Bingöl

everything until here was just warm up, now let the real hitchhiking begin. i had now made the decision to go through pakistan, meaning i wouldn't get a second chance to see georgia and armenia, if i wouldn't go there soon. not wanting to pay for a 60+ euro bus and hungry for more adventure, i hit the road again. getting out of urfa was way trickier than i first thought.

it took me over two hours of walking and waiting until i was finally picked up by a 20 year old guy in a 10 year old car equipped with a 1 year old, deafening speaker system. love to see it. he got me out of the city and onto the right road, where i got a simit for free from a street vendor.

a couple of minutes later, i was in a car with an armenian guy, who was perhaps the jolliest person i met during my whole trip. part of that might also be attributed to the half empty bottle of whiskey he handed me immediately upon getting in the passenger seat. he also had different bags with dates, nuts and so on set up all around him, just living life to the fullest.

in diyarbakir, i was picked up by a rich looking guy (rare occurence), who was super sweet, showed me pictures of his family and of him on trips abroad. he owned a carpet production company and held himself responsible for not only driving me hundreds of kilometres in the right directiom, but also getting me a bunch of food and getting me a hotel room in his city bingöl after night fell. not only that, but he also wanted to return the next day to bring me back to the main road. just insane, i'll have to buy a carpet from him when i get back to germany to thank him.

on the way, i started noticing dozens of fortified military positions all over the ruggid hills flying by the car. every ten minutes, there was an apc parked next to the road and tons of checkpoints along the way. we were even stopped once and the officer asked me a couple of questions before letting us pass.Read more