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Madaba!
So this episode of the travels of Trish will feature police cars..harbour cruising... paragliding....turkish cooking....expat hobnobbing....Istanbul on a Vespa and much more.. stay tuned and get comfy as its going to be a long one!
After a quick side trip to Lebanon it was back into Syria - and the only port town of Syria, the city of Lattakia. This is Day 27 of the trip, 338 left to go.
At this time was feeling lazy and spent the morning in Lattakia drinking coffee and watching the world go by. Lattakia is a city which looks to the Meditterean for its influences, rather than Arabia. Al fresco dining and stylish leather clothing is the norm., and a great cappucino is easy to find. I did not feel an urge to spend much time here, so caught the train to Aleppo in the north of Syria as soon as I could. I had been looking forward to the train trip as I had heard it was beautiful scenery, and had specifically designed my travel to fit it in. If only I had organised a window cleaner as well, as unfortunately the train was so filthy I could not see the allegedly beautiful scenery! Still it was pleasant to travel in something different to a bus/car.
Aleppo is one of the "must" see places in Syria. Many travellers I had met had raved about it, and the enchanting souq's (covered markets) and many parks defintely impressed me. My favourite part of Aleppo was the citadel - the castle. It sits right in the middle of the city, and I could feel the history oozing from its stone turrents. The throne room inside the castle has been completely restored, and I spent a long time here in a daydream - Jane Austen mixed with Arabic influences is the best way to describe it.
I experienced some homesickness here after discovering the "Earth from the Air" photographic exhibit in a square near the citadel. I had seen this exhibit in Perth, with friends and to see it here again but all alone made me miss you both - Kate and Cj! One of the photos was the Aleppo citadel - which was pretty cool coincidence.
Feeling very ready to leave Syria and be somewhere where young females travelling by themselves is a more common occurence. It was not fun to be followed by a man for twenty minutes whilst I was walking in circles in Aleppo trying to find my hotel. However this was the worst that happened to me all throughout Jordan, Syria and Lebanon so I can def say to other women - come to the Middle East. I found on the whole that is very easy to travel here as a female because there is a lot of respect and courtesy shown to women, people go out of their way to make sure you are ok.
Crossing the border from Syria to Turkey there was an immediate difference... colour! The houses in Turkey are often painted bright pink, yellow, green, orange ...red so it is very easy to know you have crossed into a different culture. I loved Turkey the minute I saw it. It is such a comfortable place to travel. It seems that it is very common for Turkish people to travel within Turkey. Combine this with the millions of foriegn tourists and you get a wonderful public transport system, beautiful choices in accomodation and all round very well established tourist industry. The first place i stayed in Turkey was Gaziantep. This city is famous for the sweet; baklava, and so began my addiction which has not yet disappeared. This city has the best park I have ever seen.. it runs right through the centre for kilometres. I walked for an hour and still did not come to the end of it. Being autumn time it was particuarly beautiful.
I wandered into the Gaziantep castle which has been turned into a really well set up museum. It was so interesting for me (probably not for anyone else sorry, skip if you like!) to see the way in which the recent history of Turkey was recorded. You may have heard of the Armenian question, which is about the deportation of the Armenian people from Turkey towards the end of World War One. Even today this a contenious issue, with the EU and USA together with the Armenian government claiming it was a genocide by the Turkish government against the Armenians. In this museum the Turkish government had free rein to write their version of history, which focused on the way the French and British favoured the Armenians over the Turkish. The Turkish were described as the victims. I wished I knew more about the history. Anyways.. sorry enough history stuff.
Onto my ride in a police paddy van!!
