May 1st is known as Worker's Day in Turkey. It has traditionally been the holiday that supporters of communism would take to the streets and protest on. Other protests are often led on this day as well. For this reason, I was slightly sad about not being in Istanbul on May 1st. If I were, I totally would have gone down to Taksim to check things out. It turns out that the protests this year were much milder and safer than in years past. In several cities in the southeast, there were pro-Kurdish protests as well. We had actually decided to go from south to north on our trip because we did not want to be in southeastern Turkey on May 1st. Kars was incredibly quiet.
The big trip we had planned in Kars was a half trip to Ani. Ani is an amazing place to see and was once the capital of the old Armenian empire. Today it sits right on the border of Turkey and Armenia. Due to political issues between the two countries, there are certain places you cannot access because the guards on the Armenian side may think you are trying to spy in their country or get too close to the border. You can see the guard towers on both sides, which I thought was pretty neat.
We drove up to the entrance and our driver gave us some information about the history of the Armenian civilization, the Armenian genocide and what happened afterward. It was a nice little talk. Then he told us a bit about Ani, which was the capital city of Armenia.
We walked around the place, which featured Armenian churches, the walls, and pretty much all aspects of Armenian life. The site was very large. It was amazing to see everything...even though they were in ruins. I wish I could convey it in words...but I really can't. It was sad to see the disrepair of the site though. It is trapped within a military zone in Turkey. There are some parts that one is not permitted to access because it is too close to the Armenian border, which is a river in a canyon below the city.
We returned to Kars and found a bus to Trabzon, our next destination. Unfortunately, there was no direct bus so we had to settle for a connection in Erzurum, Turkey's highest and coldest city. After a short wait there...it was on to the Black Sea and the coastal city of Trabzon!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Day 8 - Kars (April 30, 2009)
The journey to Kars was actually pretty uneventful. We arrived in Kars and the weather was sunny. We had been very lucky on our trip thus far. There had been no rain.
After we left the otogar, the taxi driver told us that there was no bus service into town. Of course taxi drivers have an awful reputation and I did not believe him for a second. He was incredibly pushy about it, which ticked me off. I finally went inside and asked a security guard in broken Turkish if there was a bus. When they said no and we resigned to taking a taxi, we purposely ignored the guy who had been pushy and went with another driver. I simply cannot stand it when taxi drivers try to push me around. It makes me want to punch them in the face.
So we took the taxi to a hotel called Tembel. The original one was not open, so we stayed at Tembel 2 for a somewhat reduced price. The living situation of the hotel was not especially nice, but it was good enough. When we checked in the guy found out we were Americans. The general reaction from everyone so far was that they loved Obama. This guy was different. First he started asking how I could vote for Obama because I was white and he is black. I couldn't really explain to him that it wasn't like that. Then he started ranting and yelling. I assumed from the tone of his voice that he did not like Obama. Then he used the word "Erministan," which means Armenia in Turkish. I gathered that he probably was displeased with Obama's position on the whole Armenian genocide question.
The issue in Kars is a prominent one because it is only about 45 minutes by car from the river separating Turkey and Armenia. In fact, Kars used to be Armenian and there is still a small presence of Turkish Armenians living there today. In 1993, in protest of Armenia capturing a region of Azerbaijan in their war, Turkey closed the border. Since that time it has remained closed. Although some people dislike Armenians because of the genocide issue, others in Kars want the border to be opened because it could bring about new economic activity and growth to the area.
Kars is also interesting because it used to be Russian. In fact, it was not ceded to the Ottoman Empire until 1918. For this reason, many of the people there were actually of Russian decent. The mixture of cultures gave it a different atmosphere from other places in Turkey.
We settled into our new accommodations and took a brief rest. It began to rain outside for the first time on our trip and we were a bit tired. We ventured out with Em's guidebook and looked for Kars Citadel and the Church of the Apostles. When we stopped and asked, Em told me later that the guy we asked was only speaking to me and addressing me. She felt they were slightly sexist. I am not sure if that was actually the case, but it was something to think about.
We approached the Church of the Apostles. This church had been converted into a Russian Orthodox church under Russian rule and back to a mosque when the Turks took over again. It was clearly closed and there did not seem to be a way to get inside. A few feet away, a Turkish man was standing and also admiring the church. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit. They seemed to be doing some sort of restoration on the area around the church, so naturally we thought he worked as a construction worker.
We approached him and asked if he knew if and when the church would be opened. He said that he did not know and was admiring the church on his break. He introduced himself as Cemil. We learned that instead was working with an oil company (on the new pipeline from the Caucuses into Turkey) and was admiring the church himself.
Cemil began a conversation with us and one of the first questions he asked me was what my religion was. I was taken a little off guard. I lied to him and told him that I was not very religious, despite the fact that I self-identify with Judaism. I had learned early during my time in Turkey that telling people I am Jewish is not in my best interest. I asked him the same question, half expecting the cliché Sunni Islam answer.
Before he answered me, he looked around to ensure no one was within earshot and proclaimed that he was an Alevi. An Alevi!? I became very excited. I had just been reading about them in my Turkish politics class. Alevis are a particular sect of Shiite Islam that had been persecuted in recent Turkish history. It was a stroke of luck that I not only met an Alevi that was willing to speak about their beliefs, but that I met one that knew English! I began asking him questions about his life and more specific questions about how Alevism differed from other sects of Islam. His father was the dede, making him the future leader of his family's congregation near Istanbul.
Our conversation led to a lunch invitation, which I gladly accepted. We decided that going to lunch with Cemil would be much more interesting and exciting than seeing another fortress (we had already seen 4 or 5 on the trip). He did not have anything to eat but we talked for a while. We talked about all sorts of things: Turkey, Turkish-American relations, American foreign policy, American politics, our trip, etc. He invited us to come with him to see Posof, a small border town, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. Afterwards, I told him about my project on Alevis for Turkish politics and of the requirement that I had to do an interview with a Turkish person in English and asked if I could come visit him in his home in Kocaeli. He said he would be happy to help me out and invited me to come see a live cem evi, which is their ceremony. He did graciously pay for his meal...but I felt especially bad for this because he didn't even eat. I told him I did not want him to pay. He told me that if I did not let him pay that he would refuse my interview and I would be unwelcome in his home in Istanbul...that was enough to shut me up.
After we had spent the better part of the afternoon talking with Cemil, we decided to return to the hotel. After 8 days of travel we were all very tired and needed a day to kind of chill out.
