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‹ Previous (03/05/2008) MONTH Next (2008-07-02)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› Turkey Assos (see on map) 02/06/2008:
Already with more haste, for the visa of Alexadra was being finished, we have followed north the coast of the sea going towards the Aegean sea. After Izmir we went towards Pergamon, where there are other ruins of a former Greek and Roman city. But we still had to be tired of the visit to the large ruins of Ephesus, because when we reached mid-afternoon Pergamon and they told us that they closed in half an hour, we decided to miss that visit and to follow the journey, towards Ayvalic. Ayvalic is some calm fishermen town situated right in front of the Greek island of Lesbos. The port seems very frequented by tourists, but the interior of the villa had kept the essence of the immutable life with time. And because of that, walking through the narrow streets of the centre, we surprised ourselves for the sensation of walking through some Greek town, most of the homes were of Hellenic style, and even the mosques seemed orthodox churches, which had a half-moon instead of a cross in the dome, and nearby was raised a minaret. The reason was evident, up to the beginning of the 20th century, the town had been populated with Greeks, as many other villages on the Turkish coast. But after the greco-Turk war, both countries compromised in 1923 on carrying out an exchange of population, so all the Turkish citizens of Greek-orthodox religion would be displaced to Greece and all the Muslims established in the Greek territory would be displaced to the new Turkey. This exchange of population implied the movement of about 2 million people and the ending of the 3000 years of the Greek presence in the coasts of Asia Minor. Today we have followed towards the north, bordering the coast from which we could always observe the big island of Lesbos. It is curious how near we found the island and how far seemed to find the days that we had spent there. We could not avoid looking at the island with a certain melancholy while we approached the new destination, Assos, the last greek ruins which we thought to visit in the Turkish coast (we do not think to visit Troia, since in spite of the mythological popularity, it seems that its ruins are not very interesting). Assos in the summit of a hill ,is surrounded by a small rural and traditional village of houses made of stone, called Behramkale. In fact, there are not too many ruins to visit, but the columns of a former temple dedicated to Atena being raised without presumptuousness in front of a very blue sea and the island of Lesbos, was a romantic scene that was worth. On the other hand, hidden behind the lap of the mountain, we have discovered the calm and small port of Behramkale, where the owners of the old houses of fishermen were converted in restaurants waiting for tourists that did not arrive. Galipoli (see on map) 04/06/2008:
From Assos, we went towards Çanacale, from where we took an economic ferry that crossed the strait of Dardanelles up to the peninsula of Galipoli. This peninsula perhaps will not arouse any memory to a Catalan, although on these lands the Catalan company or the almogávares pased. But Galipoli is recorded in the collective memory of the Australians and New Zealanders for in this peninsula a bloody battle took place during the first world war, in which many countries took in part, together with the British and the French against the ottoman empire. The peninsula of Galipoli is in the south of Istanbul, in the European part of Turkey, separated from the Asian continent by the strait of Dardanelles, a strait of vital importance during the first world war, for it was dominated by the Otoman empire and it was the only possible sea route that the allies had to help Russia, which was besieged by the centre-Europeans armies. With the intention of taking Constantinople, the current Istanbul, and assuring a sea route of supply with Russia, on 25 of April 1915 the British troops disembarked at Helles and the troops of Australia and New Zealand, more in the north, on the Anzac beach, but the Otoman army was prepared and many soldiers died during these first hours. The battle drew out for 8 months, with many leaks to both sides, and with a final withdrawal of the allied army that preferred to send the remaining forces on other fronts. It was a painful defeat, but for the Australians and New Zealanders this battle meant the birth of their national identity or what would be named the spirit of Anzac. For the Ottoman part, the battle is remembered as the victory of Ataturk, the national hero that years later founded the current Turkey. In any case, it was not a sweet victory, because 58.000 Ottomans died and 140.000 were wounded, compared with the 44.000 soldiers dead on the allied side and almost 100.000 wounded. Greece Alexandroupolis (see on map) 07/06/2008: On the contrary to what we expected, we could go out of Turkey trouble free, I used only my card of identity and a photocopy of the entry visa (i had cancelled the old passport and the new passport i wanted to use it only to enter, in order not to have any reference to the old passport, with which i had travelled to undesirable