SuzyBlue goes east 2019: coast, mountains, caves and many balloons, 04.- 11.05.

After all the historical sights I travel on, heading south. Ihave in mind to relax a couple of days at the coast of south Turkey. I had already been there quite some years ago but didn't remember how many hotels and resorts had been built along the coast. Some of them directly at the beach, some of them separated through the highway. But these resorts had an extra tunnel which connected the resort with the beach. Huge resorts, some of them absolutely kitschy. I don't want to know how it is here during high season.

The weather is really ok - mainly when I compare it with the weather in Switzerland right now - but for sunbathing still a little too fresh and too windy.

Instead of going to the beach I relax a bit different and make a short hike through a small, pretty canyon near Alanya. The road going there twisty, exactly what I like.

And I decide that I don't "need" more of this region. I prefer to travel towards Cappadokia. Again I find tremendous mountain roads, leading up to almost 6000fasl.

It looks as if the road should be renewed but they stopped somehow. Means that part of the road is either gravel or really bad tarmac. And you never know wthat to expect coming around a bend ;-) 

But there is still enough time to look around and admire the wonderful landscape.

Exactly what I like: twisty mountain roads, beautiful scenery and because of the changing road conditions never boring. To add there is a sometimes voilent sidewind that forces me to stay alert all the time.

The Turkish language has words that are astonishingly quite similar to German, like: Kuaför, Kahve, Otogar..... but my asbolut favourit Turkish word is ..... (drumroll)......TÜNELI:  that's like perfect Swiss German ;-)

On my way to Cappadokia I reach Karaman as inbetween stop. For a change I do not stay in a hotel or hostel but I'm couchsurfing. The traveling in a country I do not speak the language makes me feel a bit lonely. So I decid that I need some company. I can stay at Carmen's and Laura's place.Two Romanian students and for the time being studying one semester in Karaman.

Because it's Ramadan meanwhile most of the restaurants and even shops are closed during the day. The Turkish life has a complete different "groove" now. Only after sunset the villages get alive again and the streets and restaurants are full of people.

Carmen and Laura show me their favourite restaurants and we eat typical Turkish dishes like:  Gözleme, Krumpir, Günefer and we drink Ayran (a Turkish joghurtdrink)....hmmm..... very tasty..... and because all of it with almost no calories absolutely perfect for my slim bodyline ;-)

 

We have lots of fun together and they ask me very interested about the political system in Switzerland. But that's all I'm allowed to contribute to my stay. They had been really nice and it was a great time with them. 

From now on no more detours but I drive on the highway directly to Göreme, the main touristic village around Cappadokia. I'll stay at "Ali's Guesthouse", a cozy, simple little hostel with some private double/triple rooms and two dormitories. And as most of the hotels  here part of  it carved into the rock: a so-called cave hostel. A place I really can recommend as the two hosts Orkan and Carlos are absolutely kind and helpful. That they are also family of a cat with 8 (!!) babies makes it just perfect (for me at least).  After a short walk through the village I go to bed early as I'll have to get up already at 4.30 in the morning.

The next morning then I can enjoy one of the highlights of my journey. A drive with a balloon at sunrise. Expensive but absolutely worth the money. Together with appr. 3000 other tourists in appr. 150 balloons. But this time I don't care to be part of the "touristic machine". The night has been clear and so we have a spectacular sunrise that paints the scenery in incredible colours. Absolutely magic. But no more words now; I'll let the pictures speak: 

As the weatherforcast for tomorrow is not that good I use the rest of the day hiking and exploring the near valleys. Means about 15km walking but thinking of the great Turkish cuisine that can only be healthy ;-)

Of course I did read a bit about the histoy of Cappadokia before. To know a little about the reasons for all these makes all the caves, hidden churches and really special carved rock formations even more impressing and interesting.

The first caves have been "built" about 300BC and had been mainly used as a shelter and protection against enemies. Some of these underground cities could host up to 20'000 people and went up to 8 floors deep into the underground!

 

Friday now I meet Jürgen, a motorbike friend from Belgium. We had met in 2017 when I was traveling up to the Northkap and we had decided to travel some time together now as Jürgen intended to travel at least until Usbekistan quite the same direction.

There are just some harmless clouds and we want to explore the surrounding valleys - away from all the tourists. And this time of course with our bikes. We take mainly little country roads, most of them gravel. After about 100km we have seen some really special valleys and plateaus. Some parts of the paths have been really sandy.... an underground  I really do not like and is quite exhausting to drive. But it was great to drive some offroad as I will for sure find some similar roads in all the "stan"-countries. 

