Tag: turkey

Sorry Rosinante, finally a warm Winter, Turkish hospitality, practicing cajon and serious music production (November 2022)

On Uludag mountain, I decided to head south towards the Mediterranean. Back in Bulgaria, the weather had started to get colder and in northern Turkey, the temperature was dropping day by day. I felt that my dream was finally coming true: for the first time in my life, I would have a warm winter!

After descending from the mountain, I made a small detour and visited the manufacturer of the Capra Camper camper cabin. Months ago, I had learned that the frame of my pickup camper, Rosinante, could potentially snap. This idea had never occurred to me before, as I had assumed that the stronger suspension meant that it could carry more weight and withstand heavy use, such as off-roading. However, I had heard of instances where the frames of all types of vehicles, including pickups, jeeps, and trucks, had snapped. For example, the frame of a Spanish couple I had met in Greece recently broke in Georgia. The realization of snapping frames had caused me some concern, but I had managed to let go of a lot of my fears at the time I had been at the Beglika festival. Nonetheless, something was still bothering my mind and I was curious and wanted to see what a smaller cabin would be like. The team at Capra Camper were extremely friendly and we had a great conversation about cabins, off-roading, the van life, Turkey, Germany, and more. They were so kind and gave me some parts I was searching for for free. I had a close look at their cabin and from that point on, I always recommended it to anyone looking for something simple, minimalistic, and lightweight for moderate temperatures at a good price.

But to be honest, from my perspective, the Capra Camper cabin is hardly comparable to the Fernweh-Mobil cabin of Rosinante that I call home. Although both cabins are detachable pickup cabins woth pop-up roofs, they are so different. That showed me once again how incredible Rosinante is in every regard. Since that day, I have met many people with different types of mobile homes: ordinary cars, caravans, jeeps, vans, off-road vans, pickups with other cabins, motorhomes, Landcruisers with pop-up roofs, Defenders with rooftop tents, and off-road trucks. Seeing all these different concepts has only made me love Rosinante even more. It has reassured me that she is perfect for me. Of course, there are things that I need to take care of and changes I would like to make, but overall she is perfect. And if her frame were to snap, I would try to have her fixed. And if that is not possible, I am sure that I would handle it as well.

It’s interesting how a comparison like that can ease my mind and bring me happiness. I mean, in the end, it “doesn’t make sense” to base my confidence and happiness on external factors like this comparison. It can become unstable at any time. But in a way, it feels like that comparison helped me to calm down the part of my mind that was unsatisfied and afraid. It made it possible for me to see things more clearly . Like it lifted a veil of fear and thoughts about a potential future. I think in the end, it helped me to let go.

I rarely drive long distances in a short period of time, but the call of a warm winter was too strong to resist, and so I drove straight to the Mediterranean coast without making any stops. I traveled from Bursa to Bademli and found my first home on the Turkish Mediterranean coast. The next day, I continued further south and on a large sandy beach, I met a wonderful and interesting couple from Germany. We immediately started having engaging and deep conversations. If you’re interested, you can follow them on Instagram.

The next day, I made my way to a beach near Demircili, where I stayed for a couple of days. I enjoyed the warm winter weather, with temperatures around 18 degrees during the day and 12 degrees at night.

Every day, I practiced playing my Cajon, and my playing started to feel natural, flowing, and even a bit groovy at times.

That beach was frequently visited by locals on weekends. They were all so lovely and welcoming. I was invited to a Turkish breakfast and had great conversations with different people. I found it inspiring how open and unafraid these locals were in making connections with others, despite the language barrier. Most of them only spoke Turkish, but that didn’t stop them from reaching out to me and making me feel welcomed. They just did it with ease and it was truly heartwarming.

Hooked by the warm winter, I ventured further south to the peninsula near Marmaris. Many other travelers coming from the east and locals had recommended the area from Bodrum to Antalya, stating that it was one of the most beautiful and warm regions in Turkey. I was excited to explore this area and experience the natural beauty as well as the even warmer temperatures of this region.

The first beach I visited on the peninsula was beautiful, peaceful, and I did some hiking through the hills surrounding it. One day, a German couple arrived at the beach and we had a lot of conversations about various topics. They were considering moving to Hamburg once they returned to Germany. Talking about Hamburg reminded me of the beauty of this city, where I had lived for the past 14 years. It felt good to be able to help them by recommending places to visit and the best spots for car living. One of them was particularly interested in FPV drone flying. Check out his Instagram, his work is incredible and of very high production value.

