Blogs from Van, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 2

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Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van July 30th 2008

Kurdistan-Express Notre passage en Turquie fut très bref puisque nous y sommes restés seulement deux nuits. Vous avez sans doute dut vous en rendre compte depuis que vous suivez nos aventures, notre spécialité à nous, c'est de voyager au fil des opportunités et des suggestions que l'on nous propose, sans jamais savoir où nous dormirons le soir, ni même dans qu'elle ville nous finirons... ... force est de croire que cela nous réussi pas trop mal ! (certains signes nous laisse cependant à soupconner que la providence n'est jamais bien loin ;P ) Nous avions prévu de ne pas nous arrêter en Truquie, pour des raisons de temps, le fait que la journaliste française rencontrée en Arménie nous ai donné un contact kurde là-bas nous a cependant fait craquer... et voilà, encore un changement de programme ... read more

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van July 14th 2008

Into the arrivals gate she stepped, looking a bit confused perhaps, but with a big smile on her face. Welcome to Turkey, mom! We hopped a Havaş shuttle to Taksim and her adventures began. After lunch on İstiklal Caddesi, we headed to İstinye to take it easy for the rest of the day... until the party, that is. Lütfiye kept me up into the wee hours the night before, rolling grape leaves and cleaning the apartment - which was already spotless enough, in my opinion. Mountains of food were prepared and good friends came in from as far as İzmit to welcome my mother on her very first day. Exhausting, overwhelming, and splendid! My mother weathered her first full day in the country like a champ. After a large Turkish breakfast, we hopped a bus from ... read more
Spice Bazaar
Akdamar
rollin' grape leaves

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van April 30th 2008

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) the geology below us was breathtaking. We were lucky enough to have an English pilot and so received a running commentary on what was what, and there was a lot of it. An hour later ... read more
Away with the Fairies
Cheers
Terry Takes Tea

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van July 15th 2007

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 colori, in particolare il blu, sono vivi e profondi; su gran parte dei muri sono incise croci cristiane di ogni genere ed enigmatiche frasi in lingua armena. Terminata la parte culturale di questa escursione ci ... read more
Lago di Van
Chiesa di Akdamar
Davide e Golia

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van October 17th 2006

"VERY TENCHIU!" Dialoghi semiseri tra un Italiano mafioso e terroristi curdi! Il mondo è un libro, e chi non viaggia ne legge solo una pagina. Sant'Agostino Così, lasciata Ankara, dopo cinque ore di pullman, arrivo in Cappadocia, e più precisamente a GOREME Piccolo villaggio di 2000 anime, si trova proprio al centro dell'area che racchiude la maggior parte dei siti più importanti. E' domenica, e in giro praticamente non c'è nessuno, per cui, per trovare da dormire, mi affido all'istinto: ci son vari cartelli indicanti pensioni, seguo quello che mi ispira di più e ovviamente si rivelerà l'hotel più distante dal centro: pulito, con una bela vista, ha le stanze che son ricavate nella roccia! Ci aggiungi che un letto in dormitorio costa 6 Lire (3 euro), il gioco è fatto! E la scelta si rivelerà ... read more
CAPPADOCIA
CAPPADOCIA
CAPPADOCIA

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van August 4th 2006

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Iran and crossed over ınto the mountaıns of Essendere, Turkey. The scenery changed almost ımmedıately and so dramatıcally: the dry desert was gone and we were surrounded by green fıelds, mountaıns, wıldflowers and rushıng streams. Arrıvıng ın Van ın the early evenıng we checked ınto a local place and were ımmedıately fed by the people who hang there (stıll dont know ıf they are guests, owners or just lıke the place) - a huge tradıtıonal feast washed down wıth chaı (of course). The two days we spent here tryıng to get back our strength after the mad rush through Iran we spent explorıng the Van Castle (buılt ın 855BC) and takıng a boat out to Akdama Island where we pıcnıced on fresh bread, cheese and peaches beneath the almond ... read more

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van June 14th 2006

More about that later... This last one and a half week has been spent travelling around Eastern Turkey. First stop after Annamur was Kizkalesi which means Maiden's Castle in Turkish... It turned out to be Turkish package holiday territory... But the castle on an island just of the coast was beautiful... Still as I don't like crowds that much I headed of the next day to Antakya which I found to be an interesting place... It's here that you start to feel the Middle Eastern influence seep into Turkey... The reason for visiting Antakya was to go to the Archaeology Museum which boasts one of the finest Roman/Byzantine mosaic collections in the world... And it was certainly worth while... Next it was off to see Mt. Nemrut which is known for the funeral mound build by ... read more
Antakya
Antakya
Antakya

Middle East » Turkey » Eastern Anatolia » Van May 7th 2006

Finally we are back in colder climes, mountain streams rush by, snowy mountains appear round every bend, and the air is clean and clear (well until the next truck thunders past us blasting its horn again!). We are back in Turkey but things here are a bit different - the people and the customs all seem a lot more European, oh yes thats because this area is Kurdistan, as we are reminded by almost everyone we meet. We were told a lot of things about this part of Eastern Turkey last time we were here in the country - mostly that it was dangerous and we shouldnt go there, especially on bicycles. The countryside and mountains were beautiful we were told, but full of dangerous terrorists, and the cities wernt much better either. We were particularly ... read more
Cheese making, Mamuniye
Persian tomb near Hasankeyf
Dark Skies and rain again.....




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