Olympus, Antalya and Konya

November 8, 2022 to November 16, 2022

Continuing along the coastal road listening to music great I passed a juice stand where I encountered a very enthusiastic man who requested many photos together as he was serving me pomegranate juice in which he later posts on Facebook.

After a long day I arrived into Olympus an ancient city dating back to 400BC. Much of it has still been preserved and tourists can wander around the ruins imagining life 2000+ years ago here. It was in Olympus where I met Max from America, a traveler on his first long term tour. After I cooked a calorific dinner on the scenic beach, we met up in a lodging area and enjoyed a night in the heated cabin with the owner Ersan and two girls from Lebanon, Yara and her partner.

The next day Efsun from Istanbul joined the group, she taught max and I lots of Turkish phrases (both useful and not). I planned to only stay one night but was persuaded to stay another to explore more and to relax on the beach with new friends. In the evening we all cooked a delicious meal together and chatted into the night.

Wasn’t a fan of the ride to Antalya, the road was big and busy with lots of tunnels and there were no end of resort towns and all the tackiness that comes along with touristy places. I did feel happy though with myself that İ ordered pomegranate juice by the side of the road after the Turkish lessons yesterday morning.

After a rather long ride into the huge city, I stayed with a host from Warm showers called Verum, he is a warm-hearted local student who seems to have a constant stream of guests staying with him in his flat.

I used my time in Antalya to complete a lot of errands including sorting out a new rim for my bike and spending a lot of time in an internet café catching up on months for this blog. Visited a small shoe repair shop to fix my broken sandals and soles from my shoes and ended up staying a whole hour drinking çay and talking to my new friend Bahadir the shoe maker.

In town I also met Sofia, a solo traveller from China, we spent the evening together exploring the old town´s bars and listening to live music.

Two very memorable breakfasts occurred in Antalya too. The first in which we were comatosed by the sheer quantity of incredible food, and the second where I ate menemen for the first time in a small café, after chatting with the lovely owners for a long time they let me eat for free.

I got very bored of the ride from Antalya to Side, the constant display of grandiose Russian tourist resort entrances were getting more sickening by the mile and after I got to Side I had had enough, deciding to change my route and skip this section with a bus to Konya (the constant rain forecasted next week was another reason).

To be fair I did like Side and learning about its history through the archaeological sites. A man sat outside the ruins playing the Persian santur which was mesmerising, i'd never seen this instrument before.

Camped out in a forest in the city where it lashed it down for hours and the rain continued long into the next day (although this time I was sitting in a heated coach feeling pretty happy).

Arrived into Konya and bought some warmer clothes for the winter. Was approached by Nuri outside the shopping mall, he recommended we go to a restaurant a local dish, iskender. It consisted of sliced pitta on a plate covered by slabs of donner meat, just as I was about to tuck in a man comes over and tops it off with half a cup of melted butter. I wasn’t the biggest fan of it but appreciated the calorific meal. It seems most Turkish cuisine is some variant of bread and meat, I wonder how a vegetarian celiac would survive here?

Checked into a cheap hotel and the following morning had a look around the bazar, stocking up on the dried and fresh fruits for my journey ahead. I also bought a dog dazer (ultrasonic deterrent) from an outdoors shop to keep away the notorious Kangal dogs of central and eastern turkey.

I really wish I had set off sooner than 11 as there was a rare tailwind and I was flying along the planes of Konya along the small farm roads between villages. Despite the limited time on the bike I still managed 130km before dark and destroyed my first çiğ köfte dürüm before setting up camp in Sultanhani.

Today's ride: 450 km (279 miles)
Total: 6,745 km (4,189 miles)

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