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‹ Previous (24/04/2008) MONTH Next (2008-06-23)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› Turkey 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. 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. ‹ Previous (24/04/2008) MONTH Next (2008-06-23)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-26 - Iran) COUNTRY Next (2009-11-18 - Romania)› |
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