Monday and Tuesday, 8 and 9 October
I enjoyed the pension at Eğirdir so much that several days when my week’s vacation was finished, I would do a day’s walk and come back by bus to the pension and spend the night. The next day I would take the bus back to where I ended the previous day, do a day of walking from there, then come back again to the pension by bus and spend the night.
I felt like I should be leaving Eğirdir behind, though. The old struggle was back — moving on from people I knew and from places where I felt at home. It wasn’t that I thought it was wrong to enjoy the scenery, to sleep by the lake, to sit on the deck at Charly’s, but that the resistance to staying in the present, meeting new people, dealing with new situations, was back, or maybe had never left. I found myself very uncomfortable with never having closure. Too many questions were opened but almost none were ever closed. I had a job to do. The job was to walk across the country. It wasn’t to get attached to things.
When I finally pushed myself out of the village of Eğirdir that Monday, I found the scenery on the eastern side of the lake amazing, much like northern Wenatchee along the Columbia River in Washington, the country that was indeed home to me. As I walked down the narrow two-lane road above the lake I passed apple orchards and exquisite views of the lake. Apple harvest was in progress and many workers were out in the field picking apples.
I ate apples and drank tea with a family of farmers who waved at me to come to join them on their break. Even after a month on the road, I still grappled with the tendency to stereotype people, and I imagined that a family of farmers would be uneducated and unfamiliar with urban life. As we drank our tea, I asked the family about themselves. One of the sons lived in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. He was a nurse. Another of the children, a university student, was home on break helping with the harvest. I appreciated their gentility and their pride in their family and their farm, and they were far from uneducated country folk. I was reminded, once again, that most of the time my stereotypes were wrong.
Most of the time that day I just walked, gazing out over the lake on one side and orchards on the other, then on up into the rocky bluffs beyond. The sky was crystal clear and the lake bright blue. I asked myself how I got so lucky. How had the universe chosen me to be the one to see this?
At one point I pulled off to the side of the road and turned to look back, somewhat yearningly, at where I’d been — where I’d slept by this lake listening to these waves outside my tent. There, perched on the ledge overlooking the lake, I felt very much at home.
Then, beginning to feel a bit like Lot’s wife who morphed into a pillar of salt while turning to gaze back at home, I jumped up and started walking again.
Wednesday, 10 October
On the morning of 10 October, I finally packed up, boarded the dolmuş, and rode away from Charly’s Pansiyon. At the Sarıidris turnoff, I got off the dolmuş and started walking to Gelendost. Here the road began turning east away from the lake, and the scenery began to change from apple orchards to packing sheds and cold storage plants. There were still a few orchards but not as many.
I stopped and visited a few apple storage places and took pictures of their forklifts and packing areas for my dad. I began nearing the end of my miles for the day and thought I’d scout out the packing sheds for a place to stay. They seemed too busy with the harvest, however, so I didn’t want to bother them. Also, I wasn’t seeing any gas stations along the way with grassy areas to camp in. I decided I’d probably have to find a cheap motel in Gelendost.
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In 2012, Matt sold off or gave away almost everything he owned. He strapped whatever was left to his back, flew to Turkey, and walked across it. Every foot, from one end of the country to the other. Along the way, he slept in mosque gardens, dined with strangers, and stumbled into refugee camps.
This is the story of that journey. We’ll be publishing one chapter each week from his book. If you would like to read the whole thing at once, you can purchase his book titled Heathen Pilgrim: Walk Across Turkey on Amazon.
