roadside corn

As is so very often the case, you can find food in the unlikeliest of places in Turkey. People are quite entrepreneurial here, and on the side of a lonely stretch of road near some dam, a cheery moustachioed man was boiling up corn on the cob on a stove that looked homemade. His make-shift café clung precariously to the side of the cliff, and he had somehow diverted a small stream into a kitchen tap with an actual sink. We squeezed our car against the guardrail, climbed over it, and sat down at a tiny table for some corn and mountain stream çay.

into green

As the landscape changed from wide grassland to green forest, a little river began to run parallel to the road, and we couldn't resist leaving the car on the side of the road to investigate.



I waded into the river, the water wrapping around my thighs. Balancing carefully on the slippery rocks, I untied the sweaty handkerchief that hid my dirty hair, and soaked my head in the cool water. As I watched the current carry my hands away like the branches of green that grew within it, I was overcome by a feeling of peace. Road trips have a funny way of teasing out all the things your brain buries during the routine of daily life. There had been so many conflicts, questions, and realisations running through my head, but now... now, the sight of an electric blue dragonfly gently bobbing up and down while clinging the water milfoil was all there was.



There was this fine frog too.