MELAS VALLEY______Coffee House Lodgers Day 5___Susuzsahap-Cevizli-Emerya

Our breakfast consisting of fresh quince, pastrami, olives, cheese with herbs and soup

Handy Benoit at work

Woke up to a misty morning at Susuzsahap

Nature was on our side, directing us the right way

Our mushroom expert Gamze photographed all the mushrooms from the smallest to the largest

Rivers were wild, forests were dense, but none of it could hold us back

so that's what getting enlightened means!

In between Cevizli and Emerya

Had to crown our night walk with a selfie

Rain had started again when we woke up in the morning. It was possible to sense a hidden intention of everyone wanting to be lazy and spending a day here taking advantage of the comfortable house. By the time we had a short walk in the village and had breakfast it was already noon, and it was time to make a decision. We either were going to risk it and hope that the rain which had stopped by then wouldn’t start again, or were going to spend yet another day laying around. Don’t know how, but little monsters within us woke up and got us moving. Even though the longest leg of the trip was ahead of us, we decided to go the distance we could, and stay wherever we ended up. After a short walk we reached Cevizli town, which was the largest in the area with its grocery stores, restaurants and gas station. As if they all knew we would be coming (more so because of it being Monday and all the banks and government offices opening) all the reeves and tea-man of all the villages we had passed on the way were there in the town square. Every 10 meters we were running into another one of the reeves, greeting each other warmly and chatting for a little while. Seeing that, townspeople were getting curious about who we were, and were giving us questioning looks. We were tired of eating dry bread and cheese for days and just the sound of a stew or soup was enough to get our hearts beating faster.  Asking around a little, we found a nice restaurant and devoured all they had from green beans to chickpeas. Benoit also liked their rice pudding a lot (and insisted that I mention it here). After a quick consideration we decided that if we moved fast enough we could reach Emerya village just in time before the nightfall.  Even though we ended up crossing a river ten times whereas it was mentioned as crossing it just twice in the book, the leg between Cevizli and Emerya featured the most beautiful scenery of the trip to that point. Worrying about it getting dark we moved quickly without enjoying the view as much as we would have liked. But the night was quicker than us and had already started covering over the 30th East Longitude. We agreed with Benoit stating that no hiking trip is a true one unless there’s at least one night walk, and arming ourselves with headlights we kept on walking while searching for the marks in the dark. Seeing five gleaming heads in the distance, and probably thinking to himself “these stupid city kids got lost again”, we heard the voice of a shepherd calling us and directing us to the main road.  We soon reached the village and called Mr. Duran right away with the expectation of a warm fireplace, pots and pots of delicious food, and a whole lamb getting roasted in the yard all waiting for us. But every word coming out of Mr.Duran’s mouth over the phone felt like another stab in our hearts. He had some business in the city, so wasn’t there, but he was going to be calling the reeve to meet us. We hadn’t lost all our hope yet, perhaps we would need to forget about the lamb roast, but it was obvious that Mr. Duran was an important figure in town, and we would be hosted the best way as his guests. After a 15-20 min of a wait the reeve arrived and without elaborating much, in short he told us that the village didn’t have any facilities for us to stay at, but he could let us in the old school building if we wanted. Trying to hide our tears of despair, we had no choice but to accept the offer. It’s hard to put in words the devastation we felt when we saw the old school building. With its doors and windows broken, a room of bare walls with all kinds of bugs and reptiles roaming around, without any stove or toilet, it resembled more of a prison cell of the 19th century. With his breath smelling sweet with high levels of alcohol he was in a rush to get back to his drinking table, so left us alone (not even offering a drink) with our broken hearts and crushed dreams. We quickly went to sleep, to forget about our unfulfilled hopes and this miserable evening.