I took advantage of the Black Friday deals and purchased a large package of music production tutorials and samples. Before that, I had watched free tutorials on YouTube and read free articles from many music production teachers. I was producing music mostly every day for hours and I felt like I wanted to take my music production to the next level. I was curious about how paid courses were structured and what they could offer me. I thought that it might be possible to make money from my music production at some point in the future. I knew that this step and these thoughts could potentially cause some internal conflicts and affect the joy I felt while making music. But I underestimated the impact it would have and soon, it would escalate into something else…

Uludag mountain, “The Shining”, thinking about Istanbul and a funny encounter with the Turkish bureaucracy (November 2022)

From Istanbul, I went south to the region of Uludag mountain. I had loved Uludag lemonade for some time in my life, but that was not the reason for me to go there. Although, if there had been a waterfall of that stuff, I think I would have given it a try.

After visiting Istanbul, I felt like taking some time to unwind in nature and go hiking. When I reached the highest point that I was allowed to go with Rosinante, it felt pretty strange because that area was mainly characterized by large hotels. These hotels were closed for the winter season and when I was there, there were hardly any other people around. But I found a nice place to stay, and the next morning, I drove Rosinante to one of the hotels to ask if I could park her there while I went hiking. I met a nice guy and we talked about living in the hotel, the differences between the summer and winter seasons, and so on. During the conversation, I couldn’t help but be reminded several times of Stephen King’s novel “The Shining.” Not that the guy seemed to be a big fan of smashing doors and people’s heads with an axe. It was just the scenery and his description of the boredom and loneliness he felt, especially during the summer when there were hardly any people around, that made me think of “The Shining.” I guessed.

I hiked up the Uludag mountain and the feeling of just going up and up was amazing and liberating. The layer of clouds separating heaven from earth looked like a fluffy but dense bed. Seeing that dense layer of clouds below and the bright sun above me reminded me of the saying “no matter what, there is always light, but sometimes you just can’t see it.” I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be under that cloud layer at that moment.

I reflected on what had been going on with me in Istanbul, and it was very interesting. By the end of my time in Istanbul, I had been feeling disoriented, confused, and kind of frustrated. I talked to a very good friend and she said that for her, cities are always about connecting to other people. And that made me think. At some point in Istanbul, I had felt like I didn’t belong there. Not in the city and not to the people there. I had talked with a lot of people, but I hadn’t really connected with them in a deep way. I had felt like a foreign body in an organism, like I wasn’t a part of the rest. I had let that make me feel uncertain about a lot of things and that had led me to think a lot. Being on that mountain helped me understand that I was disappointed about not connecting in a deep way to others during my time in Istanbul. Somehow my expectations had not been met and that had made me feel bad. I seemed to be unable to let go of these expectations and accepting that I could not let go as well. As I’m writing this, I feel different about all of that, but at that time, understanding this through thinking made me feel calm and positive. I felt like I understood myself again and that everything was perfectly fine.

When I got back to Rosinante, I felt hungry and tired, and I just wanted to find a place to stay for the night, eat, and relax. When I found a really cool spot, a car of the mountain rangers approached. I went to the two rangers and we talked via Google Translate about the beauty of the mountains and the wild animals. Then they said that I was not allowed to stay overnight in the national park. For me, that felt like it couldn’t be right because there were official camp sites. I asked if I could stay at that specific spot where we were standing at that moment, which was located in one of the official camps. They said I needed permission to do that. I asked if they could give me the permission, they made a phone call and told me that only managers could give me the required permission. So I asked where I could find a manager, and they said that both of them were managers. I felt a little confused about how this interaction went along and I felt my tiredness, but it was funny as well, and I was curious about where this may lead. I asked if they would give me the permission, and they made another phone call. After that, they said I would have to pay for staying overnight, and I told them I would be happy doing that. They asked me to pay via bank transfer. In Germany, a bank transfer takes hours or days to complete, so I was a bit confused and told them that I only had German bank accounts, and that an international transfer would take time. I asked if I could pay in cash, and then they asked me to follow their car to the headquarters, so we drove about thirty minutes to their headquarters. After getting there, I waited and got some tea. I explained to some police officers hanging around the waiting area that I wanted to stay for one night in the park and they told me several times that I would not be allowed to leave the car after sunset because there would be dangerous wild animals. After some time, the friendly managers brought me to the director’s office. I explained that I would like to stay one night at the spot I had found earlier. The director was friendly and approved of that. One of the managers gave me a form that I filled out, and then he asked me to pay via bank transfer again. I felt more tired, but I was still curious, and the whole process started to feel hilarious. I started to enter their bank account details into my Revolut app because I thought that one may be able to send the money way faster than my German bank. But they had no BIC code. Without the BIC code, transferring the money was not possible. The manager started to get frustrated and left me on the waiting couch again. I got tea, talked to some rangers and police officers, and waited. Some other rangers and police officers told me that I would not be allowed to leave my car after sunset again. And they told me that I was not allowed to go hiking without asking for permission. I felt reminded about the German bureaucracy. But there was one big difference: these Turkish guys were very friendly and helpful. After a pretty long time, the manager came back and took me back into the director’s office again. There I explained what I would like to do again: sleeping one night in Rosinante at that spot I had found. He filled out another form. I paid 25tl (about 2€) in cash, got a receipt, and after two hours, I was good to go. Easy.

