More hitching, more couchsurfing and the world's oldest temple - Goodbye Turkey!

So, what has happened during the last week? Well, I made one final stop in Urfa, Turkey and then crossed the border to the Syrian city of Aleppo, my current location.

Urfa was meant to be a short stop following the recommendation by the Kurdish owner of the kebab shop in my home town. I had planned to go there by bus from Diyarbakir, but I couldn't face all the ticket touts that started competing for my attention as soon as they saw me outside the Diyarbakir bus terminal. Too much shouting, too much arm-pulling... so I decided to hitch instead. A few kilometres down the road three Kurds picked me up and gave me a ride to the a nearby police check point on the road. I didn't really know why they dropped me off there, but it didn't matter anyway as one of the police guys actually helped me to get a ride to Urfa. He stopped some of the cars, enquired where they were going and 10 minutes later I was sitting in the car with Suleman who droped me 2 hours later in the centre of Urfa... sweet! Actually, the ride was a bit awkward. I don't think Suleman would have given me a lift if the police officer hadn't stopped and asked him, so he had done the police dude a favour, not me. On top of that we had virtually no way to communicate, so I could not even offer him a conversation in return (which I am sure he would not have minded because after an hour or so he started yawning like hell). Anyway, he put a CD on after some time and later I passed him my phone with Halil on the other end, a potential couchsurfing host in Urfa. Between the two they sorted out where I would get dropped off in Urfa.

It was Saturday afternoon and I was standing on the pavement in downtown Urfa, waiting for Halil. With my big backpack on my shoulders people looked at me like I was a visitor from outer space who got lost in a foreign world. During the 10 minutes wait until Halil showed up I got offered help three times; people gave me their cell phone numbers in case I needed help later on, they offered me to take me to internet places and a middle-aged headscarf wearing woman even offered me her phone in case I wanted to ring someone. It was just amazing! Halil spotted me right away on the crowded pavement and before anyone else of the friendly Urfa people would invite me to their home he took me to Semih's place, one of his friends that I ended up staying with for the next 5 days. I think in total I met like eight or nine of Halil's friends during these days, most of them being students and/or teachers of some kind, a pretty crazy but warm and welcoming bunch. For most of the time I had my own key to Semih's flat, which was also home to the communal chill-out lounge called “The David Lynch Cinema”. What a place! We would often hang out there till late in the night, watching football on a beamer system whilst listening to lots of Goth and metal music. All the flats around us were apparently used as offices, so cranking up the volume did not annoy anyone. Only very few of the guys spoke English, but no matter what flat we were in there was always a computer with internet connection around and we could use the “google translate” service when it got too complicated.

Watching Semih's and Osman's shopping that they dumped on the street whilst they were organising a few more bits and pieces for their new flat

Goodbye meal with Halil, Semih and friends in Urfa

During my stay in Urfa I heard about a place called Göbekli Tepe, a site outside the city in the mountains where a German-Turkish research team had discovered stone temple structures dating back to 9000-10000B.C. Of course I had to go there to check it out! I made a map of how to get there, involving public transport and a 24km return hike. I ended up walking only 10km and the remaining distance I got driven around in a school bus and a private car - people are just so friendly! Once at the site you couldn't actually get close enough to touch any of the ancient structures (a lot of the area was covered up as the excavations are still ongoing, although currently they are on hold) but it was still a pretty good feeling to be there in the middle of nowhere where history gets rewritten.

Göbekli Tepe and its T-shaped stones. Separated from a stone that was erected more than 11000 years ago. The fence couldn't stop my shadow though :)

Water canal on the way back from Göbekli Tepe. With a huge number of dams and a canal network Turkey has tried to change large areas from dry to wet agriculture to increase yields.

Having spent four weeks in Turkey it was time to move on, although I easily could have spent the rest of my trip there without getting bored or disappointed. But my trip isn't open-end any more and I am too excited to see Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. And so I left Turkey with the desire to go back soon but at same time looking forward to the unknown adventures waiting for me in Syria and beyond.

First challenge in Syria, which toilet entrance is for men?

Falling off the tourist trail

So how do you manage to fall off the tourist trail? Well, hitching seems a sure way of doing it and this is exactly how I left Cappadocia. I had arrived by taxi (which is a long story for itself) and now I wanted to get out of Cappadocia for free. The plan was to hitch all the way to Adana in the South and then take whatever bus I could get to either Sanliurfa or Diyarbakir. There wasn't much traffic on the main road and it took me about an hour, a fair bit of walking and two rides to cover the 55km to Nigde. My last ride dropped me at the Nigde bus station and looking at the time I was contemplating taking a bus from there to Adana. This turned out an excellent choice because otherwise I would not have met Sinan, a sports teacher who was attending a course at Nigde university and who was on his way home to Adana. He was very keen on practising his English and so we spent the best part of the three hour ride conversing.

