pet cemetery

This post is about a 33km walk from Necatiye to Edirne. I hang out at a gas station, and I see a lot of road kill.

When I left the hotel it was totally empty except for an old lady sweeping the floor. I asked her for a bit of hot water to fill my thermos, but she declined. No hot water.

I shrugged and placed the key on the reception desk. That’s when I noticed that there was a little bell. Its color was a pinkish red, and something was written on it: RING FOR SEX. I left in silence.

the gas station

I got some hot water at a gas station a few hours later. It was windy, and so I was happy when I was allowed to sit inside. A lady came and gave me three cookies. They were warm and chocolaty. I sat there with my tea and my cookies, watching the gas station go about its business, exchanging a few words with people here and there.

One of the workers was a young Afghan. Unlike the others, he spoke a bit of English. He had a bucket and a mop, and he was listening to upbeat music on his cellphone. When I asked him how long he had been here, he said “many years”, and that he had been to Serbia and Greece before. But they had turned him back every time.

He smiled when I said that I was from Germany. He wanted to go there, to Germany.

roads kill

The rest of the way was cold and windy. I don’t know why, but I saw much death today. A dog, a bird, a cat, another dog. People had hit them with their cars and just left them there. I wondered if they would end up like God’s Creature, slowly becoming one with the ground, a testament to the fact that there wasn’t only adventure on the road – there was also plenty of misery and death.

pictures

The road to walk from Necatiye to Edirne:

Bird statue:

Industrial ruins:

Gas station on the way from Necatiye to Edirne:

Warm cookie:

God’s Creature:

God’s Creature:

Sunset near Edirne:

Identical buildings near Edirne:

Industrial scene:

Walking into Edirne at night: