Its all Greek to me…

On my last day in Turkey I went from Izmir to Selcuk, to Ephesus, which was a beautiful ancient city, it was very nice…

I arrived on the island of Chios where I met a friendly American traveling around, we had a nice cheap dinner together, of course it was amazing Greek Slouvaki. I bought a ferry ticket to Athens and later that evening , after spending about 3 or 4 hours on the island I left. I bought a cheap ticket which doesnt really mean you have a seat. I bought a deck seat. Which are plastic chairs outside in the crisp Agean windy air, or I had the option of finding a hallway or unoccupied couch in a somewhat smoky hallway inside the ship to sleep on, which I was lucky enough to find one of these. However, the couch was too short and I woke up several times with a stiff neck or cramped legs and feet. I think the floor would have been better. So, after a terrible night of “rest” I arrived in the port of Athens at about 7:3o AM. From there I took a metro to the city center and hiked up to the Acroplolis to see the Parthenon and of course many other great sights. The experience was really cool, seeing and touching marble that had been constructed into something so beautiful so many centuries ago, it really was quite an experience seeing them.

Me on the ferry to Athens

I explored the city all day, finding things from centuries past, while I was on my way to Ancient Agora I stopped by a cafe and asked the guy if they had dolmathes, he said sure I can make you some. They were delicious. Although according to my couch surfer in Athens, he probably just got them from a can, which is okay because they were still fantastic! Unfortunately my couch surfer in Athens had to work late and was not able to meet me early, so I spent all day with my pack on looking at the monuments. I ran into an American who was speaking at a convention for nuclear physicists and we had a nice walk and talk and he showed me to the arena where the first olympics were held, it was beautiful and made of marble.

At one of the places I visited there was a museum inside the area you paid to get into. I pulled a Larry Schnell and walked in the exit of the museum, I realized later that you had to pay extra to get in. The museum was great!

The next day I went to the Acroplolis Museum, which was brand new. I went on the first day it was open to the general public. I got there fairly early too which was nice. The best thing about the museum was that it cost only 1 Euro to get in, because they were running a special promotion period for one year. The museum was amazing! Brand new, perfect everything it was great! They had 3 floors of stuff to see, and the first floor has a glass bottom, and you are walking over an archeological dig site, so there are ancient ruins below you and gorgeous marble statues inside the museum. They were everywhere. Oh, a quick note to all women who may potentially go to this museum… the second and third floors are glass as well and you see the first and second floors below you in some parts, so do yourself a favor and do not wear a skirt.

After visiting the museum I hopped on a bus to Trikala in the Meteora region of Greece. This area is where the monastaries are high atop the cliffs. It is a beautiful area. My couch surfer in Trikala works for a telecommunications company and is on call and was planning to go with me to hike around the monastaries, but he was called into work while we were driving up there. This was okay because he dropped me off and I hiked around fo a while. The monastaries were closed, but I got a lot of great pictures of them from the outside along the cliffs. I was expecting Mike (the Couch Surfer) to call me soon, but being that he works with computers and things of this nature, they can tend to be a bit time consuming, so no call. It was fine so I just kept walking. I could have stayed in the nice town by the mountains, but I decided to just keep walking. I figured that okay, it will be less farther he has to drive. About 3 towns and 11 miles later he called me and he found me walking along the road. He couldn’t believe how far I walked. After he picked me up, I was of course exhausted, and starving. We went back to his place for a quick shower and then headed out for dinner. He took me to a great cafe, where he of course took care of the ordering. We were two people sitting at two tables pushed together and 6 chairs, both tables were filled with food! It was amazing! It was one of the best meals I have had. It was great because there were so many differnt foods in front of me, and none of them were “mine” or “his” they were ours and so it was great, just great Im salavating just thinking about it .

