Archives: Travels - Turkey

Landed

2 hours later I land in Istanbul
Grey sky a somewhat European city compared to Jerusalem
It seems Belgium in this weather -especially the suburbs...-
In the taxi. the taximeter shows what inflation did to this country: it has no more spare numbers left to show its prices. 20000000 liras is what my 20min ride costs
If it goes on like this, they'll have to put new taximeters in the cars...
-A day later BBC-news tells us that because of Iraqi war economics are very bad influenced and Turkey asks for an extra loan... A pity. I guss they don't like the US as before...-
After circling around the famous Aya Sofia and asking the road for 4 times tha taxi drops me finally at the hotel.
Kristien is waiting.
Let's eat!!!!!

Posted on April 17, 2003
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Raining

For me discovering a city is not following some tours, with the guidebook in my hands, explaining everything what there is to see. It makes me hopeless because to see everything I have to spent more time than just a day or 4...
Discovering a city is first get lost Than think and wonder where those big monumentsa that perfectly serve as an oriantationpoint suddenly went.
Keep on walking in the direction you thought they should be and then suddenly behind a corner they appear as a surprise...
The surprise gets bigger when these monuments are not the one you expected.
SO in the end you need the guide to find out where you are.
Istanbul is a city to get lost in.
Everyone will agree on that.
It is too big and too nice. So getting lost in it is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Only your feet wont like it that much...
I took the tour on the Bosphorus, not bad. It gives you an idea how big the city is
After 3 days of rain the sun starts glimpsing and the Ortiental atmosfere gets in the city.
Still after been in Jerusalem., Damascus and Bagdad, this city looks rather European to me.
Maybe it is because of the Western looking tram or the Amsterdammerkes on certain places.
On the other hand, the haman or the han in the old souk are incomparable.
Maybe I should stay longer...
Maybe I should ask a scholarship to discover Istanbul...

Posted on April 19, 2003
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Istanbul

Posted on April 20, 2003
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Noisy

-While waiting for a bus in a bar in Istanbul-
I truly don't understand how 18 Aussies can make as much noise as 100 men
And why they act as if the bar is theirs...
Awful.

Posted on April 21, 2003
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Playing around

Yesterday I played around with a guy. Really mean of me, but hey they are the ones asking to date all the time, not me...
Probably they expect a nice evening ending up in bed. Werll hey someone had to tell them different!!!
Anyway, except for the fact it was mean, it is an easy way to discover a city like you never did before...
We ended up drinking coffe in a dark bar where Kurdish people were singing traditional songs in a modern version like Lais in Belgium
After that we went in a typical place for youngsters in Istanbul. And again I was the only non native person. Which I liked a lot after being between loads of Aussies...
In contrary to Jerusalem of Tel Aviv, Istanbul is flooded with tourists. I'm really not used to it anymore. Second I don't like it at all. I don't mind when in Ghent a lot of people are talking another language than Dutch. But as a tourist I would hate it. Especially like here Aussies Englishmen and a lot of noisy Germans... The only thing they seem to do is start talking to eachother -I keep very quiet when I hear Dutch-
Wandered trough town today. Visited a mosque. Must say, I was not impressed. Not because of the culture but the fact that everything is just a memory of.
These great buildings stand for something that is not anymore. I see what my nice friend Okyay told me about. The glory of Ataturk. The big Ottoman Empire. All gone...
The worst of all, they let it dissapear, so many monuments are in a bad condition and they don't do anything about it...
It is funny but when I visited Iraq with it mosques, there was something different. I remember this one mosque the insite like gold. And man and woman sitting inside with their families, eating and drinking.
I was invited for tea and could take pictures of it.
This was like it used to be, a meeting place. A rest on a Saturday.
While the mosques I visited here were like museums History.
Iraq was history alive.
Well. history a year ago. Because now. I don't know whats happening now...
History lost, I fear....

Posted on April 21, 2003
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Karaoke in Efese

After a horrible nightride from Istanbul to Knaknaknasomething I arrived this morning in an another minibus to Efese
Yeayeah I took a guided toor because I knew otherwise I would do nothing at all. Which I did today anyway. My guide ended up with 4 Australians, 3 foreign students and me. Neither of us had slept, which made us the most passive group ever...
But we had fun.
It reminded me of my last year in highschool when we went to Rome and saw 1000 of years of history in 14 days. Listening to something, one ear in, other one out..
But when we arrived at the amphitheater one of the students started singing.
Originally from Singapore and having karaoke as a national sport, he sung My Wasy for us an a bunch of other people in the theater. Great show!!!!
Prompt the Australian girl -a standup comedian in London- had to sing her Bush song under our applause...
Fun garantueed.
Forgot my cam so sorry but there will be no webmovies about this. Due to slooooow internet it would not have been possible anyway...
The guide dragged us to a carpetshop afterwards. Chips a korean guy felt a sleep... Nobody bought anything but we know everything of carpets now.
Finally we were dropped at our hotel where I ended up in bed.
Tomorrow I leave for Samos to arrange my passport thing
I hope it works...

