Mark’s House turned out to be a small farm by the vast dried-up river banks next to the main road. The owner, Mark, owned a small field growing peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and corn. They also raised their own chickens, sheep, cows and a rambunctious puppy who tried to steal our cheese. The house itself consisted of two buildings, an old stone farmhouse for the guests and a slightly more modern build for Mark, his wife and his teenage daughter, the one who answered my phone. We had misheard the price on the phone. It was 30 instead of 13 euros per person per night. But we figured with all the meals, we would’ve paid pretty much the same amount at other places. That was, if we had been able to find any with availability.
Besides, the view from this place made it all worthwhile. Does one ever get sick of this landscape if one sees it everyday?
While waiting for dinner, we played cards, hiked around the farm and met other guests who just hiked from Theth – so the same walk we’d be doing tomorrow but in the opposite direction. All of us enjoyed a simple dinner of vegetable salad, bean soup, cheese and bread, and homemade yogurt for dessert. All homemade using ingredients from the farm. Plus excellent companies and conversations. We really lucked out today.
When we first got to the house and were shown the room, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But I reminded myself to accept things the way they were and just be grateful. It’s temporary, and, we had, and would likely stay in even worse places in the future. Our accommodation on this trip is rarely ever luxurious, occasionally comfortable, but mostly, basic and acceptable. Sometimes the room is damp or cramped. Sometimes the sheet smells or the mosquitoes are especially bad-mannered, or the bathroom isn’t quite clean. Sometimes the location of the place is far from town, or in a questionable neighborhood. It’s never the hotel quality room we were used to, or the comfort of our home. But, whenever I feel this way, I try to break it down, and realize that we have everything we need. A dry bed, a warm room, a safe house. If we think the sheets are not clean, we have the sleeping bag liner and a sleeping bag to lie on, or we can sleep with our clothes on. If we’re not happy with the shower, we have slippers to keep our feet clean and do a quick shower instead of a long one.
I just finished reading Yuval Noal Harari’s book “Homo Deus” and one of the things he wrote that stuck with me was: break things down and see what are the facts / truths and what are the stories we spin in our heads.
For example:
FACT: The bathroom drain is clogged with hair
STORY: This is a dirty bathroom in a dirty house and my feeling of disgust is making me feel like I’m going to contract diseases from just breathing the air in this unhygienic bathroom, and so on, and so forth.
Moral of the story: as long as we don’t find a corpse in our room, we are fine.