Blogs from Turkey, Middle East - page 408

I woke early with one thing in mind. To find the freak. I sent a quick email to him, telling him what my story was. Armed with a hand-drawn map of how to get to Adana I said goodbye to my new best friends and headed into the fray. The terrain was pretty easy going but I was racked with terrible thoughts of what could have happened to Spider. I was also pissed at the apparent communication breakdown and that we had stuffed up so hard, so early on. My words of a few days earlier were ecohing in my head 'it would be sweet if the first few days are fair sailing, that would be a great start to the ride'. I punched out about 40km's and after thinking every distant sign post or human ... read more

Having been in Istanbul for a week, we needed a break. It wasn't a break from Istanbul that we needed so much as a break from cities in general. So we marched down to the travel agency near our hotel and told him to send us away. Where to? Cappadocia. He had a two day tour with a night in a cave hotel he could offer, so we figured we might as well. The only hang-up was that for what we were wanting to pay, he could only do bus tickets instead of a flight. Julie and I both hated the idea of 12 hour overnight bus rides, but thriftiness prevailed, and we accepted. Actually, the bus ride was much better than we expected, and we both slept a fair amount. When we got to Urgup, ... read more

Llegamos a Sanandaj, la capital del kurdistan irani, tras casi 10 horas en un cacharro de autobus y sumidos en un estado de catatonismo del cual no logramos salir hasta el siguiente amanecer. La ultima vez que visitamos Iran quisimos venir a esta zona pero el invierno nos lo impidio. Ahora el frio y la nieve acechan pero nos dan una tregua y afortunadamente parece que esta vez saldremos de Iran sin sufrir una gelida nevada en nuestras mediterraneas carnes. Nada mas llegar al hotel nos encontramos con Paolo y Sergio, dos italianos recien jubilados que disfrutan de una tranquila partida de ajedrez en la sala de estar del hotel. Son dos hombres muy alegres y muy tranquilos, unos viajeros empedernidos que aprovechando el nuevo status de jubilado ( anticipada en el caso de Paolo) han ... read more

Leaving Konya was as painful as getting in. I was determined to use that tram to get out of town but finding it took a long time even though it was only a few minutes walk away. I was told by the hotel guy that I had to take bus so I went to the bus stop in front of the hotel and tried to ask someone but no one could speak english or understand my broken turk, until one man laughed at me and told me to walk before taking off (but not saying in which direction). Trying again to snatch information from these overly nice turks I ended up finding the 2 women from the hotel (those who mistook me for a turk) who showed me the way. I was just 2 minutes away ... read more

The overnight bus from Istanbul was smooth sailing. I had heard of the good reputation of turkish bus companies and they certainly lived up to my expectations. Quality buses, no hassle. I'd even say they're a bit boring. Anyway, I got in Selcuk in early morning and quickly found my way to an ANZ hostel, the first one I stumbled upon. I got a dorm bed for a good price after only a little bargaining and even had a good breakfast. I chatted it up with a retired canadian couple backpacking around who were so friendly and interesting. The man was a career officier and had been stationed in Pakistan before Independance, he had crazy story to tell about those weekends he used to spend in Kandahar and Kabul and the stuff he found in the ... read more