We wake up high up on a castle that was unfortunately also destroyed by the earthquake and reminds us a little of the many ruined castles in Scotland. Well rested. And calm. And content again.
A bit of driving is on the programme today. I've chosen a stonemason's workshop in the ancient world, a reservoir, a view of the Turkish-Syrian border and in the evening we could finally eat original Katmer in Gaziantep again. Sounds like a plan? It is.
The Yesemek Quarry, located in south-east Turkey, is a historic quarry and sculpture workshop from the time of the Hittite Empire (2nd millennium BC). This site, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, was used to produce sculptures and reliefs for Hittite cities and temples. Reddish basalt was extracted from the quarry, from which various sculptures, including sphinxes and lion figures, were made.
What we still don't know is how these sculptures were transported from here to the rest of the world. Hardly on the back of a delivery lorry. Unfortunately, there is no information about this. Neither here nor in the museum in Gaziantep.
We continue on to a hearty breakfast in one of the huge café-restaurants on the main street. Once again we are spoilt with a Turkish breakfast that could last the whole day. It is accompanied by a very special tea. Not just black tea, but herbal tea. What a relief, this change.
The route always takes us along the Turkish-Syrian border, the nature is beautiful. We only occasionally see border posts. But we don't take any photos, why should we?
But at some point we see prefabricated housing estates to the right and left of the road. Quite a few. We reach the outskirts of Gaziantep, or as we connoisseurs say: Antep. Because one thing is clear: we have already fallen in love with this city in 2021. However, we had forgotten that it is a city of millions.
After about an hour of stop-and-go and after-work traffic, we've made it. We are in the centre of the city, in the middle of the old town. We park our Felix - it could hardly be more central - right next to the castle, which is currently being rebuilt. We shout to the car park attendant that we want to stay for three or four nights. He nods, moves a few cars and we have a space in a quiet corner.
We observe an interesting parking behaviour here in the guarded car park. Due to a lack of space, the cars are parked one behind the other, three or four in a row. The cars are not locked, the keys are left in the car park. If someone wants to get out with their car, the car park attendants rush over, quickly drive the cars in front back in a tetris-like manner, let the car in question out and drive the others back in. Until the next one wants out. It goes on like this all day. Very time-consuming. And interesting for us to watch.
What remains for us is the marvelling view from the roof window. But there is Çay. The car park attendant looks after us.
In the evening we stroll through Antep, finally eat our long-awaited katmer, the "things" filled with pistachios, and later fall into bed tired and happy.
Tomorrow is Monday. Tomorrow we open the office for the new year.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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