Adana and a train ride

Kozan to Adana

Distance: 32.7 km
Time elapsed: 2:08:00
Average speed: 15.3 km/ hr
Max speed: 29.7 km/ hr
Temp: 33 C
Weather: Nice, clear morning; HOT afternoon!

The sound of a loudspeaker, urgently blaring some sort of morning news (reminds me of the village newscasts I heard in Vietnam, now that's selected media!) woke us in Ertan and Hecer's house. It sounded like the speaker was just outside the bedroom window, but Hecer said pointed to the school across the street when I asked. I guess they don't want tardy students!


Sleepyheads

We sat on their living room floor, sharing eggs, olives, and honey for breakfast. The honey is a dark brown with big chunks of comb-- Kind of waxy but it goes down well with bread. Hecer's father, who we met last night, has a big garden full of orange trees, figs, persimmons, pomegranites, and several bee boxes. So cool.


Breakfast on the floor around a silver tray, reminds me of Tempe

After eating and watching the morning news- rain in Istanbul, more PKK activity, and a food festival in Gaziantep- we sat talking awhile longer, then said our goodbyes and thank you's before taking our bikes to the road.


Biking out of town, the castle looks so small, huh?

Kozan is set in a long, wide valley, full of citrus orchards. Luckily the road led straight and flat, slightly downhill actually, for about 30 km. That's where the construction begins. We caught a lift to the big city of Adana with two guys, one who used to work in England. He seemed really friendly, I wonder what his former life abroad could have been like...?


Riding in luxury

We didn't stay long in Adana. Our first order of business was to hit an Internet cafe, next to the train station. After a fair amount of sweet talking (my Turkish is getting so good!) we convinced the officials to let us take our bikes aboard the night train to Ankara. I didn't even think this would be an issue, assuming we'd just have to pay an extra fee. At first they were adament that it's not allowed, but after some coaxing and phone calls they got permission from someone higher up with a tamam (OK). We booked a sleeper car for the 12 hour ride, considerable more expensive but so fun! And the plan was to keep the bikes in our cabin with us.


Adana is known for şalgam, a salty beet drink (not my cup-o-çaj!)

With our free afternoon we rode to Sabanci Merkez Cami, an immense and ornate mosque built in the late 90's. It is really impressive- measuring up to Istanbul's mega mosques quite well- and the quality of the materials used (real gold and marble) are apparently very good.


6 minarets and Sabanci Merkez Cami


A family admiring the camii

Beautiful but fairly lifeless for me. Chris says that because we came during work hours in the middle of the week. Maybe. But anyway it's a showy mosque, not near a neighborhood, and it serves it's purpose.


Beautiful interiors en par with Istanbul's great mosques

Exploring cities by bike rocks because it's easy to travel and a lot can be done in a short time. We pedaled through a park along the canal, then to the downtown area where Chris ate the famous Adana kebab and a tavuk doner. I couldn't stop myself from buying pastries from a bakery, they looks so good! But I'm always disappointed, finding them to be stale and dry. When will I learn?


Vıew of Sabanci Merkez Cami from the canal


Hungry man!

Back at the train station, with 20 min until departure, the attendant refused us entrance with the bikes. But they said yes! No, he crossed his arms and gave us the cold shoulder. Panicking, I dragged the woman who sold us the tickets upstairs to talk to the guy, but he didn't want to listen. Luckily, with 5 minutes left, she simply went over his head and calmly told us our bikes would ride upfront, in the attendants' cabin, under their beds.

Phew!!

We happily agreed, stuffing them into wagon 1 and then jumping ourselves into wagon 7, on the complete opposite end.


Our home for the next 12 hours

Long train trips are so fun, especially with a cabin and beds. We stayed up for hours, wandering down the lines of connected rooms a few times, and stopping once in the dining car. We didn't stay for food, instead enjoying fruit smuggled in the bags back in our cabin. Waking early, I thought the train would pull in to the city at 7:30 sharp. From our window we watched endless plains full of wheat fields and occasional villages off in the distance. The train didn't arrive in Ankara until after 9:30, giving us a long morning to relax (and eat those pastries).


Mobile camping