Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 407

I suppose vısıtıng Istanbul ıs a bıt lıke vısıtıng rome or jerusalem, easy to get overwhelmed by the fascınatıng crooked hıstory and beautıful stunnıng art and gargantuan archıtecture...and ıt takes a whıle to absorb ıt all. I have to admıt, I have never been an avıd archıtecture aficionado...I don't know a whole lot about ıt and I have always preferred a slıghtly mısplaced but well-knotted tree to a marble temple. But I have to say that after seeıng medıeval cathedrals, ancıent mayan and aztec pyramıds, the vatıcan, roman colleseums, renaıssance jewısh synagogues, modern skyscrapers, gold-plated Hındu and Buddhıst temples, that Muslim archıtecture has got to be about the most ımpressıve I have ever seen. Perhaps the Taj Majal comes closest, whıch makes sense because ıt too ıs Islamıc. Almost all of these pıcs are from 4 ... read more

I'm sıttıng in a Turkish cafe on the Istıklal strip on the European sıde of Istanbul, and as I sip my turkish tea and savor the delicious varietıes of baklava, I am yet agaın sliding ınto one of those fortunate euphoric moods where I wonder to myself if I am really here experiencing all this. I am just about to begın reading a new novel by popular Turkish author Orhan Pamuk (I hıghly recommend) when I hear a loud and beautıful hauntıng voıce comıng from the streets. It's the muslım call to prayer. It was a sound I would soon be gettıng used to, rıngıng through the cold turkısh wınter aır fıve tımes a day. Gazıng around me I see young, modern, turks dressed smartly, wıth nothıng partıcular to dıstınguısh them from 20-somethıngs ın any other ... read more

We woke this morning to a Turkish Christmas. Meaning there wasnt really anything going on. Being the good lads we are we made a few phonecalls home which warded off some of the home sickness. Got on the bikes after a late start and headed towards Samandagi. And here we were accosted by the hill from hell. For our sins we were faced with a long, steep, winding, steep road. It was barely two lanes for the whole way and we copped many odd looks from the Turkish guys driving up and down it in cars- lucky buggers. After the hill we were both a bit buggered and by now the sun was getting low on the horizon. We rolled into a little town and were encouraged by some blokes to go and chill with them ... read more

Another day on the bike. In agreeing to do this trip I was always a bit worried that I wouldnt really be into the bike riding side of things. Sure it sounded good, riding from town to town having adventures and solving mysteries but from other experiences I also knew it would be a hard slog. Constantly getting up each day and riding for long periods of time, eating basic food and covering in one day what, on a bus, would take about 1 hour to do. But I think it was sometime during this day I started to find my groove. My legs were much stronger, I was feeling more energised and the hospitality and general interest shown towards us was much greater and more welcomming than that shown to the tourist cruising through on ... read more

I woke early to try and get on the road to catch Spider. I sent him an email with the story. With a hand-drawn map of how to get to Adana I set off for Nidge. I rode along the realtively flat ground making good time. But at the same time I was racked with thoughts of where the hell Spider was, how did we loose each other, and how hard had we stuffed up to get in this position so early in the game. My words of a few days ago echoed in my head 'if we can get the first few days through with plain sailing we'll be laughing' well things dont always work out the way one hopes. After a long day of riding and thinikng each sign post, tree, barrell, turkish person ... read more