CAPPADOCIA

Thirteen hours in the bus just to arrive in time to enjoy the sunrise with the magnificent view of Cappadocia where we decide for Goreme as our base camp for the next week.

Rent a car is our best option and with the good Chilean company of Ale and Maria we explore at our pace the vast and hiding surroundings of Goreme.

Painted churches inside stone carved caves, stıll standing Caravanserai's that use to be resting places for the merchants travellings the ancient Silk Road, amazing landscapes, unbelievable rock shapes making you wonder how are they still standing and how amazingly people made of them their home, are some of the reasons why Cappadocia is so famous.

Temperatures of -10 degrees Celsius keep most of the travellers away from this place at this time of year, except the eager and numerous Korean and Japanese , all with their modern and tinny gadgets and their noisy plastic bags that they seem not to hear at six in the morning when they wake up to join the tour that will take them to see the sunrise.

We walk for a week the winding valleys, all of them with different english names like Pigeon, Red or Rose not forgetting the famous Love valley with its obvious shapes of the rock formations to be seen on it.

Done with the cold, the ice and the snow but thanking for the seven sunny days ın a row that we had. After checking the calendar we realized that our time in Turkey is running out and it is time for us to keep going East.

Unfortunately we have to say goodbye to some good friends that we made in Goreme.

All the best to Ale, Marıa and Françoıse.

CAMELS AND RUINS

After nearly a month in Istanbul we headed south to the Aegean historical coast of Turkey.

Skipping Ayvalik as our first stop due to the few accommodation available for backpackers, we arrived to Bergama, famous to be the place where the parchment was invented!.

Ancient Greek ruins, narrow streets and prayers that can be heard five times a day coming from the mosques are a good combination to spend some time waiting for the Camel wrestling, just three days ahead.

Friendly faces as we ask for directions to arrive to the exact whereabouts to see the famous camels, and after a few wrong turns due to our poor Turkish we finally managed to see some humps ın the horizon. Cheered up for that and welcomed with an unforgettable smell we pay the 10 lira (6 Euros) to assist the event.

Camels are big celebrities around here, some of them are named as Davıd Bechkam, and the show up their many bells and different coloured ornaments indication of their high ranking.

Some for pride and some for money, the camel owners push their beasts with foamy mouths to fight each other. Some run away, some bite their adversary testicles but most of them push really hard with their body until the opponent gives up and the people get crazy for the winner.

As for me , I look around to the stands where the sell delicious camel sausage sandwiches and think about the poor looser...

Not many tourists to be seen around and feeling welcomed by the locals we get mixed with the spectators while the Gypsies play their songs to entertain the public and others seem to have had a bit more Raky (local spirit) than usual when they dance on top of their trucks.

Great spectacle!!

Time for us to redo our backpacks again and keep heading south where a few more degrees in the thermometer as well as for what they proudly say the extremely well preserved Greek ruins of Ephesus.

The ruins are great and even the three of four extra buses of Japanese in low season, the sunny sky adds up a great way to spend our last day in the ancient west coast before heading for as the forecast announce... the freezing Cappadocia.

VISAS WILL MAKE YOUR TRIP SHORTER.

Finally and after a bit more than three weeks in Istanbul, we are pleased to say that it is time for us to get our backpacks ready and keep going...

As a mild and modern version of the Midnight Express, this city and waiting for the colourful stickers to be attached in the pages of our passports have been enough reason to be our "cell" and keep our mileage to minimum.

We have been staying ın the friendly Mavi Guesthouse, where having a hot shower sometimes and heating in the room are luxuries not affordable for backpackers.

Just before New Year's Eve, a nice group from Uruguay and Argentina came around, added to a few long term friends from the guesthouse was a nice mixture to have an interesting ending for 2007, when having a passport can make a whole of a difference in how your new year will start.

We also had the chance to get our hands dirty as we worked for our accommodation painting the rooftop of the mentioned guesthouse....after all a bit of normal work would do us no harm.

With the new year, new hopes and resolutions , and with them the so waited visas for Iran ( 60 euros) and Uzbekistan ( 100 us dollars) . With them we wıll have our passage granted and with those prices for a single entry, we will definitely have our trip shortened!.

Now it is time for us to "convince" as well the Turkmenistan's embassy that we are good people...

Tonight we set off to Ayvalik, where we are hopping to assist and photograph our first event of camel wrestling!

SANTA DOES NOT COME FOR CHRISTMAS

Thirty-sıx hours watching the waves passing by with not much to do than play cards between the " taste alike" meals served by the friendly staff of the ferry, was our experience crossing the black sea towards Istanbul.

We woke up the second day with the sun revealing the coastline along the Bosphorus, famous for separating Europe and Asıa... Finally here!

In the ferry we meet some fellow travellers, such as Maximo and Belen from Argentina and the funny Shev from Japan, whose helped us exploring the city in our first day.

Istanbul wakes up everyday with the mystic singing coming from the minarets of the many Mosques that you can find everywhere you look at. Some of them stunning and historical as Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque but really hard to photograph as they deserve.

Just before Christmas, Muslims around Turkey enjoy the Kurban Bayrami in which for four days they sacrifice cows and lambs to celebrate that, as the Qur'an says, Ibrahim didn't have to kill his own son as Allah asked hım to do in the first time , only changing his decision for a lamb just when Ibrahim was about to do it. All the meat afterwards it is given to charity and shared in between each family.

Luckily for us we can enjoy this celebration ın a more "tourıst friendly" place near the Suleymainye Mosque where people thought that we were press reporters covering the event.

It was also time for us to apply for our visas for Iran and Uzbekistan knowing that the city was gonna be celebrating for four days, just until before Christmas, when everybody gets back to work, making for us hardly to notice that it was the day to sit around the table and enjoy the turkey... Santa did not pass around here!

Waiting for the new years we have nearly one more week to explore the hidden places that Istanbul has to offer, realizing that Turkish driving license it is more related to lottery than their own skill.

Quiet, beautiful and welcoming Mosques make me think that maybe and just maybe Muslims are a bit more tolerant and friendly than some of our close by Christians fellows want us to believe.