Pilgrimage from Tarakli to Gonuk 13/06/08

Sleeping in again I head back to the restaurant for a sausage and eggs breakfast. As I sit there catching up on my blogs I absent mindedly demolish an entire Toblerone! Probably not the nest idea before starting to walk...

So after once again indulging myself to excess I hit the road. There is not much in these parts and I'm left to walk in peace, just enjoying the views with my shadow, Moby, Dire Straights, Portishead and of course my Turkish lessons keeping me company...

A car pulls up next to me and the guy offers me a lift. I indicate that I am just walking and he looks slightly concerned. reaching into the back of his car he comes up with a bag of the biggest, reddest, juiciest looking cherries I have ever seen.

"Here, here" He says smiling.

"Thank you" I reach in to grab a couple...

"No, no!!! Complete, complete" :)

So before I have even finish yesterdays cherries I have a whole new bag to enjoy as well...awesome! :)

Around lunchtime I come across a tiny little village and some guys are sitting out the front of a factory. I get waved over for a cup of tea and it turns out it is a cheese factory. Within five minutes I have a huge block of the freshest cheese you can imagine, bread, butter and jam all piled in front of me with the manager looking on eagerly as I try a his produce...

"Absolutely superb!!!" :)

I make good time and by 19:00 I can see the magical little town of Gonuk wedged in the gorge below. Even though the town is once again a couple of kilometers off my road I need food, water, a hat and a shower. It has to be done and when I hit the town center I'm glad I made the effort. Beautiful!

Stopping at the first hotel the price starts at 40YTL. I tell them if they do it for 20YTL I won't bother to look around but 30YTL is as low as they go. The next place starts at 15YTL and for good reason. It is pretty dodgy so I offer them 10YTL. They accept, which says to me I now have 20YTL to spend on beer ;)

The guys at the first hotel were pretty cool so I head back there. They have wireless internet and the European Cup on TV so there really isn't any excuse to go anywhere else. I get chatting to some of the other customers and drink the night away.

Asking for the bill I get a shock when it is 30YTL. I'm not sure how many beers I've had but it's sounding expensive. I ask how much one beer is and they all shake their heads...

"No, no...no beer" They then make sleeping motions...

Shit! They think I came back to stay the night and now they are not charging me for my drinks! We have one of those embarrassing moments...they don't understand that I already have another hotel and they keep refusing when I want to pay for my beers.

Finally they get the picture but after making such a fuss about giving me my beers for free they don't want to accept my money. Oh well, good excuse to come back for breakfast and try to give them some business then... :)