In Hakkari, we camped in the middle of the city park next to the big mosque, where they celebrated something related to Ramadan until late at night. We don't like to go to bed or close the tent zipper if there is still a lot going on outside. That's why we sat in the little picnic hut and waited. We could observe the people. Some couples and groups of 2-3 men walked their rounds along the park fence, some families had a picnic on the meadow, the smaller kids played on the slide and swing, others chased each other with water bottles (it was quite cold up there, surrounded by snowy mountain peaks), and we saw a group of teenagers chase, hit, and kick one of the boys quite rough. This was a really shocking moment. We talked a lot about this happening, trying to understand or at least find a reason to accept how 'kids' can be so aggressive and bad to each other. Some time later, they shook hands and went to the festivities in the mosque...
Our night was not the best, so it was not too difficult to get up super early the next morning. Our bus left at 7:00. The bicycles fit into the quite small bus, but then it was a Tetris game to put all the luggage of the other passengers on top. We crossed our fingers, hoping nothing got damaged on our bikes!
The bus ride was crazy. We first rode down into the narrow valley and then up over the next mountain peak covered in snow. The street was narrow and steep with thousands of switchbacks. Several military checkpoints with armed men controlled the passport of each passenger.
We felt really grateful to be sitting on the bus rather than pedaling on the street!
