mustang

This is a post about a walk around Abana. I saw an abandoned hammam, a wooden mosque, and the main mosque at dusk.

Before starting this leg of the walk I had promised everyone – including myself – that I would go easy on my body. No long distances, no complete exhaustion. I had to learn to listen. So today I took another day of rest.

And it was a great day. I could hear the waves from the window of my room. I ate so many mandarins that I got sick of them. Then I went outside to look for some more food.

hammams and mosques

Somewhere near the central square I walked past an old hammam. It was abandoned. A man appeared and asked me where I was from. As it turned out he, too, was from Germany. He told me that the hammam had already been abandoned before he left for Germany decades earlier.

Then he told me how he owned an apartment in Abana that used to be two apartments. He wanted to split it into two apartments again and then sell both of them. Abana, he said, was a bad place to be a landlord. Not much rent.

There was also an old wooden mosque, and there was a central square with the obligatory flags and vegetable shops. I had some soup and a salad, then I took a picture of the main mosque at dusk.

movie recommendation

In the evening, I watched a Turkish movie called “Mustang” (2015). It’s a drama about five orphaned sisters and their struggle with the conservative rural society around them. The reason I thought of watching it was because it had been filmed mostly in Inebolu, a place that lay on my route just 23km west of here.

As it turned out it was harrowing to watch. The sisters are so vulnerable, and the people around them are so entrenched in their personal and collective misogyny. A great movie.

pictures

My mandarins, my bananas:

Old hammam of Abana:

Inside the hammam:

Wooden mosque of Abana:

A walk around town:

Central square with flags:

Abana central mosque at dusk:

Mustang (2015):