Gule Gule Turkey

Nearly two weeks travelling and exploring some of the places along the eastern Turkey. A region where not many organized tours adventure themselves, specially now that the situation between Kurds and the Turkish governament is getting a bit complicated; again a situation where nobody is wrong or right and many feelings are involved.
Sanliurfa, the city of prophets, was our first stop. The city is famous for, as history says, being the birth place of the prophet Ibrahim, nowadays one of the biggest pilgrimage places in the Muslim world. A place with a Middle Eastern touch thanks to the proximity of Syria, where people drink their tea in the sun enjoying the milder Winter while they are curious about us, where the proudly say that they are Kurdish, where Salvar (traditional baggy Arabic pants) are the thing to wear, where oranges taste like honey, where the first university was founded, and specially where people makes you feel really welcomed with their kindness and big smiles on their wrinkled faces when you sit down by their side because they have just invited you for a tea and have a conversation.

Leaving Sanliurfa we headed to Diyarbakir, the "Kurdistan capital", with its second world longest wall around the city and where old Karavanserays are still working as resting places for those with enough money to pay it.
Climbing the city walls you can recreate your eyesight with the historical Mesopotamia and the Tigris river, while the local kids practice their English with you and try to sell you a packet of tissues.
Thanks to Morat, who act as our guide, we learn about the Armenian Orthodox minority to be found in the city and also we discover the newest part of the city just outside the walls where you enjoy a Kurdish music concert and even try to emulate them in their traditional dance as we did with no much success.

With snow along the dangerous road we make it to Van. A quick visit to discover that everything around is covered with snow and the chances to visit the huge lake and the Armenian churches to be found on it are really slim if you do not carry much cash on you.

Keep going north and with sunshine to enjoy the views along the white landscape a 5000 meters wall appears in the horizon, impressive Mount Ararat invite us to stay in Dogubayazit, the town just at the foot of the mountain. Once there the chance to behold one of those magic sunsets and the " Thousand and One Nights" Ishak Pasa palace placed like a diamond in a small plateau in the cliffs of the mountain, are more than enough reasons to consider yourself really lucky for being there. Even though some locals walk around with AK-47 hanging on their shoulders.

The calendar is running more than we would like and we set off to Kars, our last stop before crossing to Georgia.
Kars is literally buried under the snow , as locals say "this could Siberia"and they are not far from the true as you walk around the frozen streets under the menacing -25 Celsius in the thermometer. The snow and the cold are not enough reason to stop us from bargain down the price for a taxi to visit the ruins of Ani.
Historical and amazing Ani is a place where you can breathe ancient times with empires that each one of them left a prove of their greatness as to let everyone know that they once were kings in this land.

With all that already saved in our minds and cameras it is time for us to say farewell to this country, where personally I would describe as an amazing mixture of cultures where its people is its biggest treasure.

Gule Gule Turkey!!