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‹ Previous (15/04/2008) MONTH Next (2008-06-14)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› Turkey Antalya (see on map) 18/05/2008:
Going towards the south coast from Ankara, we diverted one or two hundred kilometres to visit a real marvel: Pamukale, which translated from Turkish means castle of cotton. Pamukale occupies a great extension of mountain on which has precipitated original calcium of the thermal springs of the area, giving the sensation of snow and creating formidable terraces on which the water falls. The thermal springs spring up with 250 (or 500 according to a triptych) litres of hot water per second, which contains a great concentration of minerals (1,4 g/litre) and curiously a great radioactivity. In spite of the latter, it is said that the waters have curative and medicinal powers and like this they should also have consider it the Romans, which built some thermal baths and a temple around which was expanded the city of Hierapolis. The city, famous for its curative baths, grew up to 100.000 inhabitants, but decayed with the crossing of the centuries due to successive conquests and earthquakes. The visit to Pamukale includes the ruins of Hierapolis, the empaved main street, different columns and arcs are preserved standing, a magnificent theatre and the necropolis with multiple tombs among which I and Alexandra played being zombies. The following destination was Antalya, a touristic city in the coast of the Mediterranean Sea with almost 800.000 inhabitants. In spite of the overcrowding, the wild mountains that surround the city and the precipices on which it extends and the old city confers a certain charm to it, although i would not coincide with Atatürk that said "undoubtedly, Antalya is the prettiest place of the world". In any case, if we enjoyed the city, it was thanks to the good company that we found. Tijen is a nice writer of recipe books that showed us the city delighted and a market of organic products that was organised every Sunday. Besides exchanging some recipes with Alexandra, we had some interesting conversations with Tijen. For example, after commenting on the problems suffered with Syria after entering Israel, Tijen explained to me that the same happens to the Turks that also enter North Cyprus, because Greece does not accept North Cyprus as a country and veto the entry to Europe of any citizen who has some seal of entry in the passport. Of the same way that the previous Turks that we met, Tijen also complained about the current government of Islamic background, because instead of doing the crossings towards the Union European it seems to do them towards the Arab world. That starts to provoke that the women cover the hair for political reasons, not religious, because if it were for religious reasons they would not dress themselves so seductive. It is true that before Ataturk, the national hero, the country was Muslim, but he converted it into a secular country giving the men and the women the same opportunities, but a century almost passed, it seems that a part of the society would prefer returning at the old times. In Antalya we have also met today in the afternoon with Murat, which has deepened a little more in the subject. During the eighties, there were so many conflicts between rights and left that the soldiers took the control of the country with the support of the United States. From then, the teaching of Islamic religion at schools was obligatory in order to forget the conflict of ideologies, although very safe, this norm starts to provoke another type of conflict of ideologies. Murat has also talked to us about the problems with the Kurds in Turkey, to which their language was forbidden after the eighties and the invasion of the state in its region in the east of the country also came down appreciably in general. From a Turkish nationalistic position, he has also explained his vision of the history with reference to the Armenians. During the first world war, terrorists among the Armenians, supported by Russia, attacked the Otoman empire while the army fought in the west, making the authorities decide to deport all the Armenians in the south, during the winter and without means of transport. Anyway, Murat did not think that it had been a genocide or that the million or more that some calculate would have died. Little after saying goodbye, I have seen for the streets of Antalya an advertising poster in which was denied very sharply the genocide of Armenia. --- I took the pulse to the world with Tijen, which opined that the main problem of the world is the people, who consider themselves superior to the nature but they are not, creating great environmental problems. The solution is to change oneself, being more responsible (does not have car, eats in an ecological way, does not contaminate...), in order to influence others in the same way. The main problem of Turkey is the dependence and import of preliminary products, which before the same country produced in the field. The solution would be found in subsidising the farmers so that they cultivate the traditional foods. She as a writer tries to create consciousness. Tijen is considered happy sometimes, especially when she is close to the nature, or when she publishes a book, or helps people... When she does yoga she is happier. The secret of happiness is not to be sad for the past and not to worry about the future. Fethiye (see on map) 22/05/2008:
