Worked up so Cultural...

It's the long awaited Turkey post!

So about a month and a half ago I went to Turkey, mainly so I could take pictures and post them on my blog. Anyway, here's the story...

We left Georgia from my house on a date that I can't really remember. It began to snow as we shuffled awkwardly down my mountain with our large backpacks. Side note: I have yet to see snow in my village, even though it has snowed twice and stuck around. It always begins just as I am leaving and is gone before I return the next week. But, according to my friend Seke Gonio looks really cool in the snow. Anyway, we took a marshutka to Sarpi, the village on the Georgia-Turkey border that is about 3 kilometers from my house. We exited the marshutka and crossed the border on foot because it is faster. My passport has a cool new stamp! We then embarked on the journey towards Goreme, a small village in the region of Cappadokia which would be our base for the first few days of the trip.

We elected to travel by bus, and to our surprise the bus system in Turkey is the most advanced bus system I have seen in any country. Greyhound should take lessons. The buses were nice, clean, on time, plentiful, and the stations were located in areas where you wouldn't mind going on a stroll with large amounts of cash while looking foreign. There were no direct buses to Goreme, so we needed to go to Ankara and employ a new bus towards Goreme. The whole trip was supposed to take 16 hours, which sounded long but bearable due to the low cost of bus travel. So, when we arrived in Goreme 27 hours later, I would have been happy to never sit on a bus again.

A few interesting things about the bus ride: First, they serve you food, like they used to do on airplanes! On a related note, there is actually music on Turkish MTV. Go figure. Anyway, after they serve you food and drink (non-alcoholic), they come around with cologne/perfume (what do you call it when it's for both sexes?). It is customary to open your palms to the bus attendant while he pours some of this liquid cologne/perfume onto your hands. So, we did, and of course we were endowed with far too much fragrance. It was just like Georgia! So, I made sure my hands, face, neck, and clothing all smelled good and then applied the extra scented stuff to the bus seats and curtains in order to give the next passenger a more pleasant experience. I hope he appreciated it.

We were at the Turkish version of a rest stop on the side of the road in rural northeastern Turkey, when two men with hunting rifles came towards the store the bus passengers were frequenting. Being 5am, I elected to stay in the bus and pretend to be dozing, but men with guns caught my attention and I stared half-heartedly out the window at them. Oh - the reason for the 27 hours in the bus rather than 16 is because it continued snowing. The whole time. So the bus had a few incidents in the snow, involving swerving, frozen hydroplaning, and slipping down a hill and almost into the sea. One of the men with the hunting rifles was not much different than our bus. He moved very slowly, because of the ice, and implored his friend to wait for him. He got really close to the store and started slipping. He fell, with the gun. He staggered to his feet, did an ice-dance for a few seconds in an attempt to not fall, and then fell again. I have the feeling I'm not telling this well, but it was really funny to see a man with a gun slipping on ice and falling down. Maybe you had to be there.

Being in Kappadokia was like being on the moon (or so I imagine). If the lunar-landing was a hoax, this is where they filmed it. And, some scenes from Star Wars were filmed there, to add some credibility to my ramblings.

The best part of our trip was New Years Eve. We celebrated in Istanbul, not far from Taksim Square. We scouted around for a good bar/restaurant as afternoon turned to evening, and eventually found a place with reasonable prices and not another foreigner in the place, which was exactly what we were hoping for. The celebratory spot even had a live Turkish band! As midnight approached, we began to celebrate festively. I did dances I'd never seen before (not intended to be a comment on my awful dancing "abilities") and sang songs in a language I didn't know. I highly recommend Turkish New Year celebrations.

Aside from that, I ate much donor. They are cheap, delicious when they're not dry, cheap, widely availible, cheap, cheap, and cheap. Turkish delights were also in season, and I masticated on them without restraint.

A few final observations:
Why is Turkey not in the EU? The infrastructure is excellent, English is prevalent (if not invasive), and Istanbul is as European as any European city I've been to. Another observation that was forced on me was how different Georgia and Turkey are. Turkey's roads are paved better. More people speak much better English. Infrastructure is decades ahead. And, of course, you can feel globalization more. Also, my Georgian was completely useless more than 10 km away from Georgia. Grrrr...

I have more actual news, but this post is unwieldy and I don't want to be late for the two supras I am attending today (said mainly to make you think I'm popular, when in reality I am remarkably uncool).

Check my friend Cuttino's blog (link on the left) to see an awesome video of Georgian folk dancing. You won't be disappointed.


Cheers,

Tim