We have included in this entry a map where you can see our journey of the first 19 days in Iran. Just click on the map to the left. Yazd Although we are on one of the different branches of the Silk Road since we reached Central Anatolia in Turkey we have not yet written a lot about it. Not only Silvan and Annamaria traveled to Yazd but also the probably best known Silk Road traveler: Marco Polo. He passed Yazd in the 13th century and described the city as "a very fine and splendid city and a center of commerce". [View Full Entry]

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In Iran, there is a governmental firewall. Our blog was blocked in some places, but not in others. That's why we couldn't post this blog entry from Shiraz and we do it now from Yazd. Iran's South West As we began to tell you in our last blog entry, our first ten days in Iran were literally an immersion in Iranian culture and society. After Tabriz, we haven't seen any tourists until Shiraz, except one Spanish guy in Zanjan. This experience was both exciting and exhausting. Curious and interested in meeting people and discovering small places off the beaten tracks, we [View Full Entry]

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Salam from Iran! Yes, we made it! We're now in Iran for one week! Before beginning to tell you our first impressions, we want to thank a lot Isabelle and her husband as well as Kianouche and all the people who took the time to give us useful advices about Iran. After many calculations (our visa allows us to stay 30 days in Iran and there is only one flight per week from Mashad to Bishkek, Kirghistan!), we crossed the border at Bazargan last Wednesday without any problem. The custom officer checked and stamped our visas in 30 seconds and meant [View Full Entry]

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To quickly summarize our last days in Turkey, we can say that it was great and that it was not without pain that we left this country. Ani Ani was once the capital of a medieval Armenia kingdom covering todays Armenia and eastern parts of Turkey. At the beginning of the 11th century, Ani is believed to have had a population of over 100,000 making it a respectable rival of Constantinople and Baghdad. Today, of course, only ruins are left. For more history background and the dispute between Turks and Armenia for this site, you can refer to wikipedia! We arrived [View Full Entry]

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Turkish is in fact a very easy language to learn... Really, no joke! Just look at the pictures and you will understand why. It is just half the fun if you don't have some French (or Swiss-German) skills however. Do you recognize the words? Starting tomorrow, this all won't help us anymore. Farsi (or Persian) is very different and we will need to learn some basic words quickly! Turkey was wonderful. We will upload some pics from Anı and Doğubayazıt with the next entry from Iran. Take care. [View Full Entry]

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Kayseri (Silvan alone) This Central Anatolian city is one of Turkey´s fast growing cities. A brand new tramway (is it a Bombardier?) is being built on the central Cumhurriet square, a lot of streets are being completely re-done and an ultra-modern otogar (central bus-station) will open next month. For sure this city will look quite different in a few years. By arriving in Kayseri we left most of the tourists behind us. Not many go further east from Cappadocia although it is really worth the trip. In Kayseri, I assisted for the first time to the Friday Prayer (theoretically, all [View Full Entry]

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The last time we have written from the harbour town of Kaş. Now we are in the heart of Turkey in Central Anatolia. Again, in a few words what we have done in the last 8 days and some general impressions so far. Kaş was a pleasant stop to slow down a bit. All services were easily available. After one day mostly spent at the beach, we felt that some culture would be good and visited the Antiphellos ruins which includes theatre and tombs. The day after we went sea-kayaking over the sunken city of Kekova (resulting from a series of [View Full Entry]

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Merhaba! It is now one week that we have left Montreal and it already seems far away! First, as some of you noticed, our blog crashed but it seems to be all back in order now, except that our first entry has disappeared. We try to recover it, but we don't know if it will work. At first, we want to thank the Auberge Croque Mouton, in Montreal, as well as Yannis in London, for the nice and comfortable reception. After one day spent in London, we flew to Dalaman in the south-west of Turkey. From there, we reached the small [View Full Entry]

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Apologies - currently unable to restore. If you have a backup please edit this entry and save/publish. There is a small possibility that this entry will be restored - only small. [View Full Entry]

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