Journey to myself

I woke up at my father’s place in Kayseri. After our big Turkish breakfast, my father and me prepared everything for our departure to Mersin. I was excited for our roadtrip – excited for warmer temperatures, excited for the sea and a change of scenery. The drive led us through Türkiye’s vast, first arid, then mountainous countryside.

We stopped at the cave of the seven sleepers. After my father’s prayer, we visited the cave and I learnt about the history.

Marco, one of my biketouring friends, was currently in Mersin, and we were hoping to reconnect. When I was asking my father, if we could host Marco for the night, I was worried he could disagree. As a biketourer myself, I put a lot weight into this response, I feel like it tells me a lot about a person, if someone is hosting a stranger. When I asked him at the breakfast table, he agreed without hesitation – ‘yes!’ I yelled out, running to my phone, to tell Marco the good news. This journey had taught me many lessons, and one was, if somebody needs a place to sleep, you help him out and I was glad, that my father shared this opinion with me.

When we arrived in Mersin, we were waiting for Marco at the seaside. The holiday flat was freshly renovated and a stone throw from the sea. It was nice to reconnect with Marco, and I was grateful, that my father agreed to host him. Upstairs in the flat, we started the dinner preparations. My father cooked Bulgur and prepared a salad, while I made some garlic yogurt to go with it. After dinner we chatted, listened to Turkish music and slurped on wine. Even though my father barely speaks English and Marco does not speak German, they were able to communicate, sometimes with my help translating, sometimes no translation was necessary. Marco pointed out, “I am the first man your father meets, I am the first friend your father meets”, and he was right. It was nice for once, to introduce my father to someone, who was part of my life.

After my father went to sleep, Marco and me looked back on our incredible and unique journeys. While exchanging photos we came across, some of my selfies, which I had taken, in moments when cycling wasn’t so fun – and it was written all over my face. It turned out that I had a whole collection of these selfies and we were laughing tears, while looking at them. Oh what a journey it has been!

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So long – görüsürüz from Tece!