It's cold outside when I wake up around 7am but I'm toasty warm. I've found that my silver blanket works better over the top of me than underneath. Because of this it's rather difficult to drag myself out of my pit.
Next stop Havsa and the road is under construction. My side is shiny, new and finished. The other side is still having the finishing touches done and is not yet open to traffic. For all I know this has been done on purpose to aid the farmers. They are utilising the lovely smooth black tarmac to dry some seeds of one kind of another. Huge swathes of road are coloured light brown with the drying seeds. The farmers walk up and down the 100s of metres long strips with a big wooden rake turning over the seeds and thinning them out. Further along in my travels I see people bagging them up once dried and shipping them onto big lorries. Twenty five km up the D100 I come to Havsa. Although it's only 11am I stop for a kebab and a well needed coffee. No coffee at this establishment but they send out for chai. I love the fact that restaurants in a certain area rely on a central chai maker who arrives from no where with steaming hot red brown chai tea in a small glass on a silver tray. Usually accompanied by some sugar lumps. Kebab and chain dealt with, I do the rounds in search of some history. A lot of places I've visited in the last week or so seem to have very few reminders of the past 130 years. Old fortresses from long before but most architecture and buildings have been from 1930 onwards. Whilst investigating I come across a cafe selling ice cream and I enquire if they do coffee. Yes they do and that is the end of that day. By pure coincidence Burak the owner is a cyclist and is on couch surfing. Once I've been there for about an hour it beomes apparent that a couch is available upstairs and although I've only done a paltry 25k and it's only lunchtime, I decide to stay. Lovely people, cyclists, decent amount of English. A no brainer.
It's a lovely afternoon, 27 degrees and I while away the hours chatting to various people, learning Turkish and drinking heaps of chai and coke, with various kebabs thrown in here and there for good measure. Although I arrived as a paying customer, once the invitation has been made I am made to feel as welcome as any guest and Burac refuses to take a copper coin for anything. Upstairs in the cafe are some sofas and a small bar selling soft drinks. I'm expecting I will end up sleeping here. Chatting away to a local lady who after a while I realise may have designs on me, (sometimes things get lost in translation and I dont think my pittance of Turkish has helped at all) I ask her what time the cafe closes and she explains it is 24hrs. Umm. Could be interesting. So could the fact that she has started to tell me that her boyfriend is getting jealous of her being with me but it's ok because he is at work!! My host has been absent for the last few hours so I decide the best plan is to just stay put, drink tea and chill. When he arrives back it's time for my admirer to head home to her boyfriend and me, Burak and a few other lads have a beer. We have to go to the shop to buy it and when some customers come in, girls around 16 years old, the beer has to disappear. When he closes up for the night, I go with him and and his friend who works for him to his friends house who lodges with a family close by. The family are all in Istanbul so it has been arranged that all 3 of us will sleep there for the night. I also take the chance to grab a well needed shower. Burac prepares some pasta before bedtime and I have a lovely snooze in my Sponge Bob duvet.
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