So we went back to the room to hang out. Earlier a younger Turkish guy who was staying alone had asked us if we wanted to go to the market with him. We respectfully declined as we had planned to go sightseeing in Kars. He knocked on our door that evening bearing food and coca cola. So he came in and we hung out for a while. It was kind of awkward because he did not know any English and we were stuck communicating through the English-Turkish dictionary. It always seems weird to me how guys like this guy and the guy from the hotel in Van are so interested in speaking with us despite the language issues. If the situation were reversed, I don't think I would spend that long trying to understand someone who did not speak the language in my country. I guess that's one of the many differences between Turks and Americans. So our first day in Kars ended up being very productive for me (as I made a vital contact for my project) and pretty low key overall.
After we left the otogar, the taxi driver told us that there was no bus service into town. Of course taxi drivers have an awful reputation and I did not believe him for a second. He was incredibly pushy about it, which ticked me off. I finally went inside and asked a security guard in broken Turkish if there was a bus. When they said no and we resigned to taking a taxi, we purposely ignored the guy who had been pushy and went with another driver. I simply cannot stand it when taxi drivers try to push me around. It makes me want to punch them in the face.
So we took the taxi to a hotel called Tembel. The original one was not open, so we stayed at Tembel 2 for a somewhat reduced price. The living situation of the hotel was not especially nice, but it was good enough. When we checked in the guy found out we were Americans. The general reaction from everyone so far was that they loved Obama. This guy was different. First he started asking how I could vote for Obama because I was white and he is black. I couldn't really explain to him that it wasn't like that. Then he started ranting and yelling. I assumed from the tone of his voice that he did not like Obama. Then he used the word "Erministan," which means Armenia in Turkish. I gathered that he probably was displeased with Obama's position on the whole Armenian genocide question.
The issue in Kars is a prominent one because it is only about 45 minutes by car from the river separating Turkey and Armenia. In fact, Kars used to be Armenian and there is still a small presence of Turkish Armenians living there today. In 1993, in protest of Armenia capturing a region of Azerbaijan in their war, Turkey closed the border. Since that time it has remained closed. Although some people dislike Armenians because of the genocide issue, others in Kars want the border to be opened because it could bring about new economic activity and growth to the area.
Kars is also interesting because it used to be Russian. In fact, it was not ceded to the Ottoman Empire until 1918. For this reason, many of the people there were actually of Russian decent. The mixture of cultures gave it a different atmosphere from other places in Turkey.
We settled into our new accommodations and took a brief rest. It began to rain outside for the first time on our trip and we were a bit tired. We ventured out with Em's guidebook and looked for Kars Citadel and the Church of the Apostles. When we stopped and asked, Em told me later that the guy we asked was only speaking to me and addressing me. She felt they were slightly sexist. I am not sure if that was actually the case, but it was something to think about.
We approached the Church of the Apostles. This church had been converted into a Russian Orthodox church under Russian rule and back to a mosque when the Turks took over again. It was clearly closed and there did not seem to be a way to get inside. A few feet away, a Turkish man was standing and also admiring the church. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit. They seemed to be doing some sort of restoration on the area around the church, so naturally we thought he worked as a construction worker.
We approached him and asked if he knew if and when the church would be opened. He said that he did not know and was admiring the church on his break. He introduced himself as Cemil. We learned that instead was working with an oil company (on the new pipeline from the Caucuses into Turkey) and was admiring the church himself.
Cemil began a conversation with us and one of the first questions he asked me was what my religion was. I was taken a little off guard. I lied to him and told him that I was not very religious, despite the fact that I self-identify with Judaism. I had learned early during my time in Turkey that telling people I am Jewish is not in my best interest. I asked him the same question, half expecting the cliché Sunni Islam answer.
Before he answered me, he looked around to ensure no one was within earshot and proclaimed that he was an Alevi. An Alevi!? I became very excited. I had just been reading about them in my Turkish politics class. Alevis are a particular sect of Shiite Islam that had been persecuted in recent Turkish history. It was a stroke of luck that I not only met an Alevi that was willing to speak about their beliefs, but that I met one that knew English! I began asking him questions about his life and more specific questions about how Alevism differed from other sects of Islam. His father was the dede, making him the future leader of his family's congregation near Istanbul.
Our conversation led to a lunch invitation, which I gladly accepted. We decided that going to lunch with Cemil would be much more interesting and exciting than seeing another fortress (we had already seen 4 or 5 on the trip). He did not have anything to eat but we talked for a while. We talked about all sorts of things: Turkey, Turkish-American relations, American foreign policy, American politics, our trip, etc. He invited us to come with him to see Posof, a small border town, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. Afterwards, I told him about my project on Alevis for Turkish politics and of the requirement that I had to do an interview with a Turkish person in English and asked if I could come visit him in his home in Kocaeli. He said he would be happy to help me out and invited me to come see a live cem evi, which is their ceremony. He did graciously pay for his meal...but I felt especially bad for this because he didn't even eat. I told him I did not want him to pay. He told me that if I did not let him pay that he would refuse my interview and I would be unwelcome in his home in Istanbul...that was enough to shut me up.
After we had spent the better part of the afternoon talking with Cemil, we decided to return to the hotel. After 8 days of travel we were all very tired and needed a day to kind of chill out.
So we went back to the room to hang out. Earlier a younger Turkish guy who was staying alone had asked us if we wanted to go to the market with him. We respectfully declined as we had planned to go sightseeing in Kars. He knocked on our door that evening bearing food and coca cola. So he came in and we hung out for a while. It was kind of awkward because he did not know any English and we were stuck communicating through the English-Turkish dictionary. It always seems weird to me how guys like this guy and the guy from the hotel in Van are so interested in speaking with us despite the language issues. If the situation were reversed, I don't think I would spend that long trying to understand someone who did not speak the language in my country. I guess that's one of the many differences between Turks and Americans. So our first day in Kars ended up being very productive for me (as I made a vital contact for my project) and pretty low key overall.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Day 7 - Dogubeyazit (April 29, 2009)
We made our way downstairs for breakfast at the hotel and ended up sitting with the guy we met the previous night while locked out of our room. He had driven up from Hakkari (province that borders Iraq) and had to drive back there that day.
After breakfast, we had tea with Bayram again. He gave us a CD of pictures and a brochure so that we would not forget him. He also gave us his son's number and said we should call him when we got back to Istanbul. After tea, Bayram took us to the roof of the hotel to show us where his brother's company was and to show us the view. Additionally, he made our bus reservation for us to Dogubeyazit and suggested a good hotel for us to find. I am sure they receive kickbacks from each other for recommending it (he was pretty adamant about us making sure to drop his name), but I was ok to stay at a hotel that was in the same price range as this one. Also, he did do us a favor by not charging us when we wanted to check into the room at 5am and sleep after our bus ride all night from Diyarbakir. I know in the US they definitely would have charged us. He also told the domus driver to stop at the Muradiye falls (a place I really wanted to see even though I did not tell Bayram I had wanted to see it). He had mentioned that it was important to take care of his guests and that he knew we would enjoy stopping to see the falls (as they are famous in Eastern Turkey). I was very happy about this!
