Man earns and travels with caravan

ISTANBUL

Feeling short of breath from the city life in Istanbul, a man has hit the roads for the last six years with a caravan he converted into a café so that he can both earn money and travel more.

But, Fatih Baran Akyüz has a motto; he “follows no route while traveling.”

That’s why he has been nicknamed “Routeless Baran,” and the café that he installed in his caravan “Routeless Café.”

Akyüz’s life changed six years ago when he understood that an apartment house or the café he opened every morning was not what he was looking for in life.

“I became a traveler without dreaming of being one. I changed my life one day and chose a lifestyle of sightseeing,” Akyüz told daily Milliyet on June 7.

Thanking his family, Akyüz said, “I am living a life I want due to their support.”

But, being “routeless” took some for Akyüz. It took some three years to be fully on the roads for Akyüz as he could not break bonds with Istanbul when he started caravanning six years ago.

From time to time, he stayed at his house and opened his café for a living when he was not traveling with his caravan. But in 2019, things all changed when Akyüz converted his caravan into a café.

“I am selling coffees as I used to in my mobile café, and I have a roof over my head. But the most important thing is I have the chance to wake up every day to another view,” he said.

When asked about the cost of conversion of the caravan, he said, “Three years ago, the cost was around 550,000 Turkish Liras [$32,850], but now it would reach 1.5 million liras [$89,560].”

Saying that the “Routeless Café” ensures him enough money for survival, Akyüz reminded about the curfews amid the coronavirus pandemic and joked, “I was inside the caravan, without understanding if I was on the streets or at home.”