KURDISTAN

From the border we kept seeing the snowed summits of Turkey... and we were going towards there, the road which we went up to Kars is the best landscape that we have seen in Turkey, and the less touristic, here the people started to notice us of the danger of the terrorist group PKK, three letters that must be pronounced in low voice.
We pass through snowed pass of more than 2.600 meters with solitary villages where the people work taking the flocks of cows and sheep, a very hard life, very different to the west of the country.
The man that pick us up by hitchhiking, the first that he said was: Yes!, I’m going to Kars… but you… what are you doing here? He was very nice, stopping in some places to take photos, besides he invited us to eat fish in a beautiful restaurant among mountains.

In Kars, we were hosted by the friends of the students of Nevsehir, and it was exactly the same... Aydın and his friends, gave us everything and they took us to see many things. Even they got a car to go to the castle of Ani, which is at the border with Armenia and nobody go there, not even buses, because the border is closed between these two countries.

In this photo it is seen separated by the river, Turkey and Armenia.

The visit of Kars city was incredible, one of the guys has a policeman uncle, and at night, during a routine control, the policeman took us to see the important places in the city. It is very curious, here the policemen go patrolling through the streets and with the megaphone they give advises to the drivers.

We left the coldest city of the travel, Kars is found at 2.000 meters of altitude; we enjoy about 2 degrees, but in winter it’s around 45 degrees below zero; we go into Kurdish lands, a place forbidden to pronounce in Turkey, Kurdistan. Through these roads the antiterrorist military checkpoint with tanks are constant. They always stopped us to check the cargo and ask for our passports. The soldiers are entrenched with the sand bags prepared to any attack. The villages have changed in houses of adobe with all the loose animals which cross in the road. Checkpoint after checkpoint we arrived to Iğdır, just in front of this city is the Mount Ararat with its 5.100 meters of altitude.

Here it is not usual to see foreigners and the habitants offer us to go to their houses to have a cup tea, but we must reach Doğubayazıt before gets dark; we caught a small truck; in that moment, a boy asked me if I understood his English, I said that I did and he was super, super happy!

We turn around the Ararat until reach Doğubayazıt where we tried to get in touch with the member of HC that waited us, but was very difficult; in Turkey is great that when you ask to a person on the street, in 5 seconds appear 20 around yours trying to help you, and in the end between some and others we started to understand something. We went to a place where they told us and we wait there; but when a car came to pick us up and started to go around, neither we knew where we were going, and the driver very proud said all the time that he speaks English but he spoke Kurdish to me. Finally we realized that Fakur lives far from the city, only 10 km from Iran, in a PRIVILEGED place, not for the village, but for the landscape. Our arrival was like: where we go! but in spite of his humble house, this family was a great experience in our journey; we lived the traditional life of the Kurdish people, where it is usual large families of about 7 children at least. About the bathroom; we see that they don’t have it as a cozy place, it is the dirtiest place of the house and it is outside the house; they don’t have shower or hot water either, so they warm up the water in barrels with an electric resistance. Their hospitality consists in that we are kings and they don’t leave us to help them, which is more incredible because they have nothing…


This village it’s only three kilometers from the supposed Noah Ark, you can take it in a thousand ways, but officially has the form of a boat and the wood is petrified from thousands of years, the rest for the imagination… It will be or will not be....
There, where we go, always are children that accompany us and in this case approached a Kurdish girl that simply wanted to pass some time with us.
When we went back to the village a man brought us down; here a stricter Islam is seen, when María went to shake hands with the man, he put his on the heart, forgiven himself because he cannot touch a woman...


The day that we left, we hitchhike to the truck drivers that came from Iran, and the driver came with a lot of pistachios (typical from Iran), he took us about 30 km and gave us 2 kilos of pistachios and two pomegranate. Bordering the Iranian border we go towards Van, that city that always people said us "don´t go there!" But really nothing happen, simply continuous military checkpoints where they ask us for the passport and revise the truck in depth.

The west and Turkish east is white and black; here the people live, or, badly lives of the cattle, the children don’t go to the school and with 8 years old are already working. The houses are of adobe and they have the pile of animal excrements outside to use it as fuel and to warm up in winter.

In Van, Hamdullah and Ahmet hosted us, two Kurdish guys who gave us a very different vision of this big problem that lives Turkey. They feel in a strange country that doesn’t give them freedom of speech. We cannot know up to which point it is well or bad; which is true, is that the Kurdish people have a very different culture of the Turkish, a different language and nearly 50 million people divided among Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, without an own country.
During these days the demonstrations against the PKK are continuous, everything is getting worse, Turkish and Kurdish join each other against the violence.


Hamdullah was very nice with us, he brought us to see the city settled on the shore of a lake with a castle of stone and adobe walls; Hamdullah had to go to work, but he wanted to stay with us, so he went to the doctor to ask for a medical report simply claiming that he didn’t want to go to work... he also prepared us a Van Breakfast, the most famous in Turkey!

