A few years ago, while watching Turkish TV with a friend, I saw the image of some very beautiful medieval buildings made of black-and-white stones. I asked my friend in which city of Turkey the buildings are located, and the reply is 'Diyarbakir'. 'What? Diyarbakir is so nice? I must go there!!' I exclaimed in excitement, as those beautiful images are certainly not something one comes to associate with that of a city which, unfortunately, has often been labelled as the hotbed of terrorism by misleading news reports in Turkey's mainstream media. And that was my first encounter with Diyarbakir, the medieval city on the Tigris with impressive basalt stone city walls and a long, turbulent history.
It turns out that the beautiful black-and-white medieval building I saw on TV is the Hasan Pasha Inn in the old city centre of Diyarbakir, a very well-preserved caravansaray built by a local Kurdish feudal overlord. Nowadays the entire building is home to numerous cafes and breakfast bistros, where locals gather to have a lengthy breakfast with friends and family members in a leisurely pace when the sun is shining.
On my very first visit to Hasan Pasha Inn, the weather was abysmal: it was a cold, damp, and rainy day, with no hope of sunshine within the next 24 hours. And anyone who had been to Diyarbakir's old town during a wet cold winter day would know how grisly and utterly desperate the atmosphere was: everything appeared grey, dilapilated, and in a mess. The busy but unpaved street outside the Inn was a muddy pool of water and sand, with muds splashing all over the place whenever a car drove by. Pedestrians hurried along the wet, slippery pavements along the crowded shop fronts, pushing their way through amongst the numerous shop assistants delivering goods on trolley carts. The open-air centre courtyard of the Inn, usually full of people, was deserted with empty tables and chairs covered with transparent plastic covers to protect them from the soaking rain. The tea salons and breakfast places on both the lower and the upper floors of the building were still open, so I decided to head upstairs for a cup of tea.
Nothing is better than a glass of steaming hot Turkish tea for a wet, cold rainy day in Diyarbakir. I chose a seat next to the railings of the covered corridors which overlooks the open-air centre courtyard and spent the next hour sipping hot tea, chewing pistachio nuts, and observed the crowd - mostly quite smartly dressed young men and women - around me. For those who prefer a more intimate atmosphere, every cafe or tea place in the Han has indoor seatings, located in lounges decorated with carpets, divans and heatings where groups of friends can chat and drink together. In addition to traditional breakfast items, simple snack such as sandwich, kebabs, soups, durum rolls and omelettes are also available on order.
The place has a very charming atmosphere, especially in the evening. Although it could get fairly touristic and crowded during the day when the weather is good, if you come here in the evenings, one can take a good book with them and spend a few quiet hours reading inside one of the lounges equipped with wireless internet.
Prices of tea and breakfast vary from cafe to cafe, it is advisable to ask in advance before you order. I paid 1TL for a large tulip glass of tea at a cafe on the upper floor of this historical building, while some fellow travellers I had met later on paid 1.5TL for each glass of tea at another tea salon downstairs.
Inter-connected with the east-wing of the Inn is a side building that houses Diyarbakir's gold and silversmith shops. Gold and silver jewellery in Turkey are sold by their weight, and gold jewellery items are the traditionally preferred wedding gift for both the Turkish and Kurdish population. I took a look at the items on display inside some of the shop windows, but found nothing particularly interesting, as the designs of most items are too traditional and conservative for my taste.
A few days later, when the sky over Diyarbakir is once more bright and sunny, I returned to the Inn with a friend for some tea. This time round, the centre courtyard is fairly busy with visitors and guests enjoying their hearty breakfast out in the sun. Now I understand why some of the city's mid-range hotels do not include breakfast in their room rates, as it is certainly a much more enjoyable and authentic experience for first-time visitors to Diyarbakir to pay 10TL less for your hotel room, and spend them on a full Kurdish breakfast at one of the breakfast salons inside the Inn instead. Who would want to have breakfast in their hotels when you can have them in one of the most historical and beautiful buildings in the whole of Mesopotamia?
The Inn, as well as all its breakfast salons and assorted cafes/tea places are open all year round, regardless of weather or festivals. It is a must-see place for visitors to Diyarbakir, whether you like breakfast in an open-air setting or not, as the black-and-white patterned basalt stone building located right inside the centre of Diyarbakir's old town opposite the Ulu Camii offers some excellent background motifs for photo shots and is a great place to see and to be seen in this historical city on the Tigris.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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