The turkish culture of hospitality is fascinating - i had asked Mustafa(One of the teachers i had met yesterday) where this generosity comes from but he didn't have a straight answer(First he said "genes", but after i insisted he ment his grandparents had thaught him). I guess it's part tradition you learn from your parents and grandparents, and another part it's simply religious practice. Therefore it often doesn't seem like it's genuine interest but rather obligation that seems to drive it(Without feeling negative at all - i just sometimes have the impression that people push themselves to be polite and generous as the interest in my person is often a bit too shallow to feel authentic). Therefore i also decline many offers and try to find out if the other really wants it or is just polite. This seems to be an alleviated form of Taarof.

Mustafa took me back to his house in the mountain- village and we spend some more time together with cay, cookies and fresh chestnuts. He told me he was working in the village since three years and when he started, he hated it, but now he loves it. Young teachers in Turkey have to work in small rural villages before they can go back to teach in bigger cities resp. their hometowns.

Temperature in Bostancilar dropped down to -30°C last winter, the isolation of his house is not very good and he heats his flat with a sole coal-oven. He's lucky to own a car since a year and spends most of his free time with his friends in Mudurnu(The place where we had stayed for the night).

Teachers in Turkey are considered part of the government and therefore they are restricted to travel abroad(I don't understand the logic behind this, but i guess even if i knew it, it would not make much sense).

The road from the pass to Nallihan was steadily downhill, but unfortunately not as steep as i had hoped so i still had to push most of the time. The pass i had passed yesterday marks the border between the humid Black Sea coast climate and the arid Central Anatolia climate, which is pretty apparent in the landscape, the thick oakwoods have made way for less dense pinewoods and it's more rocky and dusty. Looking for a place to camp on a field in Nallihan i met Faruk, who has a garden next to the field where i ended up sleeping. He's a young guy who has grown up in Frankfurt and went to Turkey after 30 years of living in Germany(Hence he spoke perfect german with a distinct hessian dialect). He told me how happy he was here in Turkey, how much better life was due to the kindness of the people, who are much more equal in their poorness, not having to look for wealth. I told him how grotesque it is that turkish people in Austria and Germany are treated so badly(They are basically considered a "second class" of people in my country by many austrians) - it's also grotesque how right-wing politicians in Austria still agitate with the fear of a turkish invasion, while actually turkish workers are no longer interested in going to Europe, there's a lot more economic growth in their own country these days. Before he left(Not without giving me a bag full of tomatoes and honey-melons), he said:

"I've spend all of my childhood and adolescense in Frankfurt. And look at me now, standing here with a sack on my back on farmland" (He was carrying a huge sack full of apples he had just picked up in his garden)

After yesterday's evening meal my stomach started to rebel - i guess i've swallowed too much of the water in the Hamam and catched the first diarrhea on this travel. I didn't get to sleep till 3am but finally got it under control with the help of charcoal tablets and 4l of Normhydral which helps to rehydrate the body and refills the sugar and electrolytes you loose.

Getting out of the tent in the middle of the night is cumbersome and i had get out quite often. At one point, 3 huskies where roaming outside of the tent. I was not surprised as i had met them early in the evening - they where very friendly dogs so i didn't mind. However, dogs are disgusting animals. I was getting out of the tent for the sole purpose of doing my "business" and dogs seem to eat about everything. You do the math. Yuck! After the restless night i packed up and started riding after noon, and didn't want to go very far to give my body time to recover. I even texted my girlfriend i would halt in the next village in the early afternoon. However, for many kilometers no village appeared, only smaller settlements and i needed at least a shop to buy some clean water for the night. The valley had narrowed down and i was going through a shadowy and deserted gorge, feeling quite lonely. Having passed the intersection to Mudurnu(Where the valley had opened up and was sunny again), the road started to rise towards the pass(Which i didn't intend to cross). There was a village on the left, but i had missed the street leading towards it earlier and i didn't get a second chance to get there(I later learned that it was actually a deserted village). After climbing for a few more kilometers i realized i would have to traverse the pass the same day - i tried to flag down lorries to ask them to pull me up, as i felt weak, but none of them slowed down. In the end, i managed to get across it on my own(1200m). The sun had already set and i was desperate to find some water and a place to sleep - luckily, after a short downhill a village appeared - yet another empty place though. I roamed through the village-streets, looking for someone to ask for water when i stumbled over group of young people sitting around a samovar, drinking cay. Turns out they where teachers, one of them living in the village, the others in Mudurnu. I ended up drinking cay with them and eventually they invited me to their flat in Mudurnu where i got fed, company, a warm shower and a bed(I left most of my bags and the bike in the house in the mountain village and we all went back to Mudurnu by car). Once again, serendipity had found me (Thanks @c3o for linking to this article, which neatly describes a natural law that has accompanied me all my life).

Fantastic weather and a long climb - spent the evening at a hamam which is supplied from a hot spring(And sleeping close to it - just the right thing to relax my muscles.