Istanbul, instruments, sights, food, dates but no dancing (November 2022)

After a short stop at another beach, I went to Istanbul. I can’t say why, but ever since I began my journey, I’ve imagined Istanbul as a kind of gateway to the East. And I’ve always imagined it as a very different city.

And different it was. Vivid, vibrant and colorful as crazy. I found a very good city home spot right next to a small park and the sea. It was a paid parking, but I ended up paying only 7€ for five nights instead of 7€ for each night. There was an old van in the parking lot that looked like it wasn’t going anywhere, and I wondered why no one was removing it. It turned out to be the tea station for this parking and the walk along the seaside next to it. I loved this practical approach.

From this parking, I explored the city. On the first two days, I visited all the music instrument stores in the district Karaköy. There were a lot of them. I had been making music with synthesizers, sequencers and onscreen instruments on my iPad for years and loved it. But for a few months I had been thinking about getting an acoustic instrument. In Varna, I bought a pad controller for finger drumming, but that didn’t feel like the real deal. I thought about all kinds of instruments: didgeridoos, handpans, cajons, flutes, keyboards… I wanted something real. After trying dozens of instruments, I bought a cajon. It’s amazing how different they sound and feel. I ended up with one that I really loved. I also bought a used and discounted 64 pad midi controller and sequencer at a music store. I thought it would be super universal and cool to use. I went to a city park and made my first beats on the Cajon and it felt alien, but natural and awesome. I tried the pad controller and immediately realized it wasn’t going to work for me. I couldn’t see any of its leds in the sunlight. So I went back to the store where I had bought it and the guy there took it back and refunded me the money without hesitation. I was very grateful to him, because that was pure goodwill on his part. After trying many midi keyboards, I bought one, tried it in the evening and found that one key wasn’t working properly. I fell in love with the Cajon even more because it was so simple. Back at the store, they exchanged the keyboard for a perfectly good one. It was really nice to talk to all the guys in the instrument stores about music and the instruments. Is there anything more diverse than music?

The next few days I went sightseeing and saw a lot of the famous stuff. It was beautiful and I learned a lot about Islam, which was very interesting. And I don’t know why, but every time I see an obelisk, I feel a strong connection with it… Maybe I had watched too much 2001: A Space Odyssey. And I liked the bazaars and how lively they were. I bought some lambskin socks and these ones are now my absolute favorite socks when it’s cold.

Since Artha and I had lived on the first beach in Bulgaria, I had a very strong connection to dates combined with nuts and small pieces of fruit. I highly recommend trying that stuff. My aboslute favorite combination: half of a large date with a salted almond and a small piece of apple! It’s the best! Istanbul was the heaven of dates and nuts! I loved it. I got some recommendations for authentic Turkish restaurants from friendly locals and tried them out as well. My absolute favorite was a little restaurant where they made these “pizza-like” things. I don’t remember the name, but they were fantastic!

I felt like going dancing and looked for a cool little club that played house music. I found one that sounded great, but when I went there at night, they wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t have a woman with me. I had never had anything like that happen to me before. Actually, I was super happy that I didn’t need a woman or anyone else to go dancing anymore. That I felt happy and good when I danced alone. Although I understood their intention for such a rule, I didn’t like it. I thought that this club isn’t very welcoming for people who just don’t want to be with women. And since I wasn’t in the mood to meet someone I didn’t know in a bar or other club, I did let go of the dancing for that night.

I drove to the east of Istanbul. There I found another great city parking next to a marina, a park, and a path that went along the sea. I explored the eastern part of Istanbul, which felt very different from the touristy areas around the sights. It felt more authentic and free to me. One day I took a long run along the sea and I had never seen such a long strip of nature in a city with before on which so many people were barbecuing and having fun.

After a week I was fed up with city life. It had been nice, beautiful and interesting, but I felt like I had had enough. And there was something else. I felt lost and disoriented. But at that point there were only whirly thoughts in my head. It did make me feel unhealthy and frustrated.