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.

OLD CIVILIZATIONS OF THE AEGEAN

When we left Çanakkale, Serkan wanted to take us out, on the road to hitchhike, but not only that, he took us up to the archeological place of Troy, and we visited free because the keepers were friends of him. The student card in Turkey it doesn’t work...
Really, the only remains in Troy, is history, the first settlements were around 3.000 B.C., and the following civilizations were installed one over another, up to about 9 different Troy.


In all this coast of the Aegean Sea is found a lot of archaeological Greek remains of old civilizations, and a modern and westernized Turkey.
Following the route of these archaeological remains, we went to Bergama with the first car that passed in front of us. We have learned some words in Turkish, because the people is very happy when you say something in their language; the people of CS or HC speak English, but it is not usual when we hitchhike, and it is very complicated to understand each other; anyway, the stop to have the tea, never lack!
In Bergama we had to hitchhike again; the bad thing of doing it near the cities is that everything is full of taxis that want to take us, or the people stop buses for us because it is cheap, and they cannot understand why we travel like this.

Here is the archeological place of Pergamum, where we passed the night between the ruins; the homes of our ancestors were inhabited again. Despite to camp is forbidden; the guard of the place recommended us places where we could sleep... It was very bad night because of the wind that blew; we woke up completely black for the ground that was mixed up during the whole night.


When we approach ourselves in the morning to Pergamum, without realize we were inside it; after the visit a guard came to us to said that it was still closed and that we could buy the tickets at the entrance...but...we didn’t need already...


Up to Izmir we arrived as on some other occasion, the man that took us, call to the girl of CS, and brought us up to her home; for us is a great advantage in these huge cities of millions of habitants.

Izmir is a modern city, although the old centre full of small shop, mosques and tea houses is always found. Here, we were three days at the house of Ece and her family, her mother treated us as her son and daughter, and we got some extra kilos with her delicious Turkish food.


We also tried the Nargile, a water pipe where tobacco is smoked with different flavors; it is rather original from the Arab countries, but it is very common here to smoke it.


We were getting used to sleep in old civilizations; from Izmir we went to Selçuk, and at 3 km from here is Efes.
To go out of Izmir was hard, but once leave the city completely, it is not necessary to hitchhike, the trucks drivers always ask you where you go; although this time was a doctor who took us.


Efes is one of the archeological places that more has impressed us; besides, sleeping right there, we could enter early morning and avoid the mass of tourists. It is said that here is the first church of the history, but now only remains a few columns and the font.


The following destination was Pamukkale, but we stopped before in Aydın, where we spent the night in a student flat with Erkan. We had our first experience trapped in an elevator for 30 eternal minutes; while we were joking of the cartel; MAXIMUM 2 PERSON (we were 4), the light stopped and the elevator remain blocked between two floors. Finally we survive.

Following route with Turkish truck drivers, we arrived in Denizli, where we meet up with Kağan and Burcu, incredible guys, we share very nice moments, as old friends, and we went together to visit Pamukkale, a strange place from where thermal waters fall down by the rocks of lime. The landscape is like snow in sight, something really strange.


The Ramadan continuous, and every night we wake up with the noise of the drums, which announce the last moments to eat and to drink.

MARMARA

The arrival in Turkey was amazing... In Plovdiv, very near to the Turkish border, dozens of Turkish trucks circulated, and when we went to hitchhike, we were sure that some Turk would stop for us; and it was just like that, with Resat we run for the European end, where the continent keeps being narrowed, arriving to the mega-city of Istanbul. But is something incredible, when a Turkish picks you up by hitchhike, is not only to take you to your destination and that’s all; for them, it implicate much more than that, they give you all they can and have, and they take care of you up to the end; in our case, first he stopped to eat before arrive to Turkey and he invited us to a Döner, (very different to what is sold in Spain, a Döner is a dish of rice with beef). During the way, beer and so on… and after arriving to the border, the truck must to pass a strict control, therefore we had to separate, but we agree to meet again in Turkish lands. Our control neither was short; it took us an hour to arrive to Turkey; to enter, we must to do a visa on arrival that costs 10€ each, and to pass successive controls, including the narcotic one of course…

After stopping in another restaurant, Resat told us that we will arrive late to Istanbul, today, it is the day which the trucks coming from the European side cannot cross the Bosporus Bridge. But it didn’t matter, for a couple of hours we entered into the life of the Turkish truck drivers. At 20 km from Istanbul we found successive gas-stations for trucks, we stopped in one of them where the trucks entered very squeeze and we waited for the next hours among the stares of the truck drivers. Before the opening of the road, the trucks left quick towards the big city, for us it is the first time that we arrive late-night to a city, when it is difficult to move, but like this, the huge Istanbul of 16 million inhabitants impress us much more. Resat took us up to the bus station where the buses departure to Taksim, one of the city centre; and he said goodbye to us giving us 10 Lire to catch the bus, much more than what we needed.
The city, flooded with the towers of the mosques, never dies; it is a constant movement mixing the prayers that comes from the loudspeakers, with the shouts of the sellers in the plenty of markets, the dense traffic with continuous whistles... we also were lucky to see the two different faces of Istanbul: the people eating on the streets markets every time, Kebab, fish... and after the beginning of Ramadan, people keeping the fasting without eating or drinking during the daylight time, of course in a city as Istanbul, not everybody does, but it is difficult to see people eating on the streets.
We were lucky of stay in the heart of Istanbul, at the house of Erenalp of CS, from where we had access to everything. The Galata Tower is close by and crossing the bridge of the same name, we enter in the heart of the matter; the Spices Market, beside all the streets around, ALL is a huge market, which even is joined to the Big Bazaar, a labyrinth of shops where the people fight bargaining to get the best prices. And about prices, Istanbul surprised us, we thought Istanbul will be a very cheap destination, but we were wrong, the standard of living here is very similar to Spain.
The peninsula where the most historical places of the city are found, connects to the traversed Strait of Bosporus, which connects the Marmara Sea with the Black Sea. Here is the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Saint Sofia, a basilica that was transform in mosque and now is a museum where mixed Christian and Islamic symbols are seen.