The next morning he took me back up to the monastaries early enough so I could actually go in before they closed. They were beautiful. I went to Great Meteoria, it was amazing how they were able to build such a beautiful building on the top of a cliff. The inside had a few museums and displays, it was really cool. I think I pulled another Larry Schnell here, and got in for free. I saw no sign to pay, but when I went to another monastery they asked 2 euro to get in, unfortuantely it was not worth 2 euro.  I continued to walk around the area until Mike picked me up again from the top of one of the mountains. I decided to go with him to his next job. Like I said he is on call for a telecom company. He is a “maintenance guy” doing all sorts of things at the base stations at the top of mountains. So, we started driving to the middle of nowhere, and he even let me drive his car for a while, I certainly miss driving, nice car too. We started up a dirt and gravel road and kept going up until we were on the top of a mountain. Once we got to the base station there were a few wild dogs up at the top, 2 were fairly cute, and the other 2 not so much, once inside the gated area he said “hey go look over there in the corner” there was a dead cow rotting against the fence. It had likely fallen down part of the bank and broke its leg, after being unable to move for several days it likely died of starvation, the skin and “meat” surrounding its head was gone, and all that was left was the skull. It was pretty nasty looking.

I learned a bit more about telecommunications, which was really cool because it applied to what I studied at UNR, and I got to help him work on telecom equiptment on a mountain in Greece while the dead cow rotted away. The stench from the cow was terrible, the entire top of the mountain smelled terrible. Unfortunately the air conditioning vent in the equiptment room was taking in the awful smell and there was no escaping how awful it smelled. The dogs were busy tearing apart the cow, which opened up new pockets of abhorring stench. While working with computer equiptment in a tiny smelly room, obviously something is going to go wrong with the electronics and it did, forcing us to stay longer in the smelly room. Once we were done, we ran out of there and got in the car, while the dogs chased us down the mountain. Because the dogs were A.  Stray and B. eating a smelly cow they brought the stench with them. We were yelling at the dogs and driving fast down the dirt road hoping we could evade them and the stench but no such luck, at least for a while, when Mike got out and chased them with a squirt gun.

On the way down the mountain he called and ordered food at a small cafe he knew of in a small village. The food was ready when we arrived, and again we had fablious Greek food, a lot of food. It was amazing, the meat (beef was actually sheep and cow in a patty, among other things, the lamb chops were very fresh. Amazing food! The Greek salad is amazing too, very simple, but unlike the Greek salads served at resturants in America, I would say the closest thing to them is the one my mom makes . (and I aint just sayin that cuz shes my mom).

Falling asleep on the car ride home we got back well past midnight and I slept for a good 10 hours that night. Woke up had some Spanikopeta, and ran out the door and caught the train for Thessalonaki where I am now staying with another couch surfer. It is pouring rain and I just got back from seeing a play with his cousin and her friends. I couldn’t understand any of it, and like I said, “its all Greek to me”…

PS: my host is playing miserlou on his guitar right now…

Antalya, Turkey

I arrıved in Antalya Turkey at about 7:00am trying to figure out where to go and what to do. I found a bus to the city center where I began wanderıng around. A young man spotted that I was a tourıst and started tryıng to converse wıth me, and of course I naturally threw up my “ım not goıng to buy anythıng” block on. He was sellıng tıckets on a boat around the area to see several waterfalls ınto the sea, after havıng talked hım down ın prıce from 50 Euros to 20 Lyra I decıded to go along wıth ıt. The tour lasted about two hours and ıt went past some beautıful coastlıne. The rocks and clıffs were amazıng! There were several small waterfalls goıng ınto the ocean and at the end of the boat trıp there was one huge falls that was amazıng, also he drove the boat a ways ınto a “cave” type thıng, the rock formatıons there were wıld as well.

Later I walked around and found the maın beach and swam there quıte a bıt. I had a great tıme swımmıng ın the medıterranean sea for the fırst tıme. It was a bıt cold at fırst but all ın all warm. Later I started walkıng around the beach boardwalk area. There are many nıght clubs along the beach that play dance club musıc durıng the day. Makes everyone a bıt more energetıc and upbeat I thınk (no pun ıntended). I found myself sıttıng on a nıce park bench under a tree dozıng off a bıt. The last tıme I slept under a tree was ın Göreme on a bench ın the cıty center, when I woke up I had a bunch of tıny green bugs all over me. Thankfully ın Antalya thıs was not the case. Instead I was awoken by a woman handıng me an orange ıcee drınk. Beıng totally parched I drank ıt and accepted theır offer to sıt wıth them under a tent. They had ordered lunch and had me joın them for that. Next we sat and conversed quıte a bıt and then they even ordered dınner ın whıch I was theır guest. Turkısh food ıs amazıng! Also the hospıtalıty ıs quıte nıce as well. The two gırls wanted me to joın them later as well but I declıned as I had to meet up wıth my couch surfer.