The following city will be to forget forever... Diyarbakir is found at 370 km from Van, is the "capital city " of Kurdistan, and lodges the second biggest wall of the world, after the Chinese; we arrived with only one truck. On the way, checkpoints with tanks as always; and always seeing two foreigners is motif of stopping us and asking us for the passport.

We never had problems until now with a member of the club, it was here and it was very important, this person drugged us from the first day with something that even we don’t know, we pass three days “flying”, even one of the days we did a small “tour” by the surroundings, Mardin, Hasankeyf (a place that will be sunk forever by the construction of a dam in the Tigris river), and Batman. A "tour" that we remember vaguely, and in which we could have possible risks as hitchhike late-night in the place less indicated, in Batman. But under the effects of that drug we were not capable of thinking rationally, not even to think about leave the house of that person.

The last day the thing exploited when he came in our room and attempt to misuse María.
We went out running, still “flying” for the effect of the drugs; the police arrived, and we all went to the police station, this day they behaved well although we had to tell them that we needed an analytic, they didn’t know how to proceed… We made the report and this night we were helped by another member of the club; Erkan and his family gave us the affection that we needed in that moment, although we remember very vaguely everything.
On the following day we had to go to police station again, and we found out that the criminal was at home. We could not withstand the risk to go to his home. Doing this, we pass from attacked to aggressors, we were denounced of "possible crime". They retained us, there was a judgment, and supposedly we won, but they retained us for motifs of safety for a night. A retention that changed in prisoners, and changed into a big problem that almost took us to the deportation to Spain, something that would break all our schemas and dream.
Fortunately the pressure and the performance of the Spanish Embassy in Ankara, who was in touch with us all the time, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Spain, obtained our freedom and fought until justice was done, 24 hours helping us.
In the moment that we were free, and the criminal in prison, we didn’t think twice, we run away from this place, the police left us in the bus station, and we caught our first bus in Turkey up to Siverek, and from here in a minivan we crossed by ferry the Euphrates River, up to Kahta.

We stayed again with a charming Kurdish family, with the same curious habits, as eating sitting on the floor. They don’t use tables, they put big trays on the floor and we all sit around.

Our idea here was to go to Nemrut Dağı, and they told us that to hitchhike here is impossible, but… how they tell that to us! we went there in many different vehicles, even in a police car where we were 6 person plus guns... We manage to go up to this mountain of more than 2.500 meters of altitude where there are a huge stone faces from the 1st century B.C. A very cold place, with a lot of wind, but very special for us, because here we have celebrated our 9th anniversary, with an impressive sights.

Arrive…we arrived, the problem was how we were going to go back; but we are always lucky, in the summit of Nemrut we met a Swiss couple that came by van from Australia! we talk with them and they took us down, up to Kahta.

The car that took us to our last destination of Turkey, burst the engine on the way, we keep hitchhiking, and arrived to Sanliurfa, where we found a dry weather, more arid and a very nice temperature to be November.

Here it is said that, it is the city of the prophet Abraham, and the most symbolic places of Urfa are related with him.


We found more Arab style, we are very near Syria... The markets of the city are authentic! everything is handmade; but is complicated to move tranquil for the hundreds of eyes that observe our movements, and the children are a little tiring with the “What is your name? Our answers keep varying, inventing different identities...


And from here we went down to Harran, an important point in the old Mesopotamia, is said that the first University of the world, was build here.

We conclude our travel... in Turkey, a hospitable country, where the people have always helped us, and has welcomed us with a lot of affection.

THE SILK ROAD

The truck drivers keep being the greatest hospitality in the Turkish roads, but we reached Afyon with a car full of people, it didn’t matter for them, they put us inside. They were so happy to see foreigners, we have gone out from touristic areas and they are not used. Afyon is in general a conservative city where most of the women cover the hair with scarf; the family that hosted us was extremely religious too. As we arrived quite late, we had to go fast to a restaurant to have dinner because it was almost the time to be able to eat, during the second week of Ramadan.
We decided again to adapt us and to have breakfast with them before the sunrise; besides, we did it in the traditional table of Ramadan, on the floor.
Here there is not much to see a part of a big castle at the top of a rock, but it was very interesting to walk around the quarters far from the center, where a traditional and hard life is seen.


In Afyon we took the great route where our commercial ancestors used to bring silk and other things from the Far East to the West.
We covered the 230 km up to Konya without hitchhike, something incredible... The first, a truck driver, asked us if we were going to Konya, and he advanced us 20 km; when he was giving us the backpacks from the towage he raised the arm and the truck that was passing skidding in the road, stopped to take us. This left us only 50 km far from the city, and when we were looking for a place to hitchhike, another car stopped to help us, and take us up to Konya.
Konya is the largest city in extension of Turkey, is enormous... We were at the house of Ihsan of CS, who casually hosted two Australian girls from Sydney at the same time. The members of the club are always very open people, with those that is a pleasure to talk, generally they are also travelers, so all together we gave advises of here, and there...

In this city is very typical the dance of the Dervishes, people who “dance” rotating very fast for hours, entering in trance; they think that they transport energy from the Heaven to the Earth. We were firstly fortunate of having the opportunity of being able to see a big spectacle, and free, but it was too much... after two hours in the queue, the stadium was full with over 20.000 people, we had to be for the around 30.000 of the many people that approached this night. There was no show for us...

In Konya we keep seeing mosques and important holy places of the Islam, always so different and interesting.


Sometimes we have so much luck that we don’t even believe it... our following place is Nevşehir, the heart of the Cappadocia. The person who took us, was a computer programmer that had to go through different towns of the Cappadocia, we were very lucky, the first stop was Sultanhanı, one of the few towns that we found on the way through the main road; the ground turned arid dominated by a big volcano in front of us.
After passing Aksaray, we went into lands of Cappadocia with some stony formations very weird, it seems that we are in another planet. The first interesting village was Gülağaç, where we saw the first homes excavated in the rock, and the inhabitants live in the most traditional way, even they had used a lane of the road to dry the pumpkin seeds. His following visit was Güzelyurt, while he went to work, we went to see the underground city, old churches and houses into the rocks and with underground canals; something taken from a fantastic movie.


The 'touristic tour'' ' finished with his work, and he left us on road to reach Nevşehir. And here we met some of the most incredible people, Emrah, Mevlüt, Hasan and Rose; since the first moment we fit, and we passed great days with them. The hospitality with the foreigner is a Turkish tradition, something that is inculcated from fathers to children, and these guys have known to do it perfectly.
They brought us to see all the Cappadocia; the first day, we went four of us to catch a bus, and as we miss it... we hitchhike, the four of us!!, a madness in Europe; here, we didn’t wait more than 5 minutes...
The first stop was Avanos, in any place here there are houses in the rocks, but the most typical thing of Avanos are the ceramics. We went to a shop where they did a demonstration of how they make the vessels, even we had the opportunity of try it…


Göreme is the most important place of this area, here are found about 300 churches among the 11th, and the 15th century, many of them with frescoes really well preserved in its interior. The place itself, is like a fairies tale; they used the strange stony formations to do the churches and houses, even of several floors upward and underground.
Even the hollows of the tombs can be seen, which are beside the homes, by this way the deceased relatives were always with them.


That night we were invited to a birthday party; really, it is very similar to Spain, but when is Ramadan there are people that respects not drinking alcohol, even they have to be careful to not be seen with alcohol on the street because it is bad looking. In this party we tried the national drink, the Rakia.

On the following day we visited another place of the Cappadocia, in the first place, we saw the symbol of here, “The three beautiful”, and afterwards Ürgüp, a village similar to Göreme.


This other night we changed the birthday party, for a Sangria party for 15 people where they all decided to pass of Ramadan for a night...

Following The Silk Road, by car, truck and all kind of transport we reached Sivas. Here there is a very important building for the Turkish people; the great national hero Mustafa Kemal, ATATÜRK, pronounced here the first words after the Turkish release.
In Sivas we went with Selçuk to two performances of traditional music, one of them in a very special site with more than 100 years of antiquity.

The last stop of the mythic Road, is Erzurum, one of the coldest cities of the world, and we had checked it...
The vehicles that took us, started to be very different, while in Europe the people talked us that they travel to Norway, Sweden... now the commercial routes of the carrier, are Russia, Kazakhstan... or in the case of the man that took us, Iran. Here in Turkey, for a day it seemed that we were already in the neighbor country; the truck driver and the other 3 trucks that accompanied him, stopped at the half of the way to prepare a chicken barbecue, Iranian stile.
We told to the driver that we will go to Iran for the next year; but he didn’t understand it and he insisted us continuously on taking us to Iran with him now.

Erzurum is among high mountains, in an inhospitable landscape, dry, and very, very cold. It lodges great monuments in its interior, and such a best choice to see it… on the holiest day for the Muslims, when the prayers were listened for hours until very late. On our arrival casually we found the dining room where the people eat for free during the month of the Ramadan, we place ourselves in the queue with the backpacks and rapid some people came to us to put us in front of everybody. If you are woman or you go accompanied by a girl you have privilege!

From some days now, we are out of touristic places, and that is noticed a lot on the people, but in this city especially because on the streets ALL the people greet us, others stop us to talk or they have even invite us to sleep in their homes.

We continue route by hitchhiking towards the Black Sea, and as always the truck drivers want to take so much care of us that they don’t let us to hitchhike, saying that it is very dangerous, (but they pick us up…); we have to explain them that we come from Spain like this way for more than 6 months, then, they agree to leave us alone.
Trabzon is a very peculiar place for the Turkish, is the "joke town" of Turkey, the city is very long, there are only two main parallel streets that extend for kilometers and kilometers. Again this place remembers us to our place, everything is very green, mountainous and a lot of rain. Ali of CS, brought us to see the incredible monastery of Sumela placed in the vertical wall of a mountain.
Near here is Uzungöl, a nice place among mountains of local tourism. After these mountains it crashed some years ago the Spanish military airplane that created a lot of controversy.