I stupidly arrived in my next stop - Urfa at night time, which always makes finding a place to stay that little bit more difficult. Usually my tactic is to jump onto a bus and hop off when I see an area of a city I want to stay in, and then walk until I find a good hostel/hotel. This time there didn't appear to be any buses, so I though as it was night I better take a taxi. OKay, so I start negotiating a reasonable price with the driver - yeah right. Tourist = rip off to a taxi driver. So there I was, with five taxi drivers surrounding me, none of whom could speak English. I was refusing to go with them at the crazy amount they requested. OUt came the mobile phone, and I was soon speaking to a hostel owner who spoke English. I did not trust him over the phone, as he was saying to go in the taxi to his hostel which was very good and that the hotel I had picked from the Lonely Planet was terrible... ummm the scam alerts were starting up in my head. But then a fellow guest at the hostel came on the phone.... an Australian! The Australian accent was quite a shock. He reassured me that it was a good hostel, and we soon negotiated that the hostel owner would pick me up from the bus station. To the disgust of the taxi driver I hauled my bag from the taxi and went and waited for my pick up. And I waited, and I waited. Eventually deciding the lift was not coming I approached the police and asked in terrible Turkish where was a cheap hotel. They talked amonsgt themselves and then gestured to me to get in the paddy van. Hell yeah!!! Unfortunately I did not get a photo of me in the paddy van with the lights flashing, and unfortunately the hotel they took me to was full. BUt they were very nice, and jsut down the street I spotted the first hotel I had picked out of the Lonely Planet. I went in and soon realised it was a terrible hotel (it had a vibe of a men only hotel), and was ready to pick up my bags and start searching again when the hotel owner produced a note...
"Hey Aussie, we tried to find you. If you get this note, give us a call and we will come and pick you up, Cheers from the fellow Aussie."
Saved!!!!
Soon I was meeting my Aussie white knight and the hostel owner I had spoken to on the phone. It was a really lovely hostel and I had a wicked time there. The owner is Kurdish, and whilst I stayed with him he took me to see live Kurdish music, taught me how to play backgammon, showed me the sights of Urfa and even took me with him to his niece's engagement party!!!!
The engagement party was great, and was the first time on the trip that I was able to socialise with women. They took me under their wing and we gossiped together. After a couple of hours with them they produced a head scarf for me and they covered my hair. I felt this was a sign of being accepted, and felt very honoured. During the party (which was in the daytime) the bride and groom sat at a table next to each other, whilst the women danced around them and made the beautiful "yodelling" noises in their throats. There was a ceremony with red ribbons, which joined the two together, and there were many photographs taken. The bride to be was dressed in purple, with no headscarf but lots of gorgeous makeup, and was 18 years. The groom was in a suit and was about 25 years old. The party was held out at the farm owned by the family, so we were partying in the middle of a corn and tomato crop with a mud brick house. Baklava was eaten and more dancing was done before the party wound down. It was great fun and very unexpected.
That night I jumped on a bus for the 10 hour journey to the centre of Turkey, to a place called Cappadocia.
I stayed in Goreme, which is an extremely touristy part of Turkey - unlike the Eastern part. I was sad to hear comments from my Kurdish host in Urfa that The Turkish are not to be trusted, and when I arrived in Goreme and said I had just been in Eastern Turkey I again heard the same.. excpet from Turkish people that the Kurdish were not to be trusted.
Goreme is a magical landscape, where there are stunning rock formations, caves deep down into the ground and 100's of Christian churches within the caves. When the Mongols and Genghis Khan were tearing around the Middle East conquering here there and everywhere, the Christian people from northern Syria travelled to Goreme and its surrounds and created cave cities that go 8 floors down into the Earth. They could hide from the Mongols and be completely self sufficient down in the caves. I saw where the stables were, where the wine making caves were and he kitchens. Absolutely fascinating. I went for walks in the area and everywhere you could see caves, many of which were made into churches. You can still see the frescoes (painted religious scenes) on the walls and roofs of the caves.
I took refuge in the caves many times as the weather in Goreme was cold and raining..; so much so I was excitedly looking for snow. It haled but did not snow whilst I was there.
I had enough of the cold and so headed for the coast - Antayla. This is on the Meditterean and is a very pretty city. I jumped on a boat for a cruise around the harbour, there were beautiful waterfalls right in the harbour area. In the evening I made friends with the pension (like a BnB) owner and we cooked fresh fish and salad together. The fish was brought from a fishermen who came to the door, so I reckon you can't get fresher than that! Antayla was spoilt for me a little bit by the attitudes I encountered everywhere. So many tourists spot here on the package tours and from the cruise ships that I think the local peopl have a ver twisted and negative view of the tourists. For example I was being friendly and chatting to a kid who sat next to me in the park as I was looking out over the harbour. He was 16 and learning English at school, so I thought he wanted to practise his English. It wasn't until he had said "hotel" over and over many times and after he made a crude gesture that I realised this 16 year old KID was asking me for SEX!!!!!!! I felt so disgusted and so sad that he had such a twisted view of forgien women. I'm sure anyone else would have realised what was happening much earlier, and you are probably thinking I was being naive!
