Turkeylicious

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Well you have heard from Ryan, and now it is my turn to give you a little insight about this little adventue…this is a long one so you might want to take your shoes and socks off, get a nice cold glass of iced tea, put your reading glassses on and settle in for a tale of two wandering souls in search of the almighty paradise called Mongolia.

First let me tell you about the drive that Ryan refuses to speak of, and there is a good reason for that I might add. We were driving from Varna, Bulgaria, to Istanbul, Turkey, which on the map was only a 6 hour drive…something that we welcomed with open arms after having been on previous drives 12+ hours. Anyway, the map did not mention that there was a huge mountain range between Bulgaria and Turkey…and when i say huge i mean like 75 kilometeres of mountain driving. Ryan took this leg, and proceeded to scare the absolute shit out of me by driving what seemed like a million miles per hour all over this mountain. (It was really only like 35 or 40, but it seemed like a million.) It was also dark, without any signs, and no other cars were on the road at all. Oh yeah, and the road had not been maintianed so it was like playing “avoid the pothole that will snap your car in half.” Sounds like fun I know, but I really don’t reccomend it to anyone. We finally arrived in Turkey a little shaken and emotionally drained (mountain speed driving seems to do that to a person).

Fast forward a little…(Ryan already told you about some of Istanbul). We woke up the next day at 2pm, we had arrived in Istanbul at 5:30am, in search of a place to purchase some much need goods. We went to the 6 story mall where we found nothing that we needed and were unable to bargain with any of the shop owners. What did we do you ask…we then headed to the Grand Bazzar, a place where we knew that we could haggle over prices. We emerged victoriously and then made the decision to head straight to Baku, Azerbaijan traveling along the coast of Turkey. So after taking pictures with the Hilton staff and our car we set out. Let me tell you, Turkey is by far and away the most beautiful and interesting country that we have been to…hands down.

Traveling the Turkish countryside we drove through the night taking 4 hour driving shifts, and during our drive some of the most wonderful and unexpected things happened. Most importantly…EVERY STEREOTYPE THAT AMERICANS COULD HAVE OR COULD THINK OF HAVING ABOUT THE TURKISH PEOPLE OR MUSLIMS WAS SHATTERED.

We were driving throught the city of Lapzon around 11:00am when a little red car passed us honking and waving. Naturally we waved back because people tend to honk at us a lot. The car then slowed down after a minute or two and let us catch up with it. They motioned for us to pull over and made some type of hand gesture. We did and immediately one of the passengers jumped out and came over to our car. He said, “my family is going out for some breakfast and we were wondering if you would like to join us?” How do you say no to that…you don’t…that is one of the main things that I have learned on this trip is that you never refuse a gift; mainly because it is offensive, and also because if someone offers you something then they are offering with the most sincere of intentions. They led us to a eatery where we met the entire family, all 12 of them. We sat down and immediately started eating and talking, through the translation of the eldest son Erdin (truly sorry if I mispelled the name). We had a cultural exchange of the highest degree, and the main point that they wanted to show us, even before they found out that we were Americans, was that the Turkish and Muslims do not want to harm anyone…if anything it is the complete opposite, and because they were interested in Ryan and I, and we looked tired and hungry they took us in and fed us. “Actions speak louder than words.”

After we finished the meal they sent us packing with food to eat on the road and some pictures with the entire family around our car. We then stopped at the next gas station that we saw, in Rize, Turkey to fill up. Immediately a group of men came around the car and started to ask us questions about the nature of our journey. When they found out that we were Americans they immediately invited us to sit down and have tea with them. This turned out to be the most enlighteneing conversation that we have had on this entire journey. It was about politics and why America does the things that it does, and being unable to answer for the mistakes of Mr. Bush I had to tell them that we the people are not out for the same things that our leadership is. They understood this…once again “actions speak louder than words.” They also explained Islam to us, and then gave us a gift of Rize tea (apparently some of the best tea in the world) and asked for one thing in exchange…that we go home and tell everyone “that the Muslim people do not want to hurt anyone, and all they want is peace.” Having actually experienced this twice in the last hour I was on the verge of tears and felt that at the very least I could explain this to all that would listen. This is the reason for our journey, and there was so much more that happened but I cannot possibly write it all down…ask me about it next time you see me.

Back on the road again, we hit the Georgia border…not the one to the nort of Florida. The duties of the navigator took on a slightly different role from those previously held. Because we had no map the navigator was reduced to saying “cow, chicken, pig, horse, goat, dog, or person” every time one was standing in the road. This was a little different from telling the driver which road to take and saying stop when there was a red light and go when it turned green. There were a lot of animals to say the least. We drove for a long time and finally reached Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia). But we got lost in Tbilisi and spent an hour looking for the road to Baku. After a heated discussion we finally were able to find the way out.

We eventually reached the AZ border and were held for over an hour, but after some schmoozing and pleading they let us pass into what would become that “what in the hell did we get ourselves into moment.” The moment that we all had been waiting for…i know it.

The landscape became barren and the roads disappeared as if they were paved a long time ago, but never maintianed. :Pause…(Internal thought)…: The road to the capital city, Baku, was being repaved or at least the portions that had been previously paved were being repaved. Imagine shrinking yourself down by a lot and then getting a tiny car and driving over a cheese grader for about 4 hours…i just hope our car is still not upset at us. We were stopped by the police twice at checkpoints along the way. This is where a civilized country and a non-civilized country differentiate. The police made up charges and proceeded to foce us to give them money. Life lessons…dont ever trust anyone with gold teeth, and especially dont ever trust a police officer with gold teeth…which by the way is all of those in Baku. It is so bad, as we later found out, that it is not same for women to be out past dark–not because of the citizens, but because of the police. Imagine corruption that runs that deep. They can and will stop you for any reason, true or untrue, and make you pay them money or try and take your things (my camera, Ryan’s sunglasses), and if you don’t pay then you go to jail…Nice system Azerbiajan, I see some awards for most improved country comming your way soon.

Besides that all is well, and we are awaiting the arrival of our convoy so that we can board the ferry to cross the Caspain. At that point blog entries may become a little more scarce due to the maybe non-existent availability of technology. Nonetheless, if we have to write our posts by hand and send them back to the US by carrier-pigeon then it will be done…awesomeness says so.

Andy Out

This entry was posted on August 2, 2007 at 6:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.