Speaking of the bus ride (which was pretty much a dolmus in this case), I do not know how or why I always am able to do this, but I always seem to find an interesting person to talk to in Turkey...even if I can't speak the language!
The van we rode in was quite small. I suppose the route between Van and Dogubeyazit isn't that popular. As a result, only two people could sit in a row together. Because I was traveling with two girls, it seemed natural that they should sit together so one of them would not be forced to sit next to a sketchy character. This meant I was the third wheel out and that I would be sitting next to a stranger.
It just so happens that my stranger was a very nice guy. I had another opportunity to practice my Turkish skills. It turns out that this guy was actually an Iranian nation from Tebriz. He spoke Turkish and Persian. The Turkish-English dictionary got a lot of work during this bus ride. :) He was in Istanbul selling fabric and took a flight to Van and then a bus from Van to Dogubeyazit (where an Iranian border crossing exists). From there he would head home. I think one of the coolest parts of this conversation was that he actually let me see his passport. It was green with the Arabic script on it. The most interesting part was on the passport where it said, "Holders of this passport are forbidden from entering the occupied lands of Palestine." So basically, Iran has forbidden their citizens from going to Israel. He got to look at my passport too. I even showed him the Israeli stamp, which surprised him! Another cool thing he did was teach me the Persian alphabet. I have it written down with me still (I should really study that thing so I can learn to read Persian/Arabic). He didnt seem to mind showing me all of the letters and writing their sounds in latin script next to it. When we stopped at a gas station, he picked up a bag of potato chips, which he shared with me for the rest of the way. Apparently the sharing culture I discussed in previous blog entries also extends to Iran. We Americans should really get on board with this!
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. It consisted mostly of me trying to converse with the guy on the bus and flipping back and forth through the English-Turkish dictionary. I was pretty excited because in order to get to Dogubeyazit, we had to go over some highlands that involved seeing snow. Those of you that know me well know just how excited I get about the snow! :)
We arrived in Dogubeyazit in the early afternoon. We found the hotel that Bayram recommended to us and decided that the price was good enough for us to stay there. From our room, we had a beautiful view of Mt. Ararat. As soon as we got to the hotel, I realized that I stupidly left my camera in the van and prayed that it was still there. I basically had a miniature freak out. Luckily for me (and for all of you who are enjoying my pictures), it came back safe and sound. The driver of the van brought it back as soon as I had made it to the place to pick up my camera.
Upon putting our stuff down in the hotel, we moved on to see the Ishak Paşa palace. Earlier when we went to Mardin, I described Emily's obsession with getting to see the Saffron Monastery. Well as obsessed as she was with that, I was equally obsessed with seeing this place. When we realized we had an extra day on our trip to spend, I begged and pleaded for Sonya and Emily to let me take a detour to this place. I am not sure what my fascination was with this place. Truthfully, I had seen it in some post cards and travel books advertising Eastern Turkey and I fell in love with the pictures. I was determined to see it for myself. That is the main reason why I wanted to see it so badly. The added bonus was of course that it was at the foot of Mt. Ararat and right on the Azerbaijani/Iranian border. :)
We spoke to a taxi cab driver and he agreed to take us to Ishak Paşa Sarayi (Ishak Paşa Palace) and wait for us while we toured the place. The ride to the palace was a three mile drive that took us on a main 4 lane road with lights in the center. The road had a yellow sign labelled Iran, indicating that it was the road to Iran. More interestingly, that 4 lane main thoroughfare was actually the ancient silk road. I imagined hundreds of people on caravans coming through this place, bringing spices and silk from the far east on their way to Istanbul and Europe. What a cool road!
We entered the complex and it was absolutely incredible. Construction began on the palace in 1685. It was considered the second administrative palace only to Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The guidebook said it was very important to art history and probably the best example of a Turkic palace during the time period it was built (1600-1800). The palace itself was built over a hill, allowing an observer to see all of Doğubeyazit below.
The palace itself contained a beautiful courtyard on the main floor, a harem, kitchen, dungeon, and mosque inside. There was a second floor which was unfortunately blocked off from touring. The complex itself was massive.
Despite the large complex, we unexpectedly ran into Jessica, Perri, and other members of the Duke study abroad program. Although I had asked Jessica where her program was taking her on spring break, she had said she didn't know. Apparently, their program had them doing our trip, but reverse. They started in Trabzon and went to Kars and then they were going to Van. We exchanged some stories about the trip. Jessica told us that she was miserable and wanted out because she didn't know the other kids and felt like kind of an outsider. Any student that had registered for Boğaziçi through the Duke program was required to go on this trip. We told her we would call her that night to hang out...but we never did.
The reason we never did is far more interesting. Two younger guys were speaking to Sonya and I walked up and said hello. These two guys were Metin and Saffet. Metin seemed to be in his early 30s while Saffet to be close to our age. They took an interest in us and began asking us about our trip, where had been, why we were in Turkey, etc. They then invited us to have a tea with them, which we accepted. We told the taxi driver that we would know longer need his services, but he made us pay 2/3 of the price. We lied to him and said we had decided to walk back...but I think he knew we were really finding another ride. Oh well.
Before we went to tea, Metin and Saffet told us they knew a cool place to get a great view of Ishak Paşa.We rode the van further up the mountain that grew behind the palace. Then we exited the van and were lead up the pathway to a beautiful rocky outcropping. The ledge was very narrow, allowing only one person at a time. The view was breathtaking (see pictures). It provided the perfect postcard picture for the palace. All I could say was "this is THE picture." Of course THE picture turned into several...but what can ya do?
After gazing at the scenery, we climbed back down and got back into their van. They drove us to the town and we met a third friend of theirs, a Kurdish carpet dealer. I thought to myself...wow this is just as bad as the guys in Istanbul. In Istanbul, carpet dealers try to lure you into their shop and spend 45 minutes turning their store inside out to sell you a carpet. It is often a bad situation because you want to see the carpets but the whole ordeal takes up a lot of time. After two or three of these episodes, you have basically wasted a good day of sightseeing. I made a comment to Metin, indicating that I understood what was going on, but he claimed that it was not like that. Either way, one cup of tea became two which became three. I thought to myself, while we're here, we might as well see what they've got right?
