{"id":1667,"date":"2023-04-15T20:10:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T18:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.parabundos.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2023-04-15T20:46:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T18:46:18","slug":"osttuerkei-auf-kurdischer-hochzeit-fliegen-am-van-see-und-ein-gluecks-buesi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.parabundos.com\/en\/osttuerkei-auf-kurdischer-hochzeit-fliegen-am-van-see-und-ein-gluecks-buesi\/","title":{"rendered":"East Turkey: at a Kurdish wedding, flying at Lake Van and a fortune kitten"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crossing the border also means that we now see Ararat from pretty much every side. It is actually an important mountain for Armenia, after all Noah's Ark is said to have landed on it, but it is located on Turkish territory. Only from far away you can see it from Yerevan... but everything is named after it - bars, banks, beers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ararat (A\u011fr\u0131 Da\u011f\u0131<\/em>) from all sides<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Two border crossings later and underestimating the size of Turkey ends in us stopping somewhere next to the main road to spend the night. And we are almost blown away. There rages an incredible wind, gusts tear the bus back and forth and I can not even think about sleep. But it rained so hard and from so many sides the water pelts us that the bus is finally clean again the next morning after a long dirty time. Also not bad. Somewhere we find a public Hamam and Luca gets a long desired hot shower. Only Luca, because on this day only men are allowed in the hamams. We visit a salt cave (Tuzluca), chug around a bit and are in search of water. In a rather remote place we find a well - dry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hospitality and baking a cake<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly the gate opposite the fountain opens and an elderly man invites us in. We are standing in a huge garden with hundreds of apple trees, a self-made fountain, several layouts for stone houses... \"Ararat Gardens\" is the dream of a man who moved here years ago to get away from city life and find happiness in nature. He invites us for tea, we are allowed to help ourselves to the apples, fill up our water canisters and finally take a bucket shower in his little house - half of which consists of a caravan. Luca bakes an apple pie and helps to save the chickens from the somewhat over-motivated dog, before we drive on again and spend the night in the barren expanse in front of the impressive volcano. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What a luck that we did not drive further. Because sometime at night the nice gentleman (with whom we once again only talk via google translate) writes us that we have forgotten a bag of clothes at his place. So we come back the next day. And drive into the middle of a family celebration - after all it is weekend? There is tea again and the 16-year-old daughter asks us for the cake recipe. We want to give it to her, but actually they want us to bake together right away. Ok, why not? It seems like it's everyone's first time baking. The teenager quickly drives to the village to get some flour, somewhere under a sofa we dig out a mobile electric oven and look for a bowl. We throw everything into a baking pan and hope that it will be good... and everybody likes it \ud83d\ude42 In the meantime, a super fancy dressed bride and groom have their picture taken in the garden. This time we really pack up everything and head off towards Do\u011fubeyaz\u0131t. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n