The bus ride to Samsun was long but uneventful and I spent an evening and afternoon hanging out with Gilkey and some of his friends. Through him, I met the city’s cohort of English teachers all of whom were super nice and celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving before catching my bus to Şanlıurfa (colloquially known as Urfa).
During the night, I was woken up multiple times by my fellow bus passengers for water, for tea, for cookies, or to use the bathroom. While I appreciated the sentiment of their concern and their generosity, I was more interested in sleeping. But, it seemed like I was the only one who felt that way.
(early the next morning views of southeastern Anatolia from the bus)
I arrived in Urfa at 10 am. I’d been told that this part of the country was very conservative and was thinking to try wearing a hijab so as to better fit in / be respectful, but as the bus pulled into the bus station, I saw numerous women (3) that were non-hijabi. So, I figured that going around with my hair showing mustn’t be too disrespectful if other people were doing it.
Out of the station, I was confused as to where to catch the buses to the house of my next couchsurfing host, Deniz. A collection of kindly people at different points showed me the way to the appropriate bus stops and I rapidly found myself at the entrance to his apartment complex near Harran Univerity.
After a confusing few moments in front of the gate, where the security guard asked me repeatedly who I was looking for. I thought I understood and said, my friend Deniz. But, clearly I did not convey the appropriate information. The guard smiled when he realized who it was that was my friend as Deniz approached to retrieve me from the entrance.
Deniz was a phenomenal host! He is a PhD candidate in environmental engineering finishing up his studies at Istanbul Technical University, but conducting his thesis research in Urfa (a relatively common, but convoluted practice, he said, because of the politics of making new PhD programs).
Deniz fed me some food that he and his girlfriend had cooked the night before, made me some tea, and gave me his keys and his neighbors WiFi password before saying that he had to go to lab and suggesting that we meet up at a place downtown at 4:30 pm for dinner.
I ate, drank, showered and left for the city. Wandering downtown, I realized I was still hungry when I passed a bakery and couldn’t stop eying it. The proprietor said to me: ‘come in, eat, have tea’ in English. I ended up hanging out with him and his friend for the next three hours and we had tea and pastries (burek and baklava) together. It was great!
(Cemal and I in his bakery)
I left them to find the place I was supposed to meet Deniz, his roommate Cem (pronounced Jem), and girlfriend Elif at. We met up, got dinner of a local speciality patlican (pronounced pat-li-jan) kebab, followed by pistachio coffee (or maybe it was Menengic coffee?) with some of their friends.
(patlican kebab)
After dinner, we went to another friend (and friend’s family)’s house. Leaving their friend’s place, we went back to their place for beer and a movie.
Deniz and Cem really made me feel like another roommate.
The next day, I took advantage of their laundry machine and lazed before heading downtown.
I wandered around and found a big market and an awesome park.
While reading a book there, I met a Kurdish Syrian-activist, who knew one of the guys I’d met the day before. We talked for 3-4 hours and observed the flow of people passing by. I really enjoyed the distinctive regional dress in Urfa (covered by another blogger).
I parted ways with the activist after a while and wandered around a bit more.
I met some Syrian refugees who wanted to take a picture with me.
Stopping back in the bakery, I was told that there were many people in the area that were Arabic-speaking Turks as well.
I made it back in time to join Deniz, Cem and a friend of theirs for dinner (and pre-dinner Rakı). Their friend showed me how to drink rakı (with or without water).
(rakı can be drunk straight – with ice water on the side in a separate glass, or mixed with water. When mixed it goes from being clear (left) to milky (right))
Dinner was delicious as Cem is a masterful chef and we all spent the evening gabbing away.
I’d told Deniz and Cem that I’d wanted to go to Göbekli Tepe the next day. I’d realized that this 12,000 year old temple (the world’s oldest known – predating both farming and settlements) was only a 10 km walk from their house. Deniz and Cem warned me that it was a sketchy road and that maybe I should think about hitchhiking instead of walking. I told them that I didn’t like to hitchhike alone and that I was planning to walk on the opposite side of the road.
After sleeping in and lazing for far too long the next morning, I headed out. Walking down the street I realized rapidly what they’d been warning me about. The street was all but deserted.
First a man on a bike stopped and tried to ask me for directions in Turkish, but I didn’t understand. I told him such and he drove off. Then a truck driver stopped. The trucker was leering, asking if I wanted a ride, driving super slowly, and trying to persuade me to enter his vehicle. As this happened, the man on the bike, Ali, passed again, asked if I was going to Göbekli Tepe and offered me a ride.
I hesitated momentarily before deciding that going with Ali seemed like the best course of action. I got on his bike and he drove me to the ruins and explored them with me. (the ruins were impressively old but neither impressively excavated nor statured).
(larger-scale photos of the site)
(close-up photos of the site – pretty crazy and awe inspiring to see those animal carvings from 12,000 years ago)
Walking just past the dig area, there was an amazing view of the plain / middle Euphrates from the hill where the site was.
(views and Ali and I)
Ali didn’t really speak any English, but was a genius at communicating with his hands and his body language, and together we passed the day enjoyably. At some point, Ali called his friend and colleague, Mehmet, who spoke better English and the three of us hung out with another friend of theirs and drank tea at their workplace, Harran Univeristy (their campus was right next to Deniz’s apartment).
I got back to Deniz and Cem’s in time for Deniz’s birthday party prep. We all had dinner together, played games, chatted and drank late into the night.
I stuck around Urfa one more day, going downtown and walking back – finding the ingredients for Shepard’s pie along the way (I’d wanted to make the most American thing I could think of and share some food after they’d been cooking such delicious things every night). It was shockingly impossible to find fresh corn despite the fact that it was sold on almost every street corner downtown. But, finally, I found frozen corn en route back as well as some beer. Deniz, Cem, and I spent a chilled out evening together. When I told them I was planning to leave the next day they seemed surprised (despite the fact that I’d initially asked to stay only 3 days and it was already the 4th day) and told me I should stay longer, but I already had set things in motion with my next couchsurfing host, Isadora, in Gaziantep. I was sad to part ways with them the next morning.
songtreetravels 