So I headed out of Antayla with a nasty feeling from it and randomly chose the next coastal town to go. There are so many beautiful spots on the Turkish coast that is was hard to choose, but I ended up in Fethiye. I fell in love with Fethiye and spent a week there. It has a beautiful harbour and is surrounded by mountains and is a very chilled out place. I met some fantastic people there so hung out just around Fethiye for many days. The best bit though was PARAGLIDING!!! I took the plunge.. literally from a cliff! You have a pilot attached to you who does all the work, so its very safe. I felt like a bird, flying on the currents over the ocean and the mountains. Its at the prettiest spot I never wanted the ride to end. Even the landing was fun. In mid air the pilot suddenly said to me - take your helmet off. I was in shock... I was 1000 metres above the ocean, hanging from a piece of plastic and I am sposed to take my helmet off!!!! I had no idea what was going on, my heart was racing and the adrenaline was pumping. I complied however, and am so glad I did cos it was photo time! Got some photos, although I think it was not my best angle!
So after the adventures of paragliding and Fethiye, I had to tear myself away to try and get a visa for Iran in Instanbul. The visa for Iran has not worked out (Mum and Dad I'm sure you are relieved!) but I am enchanted by Instanbul. I have been very very lucky and spoilt and am staying with a friend here. We met in Damascus and randomly bumped into each other again in Beirut, where Hakan invited me to his house here in Istanbul. Hakan has been amazing, and I have felt very pleased to be shown Istanbul by a local. On Hakan's vespa (its green and very very cool) we have explored all over Istanbul, the Bosphorous, the area called Little Iran, the Old Town. I have decided I want to live here in Istanbul. Through Hakan's connections I also went to a wine and cheese night at the Four Seasons (yes that's right, whilst backpacking I am hobnobbing at a 5 star hotel). It was great to meet members of the expat community, many of whom are teachers here. I pumped them for information about getting a job here as a teacher. It was the best night, although I did feel very uncomfortable ina five star hotel... like a a bumbling country bumpkin. I was so sure I would spill red wine everywhere, and I could not stop staring at the decorations and the glamorous people staying there. I had tried to scrub myself up for the occassion - out came the makeup but I think the filthy sneakers gave me away!
Thank fully I had visited a Haman (turkish bath) before the event, so felt clean. In fact the Turkish bath was the best thing every!!!! There I was, no idea what to expect... getting scrubbed down and exfoiliated and massaged by a Turkish grandmother, both of us in our birthday suits!!!! It put a whole new spin on bath time. And of course the wonderful Hakan had telephoned beforehand and said I was a special guest so I was treated like a star!
This past weekend it was a very special festical in the Islamic calender - called Bairam or something like that. It is the Day of Sacrifice, to do with Abraham sacrifcing his son to God. This is also in Christianity. Islamic families celebrate this festival by sacrifcing a sheep or a cow. In Istanbul there are special places for the "sacrificing" to happen but I'm told in other Islamic areas the animals are killed in the streets. With Hakan we spent Bairum visiting friends, so to me it felt very like Christmas. It was a lovely day, and I was able to have some great conversations with people about Islam and Christianity and the similarities and differences. The food was wonderful too - eating real Turkish cooking!
Tonight I am going for dinner to friends of Hakan's whom we visited on Bairam, and they have invited us back. I am very exicted and do not feel like I am just travelling through but am getting to experience Istanbul as a local.
Tomorrow I will embrace my Australian roots and travel to Gallipoli.
If you are still reading this...thank you! I am sorry it is such a marathon blog, I will try to be more succint in the future but there is so much to tell!!!
Best wishes
Trisha
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