We have been travelling around the touristic coast between the bays of Antalya and of Fethiye , formerly inhabited by the Lycians. The Lycians, knew since the time of the pharaohs, were organised as a federation of cities, which was admired by the former Greeks, always in conflict among the different cities. Later, the Lycian federation was incorporated in the Roman Empire, but preserving significant independence. In spite of everything, throughout its history, the Lycians had to fight many attempts at conquest, choosing on two occasions to commit suicide in mass before being conquered. In any case, during the assimilation of the Christianity, the earthquakes, plagues and the pirates’ attacks provoked the disappearance of the federation. The same night after going out of Antalya, we reached Chimera, a magical place close to the old-fashioned lycian city of Olympos. Chimera was a mythological beast with the front part in the form of a lion, the end as a snake and the body of goat (difficult to represent) that had as main characteristic the skill of throwing flames, and this characteristic is the one that gave the name to the place that we visited. After going through a steep path for an hour only with the light of the dusk to guide us, we arrived to a stony pending illuminated by ten fires that burned without firewood. Since the antiquity the mountain has not stopped spitting firedamp gas through different holes, which go on in a natural and spontaneous way. Formerly the flames were used for encouraging myths and guiding the boats during the darkness, but the flames at present act to warm up the tea or to burn the meat of the tourists who visit the mountain, during the day and especially the nights of full moon. The day after we visited the ruins of Olympos, of which are only preserved some stones piled up among the bushes and a big door of a former temple dedicated to the Roman Gods, passing the rest of the day sunbathing on the precious beach. The following day we stopped briefly in Demre, the people where Saint Nicolau lived, legendary for his gifts and donations, converting him into the mythological Saint Claus. We follow to Kas, a pretty coastal town, with small alleys full of touristic shops, some old Lycian tombs to visit, and a small Roman amphitheatre with some magnificent sights towards the sea. Anyway, the town was too touristic as to stay for the night and we returned to the road up to Patara. In Patara the ruins of another city Lyciana are found, situated close to a long and excellent beach of sand where in summer the turtles nest. For this reason, it is forbidden walking behind the twenty meters of the beach and also visiting the beach during night. In any case, we camped in the parking place close to the beach and enjoyed a calm day taking sun, and doing a cultural visit to the ruins, among which was a big amphitheatre and an avenue of columns flooded by the water of the rain. And today, we have gone towards the canion of Saklikent, not too convinced, for this did not appear in our guide book, and it is inexcusable, because the visit should be obligatory. When arriving, I have read in a local information paper that the canyon of Saklikent is the second longest in Europe (14 km), but the canyon is in the Asian part of Turkey. In any case, for sure it is one of the prettiest in the world, and more amusing to walk it, cause it can be done with relative easiness but with the water arriving at times up to the knees. Even then, after half an hour of walking for the narrow and deep canyon, we have returned back, because small cascades in which i could slide and submerge the camera have started to appear. And finally, we have arrived in the afternoon to the attractive but overcrowded beach of Oludeniz, close to Fethiye. There are cities that seem conquered by the Germans, but this seemed by the Englishmen, and by numerous youngsters who flew with paragliding jumping from the mountains. It is too late to leave, but tomorrow in the morning, we will go out to look for a calmer place. Bodrum (see on map) 27/05/2008:
Koycegiz, on the edge of a lake close to the sea, was the calm place that we looked for to relax.We remained an afternoon and all the following day, also it has contributed the fact that we had wi-fi Internet from the autocaravan. I was looking for a lot of information on philosophy, which is a subject that starts to fascinate me, and on which I would like to write a book, when finishing the journey, although for a moment i thought to leave everything for this new dream. In any case, I also kept studying the possibility to follow the journey towards Asia crossing the "stan" republics (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrkyzstan) for afterwards to cross very briefly China up to Pakistan. This new route would allow us to avoid Iran in the months of heat, which we would visit in winter, when we returned from the journey through Asia. I had a budget that could allow to cross China with 500€ but I was realising that we would have problems to obtain a visa for Turkmenistan if we did not hire a touristic package (minimum 300€ besides, the cost of the boat to cross Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan (minimum 200€) Because of that, when the Chinese agency changed the price from 500 to 800 € we decided that we would continue with the initial plan of crossing Iran 2 times. From the calm and traditional town of Koycegiz we went towards the animated and touristic town of Bodrum, which