Turkey : The Wildest Place I Have Ever Been

Middle East » Turkey
September 22nd 2006

Published: September 23rd 2006

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Istanbul

The Blue Mosque

Turkey is a country that completely captivated my soul and stimulated my senses. Out of the some odd 25 foreign countries that I have been to in my life, Turkey is by far and away my favorite. Within its borders lie everything a traveler could want. The west is full of beautiful beaches, amazing archaeological sites, and plenty of opportunities to party the night away. As you cross over to the eastern part of the country you discover an undiscovered treasure full of a very rich and exotic middle eastern culture (Turkey boarders Syria, Iraq, and Iran). However, the area is void of any type of tourism and tourist leaving the culture and daily interactions real and the traveling a true experience. I have never had such an authentic experience . . . i was seeing the real turkey not the tourist version . . . absolutely amazing.

Istanbul is hands down the coolest big city that I have ever experienced. Rising out of a very low and beautiful sky line lie six huge, disorderly, and extremly enchanting mosques. Five times a day these beautiful mosques echo out the very romantic call to prayer and all you can do is

Istanbul

The Grand Bazaar. A maze of everything and anything Turkish . . . water pipes and lights.

stand in awe.
Urfa, in Eastern Turkey, is my favorite small city in the world. Urfa, 50km north of Syria, oozes character and overflows with middle eastern charm. More importantly though, the Turkish people are the coolest people I have ever come across. I have never meet a more hospitable, friendly, and welcoming group of people. It is an area of the world where carrying and American passport should have proven to be very detrimental . . . however, Eastern Turkey is the place where I have felt the safest on my trip.

One of the most valuable things that I brought from Turkey were the relationships that I made and the people I met. I have countless Turkish friends that are literally, on a weekly basis, emailing me and begging me in very broken English to come back to their homes and stay with them and their families. In addition, I also met two of the most special people that I have met on my trip. First there is Lucy, a very special girl that I met on the blue cruise, later visited in Sweden (next blog), and who is planning on travel with me for a month

Istanbul

Inside The Blue Mosque

or so in South America. Then there is Dawid, a Polish guy on his honeymoon, who clicked with me like a brother.

Below are some excerpts out of an email I sent to some friends about my adventures in Turkey. If you are to read any of my blogs make it this one. It was some of the craziest experiences of my life. Also, please don't get bogged down by the writing, the pictures really tell a story themselves.

¨a four day "blue cruise" on the Turkish Mediterranean with Nic, the Aussie. it was really awesome. 16 backpackers drinking beer and having a good time. we would spend our afternoons having jump and splash contests of the deck of the boat, playing cards, talking shit and drinking beer.¨

¨eastern turkey is by far the coolest place that i have ever been. first off, up until recently, it has been a dangerous place to visit. there has been a lot of Kurdish terrorist activity (they want more rights and ultimately a sovereign nation). yet, in the last five years it has become much safer. however, the state department still issues strict warnings of travel . . . all

Istanbul

One of the many mosques rising out of Istanbul

enough to scare most tourist and travelers away. so, in a weird way, the area is everything a traveler could hope for . . . towns unspoiled by commercialism and just enough other travelers to keep a lone traveller company.¨

¨the bazaar was wild with huge bags of spices, carpets, water pipes, and bowls with decapitated goats heads piled up (goats head soup . . . for you stones fans). one guy in the bazaar, after treating me to tea, told me "not George Bush, George Petrol." it was pretty funny. another thing is people wouldn't let me pay for stuff . . . i would use the internet and the guy wouldn't let me pay. or i would try to buy some water and they would give it to me for free.¨

¨we meet these two Turkish guys in the street (two of the many that we spoke with that day . . . not to mention every kid that wanted to say hi) and ended up speaking with them for an hour. we invited them to dinner and they in turn invited us to a home made dinner at their house. the dinner turned out

Istanbul

Just another fairtale mosque creating the most fantastical atmosphere i've ever experienced.