I have found that Turkısh food great and many people can help fınd plaes and and locatıons. I have notıved how famılıes sı10 all. Further ınnext  Goreme whıle pıckıng berrıes wıth two New Zealander couch surfers we spotted chıldren who wanted some berrıes. When they realızed that we were bıgger you cancall us and move the decs I wısh we had those ın Europe. They wanted us to spın them around so for courese we dıd…

Goreme, Turkey

I forgot to mention that while walking around I have been mistook for a Turkish person. People come up to me and ask me for directions and try to have conversations with me. I suppose the more I grow my beard and the tanner I get the more Turkish I look.

I am in Cappadocia!

When I got off the bus at 7:45am I went up to the Travellers Cave Panysion where I am staying, dropped off my bags and had a Turkish Breakfast for free . I then left at 9:30am for the “Green Tour” which took me and others from nearby hostels, and hotels around the Cappadocia region to see an underground city, a hike through a gorge, lunch nearby a river, seeing what looked like a set from Star Wars, and a few other noteworthy places around the region. My favorite was the underground city which was 8 stories. The people that built it made the passages small so their enimies would not be able to move fast through them if they were attacking. So everyone on the tour had a bit of a back cramp afterwords. But it was an enjoyable tour. I met another girl from my same cave from New Zealand. It was great talking to someone in English for the day during our tour, and being able to relate to many of the same things. For instance, I now have a friend of a friend who has a brother who is good friends with Jermain from the flight of the conchords series. If you havent seen it I highly recommend it.

(underground city)

After the tour I we went back to the Cave and watched a bit of Turkish TV, the film we watched was in Turkish and from the 1970’s, the acting was overdone quite a bit, we were not exactly sure what happend during the show. But it was enjoyable.

Later I bought my bus ticket and had a wonderful chicken dish for dinner.

Today I did not necessarily have a plan of attack, other than trying to go for a hike here and there. After mailing a few post cards I headed out in the general direction for hiking and seeing more of the “fairy chimneys” and other old dewllings. I decided that I was bored with following the road and the map and just hoped on over to a dirt road that led to a few of the chimneys, as they call them. Being myself, I just started exploring the region.

(the guy I farmed with)

I hiked up an area that once served as a town for the cave dwellers and I explored all of the caverns along the cliffside. Later I ran into a french tour group that started up a hill, I followed them for while and then went to the top of the rocks and set out for another bigger mountain,  I decided that it was a good idea to hike to the top of the tallest moutain I could see in the hot desert landscape. After getting to the top I felt quite accomplished, famished, tired, hot and thirsty. But the view was quite worth it.

I wanted to get down and head toward Goreme instead of the way I came, which proved to be a bit difficult. I found myself jumping down some of the rocks, climbing down proved to be problematic considering the rocks in the region are quite unstable and typically break apart when you try to climb them. I did find a cave in the hillside that I took a break in. The temperature was considerably cooler inside. I came out of the cave a bit refreshed and actually found some more dwellings high in a hill that I scrambled to get to. Once inside I noticed that it was relitevely untouched, there were still artifacts from way back when. There was an old piece of pottery, a metal thing on the wall, and some hey that had been fashioned in some manner for something or another.