Posted on April 22, 2003
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Stamps in passports

Ok! I have the right stamps in the right passport.
Yeah! Heading for Syria now.
Atleast thats's what I thought.
My tourguide decided that I have to stay another night in Knaknaknsomething.
Which is ok for me.... I only paid for one night and I get 2 -in a really good hotel with nice bed- and this little town seems rather photogenic to me.
Hope the sun starts shining tomorrow because it was bloody cold today.
Sat in Samos in a cafe and read 'The life of Pi' SO ran out of books now.... Help.
Tomorrow I will post my old passport to Tel Aviv and some other things to Belgium. Give a sign when it arrives please.

Oh. just bought a motorbike today.
Finally decided to do it.
Yeah. When I arrive in Belgium a nice red Honda CB 750 will be waiting for me...
Who wants a ride!
So Sigal, maybe we go for that island!!!!
Quite excited and dreaming of riding motorbikes now....

Posted on April 23, 2003
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Kucadaci or something like that

Sun is shining! Finally....
Sitting in Kucadaci or something like that. Looking at the sea.
The guidebook tells me this should be the Blankenberge of Turkey but İ guess tourists didn't arrive yet. Everybody is far more friendly than in İstanbul everything is cheaper and the sea looks cleaner than Tel Aviv
Suddenly the idea crossed my mind that it's no bad idea to buy an empty hill in Turkey these days. Within some years this country is part of the EU and prices will surely rise and torists will come.
On top of it there is a lot of ancient culture in this area. And last but not least: SUN!
Anyway İ don't have this money so İ am looking at the sea and thinking.
Got a really nice offer for next year.
To go off for a while again.
But have to think about it, have to think about what İ want exactly...
İ guess İ realize in the end that's the reason why İ went away for a year.
To figure out what to let go and what not.
But answers don't come easily, İ can assure you that...
So Jake, an answer is coming. But please be patient.
Give me some time...

Posted on April 24, 2003
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On a bus to Cappadocia

On a bus to Cappadocia, İ stare to the amazing landscape. This is the Turkey İ never knew before. Stunning
Some hours before İ was sitting in a little local bus heading for a central busstation
People soo friendly and again stunning views.
Suddenly something small İ don't remember what but İ fell in love with the country
İt happens to me with almost every country.
Sometimes fast, like Roumania, sometimes slow like İsrael/Palestine, sometimes not like Holland...
Small things make it happen A child's eyes, a view, or simply colors.
Today after this hit me, İ felt happy and didn't stop smiling since.
A friend mailed me: it is hard to love life.
İ guess he is right in a way Sometimes though it is easy.
Turkey reminds me of Roumania: bad roads friendly people, rural places, but less garbage in the streets.
İ finally understand the glance in my Turkish friends eyes when they talk about their country.
İ already decided to come back.
So Bart be prepared... Take those motorlessons We'l be off in no time... Leaving from Belgium taking the long ride...
People ask me whether I am having fun travelling alone Well my parents can tell you İ've always been a 'looner' and offcourse I was afraid the first time İ went alone And offcourse sometimes it would be more fun being two
Though it gives me a kind of peace wandering the İstanbulstreets alone...
İt was great with Kristien. But it was as great without Kristien -And İ am positive she thinks the same way-
Anyway İ am a very bad guide -my mother will agree- and i am not sure i would put my mother on the 12-hour ride İ am sitting on now -but İ would do it with Bart-
Kristien told me: you'll spend a lot of time on the bus this trip.
İ don't mind
İt gives me the feeling of traveling in the meaning of travelling.Taking a plane to a city ıs not fun... The fun is in the struggle to get there, having this great feeling of doing the kms over land.
İ would love to go do the silkroad over land Must be great. Or travelling on a cargoship...
Like way back when...
My god, it must have been great to be a discoverer in the time of Lawrence of Arabia...
But than again, there was no airco at all....

Posted on April 25, 2003
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Flintstones

