Let me introduce Mr. Hasan from Sanliurfa to you. How did I meet this guy?
Well, I was riding my bike into the city, late in the evening, trying to find a certain guesthouse in the old town. At some point, when I was getting very close to it, a guy on a scooter blocked my way and told me to go with him. He said something like 'friend, come, motorbike, house' and of course I ignored him... he stayed there for over a minute telling me to go with him and I started getting angry. I was tired after a very long ride and dying to check in and take a shower.Eventually, he left and I could finally find the guesthouse I was looking for. The receptionist showed me where I could park my bike and I started unloading my stuff and taking it to my room. When I returned to the bike to lock it properly, the guy on the scooter was there again. This time another younger guy was riding at the back... he turned out to be a CouchSurfer from Bosnia who was riding his bicycle all the way to Samarkand and was being hosted by a friend of the guy who was driving, whose English was not good enough to explain all that to me. He told me that they were having dinner and that his CS host, named Mr. Hasan, was willing to offer me food and accommodation... why? Because he is a BMW motorbike fan!

This is how I ended up following these two lads into the old town in Sanliurfa, all the way to Mr. Hasan's place. I parked my bike in his courtyard and got to know this unique old Turkish man, whose current hobby is repairing Vespas and riding them during trips in Europe. He is 64 years old, limps quite badly and still has the energy to drive a Vespa at 60km/h all the way from southeastern Turkey to Poland and back. During dinner, I also met Paul, an Australian guy who was staying there simultaneously, and two of Mr. Hasan's friends who joined later for tea. They did not speak English but understood basic German and Dado, the Bosnian guy, could translate basic stuff into Turkish. That's how we communicated.

Anyway, Mr. Hasan did not just like BMW motorbikes but he had actually ridden them for many years. He had a couple of them from the '60s in his house and it was really interesting for me to see how the design had evolved in fifty years time... however, the boxer engine and cardan transmission features were already there at that time. Here you have a picture of one of his motorbikes, topped with a mannequin from the time when Mr. Hasan used to earn a living as a tailor...

His house was an interesting mix of an old-style Turkish home and a garage, full of tools and old Vespas. He spent his days fixing those old scooters for friends and also for himself, since he had long ago stopped driving heavy bikes and used Vespas as a means of transport in town and also for long trips. This was the one he was working on at that time.

Now that you know the most important person in Sanliurfa, let me tell you something about the city. It is a very important place in Islam (as well as Christianity and Judaism) because this is where prophet Abraham is supposed to have been born. Nowadays, there are rose gardens, carp ponds and mosques surrounding the cave where legend says he came to life. The main mosque is built in Ottoman style and very pleasant to visit.

Together with Paul and two German girls whose names I can't remember, I visited the ancient city of Harran. A short minivan ride from Urfa, it is one of the oldest permanently inhabited towns in the world. It features a castle that was under reconstruction and the remains of one of the oldest mosques in current Turkish territory. Only the minaret and a few walls are standing but it is quite impressive when you think that they date from the time when Moors entered the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century and there is almost nothing left in Spain from that time.

Apart from all that, Sanliurfa had a great bazaar and very nice baklava shops. This is probably where I got totally addicted to baklava and I could start telling the difference between good and mediocre ones... you should look for the amount of nuts in the filling, more honey and less syrup, crispy golden crust instead of fluffy dough, etc. And I realized that walnut baklava can be as good or even better than the more expensive and famous pistachio version. Travelling on a budget!