Izmir is a beautiful city full of ancient sites and monuments. Here we ran near the famous clock tower.

Izmir is also a very modern and fast progressing city at the sea side. Definitely worth of a visit.

This morning we had the great honour of being received by the Mayor of Izmir Mr. Aziz Kocaoglu. He explained to us a little bit about the present of the city and was very kind and supportive towards our project. He regretted not to have time enough to run with us as his responsibilities cover three million inhabitants.

A little bit later we had an opportunity to meet the Vali, Mr. Cahit Kirac, who is the highest authority in the city-area, with the head of Youth and Sports of the city Mr. Sabri Sadiklar. Very kindly they gave us some of their precious time and concern.

As we left the governor's office we saw a lot of smoke! One could think that our torch set the governor's building on fire, but luckily it was smoke against mosquitos that were flying everywhere around.

They have one mosquito fighter in the city. His torch is much more smoky than ours.

The first school we visited was a very touching experience for us. The Zafer Primary School went through difficult times recently, but the children were probably the most enthusiastic audience on our journey. They even sang a song for us!

Consequently our visit had a very special meaning for the children as well as for the teachers

Passing the torch to everyone is one of the highlights of every school visit.

We really wanted to spend a nice moment of sharing and solidarity, and in fact the children gave us a lot of energy to continue our journey.

A local proverb says: “ If you share your joy you can only increase it, and if you share your sorrows you can only make them lighter ”

Once again we had to give many signatures even on hands and shirts.

The following school was the Gazi Primary School in Izmir.

We were lucky enough to talk to all of the students in a big conference hall, which makes it easier to communicate with everyone.

The best part is the running together anyway.... They also invited us for typical Turkish meals, we enjoyed it a lot considering that we did not have long a distance to cover during the day.

The sports teacher was so kind to run with us and show us the way to our next meeting.

Then we visited the Atatürk High School in Izmir.

We met basketball-, badminton- and other teams. These students asked us many questions about how and why we run, and they even ran with us on the streets of Izmir for a few kilometers. It was very nice and friendly meeting.

We did not have so much running today, but the few kilometers we had were really nice, windy, and veeeeery hot. Luckily the Turkish drivers are supporting us a lot by honking. It always makes the run feel easier.

Turkey is very rich in culture and traditions. This was a wedding we saw on the way.

We arrived to the city of Manisa, which provided us with nice accommodation and dinner. Many thanks for that. We felt like at home!

Manisa is surrounded by high mountains. We enjoyed the view and a beautiful sunset.

---

Distance: 34km

Team Members:
Dipavajan Renner and Jewgenij Kuschnow(Austria), Banu Eres and Hüsniye Aktas (Turkey), Ondrej Vesely and Rosta Vagner (Czech Republic), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Valentin Bebik and Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Janos Derekas (Hungary), Sahatvam Selbach (Germany).

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

< Croatia 9 May

Turkey 11 May > Bosnia 11 May >

Bosnia 10 May