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Go East

maggio - novembre 2020
Un’avventura di 175 giorni di Herbert & Meike Leggi altro
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  • Go East
    1

    Cycling through Mesopotamia

    15 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Mustafa spoilt us with a huge and very delicious breakfast this morning - Kurdish style on the floor. Then we left to discover more of the Mesopotamia region. Our first stop was Hasankeyf. Until February this year, Hasankeyf was an impressive site of cultural importance with an old castle, cave houses and ancient mosques. However, the current Gouverneur built a dam and flooded the area, so that about 90% of Hasankeyf is under water now. They saved the mausoleo and are rebuilding some other buildings like the old bridge in a cultural park. They also built many new look-alike houses for the population. All of "new Hasankeyf" appears more like a ghost town and it's difficult to imagine how it looked before. It's really sad this formerly impressive site got destroyed!
    After Hasankeyf, we had to climb up the mountains again. Herbert suddenly had a flat tyre - caused by his favourite metal pieces. He had to repair it straight away as the hole was quite big.
    Then we rolled into Midyat where we found a hotel. They told us they won't have electricity until tomorrow, so we got a very good price for the room. Exploring Midyat was fun as it's very different from other cities here in Turkey. It has a Christian origin with current Arab and Kurdish influences. The ancient houses are very cool, especially the ornaments, and walking around the small streets was good fun. Food is delicious here with all the Arab spices used. And you can also get some nice wines that are special in this region.    Leggi altro

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    1

    Mardin

    16 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    For breakfast, we got soup this morning. It was good, but definitely not enough for a day of cycling. So we bought bread at a bakery and had a second breakfast after just 15km.
    Shortly after, we stopped again. This time, Abdullah invited us for a coffee and some water. He insisted quite firmly, so we had no chance to decline the invitation. He spoke some German and told us proudly about his farm, explained that this region is mainly Arab and showed us videos of his daughter riding the horses on his farm.
    Just about 2 kilometres later, a family stopped us. They gave us maybe 2kg of grapes and a glass of green peppers. Just like that... In order to actually make it to Mardin today, we declined the upcoming invitations for tea 😂
    When we arrived in Mardin, we were very impressed. It's like an outdoor museum and a great setting for any Arab movies. Many old buildings, markets, spices everywhere. We checked into one of those stone house hotels and just walked around to discover this huge maze. Small streets, tunnels, stairs everywhere. A great city to wander around!
    In one street, we met Mehmet, a film director who invited us for coffee at his workshop. He also invited us to his apartment later to have tea on his terrace overlooking Mardin and Mesopotamia. Before, we had dinner and enjoyed some excellent Syriani wine from one of the roof top bars. Hard life!    Leggi altro

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    On the Silkroad towards West

    17 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Time to go West again. After breakfast, we left for what would be a relatively boring day. We are heading towards Şanlıurfa and follow a Southern arm of the ancient silkroad. It's a highway, it's flat and it's dry, so we just try to get some kilometres in.
    The people here live of agriculture, mainly corn and cotton, and animal farming. They are still friendly and invite us for tea. But in general, they seem to be more serious and smile less.
    One truck driver stopped and offered us a lift - all the way to Antalya if we wanted. He absolutely could not understand we wanted to continue cycling. We actually were a little bit tempted to accelerate the boring part and take a lift to Şanlıurfa, but declined in the end.
    After about 100km, we stopped in Viranşehir, which is half way to Şanlıurfa from Mardin. The city is ugly and some people are very conservative and pushy and only talk to Herbert. The first hotel we checked required a marriage certificate to give us a room, the second one was dodgy and rundown, so we continued our search. We ended up at a more expensive, but Western standard hotel which feels a lot better than the ones before. For dinner, we went to the centre and found a restaurant run by a super nice family who prepared some delicious food for us.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Şanlıurfa - Abraham City

    18 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    The breakfast at the Western hotel was so huge that we didn't even have to stop for lunch on our 90km stage to Şanlıurfa where Abraham was born according to some sources. We cycled through a dry, rocky landscape with only few tiny and very basic villages.
    As we arrived early, we had some time to explore the city which was really cool. It has an old centre whoch feels very Arabic with its maze-like streets and stone buildings. Most writings on the doors are in Arabic, too. There's countless mosques, a castle, Kervansarays and markets all around, so you can probably spend weeks in the city without getting bored.
    The most important site here is Baliklıgölü, basically a fishpond and an important place for pilgrims. According to the legend, when Abraham was going to get burned at the stake, the fire turned into water and the embers into fish. So now the fish in the pond are holy and don't get eaten. Therefore, even in Corona times, it was very busy at the pond and the surrounding sites.    Leggi altro

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    Cradle of civilization

    19 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our first destination today was Göbekli Tepe, the "civilization zero" site. It is about 12,000 years old and said to be the first religious temple in the world. The excavations themselves are quite small and not too impressive, but its historical significance is enormous.
    After having visited the archeological site, we headed further North. We wanted to get away from the main roads and travel on secondary roads instead. However, we weren't too lucky. The first road was in reconstruction and had lots of loose gravel. Plus, work was going on, so there were lots of trucks going back and forth. At some points, locals indicated that the road did not lead to where we wanted to go, so we had to take a very long detour. We struggled with bad asphalt and headwinds until we reached the highway again. It was busy and we still had to fight headwinds. So when we found a nice picnic area with grass, tables, a spring and toilets, we decided to call it a day.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East
    1