The Galata Tower:

Blue mosque, in and outside:

Saint Sofia:

The fishermen on the Galata Bridge:

It was also very interesting to walk through one of the most fundamentalist neighborhoods of the city, Fatih. Here practically all the women covered their hair, and many of them go totally covered in black.

Istanbul is a very touristic place, this makes to lose the charm sometimes on places as the incredible Blue Mosque; and the sellers of he markets have so much experience that they see you, and they know from where you are, and they know the sentences to attract your attention. Anyway, they never disturb you and in general the people are very nice and always ready to chat for a while.
Other photos of Istanbul; the first is in the night when everybody comes out to the street to eat:

We had heard of the good use of hitchhiking in Turkey, and what a better chance to try it in the middle of Istanbul crossing Bosporus Bridge; the man who picks us up, a Kurdish, left us in a town where the people insisted us to take the bus, because it is very dangerous to hitchhike, but we didn’t think so... To Bursa we arrived with a truck driver who was doing the Ramadan, but it didn’t impede him of stop, and invite us to eat and drink something, despite we didn’t want to respect him. Up to the moment EVERYBODY who pick us up in Turkey, have given us something or we were invited by them.
Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in its small historical centre we find several old mosques and something very interesting, the bazaar that was the last stop of the Silk Road, and that nowadays keeps being used.
Funda and her family fest during the Ramadan, as we like to live everything inside of the different cultures, we decided to prove the experience for a day. At 3:30am the children walk through the streets playing drums, and waking the people up, announcing that is the last moment to eat before the sunrise. So, we had a strong breakfast at 4:30am, and we went to sleep again (difficult with the full stomach) with the sound of the prayers announcing that nobody can eat or drink in the next 15 hours…
We thought that it would be very hard, but after sometime, is like the stomach disconnects itself, and we didn’t feel hungry; the worst thing was the lack of water. And like this, 15 hours without put anything in our bodies, we waited anxious the 7:30pm; with the sound of a firework and the prayers, everybody to eat!
Every city has its own calendar with the prayers of Ramadan and the times to stop or to start to eat, which vary every day; in this case the people eat everyday a little bit before, as the sun is hidden sooner.
To go out of here, without hitchhike, a car stopped to help us, and car after car we kept going around the coast of the Marmara up to Çanakkale, the last city of this region, a place full of history, from old civilizations as Troy, up to the remains of battles of the I World War. In Çanakkale there is a replica of the famous Troy Horse, same which was used in the famous last movie.

BULGARIA

The last days we keep traveling quite fast; we have spent many time in Europe, and we want to arrive soon to Asia. We did a short stop in Serres, and from here we traveled again by hitchhiking, up to the Bulgarian capital city.

In Sofia we had the first police intervention; a small problem with the ticket of the tramway takes us to a strong discussion with the inspectors, to which all the people of the tramway joins us, people of the street..., we even thought that they were going to fight, and in the end the police had to come; the police didn’t help us, anyway we had a strong experience, and the support of all the people.

Sofia, doesn’t have something very special, is a big mass of blocks and blocks of buildings of the communism times, everything grey and old. But it is always interesting to walk by the street markets and see the different life of the people.


On the other hand, the climate has changed again, it seems that the summer leaves, and the first snowfalls have already fallen on the mountains close to Sofia.

When we left Sofia, we didn’t have time to hitchhike, it was something incredible; in the distance we chose a place to hitchhike, and it was already waiting for us a couple in a car, they saw that we were going to hitchhike, so they waited for us.
This couple, Alexander and Petya, left us in Plovdiv where we look for the house of Daniela and her flat mates of HC. Followed we went to see the centre of the town, quite more interesting than Sofia; full of archeological sites, as the theatre, and with some very pretty and colorful houses of the renaissance.


The coincidences are the best thing of the travel, when we went back home, we met again the couple who brought us here, and they told us that they had a birthday party…and if we would like to join them… of course we accepted. In the suburbs of the city in a “Rock Shrine”, we pass the rest of the night with very friendly people.


On the following day we met them again, as old friends, and they took us to different places, and to meet new friends.


As usually, the map with our route in Bulgaria; exactly tomorrow, we are leaving to the “Door of Asia”, Istanbul....


After five and a half months, we have adopted a more regular style of travel. What we do is to try to plan the next 20 days, getting in touch with people of the club, looking what can we visit... though always, to improvise is the best. We have changed the main idea about to travel by foot, for the hitchhiking; it’s much better for us for two main reasons; to find interesting people, and to be able to know many more places than if we travel only by foot. Anyway, until now during the almost 15.000 km that we have done, our average is about 10km daily by foot.