As I Leave a Muslim Country...

I've seen a ton of fully berka'd women during my time in Turkey, usually the ones that still have the face exposed, but quite a few who's only exposed body part is their eyes. And that's a shame considering that upon seeing their eyes, one can tell how obviously beautiful many of them are.

So a person would think by now seeing a woman in full burka wouldn't be a big deal. I thought so too, until today, while I'm waiting to use the washroom on the plane. The door unlatches and opens, and out walks a woman in full jet black burka, and for some reason in my horribly twisted mind a tiny voice cries out "holy fuck, there's a Jawa on the airplane!"

The Slow Journey Home

I'm back in Istanbul, the first step of my three stage journey back home. Tomorrow I head to London to spend the night there before I catch my flight to Calgary, then head back to Edmonton to my girlfriend, family, and (goddammit) job. 

My last day in Istanbul was swelteringly hot. I think I've picked the perfect time to visit this country; it was hot on the coast, and getting to the same point by the time I reached the east. I think July and August would be too hot to comfortably walk to all the sights that I did during my time here, evidence being how much I sweat today. I walked up to Galata Tower and had some great views of Istanbul, then took a walk through the Spice Market and Grand Bazaar. That really reinforced that Istanbul is not the place to buy souvenirs; a couple shop owners were very hostile to bargaining, and I didn't even try to lowball them for half price. To escape the midday heat I went underground to the Basilica Cistern, which is a large underground reservoir built by one of the Holy Roman Emperors. Then I went back to the hostel and chilled out with a new book and a couple beers.

Turkey has been a great place. I had a little bit of a rough patch in the middle but overall the country was amazing. The amount of ruins were mindblowing. It seemed that everywhere a person looked there was some kind of ancient or historical ruin to view. What I liked the most were the ruins in their ancient, unmolested form: the snaked infested walk through the hillside ruins in Bergama, the castle in Kizkalesi, and the seaside Roman city of Knidos.

My favorite destinations in Turkey were Bergama (its non-touristy feel and great ruins), Antalya (a beautiful city and amazing place to relax), and Cappadoccia (I love hiking). The one thing I have not a single complaint about is the food. I will dearly miss Turkish cuisine, especially Baklava, I love that dessert. The people here are great. Some are a little shy towards foreigners, but I found people were very receptive in non tourist areas where a foreign face isn't a regularity. I never felt threatened or ever had to worry about my valuables being stolen, which I think says a lot about the people here. The transport network was great; buses are comfortable and well connected. The train network could be better, but hopefully the future will change that. Oh yeah, and Efes beer is damn good.

What I didn't like about Turkey was the overrun of package tourism, which actually isn't in the force it should be due to the ongoing unrest that started when I arrived. Marmaris and Fethyie were utterly fake and numb, much like Cancun, Mexico. Prices were cheaper than home, but not quite as cheap as Asia. The backpacker scene is, unfortunately, not very well established in Turkey. Hostels were ad hoc, at best. I had a hard time meeting fellow backpackers in many places, and found that there was quite a different breed of them compared to what I was used to meeting on the other side of Asia. I suppose you could label these ones 'flashpackers'. 

Would I come back? Not in the near future. If Turkey happened to be on the way to another future destination I wouldn't hesitate to stop by for a little more time, but for now I'll continue to explore new countries and new experiences. 

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I have some catching up to do. My last day in Cappadoccia was really the last relax day I was going to have for the rest of my trip. The other days were going to involve sight seeing or transport. Being that my hostel had an outdoor swimming pool and the weather was hot, I decided to do absolutely nothing all day.

I caught my bus at 7:30, witnessing a little drama at the bus station beforehand. Turkey controls the stray cat and dog population, but they allow a few to roam around. I think it's smart, they seem to love tourists, which are an important source of food for them. During my days in Goreme, a friendly, possibly dim-witted mutt would come around the hostel looking for attention, and I would periodically find and pet him around town. He happened to show up at the bus terminal as I was getting there, and became the target of a pit bull that was loosely tied up to a post. The pit bull got loose and latched onto nice dog's neck, and in pit bull style, would not let go. At this point all the tourists are watching, some yelling to make it stop, but taking no action. The dim witted looking owner is pulling on the leash of his aggressive dog, but generally doing nothing. I walk up to tell him to help, telling him to pull on its ears or give it a quick poke in the eye, and the fucker physically shoves me off. About ten seconds later the pit bull lets go and nice dog runs away with a sore neck. There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

After a bit of a run around I got to the train station in Kayersi and booked a ticket. Not many tourists take the trains here, so I was an instant novelty. Shortly after sitting down at an outside table I had a young guy sit down and try to practice his English, then a philosophy professor, and another really cool old man. This made the wait go by much quicker. Of course I have to post a photo of a guy sleeping in the station in the most uncomfortable position I could ever imagine, his smelly feet right near my thigh. 

Trains are hands down the best way to travel overland. They usually deviat from the highway and follow a more scenic path alongside a river or through an amazing valley. Such was the case with my trip. I boarded at 1am, crashed in my bunk until 8am, and woke up to the spectacular scenery I just described. After a quick breakfast in the dining car, I preoccupied myself with book, music and Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

Unfortunately for me, because of track work, I couldn't take the train all the way to Kars, instead I had to get off in Erzurum and catch a bus. And of course that authoritarian ass of a Turkish prime minister, the one who's basically been the cause of all the riots during my time here, had to be holding one of his public manipulation rallies. This caused the main roads to be closed, and I had to walk to the bus station. At this point I had been on a train for 15 hours, and was looking at another three hours on a bus. Que annoyance. I managed to get to Kars at 9pm, quickly finding a hotel, eating, and secluding myself in my room.