countries). Anyway, the main motive to go out of Turkey, was to allow Alexandra enjoy another time of a visa of 30 days. And apart from making use of a couple of days to relax in the small city of Alexandroupolis, we have also taken advantage of some more economic products from Greece: water, raisins (Alexandra likes to eat them with yogurt it), gums and diesel. Turkey is one of the countries of the world with the most expensive fuels, besides, on the last thirty days, the diesel price increased with 10%, getting to cost 1,7€/litre. It is not that it was much more economic in Greece (1,4€/litre), but filling all the deposit and the three cans of 20 litres I saved myself about 40 €. In any case, I have not saved anything in the end when i had to pay almost 200 € in diesel. I start to think that I will be one of the last travellers for the world using my own car. To cross, there will be travellers using public transportation or bicycle, and for sure that will be much better for the environment. Yes, I am guilty and admit that this endless climbing of the prices of the fuels is positive. Turkey Istambul (see on map) 10/06/2008:
Today does two years that me and Alexandra knew eachother in Brasov. Not me nor her had imagined ourselves this day, that innocent meeting was joining our paths and which we would end up sharing adventures and destinations. I haven’t imagined that that charming girl could be the girl that i could share my life with. And today, this possibility is more real than ever, in spite of the fact that i am also conscious that my previous relations were finished always after two years. In any case, we want both to be together. We are ready to risk to keep sharing adventures and destinations. Tomorrow we will leave Istanbul again, and Alexandra will have the option of turning home and me to send her home more difficult. Definitely we are betting to be together forever. Tomorrow we will leave Istanbul because here we have not been able to solve any visa. Yesterday we visited the consulate of Iran, where they recommended obtaining a letter of invitation through an agency in Internet, that has informed us that they could carry out the letter of invitation for us in about 10 days. Today we have wanted to visit the consulate of Pakistan, but after circulating and looking for it for two hours, we have discovered that the consulate had changed address, and I have ended up deciding to go tomorrow towards Ankara, where the majority of embassies are concentrated in a single neighbourhood. This way, we have been able to make use of the rest of the day to celebrate our anniversary, walking and finally dining in a restaurant. Today, as yesterday, we have had time to walk, letting us captivate through the traditional and touristic atmosphere of Sultanhmet or former neighbourhood of Istanbul. We have passed some very nice moments again, but I have realised at night that we could have made use of these walks to visit some of the splendid monuments of Istanbul: Aya Sofya, the palace Topkapi, the palace Dolmbahce... We have decided to visit them when we return from the journey to Asia, although it does not stop being a resolution out of time, because if everything goes well we will not return to Istanbul in less than 8 or 10 months, and if I have not visited the monuments during the other three stays in the city, who knows what will happen the fourth time. Ankara (see on map) 20/06/2008:
When we arrived Ankara last Thursday, now it does a little more than one week, immediately we put ourselves to work and before nothing we visited the embassy of Pakistan to carry out the visa. But it was not a good beginning, because almost without looking at us they informed us that they could not carry out the visa for us because we were not residents in Turkey and had to carry out the visa from our countries of residence. It seems to be that an international norm according to which only the resident of a country can ask for visa starts to be extended in the embassies of this country, that will do impossible journeys as ours, in the face of the impossibility of programming you visa or to know exact dates with a year of anticipation. In any case, without losing the expectation, we next went to the embassy of India where they informed us that they could carry out the visas for us if we took an extract of my bank account and a reservation of plane thicket to them. In the same Indian embassy we met an Italian who also travelled to India and told us that we could do a booking of the thicket for very few money in any travel agency. Afterwards we invited the Italian to take a tea (from his aspect already I deduced that he did not have too much money) and he immediately explained his history to us. Was called Davide and had studied to be a franciscan monk (of the humble order of san Francisco de Assís), but that same day when we met him he had thrown the Bible in the rubbish because he did not believe in it any longer. He commented that the Bible, from the beginning only shows how to kill. On the other hand, he also explained that the franciscans do not live as modestly as they should, because their dress costs about 600 dollars and they are always received with abundant feasts and delicious wines. The following day we returned