These carpets were slightly different than the ones you would find in Istanbul because they were made by Kurds instead of Turks. The concept was the same but the designs were slightly different. They were neat. Another significant difference was the price. A beautiful silk carpet, which I wanted very badly was only 300TL ($200). The same carpet in Istanbul would probably have cost 1000 TL. I remembered what Uncle Barry said to me before I left. "If you see anything cool. Buy it." So that's exactly what I did. After finding a reasonably priced carpet, I began to haggle the price down. It was originally 120 TL. I explained that I was a studnt and didn't have a lot of money (you have to give these salesmen the same spiel every time). Eventually, I got him to agree to sell me 2 carpets for 80 TL a piece. I decided to keep one for myself and to give one to Uncle Barry and Aunt Leslie since Barry had done so much to help me with my Air France debacle. The least I could do was get him a nice souvenir! Sonya and Em both ended up buying one too. Metin and Saffet claimed that we should not feel pressured to buy and that they did not bring us to the carpet place to sell us a carpet. The guy who sold us the carpet invited us to join him for dinner that evening.
While talking to Metin and Saffet, they told us that there was a hot spring in Diyadin (a small town about 45 minutes away from Doğubeyazit. Upon seeing our interest, they offered to take us there so we could enjoy it. I was ecstatic! I had never been to a hot spring before and had always wanted to go to one. In fact, I had been reading about the springs near Bursa and was hoping to have the opportunity to visit those while I was in Turkey.
They took us back to our hotel and we got a change of clothes and put our newly acquired carpets away. They did ask as a small favor for us to help them fill up his gas tank in his van. We were a bit surprised because generally Turkish people do not ask us for anything in return when they are hospitable. Truthfully, the van was not that nice and they probably did not have a lot of money. They weren't poor by Turkish standards, but probably not rich either. I didn't mind giving them money since they were showing us around and being very nice to us. Basically, we were paying for our own personalized tour of the area, which was fine by me! The older guy confessed to us that he was actually a mountain guide for Mt. Ararat and said that if we ever wanted to climb it with him, we could let him now and we could come along with a group he was leading. He said we would only have to pay for the equipment and nothing else...which was incredibly nice of him. I seriously considered taking him up on the offer. Climbing Ararat would be amazing! Perhaps one day I will...
We made our way away from town. None of us knew how far the place was. I don't know about the others, but after 30 minutes or so of driving, I was a little concerned. The fact that we had trusted several people on this trip so far and not been in danger had not escaped my notice. I wondered how many more times we could test fate before something bad happened. Luckily, we didn't test it enough as my slight apprehension turned out to be for nothing.
We drove through the town of Diyadin and made our way towards the springs. The landscape became much more rocky. Once upon a time, this area had been very geologically active. After another 5 or so minutes of driving, we came to a group of small buildings. In two or three different places near it, water was flowing out of the ground. As it met the cool, evening air, steam was given off of the openings. The water felt nice on cold hands. The opening and the area where the water was flowing had turned white. The minerals in the water had calcified on the rock. Additionally, the entire area smelled of sulfur. Our new friends obviously knew the attendant and told us that we could have one of the family rooms for an hour in a few minutes.
In the meantime we took a walk around the place, admiring the geological feature. It was actually a pretty cool thing. The sun was setting and it was quite cold outside. It couldnt have been more than 40 or 45 degrees.
Finally, we went inside the room. It was a pool the size of a small swimming pool. A white pipe from the geological feature siphoned water into the pool. The spring itself was scalding! Way above what I would have considered comfortable to swim in. When I hung my feet in the water, they felt like they were on fire! The room with the pool had no ceiling, allowing us to observe the starlit night. Although the facilities weren't exactly luxury accommodations, the atmosphere was nice.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, everyone had jumped in and began soaking in the spring except me. I was still lying shirtless on the side of the pool. Metin and Saffet began making funny of me, telling me that I should be able to do it if two girls can. As I slowly tried to submerge myself into the water, I would quickly jump out because it was so hot. So the first 40 minutes or so of us being there consisted of me alternating between getting cold outside of the pool, partially submerging my body until it felt like it was on fire (all of about 30 seconds) and repeating the process. After the 45 minute mark, I was able to swim a bit before jumping out in the same fashion. After about an hour and a half, we had had enough and got dressed and got back in the car towards Doğubeyazit.
The conversation in the car was especially interesting for me. Because these guys were Kurdish, I began asking them questions about their voting behavior and the DTP. I was curious if they voted for AKP, if they liked them, why they voted for the DTP, etc. I wish I had understood the issue more at the time. I think I could have asked more insightful and interesting questions...but at this point in my Turkish experience, I was still trying to learn about it. It turns out that they both vote for DTP simply because it is Kurdish. They knew very little about how the DTP stood on certain issues and whether they supported those stances (this could also be because they werent able to express themselves in English but I find this unlikely because I found their English to be quite good...especially by Eastern standards!).
We went back to town and made our way to the restaurant where we would meet the carpet dealer from the afternoon. We had a lovely meal (some sort of kebab if I remember correctly...but then again...weren't all of my meals?). After our meal, they invited us to dance. The dance was the exact same one we did in Urfa, so we all already knew the drill. It was a fun time and I think everyone enjoyed ourselves. It's always nice to make new friends.
I did notice when our new friend wanted to pay the bill, his wallet contained dollars and euros in addition to Turkish lira. He told us that all proceeds from the carpet sales went to a home for Kurdish women (I think he was trying to tell us it was for a good cause). However, the different foreign currencies in his wallet made me a bit skeptical. He did pay for our dinner though which was cool. So after only 1 day, we had hit the highlights of Doğubeyazit!
After breakfast, we had tea with Bayram again. He gave us a CD of pictures and a brochure so that we would not forget him. He also gave us his son's number and said we should call him when we got back to Istanbul. After tea, Bayram took us to the roof of the hotel to show us where his brother's company was and to show us the view. Additionally, he made our bus reservation for us to Dogubeyazit and suggested a good hotel for us to find. I am sure they receive kickbacks from each other for recommending it (he was pretty adamant about us making sure to drop his name), but I was ok to stay at a hotel that was in the same price range as this one. Also, he did do us a favor by not charging us when we wanted to check into the room at 5am and sleep after our bus ride all night from Diyarbakir. I know in the US they definitely would have charged us. He also told the domus driver to stop at the Muradiye falls (a place I really wanted to see even though I did not tell Bayram I had wanted to see it). He had mentioned that it was important to take care of his guests and that he knew we would enjoy stopping to see the falls (as they are famous in Eastern Turkey). I was very happy about this!
Speaking of the bus ride (which was pretty much a dolmus in this case), I do not know how or why I always am able to do this, but I always seem to find an interesting person to talk to in Turkey...even if I can't speak the language!
The van we rode in was quite small. I suppose the route between Van and Dogubeyazit isn't that popular. As a result, only two people could sit in a row together. Because I was traveling with two girls, it seemed natural that they should sit together so one of them would not be forced to sit next to a sketchy character. This meant I was the third wheel out and that I would be sitting next to a stranger.
