“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” Said Leo Tolstoy.
Every journey is a new opportunity to new chances, to new life or may be new love… If I have to speak for myself, I found the love of my life after a journey. Then she abandoned me and When she had gone I lost even myself. Although I knew that I will not find her again even so at every opportunity I made a plan and I went on a journey.
That was a journey in a journey alike dreaming in a dream. Being in Sofia was the first step that I took for travel in the New Year. Also It was one of my most accurate steps. After spending some time in Sofia me and my roommates decided to visit Plovdiv. We were so excited because we were going to travel by train in a different country. We had to spend our money very carefully. That's why we were prepared really hard. Like making sandwiches, buying some cheap and healthy snacks.
Eventually we got the train and our three-hours journey had begun. The first 45 minutes were interesting for us but after that all of us tried to find a way to sleep. Some of us thought our own coat was the ex-lover that we missed and slept by hugging it. Some of us put on headphones and listened to music. One way or another we arrived in Plovdiv happily.
In the first moments we arrived at the Plovdiv we needed to find a toilet. Because we ate we drank on the train… We asked so many different places for WC but everybody rejected us. At last we went to the municipality. There was nothing left to do. But again we rejected…
While we were leaving the city hall in a totally disappointed manner, an attendant told us that we could go to the mosque and she showed us where to go. We rejoiced like we found treasure.
We started visiting all the city on foot. In my opinion travelling on foot is the God of travelling. Because when you walk around, you learn around by heart. Speaking of heart and god, I remembered the sacredness of the places we visited.
We went to The Assumption of the Holy Virgin orthodox church, Djumaya Mosque, Plovdiv Ancient Roman Theater, Nebet Hill and maybe dozens of other places but we forgot their names. But there was something that we didn't forget, is energy which cannot be expressed in words, is the air of ancient lives and old people…
While we were walking around, we felt like we traveled in time. Without any judgement or glances. They didn’t judge us because they were like us. They were as if they were unwittingly detached from the time they actually lived and someone left them there. Although they didn’t care about that. They were singing and dancing like there is no tomorrow.
Although it is a small city, Plovdiv fascinated us. While we were walking oldtown’s street we were not like ourselves. We weren't hungry, we weren't thirsty. We were just walking like deceived by a master illusionist. Yeah, we found the nickname of this city for us: Master illusionist… Although the city deceived us we learned something: “Be Brave! Be wild! And stay forever! Hungry for art, love, knowledge and adventure!”
While we speak about love, art, being brave or wild but for each of one we have to be alive. So what is the first condition of being alive? Eating…
When we noticed that condition we turned to real life. As I said at the beginning, we had to use our money sparingly. That’s why we opened our bags and we checked what was left in them.
We were lucky! We found 1 sandwich and we shared that to be alive. We rejoice and we thanked God for the blessing God has given us.
With the energy that we got from our food, we set off again toward the train station, where our return journey would begin.
We arrived at the station early. We bought our tickets and we started to wait for our time. But how could we know that a gipsy man would bother us? If we knew, would we ever go early? Of course not. Even so, this is real life. We are not in a fairy tale. One way or another we parried the guy that asked for some money or cigarettes. After that we saw the beautiness that God sent for us to see: Sunset…
I know it's not that nice for you or meaningful but me - as an electrical engineer candidate, you can't even guess the value of the sunsets behind transmission towers for me.
As in the story of Leyla and Mecnun. It is like an answer that you give when someone says ugly to your beloved: “See her through my eyes...” So “See this sunset behind transmission lines through my eyes…”
Onur Camlica, volunteer@ICDET