A last shared Çay

Exit in Kars - blatant. This is Turkey too?
The air is cold and I pull on my jumper. The people look just as friendly and interested as before, but as I roll through the town, the familiar shouts and invitations to the national drink are missing.

The landscape changes - it is now lush green meadows stretching over gentle hills to the mountains on the horizon. The last 100 kilometres of Turkey give it a completely new look. Here I have an even stronger feeling of vastness than before.

For the last time, I share Çay and a meal with three locals while enjoying the phenomenal view.

Lost in thought, I roll through small villages with cows and geese and review the last three months.
I had no idea what to expect - certainly not that I would have such intensive contact with the culture and be so enthusiastic about it that I would now start conversations with other people on the street myself.

That I feel gratitude in a new dimension: for the people who planted the food that I can enjoy, for the people who paved the road that I am allowed to drive on. For the privilege of being here now, at least as a guest, mostly as a friend or already a member of the family.
For the people who accompany me for a short or long stretch of my journey. From whom I can learn something.
A new part of my personality has come to the surface.
I have experienced warmth from strangers and want to pass this on.
I have travelled to the end of Turkey - further east than ever before.

Tears of joy well up in my eyes as I realise this and think of my grandpa, with whom I would have loved to share this experience.

Tomorrow begins a new adventure within the adventure: Georgia!Read more