It just so happens that my stranger was a very nice guy. I had another opportunity to practice my Turkish skills. It turns out that this guy was actually an Iranian nation from Tebriz. He spoke Turkish and Persian. The Turkish-English dictionary got a lot of work during this bus ride. :) He was in Istanbul selling fabric and took a flight to Van and then a bus from Van to Dogubeyazit (where an Iranian border crossing exists). From there he would head home. I think one of the coolest parts of this conversation was that he actually let me see his passport. It was green with the Arabic script on it. The most interesting part was on the passport where it said, "Holders of this passport are forbidden from entering the occupied lands of Palestine." So basically, Iran has forbidden their citizens from going to Israel. He got to look at my passport too. I even showed him the Israeli stamp, which surprised him! Another cool thing he did was teach me the Persian alphabet. I have it written down with me still (I should really study that thing so I can learn to read Persian/Arabic). He didnt seem to mind showing me all of the letters and writing their sounds in latin script next to it. When we stopped at a gas station, he picked up a bag of potato chips, which he shared with me for the rest of the way. Apparently the sharing culture I discussed in previous blog entries also extends to Iran. We Americans should really get on board with this!
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. It consisted mostly of me trying to converse with the guy on the bus and flipping back and forth through the English-Turkish dictionary. I was pretty excited because in order to get to Dogubeyazit, we had to go over some highlands that involved seeing snow. Those of you that know me well know just how excited I get about the snow! :)
We arrived in Dogubeyazit in the early afternoon. We found the hotel that Bayram recommended to us and decided that the price was good enough for us to stay there. From our room, we had a beautiful view of Mt. Ararat. As soon as we got to the hotel, I realized that I stupidly left my camera in the van and prayed that it was still there. I basically had a miniature freak out. Luckily for me (and for all of you who are enjoying my pictures), it came back safe and sound. The driver of the van brought it back as soon as I had made it to the place to pick up my camera.
Upon putting our stuff down in the hotel, we moved on to see the Ishak Paşa palace. Earlier when we went to Mardin, I described Emily's obsession with getting to see the Saffron Monastery. Well as obsessed as she was with that, I was equally obsessed with seeing this place. When we realized we had an extra day on our trip to spend, I begged and pleaded for Sonya and Emily to let me take a detour to this place. I am not sure what my fascination was with this place. Truthfully, I had seen it in some post cards and travel books advertising Eastern Turkey and I fell in love with the pictures. I was determined to see it for myself. That is the main reason why I wanted to see it so badly. The added bonus was of course that it was at the foot of Mt. Ararat and right on the Azerbaijani/Iranian border. :)
We spoke to a taxi cab driver and he agreed to take us to Ishak Paşa Sarayi (Ishak Paşa Palace) and wait for us while we toured the place. The ride to the palace was a three mile drive that took us on a main 4 lane road with lights in the center. The road had a yellow sign labelled Iran, indicating that it was the road to Iran. More interestingly, that 4 lane main thoroughfare was actually the ancient silk road. I imagined hundreds of people on caravans coming through this place, bringing spices and silk from the far east on their way to Istanbul and Europe. What a cool road!
We entered the complex and it was absolutely incredible. Construction began on the palace in 1685. It was considered the second administrative palace only to Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The guidebook said it was very important to art history and probably the best example of a Turkic palace during the time period it was built (1600-1800). The palace itself was built over a hill, allowing an observer to see all of Doğubeyazit below.
The palace itself contained a beautiful courtyard on the main floor, a harem, kitchen, dungeon, and mosque inside. There was a second floor which was unfortunately blocked off from touring. The complex itself was massive.
Despite the large complex, we unexpectedly ran into Jessica, Perri, and other members of the Duke study abroad program. Although I had asked Jessica where her program was taking her on spring break, she had said she didn't know. Apparently, their program had them doing our trip, but reverse. They started in Trabzon and went to Kars and then they were going to Van. We exchanged some stories about the trip. Jessica told us that she was miserable and wanted out because she didn't know the other kids and felt like kind of an outsider. Any student that had registered for Boğaziçi through the Duke program was required to go on this trip. We told her we would call her that night to hang out...but we never did.
The reason we never did is far more interesting. Two younger guys were speaking to Sonya and I walked up and said hello. These two guys were Metin and Saffet. Metin seemed to be in his early 30s while Saffet to be close to our age. They took an interest in us and began asking us about our trip, where had been, why we were in Turkey, etc. They then invited us to have a tea with them, which we accepted. We told the taxi driver that we would know longer need his services, but he made us pay 2/3 of the price. We lied to him and said we had decided to walk back...but I think he knew we were really finding another ride. Oh well.
Before we went to tea, Metin and Saffet told us they knew a cool place to get a great view of Ishak Paşa.We rode the van further up the mountain that grew behind the palace. Then we exited the van and were lead up the pathway to a beautiful rocky outcropping. The ledge was very narrow, allowing only one person at a time. The view was breathtaking (see pictures). It provided the perfect postcard picture for the palace. All I could say was "this is THE picture." Of course THE picture turned into several...but what can ya do?
After gazing at the scenery, we climbed back down and got back into their van. They drove us to the town and we met a third friend of theirs, a Kurdish carpet dealer. I thought to myself...wow this is just as bad as the guys in Istanbul. In Istanbul, carpet dealers try to lure you into their shop and spend 45 minutes turning their store inside out to sell you a carpet. It is often a bad situation because you want to see the carpets but the whole ordeal takes up a lot of time. After two or three of these episodes, you have basically wasted a good day of sightseeing. I made a comment to Metin, indicating that I understood what was going on, but he claimed that it was not like that. Either way, one cup of tea became two which became three. I thought to myself, while we're here, we might as well see what they've got right?
These carpets were slightly different than the ones you would find in Istanbul because they were made by Kurds instead of Turks. The concept was the same but the designs were slightly different. They were neat. Another significant difference was the price. A beautiful silk carpet, which I wanted very badly was only 300TL ($200). The same carpet in Istanbul would probably have cost 1000 TL. I remembered what Uncle Barry said to me before I left. "If you see anything cool. Buy it." So that's exactly what I did. After finding a reasonably priced carpet, I began to haggle the price down. It was originally 120 TL. I explained that I was a studnt and didn't have a lot of money (you have to give these salesmen the same spiel every time). Eventually, I got him to agree to sell me 2 carpets for 80 TL a piece. I decided to keep one for myself and to give one to Uncle Barry and Aunt Leslie since Barry had done so much to help me with my Air France debacle. The least I could do was get him a nice souvenir! Sonya and Em both ended up buying one too. Metin and Saffet claimed that we should not feel pressured to buy and that they did not bring us to the carpet place to sell us a carpet. The guy who sold us the carpet invited us to join him for dinner that evening.
