TÜRKIYE – NOT TURKEY

Manisa – Demirtas Refugio, Turkiye

When we left off we were a little nervous about how our ride would turn out today. All we could find on Google Maps was a hotel at 31 miles and another at 77. With wind predicted to be right in our faces, with temps in the nineties, and with some pretty good climbs ahead of us, we were not at all confident that we would make 77 miles. 

The alternative? Find someplace to camp. 

First option – hope a hotel would turn up. Well, that didn’t happen. I mean, at one point Diana thought she had found one. But Google’s description of the place was a little vague . . . something about supporting the local village. And the pictures didn’t exactly show bedrooms or anything. 

When Diana called and asked if the place was a hotel, she received a pretty firm response: “No!”

We even asked the guys at one of the gas stations that we went by. They told us there was one up the road – the 77 mile place that we already knew about. 

But that wasn’t going to happen. Let me just tell you that the predicted wind was, well, exactly as predicted. Strong, and right in our faces. I think we averaged about 8 miles per hour for the day. We managed to sneak in about 60 miles – but we would have been biking until at least 9 to make 77 . . .

So now we’re biking along, trying to decide where to land for the evening. 

Considerations . . . 

Snakes. Is this a place that will have them? I don’t really know snakes, but seems like you wouldn’t want to be in long grass. 

Water. Is there water we could use for drinking and bathing? There aren’t too many streams or rivers or anything around here – too dry – but there are a lot of springs around with nice concrete shrine type things. One of those places might work . . .

Table and chairs. In a perfect world we would have a place to eat breakfast in the morning. 

Toilets. Would be great to have a regular toilet if at all possible. Being a guy, this isn’t super high on my list, but Diana kind of considers toilets to be an important accoutrement of civilization.

Permission. This is another nice to have item. We could probably camp wherever, but it never hurts to have someone tell us its okay . . .

Asking for all of this is maybe too much. Normally, you can’t have the stars and the moon. But we are in Türkiye; have you seen their flag? 

As we biked along, we happened upon one of the spring things with rapidly flowing water and a picnic table. On closer inspection, there was a small building with two doors as well. When we opened one of the doors there was a bathroom with a toilet and a sink – and there was a woman busy cleaning the toilet. The other door led to a large room with carpet on the floor – maybe for prayer? 

I asked a guy driving around on a three-wheeled electric moped right by the spring. (If you know Despicable Me it was kind of a Dr. Nefario contraption.). Like the guys at the gas station, Dr. Nefario told me there was a hotel down the road. Not very helpful, really. 

But then the woman came out of the bathroom. Dr. Nefario explained to her what we wanted – a place to camp. She immediately pointed to the building. She showed us the prayer room and told us to sleep there. She showed us the bathroom as well. Very proud of the place. 

So in the end we ended up checking pretty much all of the boxes. Water, toilet, no snakes, picnic table, and permission. Diana’s only complaint was that there is no shower. But even that was okay – because Dr. Nefario and the cleaning woman (I think they are married) left for a minute, and then she came back with a bucket.

Diana’s gallant husband had to dump the water on her – and even she had to admit that it wasn’t bad. Not hot – but it was like 90 today, so it wasn’t like a cold shower was a bad thing . . .

Hopefully, there are no truckers in desperate need of a place to pray tonight . . . We’ll see.

A few other fun Türkiye things today . . .

So we’re at a gas station getting some water. As we checkout, I compliment the cashier on the lion and flowers tattoo that adorns her arm. Her English was limited, but I think she understood the basic jist of what I said. (It’s interesting because I used to really avoid any discussion of tattoos. We’re very much of the no tattoos generation – so I’ve always kind of considered them shameful somehow. But at some point I figured out that people love talking about them. No better way to start a conversation than to ask someone what a particular tattoo means . . .)

Anyway, after the compliment, she asked if we wanted tea. I love tea, and we’ve kind of gathered that tea is a thing here – kind of like it is in Morroco. A minute later we’re sitting outside the gas station and the cashier has given us a tray with a full tea service – as if we’re the King and Queen of England or something. 

It’s surprisingly pretty around here – surprising compared to what we might have been expecting, anyway – but can I just say that the people we have met in Turkiye have been so kind, so generous, so appreciative, and so curious. Might be my favorite country for people on the trip . . .

Alright, so now we’re biking away from the gas station and we see a fruit-laden tree.

Apricots. I’m not sure I’ve ever really understood what apricots are. An ingredient in marmalade maybe? They’ve never been high on my list of things that I feel like I need to eat. I guess I associate apricots with old people in England; I don’t know why. 

But these were good. Juicy. Sweet. And just the right size. Maybe apricots need some marketing help? I can see our friend Tom really making apricots big – the next super food or something. 

Maybe we could revive Mikey: “Hey, even Mikey likes them. He doesn’t like anything . . .”

But I’m getting away from the main point here: Türkiye even has foraging . . .

Alright, some of you may be wondering about Türkiye versus Turkey. 

Well, I figured out today that the Turks have always called their country Türkiye. A few years ago they decided that the rest of the world should use that name as well; they were concerned that the word turkey has some negative connotations in English and they decided to do a re-branding. Maybe they also employed someone like Tom? He probably made a million dollars for telling them to re-brand their country using a name that already existed . . .

So there you go – this is not a turkey of a country – it is Türkiye – cool, chic, and fun. 

By the way, Türkiye became a country only about 100 years ago. Before that, it was part of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire kind of collapsed after World War I. They lost the war – with the British leading the charge against them. Since then, it’s been a full-on republic, with freedom of religion and democratic governance.

Sadly, the country’s current president has been on a power trip lately – a malady that seems to be going around. I will probably cover more ground on that topic later – but it seems to me that the big picture in Türkiye is very positive.