sanlıurfa

the first person to pick me up in antep was a guy who owned his own little software company in a city a couple kilometres down the road, where he was returning now after having donated blood in antep. he invited me to his office for some tea and even had some food delivered for me and fought off every one of my attempts to reimburse him.

an hour later, i was picked up by two younger guys in an old lada barely holding onto life. seatbelts have become a commodity in this part of the world, but the vibes were all the better. we made a stop in a small city not 10km from syria. coming there, we entered proper kurdish territory, and you could clearly tell. all the roads i had seen in turkey were in perfect condition, spotless. here, they thurned into muddy, bumpy never to be finished construction zones. the guys explained that the government doesn't like the kurds, so they just don't build the roads for them like for the rest of turkey. crazy.

when they dropped me off on the street again, i didn't even have time to set down my backpack, before another car just pulled in behind the car i had just gotten out of and waved me in. they were three social workers carpooling back home to (sanlı-)urfa. they dropped me off 15 minutes from my hostel. just in that short time, i was approached by 3 or 4 different guys welcoming me and got tons of smiles from the locals.

but sadly, urfa isn't just peaches and cream. along the road, there were a bunch of half collapsed buildings and "involuntary parking lots", as i call them - rectangular spaces where a building should be, but isn't. all silent reminders of the earthquake a year ago. i did a bit of research later, apparently almost 400 people died just in urfa alone. i also noticed that here, about half the women wear full niqabs.

i found my way to the hostel, where i was greeted by a surprisingly strong soviet atmosphere. the owner made an entry into a huge brown guest book instead of a computer and handed me the keys to my room. with dim lighting, thick walls, a long hallway and super old interior, this place looked more like a prison than a hostel. but who am i to complain. i quickly met the only other guest, an older australian chap.

i took the first day off and reunited with shawn from göreme on the second. we did a bit of sightseeing, and surprisingly, were rewarded with a lot more than we had anticipated. urfa is home to a beautiful public park complex including huge fish ponds, bazaars, mosques, and a big castle. oh, and apparently, the birth cave of abraham (where he supposedly lived for 15 years in complete darkness, only nourished by an antilope giving him milk) (???) and an exhibition where you can lay your eyes upon an alledged beard hear of his. luckily, not even the locals take anything shown there seriously, they all told me they're fully aware that it's a scam.

on the third day, we visited the famous göbelklitepe excavation site an hour from the city. it's thought to be the oldest found human structure in the world by a long shot and although i'm usually not really interested in old stone piles, i have to say it was pretty cool. when we returned to the hostel, there was another guest there, lea from france. we had planned to visit mount nemrut the next day, but the hostel owner told us that the road there would be buried in snow, so we opted for the village of harran instead.

we took a dolmus there and passed by the first attraction of the day on accident. just a huge tank parked by the road. there were police officers with kalaschnikovs right next to it, so i had to suppress the urge to climb on it.

then we went to see the classic turkish mud homes that harran is still home to after thousands of years and climbed around in some castle ruins. also got rocks thrown at me by some little kids. luckily, i decided not to cause an international incident.Read more