Pazar (Sunday), the 29th of June Otel Famýly; located ýn one of the ýnnumerable suburbs of Istanbul 5:05 AM Watchýng the sun rýse. It's turnýng the eastern part of the sky a mýx of purple, peach, and teal. The moon ýs stýll out, a thýn, sýlver, crescent, and I can just see the twýnkýlýng lýght of what may be Istanbul-proper from the balcony of my room. I woke up at 2:00 AM today, and stared at the wall for two and a half hours. Lýstened to the muzzenýns call to prayer at 4:30, and came outsýde at 4:45. A man walked [View Full Entry]

---

---

First full day back in Turkey. After settling into the hotel, I head to the Post Office to send off a couple of post-cards. I join a queue, when the old man behind the counter screams at me "HAVE A SEAT!!!" 'Shit' I think, Erzurum is not gonna be a friendly place. When my turn comes, I go up to the counter and buy two stamps. The old guy screams "WHERE FROM?" After replying, and sticking the stamps to the post-cards, the guy screams again, only louder...."DRINKING TEA?" "Eh, ok thank you".... "HAVE A SEAT!!!" He sends a young guy off [View Full Entry]

---

---

We’re heading into Iran now where internet access may not be easy and we really wanted to complete our record of the Turkey tour, but don't know when we'll be able to publish this. Up Up and Away Cappadocia was our last port of call on the West Turkey “tourist trail”. What an amazing place topped off with our Hot Air Balloon ride, a 50th Birthday Present for Terry from folks back home. It was a beautiful sunny morning and as if being in a hot air balloon wasn’t exciting enough (especially for Terry with all those cylinders valves and functions) [View Full Entry]

---

---

The weekend started as all weekends should, on a Wednesday. Çocuklar Bayramı (Children's Holiday) meant no classes - wooohoooo! I found a dirt cheap plane ticket and landed around noon in Kars, setting of Orhan Pamuk's novel, Kar (Snow), which I still haven't read (the English-translation of it that I found in İstanbul - in paperback! - cost more than the plane ticket to Kars!). Anyway, my guidebook was correct in noting that the city is full of Russian buildings, appropriately grey and run-down. Still, Kars did prove to have more to offer than I originally expected. I shared a cab [View Full Entry]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

Last day ın Istanbul was...tired. My physical situation was the worst and also my temper... so I went out to look for a photocopyıng place and let me tell u what..there's NONE! They have paper ones but I cant copy from a book! WTF?! so wıth my bad temper and under the hot weather....I decıded to go underground to the Basilica Cistern..... Very cool and nıce!! a lıttle expensıve to get ın but ıts ok =) Felt sıck and decıded to head back to the hostel.....end of Istanbul....>_< On my way met this guy who me and Jess kept running into [View Full Entry]

---

---

A Van fa freddo. 16 gradi in piena estate per me sono davvero pochi e ci si mette pure la pioggia. Ma qui siamo in alta quota, 1700mt., ed il paesaggio ricorda vagamente le Alpi; quello che pero' alle Alpi manca e' il Lago di Van: una vasta distesa di acqua alcalina azzurrissima che giace placida ai piedi delle montagne. Approfittiamo di una giornata di sole per salire su una piccola barca e raggiungere l'isola di Akdamar su cui sorge una antica e ben conservata chiesa armena. La visita si rivela di notevole interesse: alcuni affreschi sono quasi intatti ed i [View Full Entry]

---

---

Erzerum just didn't want to let us go! We finally received our visas for Iran yesterday and in bouyant moods packed our bags, oiled our bike chains and said some fond farewells to Abdurrahman and his boys who had lookd after us for the better part of a month. It was with genuine sentimentality and a tinge of regret that I clasped his and his sons' hands in farewell. We rode to the otogar where we had decided to take the "Dogubeyazit Express" that would get us to the final town before the Iranian border, about 50km from the frontier, from [View Full Entry]

---

---

God, what can İ say about Erzerum? Cold, snowing constantly, in the middle of nowhere. We thought that the university would provide a little nightlife or culture at least - but there was none of either to be found anywhere. We found a 'bar' and thought 'you little Anzac, back in a land of beer!' Worst bar experience ever!! No one in there except creepy Turkish dudes, and awful Turkish pop music pumped so loud we couldn't hear ourselves think, let alone what each other was saying. We sought out the İranian consulate where we would apply for our visas. İnside [View Full Entry]

---

---