While talking to Metin and Saffet, they told us that there was a hot spring in Diyadin (a small town about 45 minutes away from Doğubeyazit. Upon seeing our interest, they offered to take us there so we could enjoy it. I was ecstatic! I had never been to a hot spring before and had always wanted to go to one. In fact, I had been reading about the springs near Bursa and was hoping to have the opportunity to visit those while I was in Turkey.
They took us back to our hotel and we got a change of clothes and put our newly acquired carpets away. They did ask as a small favor for us to help them fill up his gas tank in his van. We were a bit surprised because generally Turkish people do not ask us for anything in return when they are hospitable. Truthfully, the van was not that nice and they probably did not have a lot of money. They weren't poor by Turkish standards, but probably not rich either. I didn't mind giving them money since they were showing us around and being very nice to us. Basically, we were paying for our own personalized tour of the area, which was fine by me! The older guy confessed to us that he was actually a mountain guide for Mt. Ararat and said that if we ever wanted to climb it with him, we could let him now and we could come along with a group he was leading. He said we would only have to pay for the equipment and nothing else...which was incredibly nice of him. I seriously considered taking him up on the offer. Climbing Ararat would be amazing! Perhaps one day I will...
We made our way away from town. None of us knew how far the place was. I don't know about the others, but after 30 minutes or so of driving, I was a little concerned. The fact that we had trusted several people on this trip so far and not been in danger had not escaped my notice. I wondered how many more times we could test fate before something bad happened. Luckily, we didn't test it enough as my slight apprehension turned out to be for nothing.
We drove through the town of Diyadin and made our way towards the springs. The landscape became much more rocky. Once upon a time, this area had been very geologically active. After another 5 or so minutes of driving, we came to a group of small buildings. In two or three different places near it, water was flowing out of the ground. As it met the cool, evening air, steam was given off of the openings. The water felt nice on cold hands. The opening and the area where the water was flowing had turned white. The minerals in the water had calcified on the rock. Additionally, the entire area smelled of sulfur. Our new friends obviously knew the attendant and told us that we could have one of the family rooms for an hour in a few minutes.
In the meantime we took a walk around the place, admiring the geological feature. It was actually a pretty cool thing. The sun was setting and it was quite cold outside. It couldnt have been more than 40 or 45 degrees.
Finally, we went inside the room. It was a pool the size of a small swimming pool. A white pipe from the geological feature siphoned water into the pool. The spring itself was scalding! Way above what I would have considered comfortable to swim in. When I hung my feet in the water, they felt like they were on fire! The room with the pool had no ceiling, allowing us to observe the starlit night. Although the facilities weren't exactly luxury accommodations, the atmosphere was nice.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, everyone had jumped in and began soaking in the spring except me. I was still lying shirtless on the side of the pool. Metin and Saffet began making funny of me, telling me that I should be able to do it if two girls can. As I slowly tried to submerge myself into the water, I would quickly jump out because it was so hot. So the first 40 minutes or so of us being there consisted of me alternating between getting cold outside of the pool, partially submerging my body until it felt like it was on fire (all of about 30 seconds) and repeating the process. After the 45 minute mark, I was able to swim a bit before jumping out in the same fashion. After about an hour and a half, we had had enough and got dressed and got back in the car towards Doğubeyazit.
The conversation in the car was especially interesting for me. Because these guys were Kurdish, I began asking them questions about their voting behavior and the DTP. I was curious if they voted for AKP, if they liked them, why they voted for the DTP, etc. I wish I had understood the issue more at the time. I think I could have asked more insightful and interesting questions...but at this point in my Turkish experience, I was still trying to learn about it. It turns out that they both vote for DTP simply because it is Kurdish. They knew very little about how the DTP stood on certain issues and whether they supported those stances (this could also be because they werent able to express themselves in English but I find this unlikely because I found their English to be quite good...especially by Eastern standards!).
We went back to town and made our way to the restaurant where we would meet the carpet dealer from the afternoon. We had a lovely meal (some sort of kebab if I remember correctly...but then again...weren't all of my meals?). After our meal, they invited us to dance. The dance was the exact same one we did in Urfa, so we all already knew the drill. It was a fun time and I think everyone enjoyed ourselves. It's always nice to make new friends.
I did notice when our new friend wanted to pay the bill, his wallet contained dollars and euros in addition to Turkish lira. He told us that all proceeds from the carpet sales went to a home for Kurdish women (I think he was trying to tell us it was for a good cause). However, the different foreign currencies in his wallet made me a bit skeptical. He did pay for our dinner though which was cool. So after only 1 day, we had hit the highlights of Doğubeyazit!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Day 6 - Van (April 28, 2009)
We woke up on our second day in Van. Elif got on the bus that morning and headed to her family's house near Kars. It was just me, Em, and Sonya. For the first time, we were without Elif to help us with Turkish.
We tried to ask the hotel staff how to get to the Hoşap Castle. We took Em's guidebook out and showed it to them and pointed. Unfortunately, no one at the desk could speak enough English (or even do enough pointing) to help us! They told us to wait and fetched Bayram (this was in fact THE Bayram of the Hotel Bayram). The owner of the hotel was a very gifted man who could speak several languages including English, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, Russian, and Italian. Additionally, he could speak backwards! He even demonstrated it for us! I imagine the language skills were good for business. We were able to explain to him what we were looking for and he was able to help us. However, as Turkish and Kurdish custom dictates, we were obligated to sit with him in his office for some tea. He was actually very interesting to speak to. He told us about his son in Istanbul and asked us about who we are and what were studying.
Armed with Em's guidebook, we continued our adventure. We knew this was going to be interesting without Elif to help us.
We took a dolmuş southeast of Van to a place called Hoşap Castle. The castle was built in 1643 by a local Kurdish chieftain. Apparently, the chieftain was so pleased with the castle that he chopped off both of the builder's hands so that it would be impossible for him to build another castle like this one. Unfortunately, we arrived out of season and only got to see the castle from the outside. During summer, one can go inside and see the thousands of rooms that used to exist. We climbed to the top of the hill and took some neat pictures.
We then walked around the base of the hill and had the opportunity to see some of the village life. The children looked at us strangely. I imagine they are not used to seeing many foreigners...especially at this time of the year. We walked back to the main part of the village, which consisted of only 4 buildings of business and began waiting for a dolmuş to come.
I spoke to a guy and told him that we were waiting for a dolmuş and he said he would help us. Apparently, the dolmuş service is less frequent on that particular road out of the high season. A few minutes later the guy beckoned for us to follow him to a car.