to the Indian embassy and they agreed to carry out the visas, which we had to pass to search after a week, today was Friday. Next we went to the embassy of Spain so that they made me a card of recommendation for the embassy of Pakistan (Davide had explained to us that with the letter we could obtain the visa), and on Monday, after doing some turns to find the consulate of Romania, we obtained another card of recommendation for Alexandra. On Tuesday we returned to the embassy of Pakistan and this time they treated us a little better but, after making us return in the afternoon, they informed us that at the most they could give us a transit visa of 7 days. Considering it in a complete way insufficient, I left well annoyed with the intention of trying it again from Iran, if we obtain the visa, because we are carrying it out on Internet and they have at the moment not communicated anything to us. Although to carry out the visas has been the main reason that has entertained us in Ankara, we have had time of enjoy the city and the friends that we have done. Naturally we met with Ozgur, which we had already met the previous time in Ankara, but he went to spend the weekend in Istanbul and we met other people of Couchsurfing. We run into a group of 8 people on Saturday at noon and Jael, a girl from Mexico guided us to the citadel of Ankara. Ankara had been an important city of Anatolia since the times of the Hittites, although it had never been the capital of any big country up to 1923. After the first world war, Istanbul was occupied by the allies, and was from Ankara that Ataturk initiated the war of independence, granting the status of capital of the new Turkey to this city. Proof of that is the growth that Ankara, of the 75.000 inhabitants in 1927 at the almost 4 million current, has experienced conferring a new and modern air to the city, except for the small citadel. On Sunday we met with Jael and her French boyfriend Lucas, this time to try the famous hamams or Turkish baths. Alexandra did not feel like entering, then, is badly seen of being naked (only in underwear) in front of other women, but finally accepted and went out well happy. On my part, the experience was also quite nice. I entered in the room of steam with Lucas, covered up with a sort of towel and after sweating a little, two men made us a massage. A minuscule man came and without too much affection scrubbed all the skin with a rough sponge, extracting maybe 100 grams of dead skin from me. Afterwards he soaped me and did a massage to me supporting all his heaviness in my back almost making me scream of pain. And even if it does not seem, there was not any gay thing, as long as it is taken into account that in the Islamic culture, the tact among men is considered normal and sets off from friendship and brotherhood. On Monday we met at night with Ozgur, with which we have shared the rest of the week, enjoying his hospitality, which was impossible for us to compensate. At night I told him that the functioning of Couchsufing in the countries of Islamic culture is always very different to the countries of Europe. Because in the Islamic countries, they insist apart from offering you accommodation on inviting you to eat or to drink; however, in Europe the host waits that the guest invite to drinks or food to compensate the accommodation. It is a pity, when Ozgur (or others that have treated us so well) travel to Europe and they do not receive the same things that they offer. But Ozgur commented that that was not important, since it did not help receive something in exchange and that he felt satisfied this way. In the same way, when he travels to the interior of Turkey, he is also received with a lot of hospitality by families that will never be compensated in a worldly way for their help. Apart from that, Ozgur continues with the same project of doing a great journey in motorcycle with his girlfriend, but she is a little undecided. Anyway, the indecision of his girlfriend is not the main problem since the money is more difficult to be gathered in Turkey that in other countries, in which the exchanges are much more valued. In the same way that another Turkish boy in the meeting of the weekend had commented me, Ozgur explained to me that many people are apprehensive of the current Islamic government of Turkey. And many have reminded me of Iran, before the revolution was opened and tolerant as Turkey, that's why they have fear that the Islamists take the control of the army and make a revolution. Anyway, for what he has explained me, the army in Turkey is completely secular and keeps watch a lot that no Islamist comes inside. In fact, I have at the moment not found anybody that supports the Islamic government. Anyway, one of these days i did ask Ozgur, "how is it that turkey has an Islamic symbol in its flag (the half-moon next to a star), if Turkey is constitutionally a secular country?. At first Ozgur denied me that it was an Islamic symbol, explaining to me that at school they had shown him that the flag represented the vision of the moon and a star reflected in a reservoir of blood during the war of independence. In any case, we consulted Internet afterwards and I confirmed that the symbol of the half-moon and star was first Ottoman and