Istanbul as it once was

After a couple of hours in Ayvalık walking up and down with my backpack — that is a bit heavier every day — I decide to just go to İstanbul and from there to the next stop.

Oh, by the way, you should be aware that in Turkey long distance buses stop during the trip for washing (see photo), so you can happily wait outside thinking about how different things can be in different places :-)

But, alas! things are not always as you wish: ten hours of bus and once in İstanbul, rain. And then rain, and cold, and rain … if you lived in Treviso you know what I mean.


So I go to a travel agency, with Cappadocia in mind. And then … Ramazan Bayram! Yes, a very important holiday in Islamic countries. Like all of the buses booked for the whole week. Me not happy :-(

But a great city always reserves you more options, and mine is discover remains of the old Ottoman city in between modern buildings. Here you have some sample, mostly in the Kadıköy district.

After the sightseeing I went to a random travel agency, and I bought the first ticket for Whatever.

That's in the south :-)

Update

Thanks to Andrea, this post has new(?) photos.

A little break from the trip

OK, this one was really worth a break!

(For some reason I'm unable to embed the video here)
Ping pong estremo

Erano anni che non mi divertivo cosí!

Buckatürk?

At the beginning of the Nineties, we used to play a quite popular board game: Trivial Pursuit.

I remember a day, playing in Ally's kitchen, when the question « Who is the father of all turks? » panicked most of us. And then somebody — with the beginning of a smile sprouting from his lips — said this single word: « Atatürk? »

Many years passed, and eventually I have an answer for that: reincarnation!



Further proofs of this theory here.

A day in a words collector's life

Sometimes it is hard to be a language junkie.

You try to catch up with all the things you hear in every new place you're visiting, but it is getting harder and harder, when you are still elaborating sentences from your last country.


I want to post here a few snippets from the last couple of months.

Probably that will require a few of googling from you, but I never said it would be easy :-)

There you go!

Ty srdce v srdci mém — ty srdce v srdci všech
Bezbřehý živote, co ve mně máš svůj břeh.

« Reading a poem in translation, » wrote Bialek, « is like kissing a woman through a veil »

Güzele bakmak sevaptır

Plus a random list of words:

• Mierenneuker (Dutch)


• Χελιδόνια (Greek)


• Çiçek (Turkish)


• Salamati (Farsi)


• Terviseks (Estonian)


• НаЗдраве (Bulgarian)


• Noroc (Rumanian)


• Megszentségteleníthetetlensegeskedéseitekést (Hungarian)

Have fun :-)

—
Oh, I have updated this post, and you can find new photos here.

Treviso, close to Venice #2

This happened actually on September 3rd, at my arrival in Samos. I'm posting it today because I don't want to forget it!

It's a dialog between a New Zealand guy (working for the port tourist agencies) and me.

—Where are you from?
—Italy.
—Oh, nice! I love Italy!
—Yep!
—Is Nice in Italy or in France?
—In France.
—And Florence? And Venice? I loved that area, but I was a little drunk, so I can't remember if it was France or Italy!
—…

I smiled, skipped the Treviso-close-to-Venice part, and went to the agency next door.

Back to kebap!

I'm back to Turkey, and hungry: sewing this flags to my backpack is a very tiring task!

There is the good old kebap, but Turkish food has many many options, so I tried to taste more. Here you have a small gallery, ranging from the afore mentioned Mr. K to more esoteric possibilities: a thing with eggs inside — the name will be posted as soon as I'll remember it — that you can't actually see because my American friend put all of the bread into it (for saving time?).

A portion of chicken with vegetables and rice — with the evil green-peppers as a side dish —; a carefully prepared in nouvelle cuisine style plate of Köfte with cheese.

But my favourite so far is this home-made dinner: mushroom soup, cooked and fresh vegetables, stuffed peppers, yoghurt and dates!

Of course, if you are looking for something a little more unusual, you can pay a visit to this bar at Izmir bus station:

Blue is my favourite colour …

… as in sky and sea!

The mighty SummerCamp in beautiful Naxos (Paros, Sexos) ended, and I moved my casetta to Syros, but it was only for having a real sleep — after a week between no-sleeping and sleeping-on-the-floor — and for doing the laundry.

After that was Samos! Due to the lack of CSers there, I opted for an hotel, made sure it had an internet connection, rented a small motorbike and went for the wild-and-deserted-beaches tour.

The results are posted here below :-)

For some reason the blue in Greece seems bluer than elsewhere, thus I'm planning a little come-back on the next week.

More photos of Samos here.

Stay tuned for more blue!

Greece, fifteen years after

I'm on the boat to Samos, trying to catch up with my thoughts and feelings after a couple of weeks lived with my whole body and soul.

What I feel now is a bit of loneliness — the least one could expect after such an intense social activity. But it is a good opportunity for recovering energies and preparing the Turkey trip. And update the blog :-)

I'm sorry, but I think that this post will be appreciated — almost — only by few of you, namely the participants of the 1993 El Harén mission.



Walking the same streets after 15 years make me feel like as no time had passed — although it was the other century — and at the same time I know that I'm a completely different person (eg: I don't feel anymore the urge of climbing that headless statue, yet I can't stop laughing my a** off remembering the museum guard getting mad at us!)

And next came Naxos (Paros, Sexos).

And that wind (I still have sand in my mouth after three days). So I had to take this photos also, although the lack of our friends makes me a bit melancholic.

This is how we looked fifteen years ago!

This hug is for you, my friends.

You can find more photos of Greece here.