Driver 13 - 17:30-23:45 After getting out of Istanbul we finally reached the E80 highway. Considering there were no petrol stations nearby we decided to try hitchhiking aftrr a tollgate where everybody slows down. After 5 minutes a Mercedes truck stopped and signed we will give us a ride. A very funny truck driver ead our company, he was on road for a week from Russia and transported corn or chicken from Ukraine (we couldn't understand properly) to Syria. The connecting language was again some kind of russian. In every 10-15 minutes we called his lover Lena who was a nurse in Odessa. Sometimes he used skype video call. After one hour we stopped because he had to repair his truck. We looked after the trailer while having some turkish teas and had some conversations with a very kind waiter guy who was happy to practice his english skills. He was a university student in Gerede, the place where we were heading to. Our driver became very strange at a time on the road because he said he is calling again her lover and wants Sabina to say hello to her, but a guy voice replied. We think we misunderstood the situation and it was some strange humour. He called his friend and wanted to joke him with a female voice like his lover would be travelling with him to Syria. In the middle of the night we stopped at a some kind of diner for truck drivers. It was like stepping into a Secret Universe.
I don't know what happened, who ordered what, but eventually we payed a lot and got food. It turned out that not just we, but our driver payed more than normal price too. There were some catfight, after all we got back our money.
We arrived to a very good highway stop just before midnight: Metro bus stop for night buses. We could use the wifi of buses there. Found a good place for tent near the petrol station.
When we woke up in the morning a waiter brought us tea to the tent. We were totally amazed.
This is the last pic with my camera, it broke down and until Tabriz I couldn't fix it. We had breakfast there and after that we got a ride.
Driver 14 - 09:15-14:45 - Selati picked us up with a Mercedes truck. He was a very nice old guy, that typical grandpa type. We didn't have common language. When he wanted to ask something important he called his son Hassan who knew some expressions in english. We stopped for some tea and while I went to toilet he ordered two turkish pizzas. Sabina was sleeping in the truck and he ordred for her another one also. The turkish culture is basically based upon tea drinking, for all social activitoes is a must-have. I was just sitting there and saw these men socializing, the waiter always brings new tea, just like with beer drinking in Czech Republic. Selsti was really bored sometimes on the road so he played with different games on his phone while driving. I didn't see exactly with what he is playing with, but my favourite was when he had to shoot cocks with a gun or something like this.
Driver 15 - 15:55-00:15 - After this I had the biggest experience in this trip. A full-extra VW minibus stopped for it. First we was thinking whether we want to sit in or not. There were five strange guys traveling with a big minibus, it was suspicious. Stereotypes… We stopped really soon, it was lubch time. After we had tea and watermelon they invited to their table and to eat with them from their food. No english, only basic turkish. They didn't understand why am I eating whole chilli paprikas, I just said "Majaristan". The driver was Hakim Tas and as it later turned out the whole bunch was kurdish and they were really proud about it. They worked in Istanbul and once per a week they did the Istanbul-Karayazi route. Please, check it on map… They were the most lovely persons I've ever met. If there wouldn't be so many problems nowadays around the Kurdish territory I would definetely go there for a bigger trip. They were totally unbelievable, anywhere we stopped they bought us something as well: fruits, tea, food. Roaming through the kurdish land and listening to this piece was really memorable
Sivan Perwer - Mihemedo Sorkisi
((There was a strange thing we realised ongoing from this point of the trip: men did not talk to Sabina directly. If they wanted to say something to her, they asked for me first. Like if I would be the responsible for her or just a "mediator". This phenomenon just became more stronger in Iran, for example yesterday evening we had a situation that two guys with whom we've spent the whole afternoon told me to tell Sabina to put up her shoes, because she can easily step into broken glass. And we were walking together, next to each other however they were speaking to me. Totally different than in western cultures.))
There were times when they changed Hakim or as they called him The Kapitan. Then he cqme to sit close to us, mostly he rested and joked but there was a moment when wanted to telk us about the actual situation with Kurdistan. He show us news, facebook, pictures, everything. Without languages I started to feel that I understand every of his sentences. He was full of pain and grief. It was so touching I almost started to cry. We did not know ecactly where they're going to drop us off, but actually we've spent 10 hours with them and after midnight we got out in bus/truck stop - petrol station - "restaurant" - "" motel"" complex. They adviced to rest there and continue our trip tomorrow to Iran with a truck. From there it could be easy, because lots of iranian drivers stop there.
We went to the motel, maybe it was a bad idea, but wanted to have a shower finally. There was a manager in a big hairy coat like as he would be working in a siberian petrol station and show us to go away. After this he let us in again, he woke up 2 guys from a room for us to have room and signed that he wants money. Regarding to the thickness of dirt everywhere it was quite expensive (around 10-15 euros) but we could only think about shower. After all the hygienic situation was so bad in the room we decided to have shower only in the morning (of course it was cold) and sleeping on our karimata and polifoam :) The room number was 107. It will be important in the next post. In the morning we were having breakfast in the sunshine next to the petrol station and of course a waiter brought us free teas.
Driver 16 - 09:45-¿?¿ - We wrote Dogubayazit to our table and a man approached on foot. "Hello Mister, can I help you?" and I think that was half of his engkish knowledge. His name wss Omid. They were with an iranian MAN Bus, VIP firstclass, everything. Was really strange that 5 people were on a bug iranian longdistance bus. Later we figured out that maybe they are on an unifficial route and just picked us up. They had really big and strange luggages at the iranian border, obviously smuggled something. We had really long stops, illegal petrol stations, 2 hour siesta at the Ararat :) They invited us for lunch also: simole rice and fish dish, they made it at the illegal petrol station, which was one of their friend's. We wanted to stop at Dogubayazit to fix the camera and to buy hijab for Sabina, but they said there were some kurdish terrorist activity in the last 2 days there and the bazaar is closed there. They were right. At this point we were not suspicious yet. At the borded things became strange and after that worse. On August 19th 16:45 we have reached the iranian border at Bazargan, but this story will be in the next post.
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