    Crossing River Euphrates

    20 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Next try: after 14km on the highway, we had enough of the busy highway and turned into secondary roads. What a great choice! We could cycle on decently paved roads with no traffic, nice scenery and many sheep and cows. A bit on the exhausting side with some steep hills, but we enjoyed it.
    We cycled all around the East side of Atatürk Lake until we crossed a fancy new bridge at the North of the lake. This is where River Euphrates comes into the lake. So after the Tigris near Diyarbakır, we now saw the other one of the two important rivers of Mesopotamia.
    The rest of our cycling day was exhausting. We could feel we were low on calories, there was just nothing on the way and the white bread and snacks just wasn't enough. However, we made it to Damlacık, where we wanted to stay for the night. Just before the last corner, the landscape changed dramatically all of a sudden. From smooth hills to rough mountains and volcanoes. What a view!
    The owner of the campground was super nice. Even though we asked (and paid) for a campsite, he offered us a room with a bed and an ensuite bathroom. We accepted the offer but still cooked our dinner in their garden, surrounded by apple and pomegranate trees, cows, hens and a squirrel.    Leggi altro

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    Exhausting climbs to ancient cities

    21 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Today, more sights were waiting for us to explore, so we left early - as most days. Our first stop was Arsamaia, in Mount Nemrut National Park. It's located on a hill and we had to cycle up a very steep road to get there. However, it was a super interesting place: an ancient city (over 2200 years old) where you can still see a cave used for food storage, a 156m-long tunnel and the ruins of the houses. It is most known for two reliefs, one of King Antiochos and Herakles shaking hands and one of the Sun God Mithras. We could also see Arsemia castle from here, a castle built on a narrow rock. Plus, the views of the surrounding mountains were stunning.
    Next on our route was Cendere Bridge, a Roman bridge dating back to the 3rd century. We stopped here for breakfast and enjoyed the scenery. Many dogs of all ages (including 4 young puppies 😍) joined us and hoped for some snacks.
    After some more exhausting kilometres on steep rolling roads, we found a Lahmacun bakery in one of the small villages. The owners were very friendly and told us about the tobacco industry in the area. Most people around Adıyaman work in this field as it's good money. At this time, dried tobacco plants are hanging everywhere - in shops, bakeries, sheds. People are waiting for rain to be able to pack it.
    In the North of Adıyaman, we stopped at the ancient city of Pirin. It was excavated just over 10 years ago. The area is huge and you can easily walk around the ruins. Most of the excavated area is the former Necropolis, so you see a lot of graves. It's impressive how well this 2000 year old city is preserved. It was carved into the rocks and during the excavation they basically just took out the dirt.
    We then continued to the centre of Adıyaman where many people talked to us. Again, we experienced Kurdish hospitality at its best. Hasan welcomed us in a friend's apartment and took us out for dinner and tea with a couple of friends. Afterwards, we had a short stroll through the shopping centre before going back to the apartment. His friend Hakan is a phd student in music and played some traditional music for us on the instrument called bağlama.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East
    1
    1

    Day to relax

    22 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After those exhausting days in the mountains, we decided to have a rest day in Adıyaman. There's not much to see in the city, so we spent the day eating, drinking coffee and tea and meeting people. Hasan and Apo were amazing hosts and took is to all those nice places.Leggi altro

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    Fully recovered towards the West

    23 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Fully recovered, we continued our ride West. The route wasn't particularly interesting, as we followed a highway. But at least, traffic wasn't bad. People were very hospitable as usual. We could have stopped for tea about every kilometre. Some even offered us food. We accepted two invites at gas stations where we had to stop anyways. Other than that, we politely declined. In this region, there were many food stalls with grapes or dried fruit along the road.
    In the afternoon, we found a picknick area at a lake where we cooked our dinner. We thought about camping here, but on a Friday night, there were way too many people. So unfortunately, we had to turn down another invite (the family at our neighbouring table offered us tea and desert) and get back on the bikes. It was just before sunset, so we had to hurry up to find a campspot before it was dark. About 10km later, we found a place in the bushes. You could still hear the noise from the road, but no one could see us from the there.    Leggi altro

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    Leaving the mountains and "Kurdistan"

    24 ottobre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The wind usually comes from Southwestern directions in this regions - so exactly where we are heading to. Therefore, we left our campspot with the very first light when the wind is not that strong yet.
    We stopped for breakfast after 40km and again after about 70km, just before the only big climb for today. Some guys at a bakery had invited us for tea here which was perfect timing.
    Climbing up the hill was relatively fast and not too hard. 2 guys from Ankara stopped for a chat, a video and photos as they were impressed by our tour.
    Once at the top, the rest of our trip was mainly downhill - against the wind though. The scenery had changed a lot: The mountains on this side are fully covered in trees. What a difference compared to the dry mountains we had been seeing in the past days. The majority of the people here is also mainly Turkish, so we are out of "Kurdistan" again.
    We arrived in Osmaniye where Savaş, the president of the local cycling club, welcomed us. We can sleep in the club house. He also cooked a local dish for dinner and brought it to the club house for us. Some of his cycling friends also came by for tea and a chat, so we had a nice evening together.    Leggi altro

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