to be hard core Turkish . . . difficult at times for me to eat (i actually threw it all up later that night). . . but the night was filled with a lot of laughs and plenty of hand signs as only one of the family could speak English. they invited us to stay at their place the next night and we agreed. the next night we went to the grocery store and bought food to cook dinner with. we went back to their house and cooked some Italian pasta. we spent the rest of the night playing with the kids and playing tavala (back gammon), a game that Turks are crazy about . .. we laid our bedding on the roof (it´s to hot to sleep inside, temperatures regularly get up to 120F during the day) and watched shooting stars as we fell asleep.¨

¨the city that is about 15km from the Syrian boarder. it is draped over a hill and has an incredible view of the sun blazed Syrian planes. i meet three Turkish university guys. they walked around with me all day showing me the sites. we had dinner and then they took me to

Passing the time in Cannakkale

Drinking beer and playing cards . . . no better way to end a day of doing nothing.

their uncles shop where we had tea and more traditional food.¨

¨i was off to a village named Hassenkyf . . . ended up wandering around the castle and bumped into about 10 locals that were about my age. (they were excavating the castle because it turns out that the Turkish government has plans to build a dam that will flood this thousand year old village (IMF funded, hmmm) . . . they were so excited to meet me that when they found out i played soccer, they organized a game for when they got off work. lets just say that soccer in the desert is very very hot . . . i almost died . . . and that says a lot because after 5 months of travel I'm in pretty good shape). i found the polish right before the game and they joined me. we decided to stay for a Kurdish music festival that was taking place the next night in protest of the dam (the area is heavily Kurdish so the Kurds take it as an ethnic and cultural battle). that next day while we waited for the festival to begin we relaxed by the river

Ephusus

Pretty amazing. This is what is left of the library.

and went swimming with the local kids. the night came and the festival was awesome. the poles and i did a lot of Kurdish dancing and a lot of attempting to talk in broken English over the music . . . we were like celebrities. one thing i haven't mentioned yet is that the eastern part of turkey is very religious. unlike in western turkey the people follow their Islamic beliefs very strictly. as a result at this point i had not seen beer in about a week. it was nowhere to be found. but what i thought was funny is that at the music festival they had a beer man replacement . . . a tea man. i couldn't believe it. oh well the festival was awesome and i can now check off my list the "dancing with Kurds near the Iraq-Syrian border in the middle of the desert" goal.¨

¨so we packed up our stuff and headed for the freeway where i would soon lose my hitchhiking virginity. the second pickup that we had on our way to Tatvan (a city next to a huge lake) was a big rig convoy of two 18 wheelers. the poles

Pamukalle

Incredible calcium pools that formed naturally. We were told to expect Russians in g-strings. We were not disappointed.

hopped in the first big rig and i hopped in the second. after about 5 minutes on the road and a lot of hand signals, my driver found out i was American and i found out he was an Iranian headed back to Iran after doing a delivery to Syria. he looked so surprised that he had nabbed an American - i probably had the oh shit look on my face. the first thing he did was call his friend in the truck in front of us (where the poles were). even though i could only understand one word that he said, ¨American¨, it was obvious that he was telling his friend of his catch. i spent some time after that trying to distance myself from bush . . . a talk that would have been easier to do if we shared more words than just "bush, America. and Iran." we very quickly warmed up to each other and were eventually drinking tea together for the rest of the trip (that's right he had a tea pot in the cab with him . . . I'm telling you they love their tea.) that night we ended up missing our stop

The Blue Cruise

Just sailing the Turkish Riviera . . . a beautiful sunset . . . every night.

because of the difficulties that come in not speaking a common language. but it ended up great. they bought us dinner and invited us to sleep in their trucks that night. needless to say it was hard to say goodbye to them the next morning.¨

¨they loved us and wanted to take pics with us. we ended up dancing in the car with these drunk guys and they invited us for tea. i rejected their invite for tea and for a split second they looked upset. . . then i said ¨lets have beer¨ and they went crazy. it was the first beer i had in about 10 days. we ended up drinking and dancing with them underneath the towns old castle. ¨

¨the next day the poles and i moved to a city that is about 30km from Iran, Dogbyazit. it sits under Mt. Ararat (where Noah's arc supposedly rests) and next to this incredible palace looking over a desolate valley.¨

Quick update. After turkey I headed to England, Sweden, and Holland for a month (blog to come soon). I am now on the coast of Ecuador surfing and partying till dawn.
Hope you enjoy the