Blogs from Dogubeyazit, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East

We turned up early at the bus office in town with our prepaid tickets only to be told in sign language that our bus was not going to be going anywhere today as it was broken. After many questions and no answers the lady finally indicated to the wheel of a car nearby and made hissing sounds. We took it from this that the Mini Bus that was to take us from the Bus Office to the Otogar wasn't going anywhere. In Turkey there is usually a large Bus Station called the Otogar on the very outskirts of the towns or cities, we have even found some of them are over 5 and up to 10 k's out. So they provide a free mini bus to get you from theirr office to the Otogar. So here ... read more

Day 17 Goreme to Erzincan (Tues 20th July) A nice slow start today, as we weren’t leaving until 0900. A couple of the group are feeling a little under the weather now stomach wise, so we are all crossing our fingers that it’s not us next. Nothing too serious though and so far the food has been great (if a little monotonous for breakfast with bread, eggs, tomato, cheese, and a little more bread every day) So we were driving through a large town when the driver suddenly stops and jumps out to talk with some taxi drivers on the side of the road. What was he doing, you ask? Want to guess? Yep, got it in one - asking for directions! We miss Gettis with his GPS (although admittedly its better for the driver to ... read more

First off Turkish keyboards are a bıt different and so most of this entry will have ı's where there should be i's. It has been a bıt longer then I intended but here I am more then two months wıthout a blog and sooooo much to wrıte. Thıs wıll be a long one so take your pıck or tackle ın portıons. Sectıons wıll ınclude Tubıshvat ın Tsvat, Daphna Poolhouse Adventures, Along the Traıl, Walk About Love, Taste of Yeshıva, Scuba Paradıse, Istanbul Vacatıon, and Eastern Paradise. Tubıshvat ın Tsvat Sam and I decıded to start walkıng the Israel Traıl, or Shvıl Yısrael (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_National_Trail) and walk untıl we felt lıke ıt was tıme to do somethıng else. To start we would embark from Jerusalem and spend Tubıshvat, the Jewısh Earth Day, ın Tsfat the kabbalıstıc cıty where ... read more

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. ... read more