was accepted later as Islamic symbol, present in other flags of Islamic countries of the world. Then, Ozgur reminded me of what other Turks had already commented to me on: in Turkey they are Muslim, but not Islamic; that is, that the follow-up of the religion is a choice but not a political obligation. Besides - he ended up commenting me - in Turkey the religion is considers more a cultural question that a belief, getting to have people that considered themselves Muslim but at the same time atheistic. With Ozgur I took the subject of the Armenian genocide again, but going out from his usual calm, Ozgur became excited explaining that the Turks suffered a lot in the hands of the Armenians and the Russian army and that it seems that the occidental countries are only decided to blame Turkey, ending up exclaiming that all the world hates Turkey: a part of the world because they are Muslims and the other part of the world because they are not Islamic. Anyway, not only we talked about journeys, culture and religion with Ozgur. Different times Alexandra and Ozgur compared the versions that they were thought concerning the wars among the Ottomans or Turks against the Romanians. Afterwards they compared how similar was the gastronomy of both countries, as for example the habit of accompanying many of the dishes with yogurt, completely different to my culture, where the yogurt is eaten sweet or with fruit. In the same way of strange it is for me a popular drink called airam, composed of salty yogurt dissolved in water. Referent in the food and the drink, Ozgur also explained something interesting about the national drink, the Raki, that is similar to the Greek Uzo. The Raki is done with grape or raisins to which is added anise. Formerly, anise was not added, but there were people that were getting too drunk, by this reason, an emperor of the fifteenth century gave an order to put anise in the alcohol, because when this was ingested with considerable quantities it obliged you to vomit. Equally now, it is practically impossible to drink a bottle of Raki without vomiting (for me it would be the same if it was anise or not, with a bottle for sure i would vomit). Apart from carrying out the visas and from conversing with Ozgur and other people, I did not want to say goodbye to Ankara without having visited the mausoleum of Ataturk, which was strongly guarded by soldiers and camera of surveillance. It was strange, although afterwards I thought that the mausoleum could be a goal of the Islamists, for Ataturk was the father of the current Turkey. The mausoleum was impressive, but also was the museum that was below; with great panoramas representing the different battles gained by Ataturk, among them the battle of independence against the Greeks (after the first world war). Without missing, the museum highlighted the atrocities that the Greeks had done, encouraged in many cases by the orthodox clergymen. The museum also contained hundreds of personal objects of the incredible Ataturk, even his preferred dog. Cappadocia (see on map) 24/06/2008:
After collecting the visa of India we go out of Ankara towards southeast with the intention of stopping in any moment to spend the night. But we had luck of arriving to an impressive salt lake, which had some magical colours under the light of the sunset. And the day after, we have just done the last part of the road that separated us from the magnificent Cappadocia. Since about four months ago, after visiting the marvelous Petra in Jordan, i had the sensation that Cappadocia, in Turkey would not strike me. i knew that the Cappadocia had homes and churches built in the rocks, as Petra, and thought that Cappadocia would completely be eclipsed by the memory of the splendour of the Jordanian ruins. But it was not like this, the Cappadocia also enchanted me, and proof of that, is the milestone obtained in this pretty region: 10.000 photos carried out in the second stage of the journey (Africa and Asia). That means an average of 20 photos per day, although in the Cappadocia I have made many more. Cappadocia was inhabited by the first communities of Christians, who built cities excavated under the rock due to the persecution initiated by the Roman empire. Despite being accepted by the Romans, centuries later, these Christian communities had to return in the underground cities (some of which could accommodate more than 3000 people) due to the first Arab attacks. Finally, the conquest of the castles excavated on stony massifs and built on stony massifs, allowed annexing the Cappadocia to the Otoman empire, the first conversions to the Islam following one another. In spite of everything, until the beginning of the 20th century Christian Greek communities, which definitely were expelled during the treaty of exchange of population between Greece and Turkey, kept living in the Cappadocia. In any case, in spite of the interesting history, the main appeal of Cappadocia is the landscape, composed of numerous valleys in which crowd of svelte rocks that seem to grow as if they were magical mushrooms. The lateral ones of the valleys and the mountains are also of rock eroded by the rain creating surprising forms and new magical mushrooms (or magical chimneys, as they are called in a local way). The