This morning very very urly we drove into Cappadocia where I had to wait for a bus that went to Goreme.
When I arrive in Goreme it's emty -a different view from what the guide routard is telling. More and more I dislike this guide...- I end up in a little hostel where Anne, the French owner makes me pay 20000000 TL with a smile -my budget is 1000000-
Goreme is a city existing out of the famous cavehouses. House carved into stones, like the Flintstones, let's say.
Christians did it in the 9th-10th century AC to protect them against islam
it's surreal. In the center tourism 'rules' but only 500m outside of the center you're in the middle of life as it used to be...
Truly rural life where peolpe say Merhaba when they see you.
I suppose in summer this town gets overwhelmed by tourists, now it seems empty.
But most of all people stayed as they were before. I love it. Anne gave me a map what to do when you're here only for 2 days.
Hiking is the message
So I start.
I visit some open air musea and get stunned again.
Later I decide to lack comments in the awful guidebook -Never walk the valley alone, take a guide-
It's only a walk of 2km, the worst thing that can happen is I get lost, but then again I could return from where I came from and take a cab home...
-Tamar will be the first to say I have a good coordination -
So I start walking without knowing where İ will end.
In my head the idea that Goreme lies beneath the horizon İ see.
The walk was a good idea.
Without guidebook, without aims, just walking and enjoying what my eyes get to see.
After the hill Goreme appears indeed. But I decide to stay a little longer in the silence.
Finally I get back and since it's still urly I decide to see another valley.
Overthere a guy asks me whether I want to take a ride with the tractor.
Why not?
-Everything better than walking that moment-
So I jump on the tractor and enjoy the views passing by.
Then he asks me wheter I want to visit another valley.
Offcourse. So we go off-road -he with a tractor everything can be done-
He walks me around shows me the best places to take pictures and tells me he's a guide in summer.
And then he asks me whether I know how the valley is called. 'Low Valley' for tourists but tourists often refer to the 'thingyvalley' -well offcourse Iwas not going to say such a thing with a guy alone. Don't want to provoke... But it is exactly what these formations look like. As far as I am able to recognize such things...-
At this moment Tamar calls. 'Where I am?' 'Euh. on a tractor in a valley but I'll tell you later..'
-Can you hear me say 'In thingyvalley with a guy'? Right... Don't think so-
After that we head back for Goreme and the guy wants offcourse that I come to drink something in his cafe, which again I refuse -too short time in Goreme to be able to do-
No offense taken, he says goodbye.
So I walk home. And think. I guess such things only happen to me because I am travelling alone.
That's why I like it so much.
Atleast I will have some stories to tell when I am back.

Posted on April 26, 2003
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Underground cities

Today we planned a tour with a private guide for me and two French guys -also staying in the hostel-
We're going to visit an underground city -you have to know that in Cappadocia there are these cavehouses, but also whole cities under the ground. People used to live there when the enemy came. It's amaxing, villages of 3000/4000 people under the ground, 7/8 floors deep So I really got to see this- Next was a hiking tour and see some views in the area. Bad luck with the weather: it's even snowing! at a certain moment.
-I am so happy with my fake nike-jacket of 10 euro... It's worth every penny-
But hey, nothing will stop me here, so let's go for it.
I loved the valleywalk and can't stop thinking this area is great for my mum or ever my grandmum. The atmosfere reminds me of Normandie/Bretagne, where tourism also exist, but the people stayed as they were before.
I'd love to take pictures here but a lack of time decided different. So I have to come back. And bring somebody that enjoys this as much as I do.
-My guide tells me if I bring 6 people I have my staying for free! Who wants to come?-

Meanwhile I started talking to the French guys -Hey practicizing my French again. It's was needed...-
and we start to talk about Israel and Syria.
Some stories some ideas.
For me, talking about these things is a little bit strange. But I guess it is the first time out of Israel I really talk about it. And that ain't bad.
Going to Turkey was in the first place to be out of the conflict and see things from a different perspective. One from far away -but not too far away-
Being in the middle of it, is not always easy
If I want to live there, one asks. No, I answer.
But I have to admit, things have changed since I made some real friends. It will be hard to leave the place, because I leave real friends behind.
But because of these real friends, I have to leave.
Jan wrote it right in the article for Focus: 'She talks about her friends on both sides'
And that is what this is about.
My friends are on both sides. I am on one side and can't stop thinking about the other side.
For me that combination is sometimes impossible.

This is what the French guys made me realize tonight. That and the fact that lately I started to know some things about the Middle-East. I certainly not pretend to be an 'expert' but hey, surely you must admit I have visited soem places by now.
That's why I advice everybody to visit this Middle East. To see with your own eyes what I am talking about.
To see that Islamic people are not the fundamentalists our media makes them.
Today we were eating and the Turkish lady sitting next to us tried to say something, which we didn't understand offcourse. Finally I got the guide to translate it: She says she's from Sinop and if you go there you're her guests.'
One of the French guys is stunned and says ' You can't imagine this happening in a restaurant in Europe'
He's right. First of all it won't happen. Second if it would happen, you would look for the trick. Third: you would accept the invitation but never take the opportunity to go and be her guest.
I guess that's the difference between us and the Middle East -Israel included- They offer you something and they really mean it.

-Are these the fundamentalists we're talking about? Give me a break...-

Posted on April 27, 2003
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Take a parachute and jump

Do you know this feeling
Being on this enormous heights
And having the feeling of wanting to jump?
Within my mind the hope that a miracle will happen and I can fly.
-because I don't believe in miracles, still didn't jump, don't worry-

While I was walking today, couldn't stop
Sun in my face, and wind to keep the equality between nice and not.
And as I advanced in arriving where I got to be, my mind arrived there too: nowhere.
Because that's exactly where I am.
Just try to figure out where I am goimg to.
My dad always said: you have to find something that gives you a passion. I don't have that, a passion.
There is nothing that I really realy badly want -maybe because I have and do everything I want...-
Except maybe travelling, seeing the world and discover other cultures.
Is that what I want to do?
My mind started floating.
And blocked.
I couldn't think anymore. Empty mind.
Just incredible sights to see.
So I fell asleep in the valley while watching the birds.
It could be wonderful, being a bird. Fly wherever I want to go.
I guess that's what I dreamt of.

Tomorrow I'll take the bus to Aleppo.
Off we go.