Day 18 - Don Curry stumbles upon a boat

Don Curry plans meticulously. He not only knows what he wants to see; he also keeps in mind the order in which he needs to visit the sites so that the position of the sun is right and any sightseeing breaks are taken into account. Either he has already incorporated this into the program or he reads the necessary information on the respective evening before. Last night, the preplanning somehow got overlooked. He came back late from Hatay, the club sandwich provided a cozy satiety, he simply fell asleep...

At least he decided yesterday to start the day as early as possible, as the journey would be challenging once again. So he only made a brief visit to the service buffet at the Hilton and focused on an absolutely unturkish breakfast of croissant, chocolate muffin, and a few pieces of fruit. He checked out at 9:00 a.m. and continued eastward.

His first destination of the day was the open-air museum Yesemek, which displayed numerous Hittite stone statues on a large area, most of which were unfinished. Archaeologists disagree whether this was a Hittite training center for future stonemasons or a kind of factory for statues "on the production line," which were then sold and used throughout the kingdom. In any case, it is strange that there are only a few different models among the hundreds of statues; lions, in particular, appear in dozens in the same form. Don Curry was the only visitor to the remote village of Yesemek and was warmly greeted by the museum director, who was chopping wood at the time. With a few English words, he invited Don Curry to visit and photograph the extensive area. When he wanted to offer his visitor a coffee at the end, Don Curry declined. Time was particularly short today.

His next destination was the metropolis of Gaziantep. In 2011, a museum was built there, which was primarily intended to accommodate the precious mosaics of the ancient city of Zeugma, which were literally threatened with destruction by one of the new dams in eastern Anatolia. The museum stands out with its impressive architecture directly on the main thoroughfare, but when planning, not much thought was given to parking or the number of visitors expected, so the 10 parking spaces between the thoroughfare and the museum were supposed to be sufficient. Don Curry parked haphazardly on a side street. Not only externally did the museum appeal to him, but the interior also impressed Don Curry with a spectacular and helpful design that he had experienced several times on his journey. In addition to the partly several square meter floor mosaics, other parts of the house architecture had at least been suggested or reconstructed, so that at least a little of the original "purpose" of the artwork could be felt. One could walk across glass bridges over particularly magnificent mosaics. From the first floor, there were several opportunities to look down on the mosaics on the ground floor. More mosaics awaited on the 3 floors of the annex building; no wonder this museum is considered the world's largest for mosaics. Don Curry spent far too much time in all this splendor and beauty.

So he dropped the originally planned detour to the ruins of Zeugma from the day's program. There isn't much to see there anyway since the famous mosaics wandered into the museum. Therefore, his next destination should be Halfeti, more precisely Old Halfeti, as this town was also partly affected by the new dam; only a few houses were high enough to stand by the lakeside today. The actual town with thousands of inhabitants was rebuilt 10 km away from the lake. However, Don Curry was not interested in this faceless new town, and to be precise, not even in Old Halfeti; he just wanted to book a boat trip on the lake to two very special destinations.

At around 3:00 p.m., he was now standing at the lakeshore and suddenly realized that he didn't know how and where to book a boat trip. There were no tour offices or intrusive ticket vendors anywhere to be found. What to do? Suddenly, he saw that some Turkish families hurried to an inconspicuous counter at the port authority. Don Curry simply stood in line. All the information at the counter was only in Turkish, and everything seemed more like official announcements. When it was Don Curry's turn, he paid the equivalent of €2.50 for a ticket that contained no information except the price. Had he just booked a ferry ticket to the opposite shore? Anyway, the families in front of him went to a small two-story boat, and Don Curry simply followed, boarded the boat, and found a sunny spot on the upper deck. Two minutes later, the engine started, and the boat set off. Where would it go? How long does this journey take? Is it a one-way trip or a round trip? Don Curry had a lot of questions, which he should have clarified beforehand. But there was no time for that, and now it was too late. He was on a boat and was being taken away from Old Halfeti... The boat didn't steer towards the opposite shore; instead, it continued further into the gorge where the huge reservoir spread out. And then, Don Curry saw the first of the hoped-for destinations, the former Byzantine fortress Rumkale (= Römerburg), which used to be located high on a rocky spur and was now partly positioned almost at the lakeshore. A short time later, the second destination came into view, the half-sunken minaret, and Don Curry's questions and worries finally turned into joy and satisfaction. He had instinctively landed on the right boat, which took a total of 90 minutes for the pleasant round trip, accompanied by loud Turkish folk music. His hotel was still 3 hours away - in the middle of the mountains, and he wouldn't be able to reach it before nightfall.

Don Curry hurried off. At least the first two hours of the journey went well in daylight and twilight. However, the challenging mountain stretch only began when it was already pitch dark. Serpentine roads in Anatolia are not a special pleasure even during the day, as the road markings are sparsely applied. At least now, Don Curry had the advantage that he couldn't see how deep the chasms were next to the road. Once he left the tree line, he got an unexpected ally: a magnificent full moon provided some light in the darkness. And since he managed driving quite well, he decided to drive past his hotel to possibly climb the summit of Mount Nemrut tonight, which was 10 km away from his hotel - 10 serpentine kilometers. Shortly before reaching the destination, a closed barrier shattered his summit dreams. Later, he learned that access to the summit is opened one hour before sunrise and closed one hour after sunset. Don Curry was too late!

Slightly disappointed, he drove the 10 km downhill to his hotel, delighted to find a preheated (!) room, and quickly went to dinner. There was no choice here. The dinner included in the room rate is served as a set menu: soup, salad, and (today) chicken with rice. The chicken presented itself more as an oriental chicken-vegetable curry and was the first dish on this journey that had a pleasant spiciness. Don Curry washed it down with an Efes beer.

And he reviewed the program for tomorrow once again. Stumbling into something once may work, but...