We spend the night in a mountain village. Once again, of course, we try not to find a pitch in the dark. It almost always works. Not today.
I navigate us along side roads through the mountains. Because of the beautiful view. Haha. It gets dark and we find something in the middle of a mountain village. Either the electricity has just failed in this village or it is completely uninhabited. No cosy light shines out of any of the windows.
We are standing on a kind of village square. We make ourselves comfortable and go to bed early. But now the village wakes up. Not human, but animal. We are obviously in the middle of a dog meet. The dogs are barking, howling and sometimes rattling our Felix.
As so often before, the dogs seem to like sleeping under our heated hut. Let them. But please don't argue, there's enough space for everyone.
In the morning, we dig out our last few kilos of cat and dog food and feed the pack of rascals. We stop counting at 10 dogs, Gerd makes several piles of food so that there are no arguments. Doesn't work, of course. No matter.
After our first coffee up here, we fill up with water - the spring water in the mountains tastes much better than the polluted water in the cities. And off we go through the mountains.
We start to feel a bit peckish, we could do with a tea break. As soon as we think about it, we pass a small - shall we say - pub. It's closed, but behind the building we spot a man chopping wood. A few dogs and 6 puppies are romping around in the car park.
We quickly agree that the gentleman will make us tea. We have to wait a while, apparently he wasn't expecting guests. He invites us into his house, a single room, two tables for guests, a sofa, a bed. Tea is boiling on the cooker and a fire is crackling in the oven, which quickly warms the room.
He talks, laughs, we understand nothing. But that doesn't matter. We use the Google translator to thank him for the cosy fire and the tea. I ask how old the puppies are, his eyes start to light up, his whole face lights up and he sticks three fingers in the air. Three weeks? Three months? I don't ask.
We look around: it's simple here, very simple. The man seems to have even less than we do. No electricity, no mobile phone, no television. On the wall is a Turkish flag and a beautiful picture of Atatürk. He notices our gaze and tells us exuberantly, his eyes light up again at the name Atatürk. We nod, not understanding what he is saying.
He pours more tea, puts more wood on the fire and asks where we come from. How does that work? He simply lists all the countries he thinks we come from. Hollanda? Almanya? We say one of the few words we've learnt with difficulty: İsviçre. He beams, almost guessing correctly. He points at me and says very convincingly: Hollanda. Yes, it's not the first time I've heard that, I've been called Dutch in the world for years. I don't know why and I don't think we can ask here. We clear things up, Gerd points at me and says Almanya. Ha, he laughs in that way that would say: "I knew it!"
At some point we leave the simplicity of his dwelling, pay something, say thank you and stroke the dogs and puppies once again.
While Gerd hands him the money, our host takes the few notes, puts them on the ground in the garden and thanks us. We are a little confused.
Later we read: If you are the first customer of the day, you may be surprised when the shopkeeper takes your money and puts or throws it on the floor. This first sale is called Siftah (Seef-Tah) and has a high status. It is a way of thanking Allah for his good fortune and hoping that the rest of the day will be successful. (Source)
Now, hours later, we are looking forward to the visit again.
We are lost in thought and almost at the same time we start talking: "We can really learn a lot from this man...", this calm charisma, the friendliness and the simple life in nature. Simply beautiful.
Do we want to live like this? Certainly not, but we could take a leaf out of one or two people's book.
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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What surprised me:
Very clean and tidy little dwelling. 👍
Yes, we could learn a lot.
But who would want and manage to find their way back to simplicity?
Whenever politicians talk about growth, I always ask myself "where to"?
Where else do we want to grow in terms of consumption?
The only thing that really grows,
is the number of people who will soon have nothing at all, the mountains of rubbish and the few who no longer know where their own madness begins because they are so rich.
Have a good trip and enjoy the peace and simple life.
All love from Racheli
Dear Rachel, yes, that thrilled us too. It's not that common here. We were all the happier to see this cleanliness here. Great!
Best wishes!
Gerd & Heike