The car was much nicer than any of the cars we had seen around the area. I don't remember the make or the model, but it seemed like an acura or something similar. It was very normal for an American car, but in eastern Turkey less than 30 miles from the Iranian border, it was downright strange. Furthermore, the two guys were wearing suits...also strange. We reluctantly entered the car and began talking to them. It turns out that they were both Kurdish who had just entered the country in their car from Iran! Apparently, one guy was an Iranian Kurd and the other was an Iraqi Kurd. We weren't sure what to talk about with the limited Turkish we had (luckily for us they both spoke Turkish) but we tried. The bulk of the car ride was spent using what little Turkish we knew (with the help of our handy-dandy Turkish-English dictionary) to teach us some words in Kurdish. They loved the fact that we made a concerted effort to speak in Kurdish! When we would try to say things they would smile. They took us all the way to çavuştepe, which is where we were trying to go next. It was right on their way. When they dropped us off, not only would they not take any money, they tried to pay for our museum tickets too! We explained to them that we had Muze Karts and that it wasn't necessary. We then hugged them and said "zor spas" (Thank you very much) in Kurdish and left them.
çavuştepe was once the site of a major palace in ancient Urartia. Although not much of it is left now, there was still quite a bit to see. There were two fortress ruins. In the open ruins you could see sort of what the different rooms were for. Luckily, when we arrived we were the only ones there. The caretaker of the place happened to be an expert in ancient Urartia and spoke some English. He had been to Los Angeles on conventions about the ancient civilization. He gave us a personal tour telling us all about the ruins and what each place was used for. It was really fantastic. The most amazing part was that this guy had actually taught himself how to cuniform (the type of writing used by many ancient civlizations including the Urartians). He translated some of the inscriptions on the base of the ruins for us. Of course the tour ended, as all tours end, in a place where something can be sold. In this case, they happened to be hand-carved things out of stone. In addition to studying ancient Urartia, our tour guide was an expert at hand-making things out of solid stone. Uncle Barry advised me before I went to Turkey that if I ever saw anything really cool that I should just buy it. This was the first instance in which I saw something truly cool enough to buy. So I did!
We were able to find a dolmuş back into town by flagging one down pretty easily. We then began walking around Van, looking for the dolmuş station (we had to go to a different one) to go to the university in Van (I can't remember the name of it). The reason we wanted to go here was because we wanted to see the famous Van cats. The city of Van is famous for its white cats because they have two different eye colors: one blue and one brown. Unfortunately, because they were so rare, people began taking them in as pets and they cannot be found on the streets anymore. The only place is the Kedi evi, which literally means cat house on this university.
On our way to find the dolmuş, we ran into our Iraqi Kurdish friend who had taken us to çavuştepe! We were very surprised to see him again because Van is not exactly a small town with a population of over 300,000 people. He broke conversation with the person he was speaking to and lead us to the dolmuş that we needed to take. He even paid for all of our transit to the kedi evi and would not take no for an answer.
After a bit of a walk to where the dolmuş dropped us off, we finally made it to the kedi evi. Interestingly, the thing was a two story house that was completely inhabited by the cats. The fence surrounding it was tall, but I think I could have climbed it. I would have done so if it weren't for the security cameras installed all around the place. These people really take their cats seriously! Unfortunately, the house was closed and the cats were far enough away from the fence that they were difficult to see. Close to the house, however, was the college's school of veterinary medicine.
We went into the building to ask if anyone perhaps could open the kedi evi for us to see. Unfortunately, no one could. As a result of this adventure, we did make a new friend. Cihan was a student at the veterinary school who had just gotten off of class for the day. He offered to take us back to Van and show us Van Caslte (one of the last big things we would have a chance to see and one of the biggest things on my list).
Cihan took us to the castle and began showing us around. A little kid, who could only speak Turkish wanted to give us a tour and charge for it. We said no, but he was persistent and began giving the tour anyway. Cihan translated for us so that we could have information about the old castle. It was built on a massive rock, allowing us to see all of Van, the surrounding mountains, and beautiful view of Lake Van. After we climbed around the castle, we saw an old abandoned minaret. We got the chance to climb to the top, which was really cool for me because in most mosques you are not permitted to do so. It was old and ruined, but provided the best view possible. Cihan rewarded the young kid for his persistence and gave him some money. As soon as he offered the boy money, we told him that we could give it instead. The kid understood and seemed to think that this was a good idea for both Cihan and us to give him money. Cihan refused to let us though.
He then invited us to his home. We went and met his two roommates. They turned the TV to the only English channel they had (with Turkish subtitles) for us to watch. They offered us food but we weren't too hungry. We did end up playing batak (a Turkish card game taught to me by Umut and Altug). Cihan could not believe I knew how to play it! He was so surprised. I showed Em and Sonya my hand so they could learn how to play. However, they had a fourth friend come over and that friend ended up teaching Em and Sonya how to play another card game. After Cihan and I won in batak (yes we are awesome), we went to a cafe to play backgammon (I had boasted to him that I was pretty decent after playing so much with Umut). Unfortunately, I still got my ass kicked...but at least it was fun for everyone else to watch! All in all it was a lot of fun and it was neat to be hanging out with Turkish college students again (after we had been travelling for almost a week). It was certainly a nice change of pace for the trip.
Upon returning to our hotel room, we discovered that we could not open the door. No matter how hard we tried, there was a problem with the door. The person from across the way heard us trying to open the door. At first he tried to help, but it was a lost cause. We eventually had to call and ask the hotel staff to help us, which took them a while too because they basically had to unscrew the entire doorknob for us to get in our room. In the meantime the other guy was curious about us and invited us into his room. With the little Turkish we knew, talking to him was like playing a game of charades. We would use our hands for the words we didn't know. Sonya and Em got mad at me because he was saying how good my Turkish was and how theirs wasn't that good. It was actually kind of funny to see Em get worked up about it...but I love her to death.
Finally, after a long and exhausting day we were able to go back to our room and go to sleep.
We tried to ask the hotel staff how to get to the Hoşap Castle. We took Em's guidebook out and showed it to them and pointed. Unfortunately, no one at the desk could speak enough English (or even do enough pointing) to help us! They told us to wait and fetched Bayram (this was in fact THE Bayram of the Hotel Bayram). The owner of the hotel was a very gifted man who could speak several languages including English, Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, Russian, and Italian. Additionally, he could speak backwards! He even demonstrated it for us! I imagine the language skills were good for business. We were able to explain to him what we were looking for and he was able to help us. However, as Turkish and Kurdish custom dictates, we were obligated to sit with him in his office for some tea. He was actually very interesting to speak to. He told us about his son in Istanbul and asked us about who we are and what were studying.
Armed with Em's guidebook, we continued our adventure. We knew this was going to be interesting without Elif to help us.
