Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 34

Finally back on the road for some serious travelling and exploring the country that is the crossroads between Europe and Asia - Turkey. First stop on this lavish 5 week odyessy is the middle of the country in Capaddocia - land of caves, odd rock formations, quirky living arrangements and amazing scenery. Left London on Thursday flying the very lavish (not) Pegasus Air which is Turkey's version of the budget airline - nothing fancy, but quite cheap. For once the flight was at a respectable time so no need to rush, although this meant that after a couple of hour flight from Stanstead to Istanbul there was a bit of a lay over before the flight to Kayseri, one of the business heartlands and not much happening at 12.40am. Taxi to hotel and straight to bed, ... read more

Eine Reise durch ein Land im Umbruch Heute hatten wir eine lange, kilometerfressende Reise quer durch die Türkei auf dem Plan. Nachdem wir uns gegen 8 aus dem Bett erhoben haben, ging es kurz vor 10 wieder auf die Piste. Zunنchst wollte wiederum Istanbul überwindet werden. Wir fuhren in der gekonnten Konstellation: Stephan am Steuer, ich an der Karte, denn unser liebes Navigationsgerنt kennt die Türkeي nur als weiكen Fleck. Wider Erwarten fanden wir allerdings recht gut durch die Stadt und waren recht zügig auf der Autobahn und auf der Brücke über den Bosporus. Nach dem Kauf einer RFID-gestützten Maut-Karte stand der Reise gen Ankara nichts mehr im Wege. Auf der Autobahn herrscht dabei eine recht gesittete Fahrweise und es halten sich erstaunlich viele Leute an das gegebene Tempolimit (120). Nach 4 Stunden Fahrt ging es ... read more

Sleeping in a bus station was definitely not on my list of things to do whilst in Turkey (as adventurous as I would like to be) but hopefully last night was the first and the last! There was supposed to a connecting bus from Ankara to Cappadocia but when we arrived in Ankara at 3am we were told that there was no bus to Cappadocia until 9am which meant having to wait at the station for 6 hours! Thankfully I wasn't travelling alone. I am now on the road with Sandra and Xavi, a lovely Catalonian couple from Barcelona who I met in Safranbolu. I have also seem some much seedier bus stations than the one in Ankara, and we were able to find benches to catch a few hours kip before our ride to Cappadocia ... read more

We stopped here briefly on our way to Konya. Just the four of us walked over the the Caravan Serai -- the others stayed for drinks and postcards. The building dates from before the Ottomans -- the walls are plain but the doorway is very ornate. Inside there is an outer, unroofed section used in the summer, and an inner roofed section used in the winter, and a small mosque between them. It was fun to explore on our own.... read more

Hi everyone, These are pictures from the Cappadocýa (Kapadokya) part of our trýp. As you can see we dýd a lot of walkýng around and lookýng at the scenery. And takýng pýctures of ýt. The fýrst pýcture shows a typýcal landscape structure. The entýre area ýs volcanýc ash, except a thýn top layer whých ýs somethýng harder. So when the top layer fractured, ýt allowed the layers underneath to wash away. That's how these stange shapes occur. "The Lucky Eye tree came from our fýrst "photo-stop". These blue beads are saýd to repel the Evýl Eye (jealousy). If someone looks at your ýn a jealous way, they are supposed to crack and thus protect you. Lucky Eyes, or Blue Beads, are ubýquýtously dýsplayed, sold, and even ýnserted ýnto street pavement here. Sýlmarýen has been gýven 3 ... read more