Nigde bus terminal where I met Sinan

Cruising South to Adana through tree-less landscape on a brand new motorway

Arriving in Adana, Sinan helped me sort out my onward bus ticket, which was going to be my first overnight bus. The departure time was midnight and I had at least five hours left to do... well, what do you do at a bus terminal? When I asked that to Sinan he decided to invite me to his home for the evening. And what an awesome evening it was! I was served plenty of delicious home-made Turkish food which his wife and mother-in-law had prepared, I showed him my “photo collection” (before leaving home I looked through the like last 10 years of my life and picked some photos to help me make conversations with locals on the road, photos that tell about me, my family, friends, hobbies and my jobs), we went on a night cruise through the city and stopped for some künefe, a hot-served Turkish desert made with cheese, and chilled out in front of his huge flatscreen TV before he gave me a ride back to the bus terminal. The hospitality of Sinan and his family were truly overwhelming, and the least I could do was leave my e-mail address behind in case he ever makes it to Germany.

My decision to go to Diyarbakir took me even further of the tourist trail. Like Antalya, Konya and Adana, it is another of these gigantic boom-towns (it is more than 10km from the bus terminal on the outskirts to the city centre, and there is nothing but apartment buildings along the way), but this one is situated in the Kurdish dominated area of Turkey. Diyarbakir has been inhabited for more than two millennia, but barley attracts any foreign tourists. I figure that is due to the tensions between Kurds and Turkish military that have led to clashes here in the past, and even fatalities. I have seen some heavily protected military bases here and the odd armoured vehicle on the road, but other than that it is just a normal place like any other. Being one of the very few tourists here I got a fair bit of attention on the old streets in the city centre and also in Mardin, a town 80km south that I visited on a day trip. So many people wanted to know where I am from and what my name is, and all but one encounters were very pleasant and friendly, like people asking me to take photos of them, offering me to dry my trousers in front of a heater after a heavy downpour or giving me bananas for free on a small local market. Okay, if you wander off the main streets you are likely to attract some kids that can accumulate into big groups. It is actually fun as long as they just ask for your name, but when they start asking for money, well... In those situations I just walked into a direction that promised a few adults around, and the first elder would usually tell them to bugger off – which always worked. The only time I got really concerned was whilst watching some locals perform a dance in a side street. All of the sudden I found myself surrounded by a horde of teens, and they did not seem very pleased when I didn't recognise the name Abdulla Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) at first. After a short while I realised what and who they were on about. I made a prison cross bar gesture with my fingers and the atmosphere changed instantaneously. At the end they all shook my hand goodbye whilst saying “we are Kurdish” and then buggered off.

Diyarbakir's old mighty city wall...

...and a view from the city wall

This black and white design is typical for many of the mosques in Diyarbakir

Mahmoud and a life-time supply of tobacco

One of the entrance gates to the old city of Diyarbakir

From what I read I understand that the situation regarding the recognition of the Kurdish people as a minority has improved over the last years. And frankly, looking at the economical situation here people have enough to worry about as it is.

Formerly a palace entrance, now entrance to a Mardin school

Mardin in late afternoon sun

Two well behaved Mardin kids

Outdoor fun in Cappadocia

After a few relaxing days in Antalya I went to Göreme in the Cappadocia region. It is an location ideally suited for outdoor activities with the local attraction being all kinds of weird rock formations and pillars. And as if nature wasn't creative enough, people dug caves, flats and churches into many of these rocks, giving them a kind of “Swiss cheese” look. This all makes the area a big tourist attraction and almost every single “house” was either a cave hotel or cave pension, if not a shop or a restaurant. But being still in low season, the number of visitors were easily outnumbered by the number of hotels around. And yet, I met some interesting folks with interesting stories, like Jack, who met an Iranian on his trip that got kicked out of Iran for playing in a Metal band, and who is now planing to watch this man play the opening act at the Ankara Metal festival in Mid March. Or take Sasha, a crazy Dutchman, who is trying to reach Vietnam overland. He wants to travel via Pakistan but didn't know if he will be forced to take a police escort guarding him through the country. So you can imagine, I was in very good company and together we spend a couple of days roaming around in the bizarre Cappadocia landscape.

Exploring Cappadocia with Jack, Kris and Torben

Cappadocia at its finest, high up from the Uchisar rock castle

There was only one way to get out of this canyon and that was climbing up the steep walls. Thank goodness I was with Torben who lent me his arm to pull me up the tricky part.

Some of the rock carved churches have the most amazing frescoes