Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Dixie Chicks - traveling solger

trip log
i got into istambul after a horrendouse excursion to new york (perhaps one of my least favoirite citys in the world) on the bright side the airplain was practically empty since it was the last flight of the night. only 90 some odd people so everyone took a row and stretched out for the flight. I ended up getting a hotel room instead of the hostel i had planned on since i was just too tired to contemplate dealing with anything else when i got in. On the bright side they gave me directions to a couple of shoe stores, which i needed because in my haste i left the appartment without sneakers or hiking shoes. tevas are wonderfull untill you face the possibility of spending two weeks in them. Anyways, bought shoes and looked at the guide book for a bit, and had a couple of beers in the hotel then turned in for the night. Turned out to be a good move since i was woken up at 4 am by a bunch of people pounding on drums, which lasted until about five am. I stumbled downstairs and asked the clerk about it only to be told that it was an ottoman tradition for Ramadan, or as the turks say ramizan, and that there was nothing to be gained complaining about it. So i strapped on my new shoes and headed out to look around the city. Made it al the way to sultanhammet before returning to get breakies and my bag. I figured that nothing would be open so i just walked around with my room key. After breakies and a rather large dose of coffee i went to the Covered bazzar, Aya Sophia, Blue mosque, and took a walk down the golden horn... actually all the way around the golden horn before walking the aquaduct that leads into Fathi where i was staying and dumping most of my stuff, including a small rug i bought, in the room and heading out for the backpackers bars down in sultanhammet. I met a nice swiss backpacker who was doing this as her retirement and we got to talking over a couple of beers, after telling me about the interior of the country and where to go we launched a pub crawl from sultanhammet all the way to Fathi (about 4 km). She dropped out about half way, but i managed to stagger back to my hotel. On the bright side i slept through the drums that night. the following morning i set off with both my backpacks for the bus station, only to learn that the best bus to take was an overnight bus, since i was headed for the emerald coast and it would take forever and a day to get there. So i stached my bag and took a bospherous tour, and then hiked up to the Geonese tower on the golden horn. By this time my new shoes had destroyed my right heal, so i was back in tevas. After getting a nice fish sammich for lunch, dinenr was a kebab, and then i caught the dolmus to the Otogar (bus station). The Otogar was intresting, its set up like an airport, but outside. I was doing okay there wating for my bus untill these wemon came around beggin with there kids in tow. That made me angry, since there kids were all sick and had no busness being anywhere outside of a hospitol or home. They had an immuno comprimised kid, a kid with a cath still in, another with an open feeding tube. It was depressing as hell.
Fourtunatly I caught the bus before i could lose my temper with them, and since i was headed down the coast to Kas (pronounced Cash) i got to take the ferry across the sea of marmaset (? at least thats how i think its spelled). It was absolutly beutiful to be out on the water at night. There was no light pollution so you could see the stars like i haven't see since colorado. Mostly though i slept through the night, excepting the turkish breaks (Everyone piles out of the bus for a ciggarette and a cup of chi). An intresting note about the Turkish bus system, while they do not feed you more then snacks they give you better service then you get on domestic airlines with people coming around and searving you tea or coffee and water about once an hour. Anyways, by the time i woke up we where in Mogla where we had to wait for a couple of hours to catch the bus the Fethye (SP again?). Mogla wasn't the nicest city but it was at least intresting. Fethye was also intresting but clearly a resort town. It was totally filled with germans. I only spent an hour or two there before decamping for Kas. I knew that Kas was also a resort town but it was a french expat center and smaller so i figured it would be nicer then Fethye. I caugt a Dolmus along the coast which was intresting since most tourists go by bus, so i got to see how everyone was living. The most intresting thing about the trip was when a police officer pulled us over to request water for a broken down truck. Everyone on the Dolmus, with the exception of myself was clearly Islamic, and the police man was about to start hauling people off the buss when i handed over my passport. after that he said something to the driver and to the other passengers and waved us on. After that i was everyones best friend.