extends in front of a bay dominated by a castle built by the crusaders. Bodrum was famous in the antiquity because it had one of the seven marvels of the old world, the Mausoleum of Halicarnasus, of which at present some remains are only preserved in the museum of history in London. In Bodrum we had the luck to meet first with Carine, a Belgian girl that did two years that worked in Turkey organising holidays for surgeries (for example: tourists that wanted the breasts operated while they visited another country). Carine explained to us that in Bodrum the Turks are usually very snobbish, rich and closed in, complicating the business for her sometimes, or even, obliging her to hyde her Kurdish boyfriend, called Nazli. I asked Nazli about the situation in Kurdistan, but he did not want to risk anything, and that after clarifying me that there was not such a country or region, he commented me that the situation was much better now than years behind. In Bodrum we also met with Zafer, a Turk that managed a very pretty and recommended in many guides hotel (Su Otel) and he did not match the definition of snob with which Carine was defining many of the Turks of Bodrum. Zafer invited us to spend two days (yesterday and today) relaxed in the facilities of his hotel, enjoying the pool, Internet and some delicious breakfasts. Zafel commented me that the island that there is in front of Bodrum, at few kilometres, belongs to Greece, in the same way that many other islands that we have kept discerning close to the Turkish coast. In any case, in spite of the apprehensive relation between Turks and Greeks, the Greeks of the islands and the Turks of the coast they are usually doing mutual visits, establishing a good relation and trade. On the other hand, when asking him to which continent the turks felt that they belong , Europe or Asia, he answered me that in the coast the Turks are nearer to Europe, however, in the interior they feel closer to Asia or to the middle east. Efes (see on map) 29/05/2008:
Efes (or Ephesus) is another place of obligatory visit, I do not know if obligatory for everybody in the world, because the place was already quite overcrowded of tourists, but at least it would have been inexcusable if we had not visited it. Ephesus was an old city of the coast of Anatolia, which was governed by the ionians (a tribe similar to the lycians), the Persians, the Greeks, briefly by the pharaohs of Egypt, the Romans and the Byzantines. During the Roman domination, the city arrived to such a splendour that it got to have between 400 and 500 a thousand inhabitants, being the biggest Roman city of Asia, and maybe the second of the Roman empire. During the Roman empire and the Byzantine one, coinciding with the beginnings of the Christianity, the city also turned into an important religious centre. According to the new will, the apostle Paul used the city as base of his missions, also the apostle Joan was buried to the outskirts of the city, on whose tomb a church was lifted. The city decayed when it has lost the port, due to the accumulation of sediments ( at present its 5 km inland) and finally due to different attacks of Arab pirates. The main attraction of Efes is the magnificent façade (of three levels) of the former library of Celsus, built in 135 in honour of a Roman governor and with capacity for 12.000 rolls of papyrus. It also highlights the enormous theatre, which with a capacity of 25000 spectators, was the biggest open theatre of the ancient world. the theatre used to organise drama representations but further on battles among gladiators, of which recently a cemetery has been discovered . And it is still probably lacking much more to discover, for only 15% of the area that took up the city has been excavated. Moving away from the ancient city, we have visited in the afternoon the temple of Artèmis, another marvel of the old world but of which at present only a very high column is preserved standing. The temple of Artèmis, originally bigger that the Parthenon de Atenas, was burned around 356BC by a lunatic called Herostratus that wanted to be remembered over the centuries. Curiously he burned the temple the same night that Alexander the Greate, which reconstructed it later,and finally was destroyed by the Goths. Izmir (see on map) 30/05/2008:
Izmir, on the coast of the Aegean sea, is the third city most populated in Turkey with about 2,5 million inhabitants, and has the second most important port after that of Istanbul. In spite of everything, Izmir is not a city with touristic attractions, except for its liberal and modern cosmopolitan atmosphere, and probably we would had not visited it if we had not met briefly with Mustafà, had that has invited us to dine in his house and afterwards to attend a Jazz concert in his university campus. Mustafà made us notice the modernity of Izmir, showing that no girl through the street was wearing veil, and has ended up commenting: "If Turkey cannot enter the European Union, they should at least let the city of Izmir enter". And the main difference of the city was probably right, at first sight, as for Barcelona was the existence of mosques instead of churches, of which, on the contrary to other cities, we have not listened to the muezines singing through the loudspeakers. 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. ‹ Previous (15/04/2008) MONTH Next (2008-06-14)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› |
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