Reunion with the Yalciner family
We have a joke based on a fact and that is that where ever I go I bring bad weather. Blizzard in Hungary, intense snow fall in Romania and cold and strong headwind before arriving in Istanbul. This story has continued and been proven correct here in Zonguldak too.

The Yalciner family live on 5th floor in an apartment building located high up on one of the city’s hills and they have a grandiose view of the harbour and the Black Sea from their very cosy balcony. Have we seen the Black Sea from their balcony during the three days we have spent here? No – there has only been a light grey almost white fog all the time so we will have to come back to enjoy the view another time.

Department store
Both of Volkan’s brothers live in the same apartment building and his parents live in another one just across the street. Özlem’s birthday is on 1st of May and Volkan’s mother hosted Özlem, Volkan’s brother’s wife and daughter and us for a Iskender lunch at Zonguldak’s only deparment store some very steep switchbacks below where they all live. It was a tasty lunch and it was also nice to see a department store again. We haven’t been to any since we were in Krakow almost two months ago.

Post office
We have visited the local post office and sent home a little more than 3 kg of clothes, a camera that has stopped working, some tools not needed, our map of Bulgaria and a few other things we don’t need anymore. Besides making our luggage lighter, this will open up some space in our panniers where we will be able to carry food which will be needed later in the tour.

Football
After having been to the post office Volkan took us to his football field. Volkan and his two brothers have a electrical company that makes electrical installations and also has two shops selling deisgner lamps. Besides this they have a football field with adjacent changing rooms, showers and a little cafe that they rent out to local teams.

When Volkan told me about his football field I couldn’t understand why people would pay for that – local kids usually play football on any open space. Then I looked around me and saw the houses and apartment blocks clinging to the steep hills of Zonguldak and thought that maybe there is no unused flat areas where kids can play football so having a football field for rent may be a lucrative business in a town like Zonguldak.

Of course we had to try play some football. I am quite fit after having cycled all the way from Sweden to Zonguldak, but I am not used to play football and after 10 minutes we were all completely exhausted.

Jam session in the kitchen
Özlem and Volkan are very hospitable people and they have had friends over for dinner almost every night we have been staying with them. The last night of our stay their close friends Fatma and Levent came over. Levent is a teacher in traditional turkish music and I guess he came straight from work since he wore a suit while Volkan and I wore shorts and T-shirts.

Volkan is a serious hobby musician and has appeared in TV shows. He likes to sing traditional songs and soon Volkan and Levent started to play and sing. Levent played on his Ud (traditional instrument) while Volkan was percussionist using a very untraditional instrument – an empty cookie tin from Ikea. He later found a more traditional drum and played along with Levent for quite a while.

Haircut and shave
Last time I got a haircut was during our short break in Sweden. It was now time again and Volkan took me to the barber shop he uses.
After cutting my hair it was time for the shave. I am not being used to being shaved by others so it was interesting to watch the process. First I got a big load of shaving soap brushed into my face for two minutes and then the shaving started. My face soon appeared from the thick layer of white foam and when the foam was gone the barber went over my face with his razor once more before he applied after shave. After a short feeling of burning pain I felt like a baby face….

With hair, face and eyebrows done the barber opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors with a big chunk of cotton on its sharp end. He dipped it into a liquid and then set the whole thing to fire. The scissors were now a burning torch that he started to move towards my ears…

After a brief confusion I rememebered that my Australian friend Michael who cycled around the world had mentioned something to me about the Turks having a interesting way of removing hair on the ears and this was just what was about to happen.

The barber waved the burning scissors past my ears a couple of times to burn off those little hairs. I could clearly feel the smell of burnt hair so apparently the method works just fine.

Tea with a view
One of the days Özlem and Volkan took us out for a walk in a little park which has good vies of the Black Sea, a cafe at a lighthouse and some nice areas to stroll around in. It was neither hot or cold but a little foggy so we couldn’t see the Black Sea clearly.

Departure
I write this in the early morning of the day when it is time to say good bye to the Yalciner family. We stayed with them for three nights in Istanbul and now for four nights here in Zonguldak and we have had very fun, lots of discussions and eaten lots and lots of super good food. This is definately not the last time we will see these new friends of ours and we will definately come back after having concluded this trip. We also hope to some day see them in Thailand and/or Sweden.

A big big big big thank you to Özlem and Volkan for letting us stay and enjoy some really fun days in your company.