29 October 2010

From family circle to best party


on the way to Duzce

We left Istanbul on Wednesday by hitchhiking directly from center of Besikas. Our first destination was Düzce, Tony's hometown. We got there by five cars. Every driver was somehow interesting but one was unique. Truck driver who also invited us for tea.


He was so happy that he could communicate with us through Tony's mouth. It wasn't first time when he took hitchhikers but he doesn't know English and he was so sad that he couldn't share his stories with them. But this time he enjoyed it so much that he even left us some of his necklace which is used for praying. He was wearing it for 15 years! And I managed to lose it in two weeks when I was getting out from some car :(
It was fun when he showed us picture of circumcision of his son and other pictures of his family. He was so proud of them. That's the moment when you really see cultural differences. What is disgusting for one culture could be one of the most important milestones of a lifetime for another. After teatime we continued with him and close to turnoff to Duzce we got off from truck and there was another car waiting for us already. Driver saw that someone is leaving truck so he stopped, waited for us and took us to the city. Isn't it amazing? He drove us directly to the front of Tony's house. Later we met all Tony's family (regretting that our Deutsch ist kaputt) and tasted more Turkish hospitality. We were impressed by the whole family.

Duzce looks like all cities in Turkey. It was rebuilt after big earthquake in 90's, so most of buildings were new. We stayed there just one night for recovering and small shopping. My backpack was ready for trash-bin after two years and Tony didn't have any. So we were walking from one shop to another until we found something usable. Tony was bargaining with merchants for every price and we got it really cheap. I was so glad for his presence. He choose really small backpack for trip and I was wondering how will he be able to put everything in it. He was, but I wasn't. Later history proved that my choice was good..

One day in Duzce and we were so eager to start again. Standing next to road with camera and making some documentary we got company of public police. They started to ask what we were doing there and why we had a camera. It was close to bus station in non touristic city so maybe it wasn't a good idea. Anyway, after a few-minute talk they disappeared and we got ride. Our destination was Ankara, our presumable sleeping place technical university. It was so easy and faster than public bus. So after some hours we were walking through one entrance and even in campus got ride for some hundred meters. We arrived around evening, luckily just in time for big party. Local BEST group just organized leisure course and participants had a party there.
Party itself was like BBQ with lot of get-to-know games, dance music, liters of sangria and fun.
Main organizer was Cansu Birgen. She even let us go together with them to Fethiye, small city close to the coast in south-west part of Turkey. Of course with party bus and for free. We were so thankful to all organizers for it.

Inside of the party place there was science playground, the big size model of Turkish coast. It was used for wave experiments. Party was over after five hours and we were sitting inside and waiting for buses. We talked about our plans and why we wanted to visit Iran. In a meanwhile buses came. One was a party bus and the other for tired. With sound of live sax, singing for hours we got to Fethiye.


22 October 2010

Istanbul

Elena
Sina
On Sunday 22nd August we rested a bit. We walked around Istanbul and had our first kebap in Turkey. Our group was joined by stylish Elena, a BEST member from Russia hosted by Sina in the same flat as we. In the evening we went to have some beers and party.  


Istanbul is a huge city and transport there is a horror. There are taxis everywhere and all drivers use their horns as a rule. For some it can sound like a symphony. It is also very crowded, lots of people everywhere. However, the city itself is very beautiful with mosques here and there. At the evening we went for wonderful view of whole city which only locals know. After that another adventure, so surprising, we managed to hitch-hike within the city. Tony said he'd done it many times but there were five of us and yet the driver took us all!
Grand Bazaar
On Monday we visited The Grand Bazaar, The Spice Bazaar and the oldest part of the city with Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. The Grand Bazaar was quite disappointing since it didn't look like a bazaar at all. It looked rather like a big shopping centre with turistic prices. But part of the city just few streets away was like bazaar we expected.
In the evening many people around had picnics. Because of Ramadan they don't eat during the day but after sunset a big feast starts. We sat there for a while and watched them before we went back home.
There we found out that two more people are staying there for night. We got to use the internet for a while and went to sleep.



Aya Sofia




We were supposed to leave Istanbul on Tuesday

but we had to stay one more day because of small problem with Tony's car. We went to Istanbul Modern, gallery of modern art. As it is with art, some of works amazed and some left us indifferent. One could see an effort to follow European art styles, Martin missed some local elements. Guess who was last one walking away from gallery :-) with guards. In the evening we joined some besties in a pub. We had a talk with people who'd already been to Iran and told us about their experiences there. So another evening and more people in the flat with us(9).
Tony
Besiktas

21 October 2010

Hitchhiking in Turkey


When we began to walk to turkish border from Malko Trnovo it was late morning.

We realized that this road is not very common used by anyone just random lost foreigners.
The worst walking to the border ever. There were thousands of flies flying around us and trying to eat us at the same moment. Fortunately we got first ride after few kilometres directly to the border.We went through bulgarian "Coll control" which consisted of three sentences: "Colna kontrola. Colna kontrola finish. Bye bye." :D that was funny, they didn't check anything. Probably it was too early for them to work.
Later we got small ride for about ten km and for first time we got in touch with turkish hospitality. We learn how to say thanks in Turkish language and we escaped from flies.


We got third ride, the best one. Three very hospitable people. They took us directly to Istanbul and even paid for our lunch.That was amazing. We had small break at their company, where we met some of their friends. They brought us to Istanbul and show us direct local bus to center. Two hours later we joined our movie director Tony, who will be our travelmate on the way to Iran and Sina, his flatmate, both of them from BEST. 21.8.2010 Time for rest came.