The next day I caught a hotel run minibus to Ani, an ancient city smack dab against the border of Armenia. It turns out I was lucky, there was six more tourists that had signed up for it, which saved me quite a bit of money. The city was huge, perched above a canyon who's river served as the border between Turkey and Armenia. The city had some very impressive ancient churches, and took about 2 1/2 hours to walk through the entire site. 

I'm starting to feel a little ruin'd out at this point, after a month of seeing them nearly every place I visited, and I'm glad that Ani is the last one. The amazing and different landscape of the east made for a great last place to visit before I start my slow progression home through Istanbul tomorrow. I have one more day there, a day in London, and I'll be back home!

Posers

Every now and then you meet a certain type of traveller, one that revels in the fact that their traveling, completely soaked in the notion that they're a type of rare, hardcore traveller. Usually these types can be easily spotted by their immodesty. 

I had met one of these clones in Istanbul weeks prior, and had kindly evaded a suggestion of traveling with him. I again ran into him in Antalya, staying at the same hostel as I was. He was a really nice guy, but so absorbed in himself and his travels that I really didn't think much of him. I'll explain this point by point, trying to shed light on the traveling culture at the same time.

The first thing I didn't like about him was his notion that he was a travel writer, when in fact he has a travel blog, which are dime a dozen. I have one, and no illusions that I'm a professional or even close to that level. He even had a business card describing himself as a travel writer, which was probably the worst one I've ever seen in my life. The words were smudged. The worst part of it all was how he used this self imposed title as a way to extort free accommodation out of hotels and guest houses on his route, feeding them the notion that he would profile them on his blog, which he claimed had over 15,000 views in three months. Not even Lonely Planet writers will do this. How do I know? I just met one. This guy had no intention of becoming a travel writer or dabbling in the business, his chief motive was to exploit local businesses for his monetary benefit. And his blog is called Life Waits for No One. I almost barfed in my mouth.

His plan for his trip was using the round the world ticket to visit a ton of destinations on nearly every continent, usually spending short amounts of time in each country before returning home to a planned job. In my experience, lesser time is the enemy of experience. This is exactly why I try to spend as long as I can in each country I visit. It's all about odds; the more time you are present, the more opportunity and better odds you'll experience the local culture. I believe this is where many people miss out; they fail to recognize the difference between sightseeing and traveling. A person can visit a country and see every famous attraction, but if they fail to take the time to interact and immerse themselves in the culture, they lose a huge connection to that place that can intensely amplify the quality of experiences.

Basically my opinion is that this man gives a bad name to true travelers. The exploitation of travel writing, which in itself is a niche of hard and creative people deserving of credit for their work, annoyed me. On his part he has essentially failed to grasp the concept of freeing your mind. The planned route and date for returning home are exclusive doctrines for the spiritual journey. Removing yourself from the world of planning, of set dates, worries about time time efficiencies is the way to amazing freedom and expansion of the mind. To be a traveller truly free of all the stresses of the modern world, to wander the earth at will with little inhibitions is the greatest thing a person can do.

So don't travel like this man. Be modest. Learn. Feel. Experience.

Boo To Balloons

Everyone in Cappadoccia does a hot air balloon ride when they come here. It's the most popular attraction, and at a price around 100 Euros, it's a small fortune. Myself and another guy, Mike, were rebels and decided instead we're going to compromise, save money and climb a nearby mountain called Bozdag to get some decent views of the valley. The climb up was pretty steep and quick, it only took about 20 minutes, and when at the top we could hike the long plateau at will. The views were incredible, like the one below. The best part of it all: we found out from some people that did the balloon rides that the balloon doesn't go higher than the mountain peak. So essentially we saved ourselves $180, got the same views, didn't have to get up at 4am, stayed up on the mountain for more than the half hour balloon ride, and now have the satisfaction of working for it. Like a boss. 

After that we descended through Rose Road, which is a pretty cool limestone valley that takes you through a bunch of tunnels. After that we hit up a rock castle in Cavusin. Calling it a castle is a stretch, it's basically a large rock formation with tunnels burrowed into it; I'd call it an ancient apartment building, but nonetheless, it was totally awesome.

And Now For Some Panoramas

I never knew before that I could take panoramas with my iPhone, but some chick who I asked to take my picture, showed me the other day. So here it is, the beauty of Cappadoccia:

On top of the Uchisar castle

White Valley

Pigeon Valley

Live Life

Yesterday's bus ride was a little disturbing. About an hour and a half outside of Cappadoccia we passed a traffic accident on the other side of the highway. There was a bunch of paramedics working on some people inside the car, which was pretty badly smashed up. About twenty feet in front of the car another paramedic was putting a sheet over what had to be a child. That messed me up; death is a part of life but when you're witness to it, especially the death of someone so young and innocent, it hits home hard. I felt it was quite a sign to see that while I'm traveling, like it was an indication to keep living life to the fullest, because it doesn't last a long time for every person.

And now for the positive stuff. Cappadoccia is crazy, it looks like something out of a fantasy book, like Lord of the Rings. Thousands of homes have been cut into the limestone rock valleys in this area, some at really weird elevations in the rock, seemingly inaccessible. Valleys and canyons snake their way through the landscape, making surreal views like the one below. 

Today I walked, and walked, and walked. I must have covered around twenty five kilometers through the valleys around Goreme, the place I'm staying. I'm going to attempt to climb a mountain outside of town tomorrow to get an incredible view of the landscape, but that's entirely dependent on how my legs feel tomorrow, because they're a little tired right now.