                   

 

And of course we had some water crossings.... not really what I like most!!

Today now I really relax. Wash my clothes, go to the Hamam. Tomorrow we will head direction east/southeast. So far I really like to be in Turkey. It's a huge, interesting country with absolut different sceneries. Although of course people sort of stare at me when I drive through the little villages in the countryside. There people really still live quite traditional. But all the encounters so far absolutely friendly and interested (and astonished). Even to the he regularly call to prayer of the Muezzin I'm getting used to meanwhile:-)

SuzyBlue goes east 2019: Turkey, 30.4. - 03.05.: war memorials and ancient history

So after a nice but quite strenous hike up towards Mount Olymp I decided the next day to head towards Turkey. It feels like at the beginning of my last trip: I feel that I have to move, sort of a bit restless. I guess it needs some time until I'm in my "travel habit" again and reduce my travel-pace.....

The last night on a camping in Greece shows once more that there is a lot of work to be done until the summer season can start. I think it is really a pity how some people let their places run down as soon as season finished....

The border leaving Greece was smooth and quick. They didn't even want to see my passport. After that sort of a "no-man's-land" for about 500 meters; just heavily armed soldiers on that part. At the border to Turkey it takes a bit longer:

1. control of passport together with some questions

2. control of the belongings/luggage: in my case they did not want to see anything ;-) but it took quite a while to get on to the last point as most of the cars had been fully loaded with goods to bring home to their Turkish families.

3. register of passport (again?), vehicle identification and green insurance card (something specific from European countries).... and again some questions: where from, where to, etc.

As I'm used to border crossings meanwhile I wasn't surprised at all. The only problem I had was a really strong sidewind during the whole time. I really had to be careful not to fall. That would have been something to laugh: "sleeping" SuzyBlue in the middle of the border crossing.... 

I reached the hotel for that night at Eceabat quite soon. And used the rest of the day to make a little ride-out to see all the war memorials from WW1. This half-island where Gallipoli is part of was place for many hard and men-eating battles as the Allies tried to conquer it. The Turkish had been successful with protecting it but it cost more than 500'000 soldiers lifes. Most of the visitors of these battlegrounds are Turkish but there are also many Aussies and Newzealanders as quite a huge amount of their soldiers died here as well. What a sad history. And it seems that humans did not learn anything from it!!  

The next day I was on the ferry quite soon and of course I had to answer several questions; it is absolutely not common here that a woman travels on a motorcycle. But all of the comments had been friendly and encouraging.

Once in Canakkale it took me a couple of turnarounds until I found the hotel. My Navi does not like one-way streets :-) The owner was really nice and managed that my room was ready within half an hour. On their homepage it had been written that they have an own parking. Well. I didn't find out where that was as he told me that it is absolutely ok to leave SuzyBlue on the street just opposite of the hotel. Hmmmm..... I didn't feel really good about that, but ok. The owner of the restaurant right next to my bike assured that it would be safe here. So I changed to my casual clothes and went into town. Just walking around, sitting in a cafe, drinking some Chai (their most favourite drink - a simple black tea in a tiny little glass) and watching people. Something I like most about traveling. It gives you a feeling how these people live. I saw a mixture between traditional and modern dressed women and men. But what they all seem to like: eating sweets.... I've never seen that many bakeries full of sweets before. 

The next morning - after sort of a strange night as I could not fell asleep and in the end dreamed weird things - I went down and was really relieved to see SuzyBlue standing there. I've to be used again to trust people ;-)

This days plan was to visit some of the famous historic sights from Greek history. Next to that I found narrow little roads that leaded me through the beautiful and huge countryside, up and down.... a pure joy to drive.

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and I found out that Turkey has not only different Police forces like traffic police, state police, etc. but also a "fake" police. In certain areas they placed cardboard police cars even with flushing lights to prevent that people drive too fast in difficult bends ;-)

The first historic sight I reached was Troy. What a disappointment. Busloads of tourists but "just" some wrotten old stones..... and a Trojan fake horse for the tourists... I guess the more interesting things would have been in the museum. But I didn't feel like spending that gorgeous day inside a museum. So after a short walk I set off again and headed towards Pergamon. Now that looked really different. Even if part of it was rebuilt it gives you a complete different feeling how it had been and how great these buildings had looked like at the time being.

To think about how they could have built such huge towers and columns with the ancient techniques is really admirable.

And I found a nice, shady little camping spot... and again I was the only guest staying there. It's not season yet..... gives me a peaceful night....the prayer of the Muezzin is the only sound that might disturb my sleep early in the morning ;-)