Kas turned out to be a sleepy little town with a great natural harbor and no sand beaches. After dumping my pack at the hostel i found a local resturant and took in the sun set at the local greek theatre. That night Inter was playing one of the turkish teams from istambul, when the istambul team won, oh my god, the entire town went nuts. I was eating in a local resturant close to the harbor and everyone was celebrating. the owner came around and gave everyone there free beer. It was great, and an indication of how seariously turks take there football. The next day i spent swimming and resting with the exception of climbing up to some rock tombs which looked intresting. The water was amazing, i swam out about a kilometer or so and could still see the bottom. it was cristal clear. That night one of the other backpackers took offence at some of the Isrealies who where staying in the hostel, which launched a long beer and raki fueled debate over isreals conduct during the last war. After that i decided to leave, which meant catching a bus to anatalya. The buses didn't run that often so i spent another day relaxing and swiming. Which was really enjoyable except for the sun burn i acquared while doing so. In the afternoon i was given a ride on a scooter to the Otogar and then took the bus to anatalya. The bus ride was wonderful, the road runs right along the coast so its amazingly beutiful. Anatalya didn't really live up to the hype though, despite the long sandy beaches i didn't really like it. Mostly it was a port town with the tourist centers being dominated by the neuvo riche russian elite with a firm levening of russian maffiosa. So i caught the bus to Goreme in Cappadocia.
The bus to Goreme landed me with my closest encounter with the Jandarma of my whole trip when we hit a check point in the middle of the night and i was awakened by a small man weilding a very large gun. Fourtunatly a pair of brits where sitting in the seats in front of me and told me what he wanted with a suscinct "Passport you idiot!". other then that the bus ride was remarcably smooth especially after i showed the little turkish boy sitting in the seat next to me my passport which seemed to facinate him. Anyways i woke up in time to see the hot air ballons rising with the sunrise. Finding a Hostel wasn't a problem since it turns out that Goreme is a central backpacker location, every back packer who wants to see cappadocia stays there. So i dropped my bag and went to Zelve valley to climb up and see the rock houses. Unfortunatly it was Yom Kippur, and i was fasting so i nearly didn't make it back. I caught a ride with some stone massons back to goreme and spent the rest of the day sitting around writing and waiting for the sun to go down. After that i went and grabed a Kebab iskander, and then wandered into the local aussi bar for a couple of beers. The next day i caught a tour of cappadocia with a couple of aussies and brits, which was highly enjoyable. after that we all went out and drank untill an ungodly hour of the morning, especially since i had managed to book a nemerut tour the next day. Plus one of the innumeral dogs spent the night sleeping on my feet. all in all one of the best nights i spent in turkey. Which meant that i slept through a fair bit of the drive to Nemerute, with the exception of Karavanseri, which was heart wrenching. Everyone in the surounding village was despiratly poor. Our guide was really cool, and fairly knowledgable. so it was an uneventful day. i spent most of it talking to a canadian couple, since we both worked in healthcare.
The problem with seeing mnt nemerut and nemerut dagi is that you have to wake up at 3 to get up to the top of the mountain in time to see the sun rise. we where all fried by the time we came back to the hotel for breakfast. Where we were joined by a transplant from one of the other tours who was a state dpt. worker in the green zone of bahgdad. Not my favorite person, but not a bad person, she was just way too pushy about everything. Though talking to her was intresting. Anyways we headed down to the Syrian border and took in the sights along there. which was intresting but we couldn't take pictures since the whole areas a millitary zone. we also saw the cave where abraham was born and a pool of really impressive carp which has some religouse story attached to it which i cannot remeber at the moment. Basically the carp where cursed and never should be caught or eaten... MMMM well fed easily caught fishys didn't taste half bad. spent the night walking around the city with the canadians and a pair of aussies who work in cambodia. despite one kids piss poor attempt to pickpocket me it was enjoyable. We had to get up the next moring at the more reasonable hour of 7, but even so the entire ride back felt dead since everyone was exhuasted. To make matters worse i found out that i couldn't get a direct bus to safranbolo, and had to catch a midnight bus to Ankara (Which is a really ugly city). i was so exhuasted that i needed to catch an hours sleep on one of the benchs in the otogar there before i could catch the bus to safranbolo. Safranbolo was a hole, world hearitage site or not, it was not really worth spending an entire day there. But i managed to find lodgeings for the night and then explored the town. the next day i caught a bus to the black sea and then back again. it really wasn't worth the trip. The entire area seems to be turkeys industrail heartland and it shows. so i picked up my pack and headed back to istambul. A humourse bus journey which was interupted when the bus hit a flock of sheep, it took three hours to sort out and because of that i nearly missed my plain hom. all in all a great, if mindbogglingly exhausting trip.