Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 47

Geo: 39.1452, 35.3437Didn't wake up to well this afternoon, had to be told to get out of the room! Whoops! I missed out on the Vespa ride around the valley, which was disappointing. There was no way I could drive a vehicle or be in one at the moment. Instead I slowly packed and sat out in the sun feeling sorry for myself. The rest of the group would be riding around and having fun right now. Went for a little walk around the hotel and took a few photos of the fairy chimney buildings. In the mid afternoon went for a walk into town to do some shopping and to have some food. On the way back to the hotel, bumped into the others who had just returned from their day of riding. There was ... read more

Geo: 39.1452, 35.2123Back in the mini-bus we hit the road for Goreme. On the way we made a stop at a school that likes tourists to come and visit. The kids were very excited that we had arrived. Some of them dressed up in traditional clothing and did some singing and dancing for us. Part of the classroom was set up as a traditional Turkish house. Spent the rest of the day driving. Was looking forward to the next hotel, as Hussein told us that the rooms were caves! I found out later on that my room was nothing to get excited about. The hotel is on the side of a hill and all the rooms are caves. The room that I was given was horrible. It stank mouldy, had a tiny little window and was ... read more

This was like a trip back to the stone age - I stayed in a cave ala the Flintstones in a town called Goreme. The hostel was a series of rooms that had been cut into the soft rock of the surrounding hills to make rooms. This style of building was used throughout Capadocia to build cities underground which the locals used as defensive homes. They had rooms for livestock, churches and kitchens. The whole complex could stretch several stories underground. On the first night, we went to a 'Turkish Night' which was meant to be all you can eat and all you can drink with belly dancers and whirling Dervishes. It sounded good, but turned out to be really crap. The food wasn't unlimited and the booze definitely wasn't. The Dervishes were very dissappointing and ... read more

Through the gap in the hood in my sleeping bag I can see its still pitch black, and even inside the bag its cold now. I don’t need to pull my arm out to check my watch for the time though, as the second “Allah Akhbar, Allah Akhbar” (God is Great, God is Great) echoes across the empty steppe - it must be about half past five in the morning and time for pre-sunrise prayers. Not for us though and I roll over and bury my head in an attempt to warm up and return to sleep. The last line of the muezzin informs us in Arabic that being awake and in prayer is superior to sleeping, but right now the latter seems much more preferable. Waking again half an hour or so later I can ... read more

I'm fully recovered by now and make my way further east. Before I left Ankara I shortly visited the fort in Ankara. It's located on one of Ankaras many hills and you have a good view from there. The part of city directly surounding the fort is very different from the rest, there are only very narrow streets, sheep running around, like in a small village. And this at the heart of Turkey's capital... Finally the time waiting in Anakra paid of. I got the pakistanian and the chinese visa, so I'm ready to go for a long way. For the first part I chose the train to Erzurum. The train is cheap and Siemens made, so quite a nice journey through all the dusty mountains of eastern Turkey.... read more