fact that many of these rocks are is added to the natural appeal excavated and lived or with exhibitions of having been lived formerly. In some cases, the on digging or the erosion they show the collapse on behalf of the mountains, leaving the overdraft, rooms and former churches. Many natural places of the world that have an unusual beauty have always been considered by the religions of the moment as important, in the case of Cappadoccia by the Christian religion, numerous monasteries were excavated in the rocks, and are considered as sacred with gripping paints preserved in the ceilings of stone. And since we are - Christians -, in my land it is tradition to celebrate the Saint Juan ( the shortest night of the year), who coincides with my name (double holiday). Today it should be this special day and yesterday the celebration. But although these celebrations lose feeling when you are so far of home, of the friends and the family, in a certain way I celebrated it. Yesterday afternoon we parked in the town of Ortahisar and as i went down visiting the imposing castle, I found that Alexandra had met with Crazy Ali, a poet who delayed us with a good recitation of his poems in English. When finishing the evening party, we went towards a levelled area on the valleys of Cappadocia from where we enjoyed an impressive sunset, accompanied by many other tourists. And little later, when the tourists had already left and the vendors were collecting the shops, a boy called Jem approached me and gave a half full bottle of a very good wine, which we drank up while the sky became dark. And today in the morning i had continued the celebration. I have woken up very early to observe a nice morning show: thirty hot-air balloons floated over the valleys of Capadoccia , newly illuminated by the sun. And tired of so much celebration, and some answer of the visa of Iran after confirming for telephone that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we would have it, we have started to do path towards Erzurum, where we had to collect this visa. Erzurum (see on map) 27/06/2008:
The landscape of east Anatolia is fascinating. The good road towards Erzurum passed between mountains of more than 3000 meters of altitude and ports of more than 2000 meters of altitude. The valleys and plateaus were green, treeless but covered with flowers of multiple colours. In one of these meadows we stopped to eat, the second day. Near there, were some workers who called me so that I approached. At first they started to question me suspiciously but they invited me afterwards to eat with them while they explained to me that they were working to an oil pipeline that originated from Azerbaijan. I apologised for Alexandra was already preparing the food, but without being able to refuse, in a minute they prepared me and they made me take two dishes of plastic with a salad, delicious Kebab meat and bread. In spite of the elapsed time, the Turkish hospitality and of the Islamic countries continues to surprise me in general. Immediately after we arrived to Erzurum we put ourselves in contact with the agency that carried out the letters of invitation to be able to ask for the visa of Iran, but they informed us that they would not have it in less than 5 days (after almost one month). In any case, I directed myself to the consulate of Iran in Erzurum to ask for information on the negotiation of the visa and he commented me that the same day i could have it, after taking bringing two photos and the forms. Holding back the impulses of jumping of joy I asked: - My “wife” should wear the veil in the photos ? - Of course - they answered me. But this was an "of course" not so evident for Alexandra, for at first she refused to have some photo with a veil. It was her way of protesting against this religious imposition, but I understood it as a sabotage to the possibility to obtain the visa, initiating again a rough discussion. There are people who tell us that we are too much time together, 24 hours per day, and perhaps it is true although it is the only way that we can travel. In any case, later, when she has expressed the thoughts that the Iranians are terrorists, Alexandra has made the photo with veil and afterwards when entering the consulted she also covered up with veil. And in the end, after obtaining the visas, she even has asked me to go and buy a "standard" veil in order not to have problems when entering Iran. At night we met three boys that we had contacted through Couchsurfing, that invited us to dine and afterwards to see the match of the semifinal of the European football cup (Spain 3 - Russia 0) at the house of one of them. Before the match we had quite a lot of time to talk about the life in Erzurum, which is very traditional in comparison to other areas of Turkey. For example: most of the women wear veil, it is difficult to find alcohol, there is not a lot of amusement... however, they kept commenting that they were Muslim and not Islamic, as in Iran, and that we kept watch a lot in Iran, because it was a very dangerous country. Despite having read that Erzurum had been one of the main centres of deportation during the Armenian genocide I did not want to take the subject, then i already had experience that this was a too sensitive subject for the Turkish identity and besides, later we had seen an exhibition in a mosque where it was tried to ridicule the Armenian genocide at the same time as informing about the killings of Turks in the hands of the Armenians. Today in the morning we have visited a big hotel at the foot of some gigantic tracks of skiing (at present without snow) where Erhan - one of the boys from yesterday - was the technical director. mid-morning, we have started to do path towards Kars, one of the last Turkish touristic destinations before entering Iran. Kars (see on map) 30/06/2008:
It is not Kars but the ruins of Ani that deserve all the attention. In any case, Kars is also interesting, surprising for being little conservative - in comparison to Erzurum -, or at least like this it seemed to us, because many girls dressed modern and without being covered up with veil . In Kars we did not met anybody and I kept the desires of tasting the nearness with Armenia, although in theory the borders with Armenia are closed and there are no Armenians living in Turkey. Maybe this tolerant atmosphere was due also to the continuous conquest and reconquest and repopulation of the city in the hands of Turks and Armenians and Russians, finalised it after the second world war. Anyway, despite seeming little traditional, yesterday at night it was difficult to find a bar or hotel with television to be able to see the end of the Eurocup (Spain 1 - Germany 0) and to celebrate it briefly with the present Turks. (The crowd congratulated me for this victory). In any case, as I have already written, Kars remains completely eclipsed by the marvelous ruins of Ani, which set up a magnificent reason of war in the Turkish hands, for Ani had been the capital of the old and powerful kingdom of Armenia, and at present its ruins are found separated from Armenia only by a river and a wall and naturally the entry is forbidden to the inhabitants of this country. During its splendour, at the beginning of the 19th century, the city sheltered about 100.000 inhabitants, but successive wars and, especially, the conquest of Ani by the Mongolians two centuries later, precipitated its decay. At present the ruins are only scattered on a levelled area, a few churches, a mosque, and other buildings half destroyed still ascend from some imposing walls that, together with two rivers, isolate the whole area. The state of the ruins give a melancholic air, when you realise that the time will follow its process of destruction, but the Armenian authorities are accusing the Turks for this decay, although at present a big road is being built up to the ruins and maybe the next step will be its rehabilitation. Today we have left Kars with desires of entering Armenia, to compare the visions of the conflict that have lived both countries, but i am lazy to turn round through Georgia (the borders between Turkey and Armenia are closed) and to pay taxes of entry and insurance for the car. On the other hand, it seems to be that the current situation in Armenia is not too good, with recent demonstrations for what is considered an electoral fraud in the country. And finally I also feel that Iran calls me, we already have the visa and the entry was delayed for about two or three months. Dogubayazit (see on map) 01/07/2008:
Last night we slept in the lap of the mount Ararat, the highest mountain of Turkey, of 5137 meters, on which they think that Noé landed with its ark full of animals after the 40 days of flood. Today we have woken up delighted by the magnificent vision of the snowed peak, on the contrary to yesterday, when the mountain was covered with clouds and completely illuminated by the sun. Without losing of sight the arrogant mountain we have followed the road up to Dogubayazit, the last important town before crossing over in Iran, although here it waited for us for another marvel to visit, the palace of Ishak Pasa, that despite being found in works dominates a valley with elegance and a view to the town. After eating with sights on the palace and the Mount Ararat we have gone towards the border of Turkey with Iran. Right before passing the last formalities of the border of Turkey, Alexandra has put on the veil and we have crossed on the Iranian side, where a very nice girl who has presented herself as touristic guide has fixed all the necessary papers for the car in exchange of 10 euro. Next we have entered Iran, not too different at the moment from Turkey, except in the price of the diesel. If Turkey is the country with the most expensive fuel of the world, Iran, its neighbour, is the country with the most economic fuel of the world, with its inhabitants paying only 1 cent of euro per litre of diesel ( to load 100 litres of diesel one pays 1 euro). Anyway, the first litres we have had to pay them 10 times more expensive, for as they are near Turkey it seems the gasstation people have to be bribed so that they fill the tank. In any case, we have entered Iran troublefree and to celebrate it we have drunk up a glass of whiskey from the bottle that we had hidden (if they discovered it on the border we would not be here). ‹ Previous (03/05/2008) MONTH Next (2008-07-02)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› |
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