From Barcelona to Tehran: Day 40

Day 40: ; From Nazili to Pamukkale in Turkey

June 9, 2012; Distance covered today: 87 Km; Total: 2895 Km

The breakfast was served at 7 am so I couldn’t leave earlier to beat the heat. The breakfast was all you can eat, and I am a hungry cyclist. It is suffice to say that I am almost sure that next cyclist checking in this hotel would not be given breakfast as part of the deal. 

I left Nazili and I was already sweating. At about noon, I arrived at a fork where I had to turn left to Pamukkale where there also was a campground. The road was going through some very very small villages. I stopped for a tea in one of them. I soon got to Akkoy a village with hot spas. It was really hot and I was passing by a very crowded café/teahouse. I stopped there and had two bottles of eyran/drinking yoghurt.

The owner of the teahouse was an interesting person. He braggingly insisted on speaking English to show off in front of other customers. He was kind of angry too. I don’t know why. He never smiled or anything. I wanted to pay for the eyran, but a guy sitting next to me and to whom I had been talking, asked the owner of the teahouse to put the bill on his tab. I had just paid for the drink so the owner, “threw” the coin I had given him to me on the table. The coin fell on the ground and the other guy picked it up and gave it to me. I never found out why the owner behaved that way. What was he angry about? 

Who is the owner?

Pamukkale area

Anyways, I left for Pamukkale and happened to be biking on a terribly steep road in awfully boiling weather. I checked a campground which I didn’t like the owner of, and then found a restaurant where I could also pitch up my tent for 15 L. Then there was the usual: shower, washing my clothes, and then heading out to venture around, relaxed, had diner, spent some time on the net, and went to sleep at 12:30.