I followed a dry creek bed for some time and had to work my way through the thick brush and tall grasses over crumbling rocks and strange landscape back into a small town. I started walking through the town, looking very tired, I was covered with dust and I had sweat running down my face and all over my sun glasses. A guy a bit older than I said hi, and asked me to join him to sit down. He was running a shop for tourists. But did not pressure me into buying anything. He did ask if I wanted water, when I asked Ne Kadar (How Much) his friend said 2 Lyra, the man who invited me over spoke to him in Turkish and then he said 1 Lyra, he had explained to his friend that I was a backpacker and not just the average tourist. I of course thirsty bought and drank the icy water. After a bit of conversation with the guy I noticed that the family was preparing for lunch, I started to tell him that I was going to leave because they were eating, he then invited me to eat with them. So, after my long hike through the desert I was given water at a reduced rate, and a traditional Turkish home cooked meal with a family outside on a beautiful day. We had chicken and rice, salad, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, bread and orange fanta. It was amazing, the food was great and the hospitality was even better. I thanked the man and his family for their generosity and moved on. I found myself next hiking toward a church out in the middle of nowhere. I went past it and noticed two men farming, they were a bit startled that a tourist had wandered that far off the beaten path. I offered my water to the eldest one, but kindly refused and had me sit with him. He didnt speak any english other than Obama, Good! I have noticed that all over the world where I have gone, people seem to love Obama. He tried to ask me questions and have a conversation, we got to a point and then I decied to help them farm. I picked up a hoe and started to work the land with them. It was pretty fun hoeing the dirt with two Turkish farmers in the middle of nowhere.

I then walked a few KM back  to Goreme and to the Cave  for a much needed shower and clothes washing.

(the wild flowers around here are amazing)

(inside of a church)

Istanbul, Turkey

I arrived in Turkey with a refreshed perspective on things. Driving from the airport in a bus I noticed how clean and green Istanbul was. I was very amazed at how pretty it all looked and how perfectly maintained the flowers were. Being next to the coast Istanbul has views of many ships in the harbor it is simply stunning at the first sight. Driving through the city you see new architecture mixed in with ancient relecs from the past. For instance, we drove under an aqueduct looking bridge dating back from who knows when, next we drove through the remnants of an old castle.

Immediately Istanbul reminded me of a mix of Portland, Oregon and the coast with a bit of European and Asian culture, with a spalsh Middle Eastern culture. Istanbul offers a unique environment that any traveller can enjoy.

On my second day in Istanbul I took the ferry boat to see Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia, both of which are fantastic mosques. I also saw the famous grand bazzar with its maze like cavernous passages that the average customer can easily find themselves lost in while a friendly Turkish salesman tries to convince you that you need to buy a rug. Throughout the day I wandered by gorgeous gardens and beautiful other places built many years ago that either are monuments, castles, or tombs.

(walking through the streets to the dock)

(view of the mosques from the ferry boat)

(inside Aya Sophia)

(Aya Sophia)

(Blue Mosque)

(Blue Mosque)

(Inside the Grand Bazzar)

The next day in Istanbul I took a trip to two islands near istanbul. They had rocky beaches and had many nice cafes along the waterfront, they were both very charming places for someone to relax after a full day of touring around.

I climed to the top of one of the hills on this island to a monastary.The panoramic views were well worth the hike up the hill.

There were many tourists on this island, many of them rented bikes or took horse drawn carrages up to the top of the hill to see the church. I, being cheap went for the less glamorous route and stormed up the hills obviously drenched with sweat, but nonetheless accomplished for getting to see such a wonderful view.

On the ferry ride back I met a group of people about my age who were very friendly and were great to have a conversation with about the activities going on in Istanbul. They had been on the islands for a picnic and even gave me a bit of Turkish bread, cake and tea, it was all quite delishious. Later that evening my couch surfer took me to a resturant called Mercana, where we ate on the rooftop overlooking part of Istanbul.

The next day for my birthday we spent hiking up a hill toward the Black Sea to a castle and ate a picnic lunch and marveled at the castle ruins, and of course the beautiful views of the waterways.

Of course looking as good as the water did…

I jumped in…

(swimming in the Bosphorous)

The next day I walked around the bridges that connect Europe and Asia, the Bosphorous separates the European and Asian parts of Istanbul.

Finally I took a bus from Istanbul the night of the 15th to Goreme. In Capadocia. The area known quite well for its tufa towers and strange caves.

Along the night bus ride I met a nice man by the name of Allih, he was 72 and didnt speak any English, we had a great time trying to talk to each other and talk about our families. People are genuinely nice and friendly in Turkey. It is a great place to be!