After another uneventful day Izmir looms large over the water in front me. Houses build on steep hills seem like they’re on top of each other. The city is a breezier version of Istanbul. The ferries connect both sides of the city, there’s a smaller version of the Istiklal shopping street here too. But the people seem more relaxed. They move around like they have less places to be and more time to get there. The palm trees help. I stay in a small family run hostel. The kind where you have to take your shoes off and get offered food whenever somebody’s cooking. The second day I come home I hear a stirred voice from the bed next to mine. “Hi man!” the voice from the shadows calls out. The Russian man from the night before seems quite happy to see me again. But then the voice that belongs to the man gets up, and it turns out to be Andrew. We met on Crete about a month ago. We shared a dinner together with his friends and some other people from the hostel there. His friends have moved back home and he’s by himself now. We spend the next three days together and I get to know him as a soft spoken, sincere and all around great human being. Andrew is so open to the world its inspiring. I doubt there’s a bad vain in his body. We visit a hammam, walk around in the rain, have food and enjoy drinks with the other people from our dorm.

What’s also the same in Izmir as it was in Istanbul, and the rest of Turkey for that matter, is the number of stray cats and dogs. They’re seriously everywhere. Every town, regardless of its size, has a community of strays that is staggering. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals”, Ghandi once said. It’s a paradox here in Turkey. The sheer amount of strays are obviously a problem, yet people treat them with dignity and respect. Every café has a bag of cat and/or dog food in the corner. Locals will put out water and snacks, even building little animal sheds on street corners. People stop in their tracks just to pet a couple of cats or play with the dogs, whistling at them while they approach, and throwing them goodies from their dinners. Cats are tame, their fur soft and well kept, the dogs playful and happily wagging their tails with every person walking past. The interaction between the locals and the animals warms my heart. And I get to play with a bunch of animals everywhere I go! It comes as no surprise that they’re not chasing me like they did in Greece.

I’ve had a good time in Izmir, but after a couple of days rest I cycle into the abyss. I have given up on making plans for more than a few days. Going south is the only thing I know. It’s January, it’s cold and wet, but I’m far from done with my adventure. Let’s explore some more. Let’s move to Ephesus tomorrow, I heard it’s nice, let’s see where the road takes me after…