We took a dolmuş southeast of Van to a place called Hoşap Castle. The castle was built in 1643 by a local Kurdish chieftain. Apparently, the chieftain was so pleased with the castle that he chopped off both of the builder's hands so that it would be impossible for him to build another castle like this one. Unfortunately, we arrived out of season and only got to see the castle from the outside. During summer, one can go inside and see the thousands of rooms that used to exist. We climbed to the top of the hill and took some neat pictures.
We then walked around the base of the hill and had the opportunity to see some of the village life. The children looked at us strangely. I imagine they are not used to seeing many foreigners...especially at this time of the year. We walked back to the main part of the village, which consisted of only 4 buildings of business and began waiting for a dolmuş to come.
I spoke to a guy and told him that we were waiting for a dolmuş and he said he would help us. Apparently, the dolmuş service is less frequent on that particular road out of the high season. A few minutes later the guy beckoned for us to follow him to a car.
The car was much nicer than any of the cars we had seen around the area. I don't remember the make or the model, but it seemed like an acura or something similar. It was very normal for an American car, but in eastern Turkey less than 30 miles from the Iranian border, it was downright strange. Furthermore, the two guys were wearing suits...also strange. We reluctantly entered the car and began talking to them. It turns out that they were both Kurdish who had just entered the country in their car from Iran! Apparently, one guy was an Iranian Kurd and the other was an Iraqi Kurd. We weren't sure what to talk about with the limited Turkish we had (luckily for us they both spoke Turkish) but we tried. The bulk of the car ride was spent using what little Turkish we knew (with the help of our handy-dandy Turkish-English dictionary) to teach us some words in Kurdish. They loved the fact that we made a concerted effort to speak in Kurdish! When we would try to say things they would smile. They took us all the way to çavuştepe, which is where we were trying to go next. It was right on their way. When they dropped us off, not only would they not take any money, they tried to pay for our museum tickets too! We explained to them that we had Muze Karts and that it wasn't necessary. We then hugged them and said "zor spas" (Thank you very much) in Kurdish and left them.
çavuştepe was once the site of a major palace in ancient Urartia. Although not much of it is left now, there was still quite a bit to see. There were two fortress ruins. In the open ruins you could see sort of what the different rooms were for. Luckily, when we arrived we were the only ones there. The caretaker of the place happened to be an expert in ancient Urartia and spoke some English. He had been to Los Angeles on conventions about the ancient civilization. He gave us a personal tour telling us all about the ruins and what each place was used for. It was really fantastic. The most amazing part was that this guy had actually taught himself how to cuniform (the type of writing used by many ancient civlizations including the Urartians). He translated some of the inscriptions on the base of the ruins for us. Of course the tour ended, as all tours end, in a place where something can be sold. In this case, they happened to be hand-carved things out of stone. In addition to studying ancient Urartia, our tour guide was an expert at hand-making things out of solid stone. Uncle Barry advised me before I went to Turkey that if I ever saw anything really cool that I should just buy it. This was the first instance in which I saw something truly cool enough to buy. So I did!
We were able to find a dolmuş back into town by flagging one down pretty easily. We then began walking around Van, looking for the dolmuş station (we had to go to a different one) to go to the university in Van (I can't remember the name of it). The reason we wanted to go here was because we wanted to see the famous Van cats. The city of Van is famous for its white cats because they have two different eye colors: one blue and one brown. Unfortunately, because they were so rare, people began taking them in as pets and they cannot be found on the streets anymore. The only place is the Kedi evi, which literally means cat house on this university.
On our way to find the dolmuş, we ran into our Iraqi Kurdish friend who had taken us to çavuştepe! We were very surprised to see him again because Van is not exactly a small town with a population of over 300,000 people. He broke conversation with the person he was speaking to and lead us to the dolmuş that we needed to take. He even paid for all of our transit to the kedi evi and would not take no for an answer.
After a bit of a walk to where the dolmuş dropped us off, we finally made it to the kedi evi. Interestingly, the thing was a two story house that was completely inhabited by the cats. The fence surrounding it was tall, but I think I could have climbed it. I would have done so if it weren't for the security cameras installed all around the place. These people really take their cats seriously! Unfortunately, the house was closed and the cats were far enough away from the fence that they were difficult to see. Close to the house, however, was the college's school of veterinary medicine.
We went into the building to ask if anyone perhaps could open the kedi evi for us to see. Unfortunately, no one could. As a result of this adventure, we did make a new friend. Cihan was a student at the veterinary school who had just gotten off of class for the day. He offered to take us back to Van and show us Van Caslte (one of the last big things we would have a chance to see and one of the biggest things on my list).
Cihan took us to the castle and began showing us around. A little kid, who could only speak Turkish wanted to give us a tour and charge for it. We said no, but he was persistent and began giving the tour anyway. Cihan translated for us so that we could have information about the old castle. It was built on a massive rock, allowing us to see all of Van, the surrounding mountains, and beautiful view of Lake Van. After we climbed around the castle, we saw an old abandoned minaret. We got the chance to climb to the top, which was really cool for me because in most mosques you are not permitted to do so. It was old and ruined, but provided the best view possible. Cihan rewarded the young kid for his persistence and gave him some money. As soon as he offered the boy money, we told him that we could give it instead. The kid understood and seemed to think that this was a good idea for both Cihan and us to give him money. Cihan refused to let us though.
He then invited us to his home. We went and met his two roommates. They turned the TV to the only English channel they had (with Turkish subtitles) for us to watch. They offered us food but we weren't too hungry. We did end up playing batak (a Turkish card game taught to me by Umut and Altug). Cihan could not believe I knew how to play it! He was so surprised. I showed Em and Sonya my hand so they could learn how to play. However, they had a fourth friend come over and that friend ended up teaching Em and Sonya how to play another card game. After Cihan and I won in batak (yes we are awesome), we went to a cafe to play backgammon (I had boasted to him that I was pretty decent after playing so much with Umut). Unfortunately, I still got my ass kicked...but at least it was fun for everyone else to watch! All in all it was a lot of fun and it was neat to be hanging out with Turkish college students again (after we had been travelling for almost a week). It was certainly a nice change of pace for the trip.
Upon returning to our hotel room, we discovered that we could not open the door. No matter how hard we tried, there was a problem with the door. The person from across the way heard us trying to open the door. At first he tried to help, but it was a lost cause. We eventually had to call and ask the hotel staff to help us, which took them a while too because they basically had to unscrew the entire doorknob for us to get in our room. In the meantime the other guy was curious about us and invited us into his room. With the little Turkish we knew, talking to him was like playing a game of charades. We would use our hands for the words we didn't know. Sonya and Em got mad at me because he was saying how good my Turkish was and how theirs wasn't that good. It was actually kind of funny to see Em get worked up about it...but I love her to death.
Finally, after a long and exhausting day we were able to go back to our room and go to sleep.
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