Our rhythm changes from time to place and day-to-day. It seems there is not just one rhythm we can go by as every country and even every place we visit, ask for flexibility and continuous adjustment. When in Italy, we had found a rhythm which worked well for both of us: we got up early, drove, had lunch along the way, did some shopping at the supermarket on the way, drove a little more, arrived somewhere that we could find along the way, took out our dual fuel stove, made food while preparing the car for the night. We have left the Europeanness behind us and have entered a different world; we are beyond Istanbul, going deeper and deeper into Turkey.
A lot of time is spent on practicalities, logistics and psychological challenges and a lot of the things we wish to do are not (YET) materialising. Hopefully in the near future;), who knows. It all sounded so exciting and adventurous but in reality, as usual, no matter where you are, life is about the day-to-day joys of simplicity: shopping (or tending and reaping your vegetables/eggs), cooking, eating and sleeping. And for us, travelling by car and enjoying beautiful and spectacular sceneries are added to that list. The joys we experience are in the silly, simple things such as comparing prices in countries and between places (diesel, food, sunshades for the car), finding a shower (at a fuel station if need be, going through the male toilet area, as it seems only they have a shower facility, none to find at the ladies toilets) and a good place to stay the night. Wild camping is becoming more the norm now. We need to fill up our water can!
No more camp sites with too many facilities (entertainment programmes!), but after a long drive, a drive through a village of three streets where the children were playing outside, responding to my waiving, and people came out of their houses to see the strangers passing through, we found a beautiful, steep slope; so steep that our excitement and fear were mixed while going down. But then again, our TLC is a 4×4 and should be able to coop with this. And it did (of course)! We set up camp for dinner and the night and as we were in the mountains, had a delightful, long night sleep as for the past two nights in Istanbul on the car park, where it had been boiling hot, our sleep pattern had been quite disrupted.
We are now enjoying a Turkish service station on the way to Ankara. They serve delicious food, have a market and the çay is TL1 (= £0.30) per little glass. They have free, open wifi and we found an extension lead to plug in computer(s) and mobile phone. People are kind, we went to the buffet to get some plates of food, comes the chef over to the table and puts a plate with bread (“Your husband must have forgotten to take it”, everyone takes bread after all) and while we are eating serves us an extra plate of ‘shirazi’ salad (finely chopped onion, cucumber, tomato). The waiter does not just take our tea glasses away, but asks if we want another cup. Ok, sales technique x, but there is a kind of service mindedness and kindness coming from them as well.
Saeed is momentarily outside having a long chat with his brother through Viber, a free app which allows you to phone and text. I find it more useful than Whatsup as you can also call and than Skype, as that seems to be too demanding on my mobile. Check it out, it may be interesting for you too.