert and I had gotten into an argument over some small things that morning and had not been speaking to eath other for some time, riding the bikes seperately.  Until Albert went up to Ibraham to ask for directions.  All the frustration was gone and forgotten by now.  A few minutes after we had started to ride, Albert muttered that what he wanted was this: To have a simple life, grow some vegetables and just be a good person.  That was all.  Indeed, all the frustration was gone.


Ehhhh... due to some chaos : ), I can't post more pictures of this stage right now.  I'll let you know when I can upload some more.  In the meantime, I will post the ones Albert used in his blog.