End of Ramadan....finally !

Our next story started right after leaving Ibrahim's family and Ortahisar. Our first plan was to take the direction towards Mediteranian Sea, because nights there are warm and looking for a place to sleep wouldn't have been such a hassle then.

But plans are for making, not for living ...

Sam and John picked us up. A turkish-irish couple, going to visit Sam's mother for the end of the holy month of Ramadan. After getting to know we are open to anything, Sam suddenly said: "You know what, let's go to my village !"

We spent 2 days in an undiscovered part of Kapadokya - a small village of Bahçeli - together wıth Sam, John, super-grandmother and gang of Bahçeli men...














...and boys.




























At some point when getting to know the surroundings of Bahçeli, we had a çay at young shepards' house...















They uncovered us a huge Kapadokyan-style barn for 400 sheep.














Hitch-hiking away from Bahçeli was funny...














The last time when Branko drove any machine was 4 years ago .....in Turkey...:-)

The interesting facts about Turkey and Islam , that we (re)discovered:

1. End of Ramadan for moslim people is like a mixure of Christmas and halloween for western cultures. Big feast for adults and candy-tour from house to house for children.

2. The reason why old moslim people are still so flexible and vital, comes from praying 5 times a day, which is actually combination of concentrated mind and excercises for back and the rest of the body.

3. Moslim people do not eat pork. Why? Because pig is the only domestic animal who eats everything, including its species mates.

4. When mentioning the name "Kadri" turkish people only sneer, because Kadri/Kadir is a male's name here. So during our stay in Turkey, we decided to change Kadri into Kadriye (popular turkish female name). Branko, however, everybody hears for the first time. And so as a old guy from Bahçeli said: "Allah bir, Branko bir!" (There is one God, there is one Branko).

Kapadokya psychedelia

Two days in Ordahisar

Petrol cistern tank car picked us up.

After opening the door, the first thing that cought the view was a huge cabbage, next the serious face behind the steering-wheel - Ibrahim was his name.

We tried to develop some kind of conversation with him, but he stayed reserved and unemotional. After he got to know that we have no place to sleep and probably will have to sleep in a tent (which we actually do not have), we got an invitation from him.
We did not quite understand if he wanted to offer us place in his garden where to put up our tent (which we did not have) or a place in his house, but nevertheless we decided to go with him and see what will happen.

Nights in Kapadokya are not the warmest at this time of the year, so we were open to any opportunities.

He drove to the petrol station in Ordahisar, heart of Kapadokya, and after cistern with petrol had been emptied, we climbed up to his tractor and he drove us to his home.

It was a two-flat-house wıth big garden and a perfect view to the valley.
















After we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by his 4 daughters - 12-year-old Elif, 9-year-old Fatma, 7-year-old hyperactive Yasemin and 1,5-year-old Esra. Ibrahim's wife quickly started to clean up the second flat for us.
Wow, we were gıven the whole flat !
















As we were all together waiting for Ezan (praying from the Mosque) in the garden, we supplemented our turkish dictionary with some animal and fruit names.

Dinner was rich and delicious. That is the turkish way.

We were like toys that father brought home to his children.
They loved us.
And we loved spending time with them.
During the two days of our staying, we were jumping, singing, walking, swinging, standing on one leg, standing on the other, clapping, whistling, drawing, learning, teaching, laughing, watching fairy tales... simply having a great times with small girls filled with energy and happiness.

The ghost vıllage

When we came to Selime, the small village somewhere in Kapadokya, it was already getting dark. The Azzane from local mosque let people know, that they can start eating - this was one of the last days of Ramadan.

Small boy Mohammet joined us and started to chat with us, showing everything around. Here is the place where his grandma lives, there is one uncle and cousin. Their village was partly in caved houses in cliff and partly in stony houses.

Our intention was to find the place to spend the night without anybody knowing where we were. So we were trying to be on our own. Mohammet was very nice and polite though. As we were slowly leaving habited part of village he started to look scary and was trying to warn us about something.

"Burada çok caravar var !"
"Burada çok caravar var !"













We had no idea what was he trying to explain us, but his gestures and mimics were quite expressive. He did not continue, just started to say "Hello, money". After we gave him nothing and simply said good bye, he went away with a disappointment.















All Turkish children are so sweet, until they start asking for money.

The evening in the cave house balcony was magical. Starry night and late Azzane singing from the mosque enriched our senses. And morning view to impressive Hassan Dağ volcano was simply beautiful.






















































In the morning, after having stomachs full of grapes that grew near our house, we tried to enter to Ihlara valley through the official entrance. Tickets costed 10 Lira (~5 EUR) per person. After short bargling, we could bring the price to the half, so 10 Liras for both of us.
We knew we can do even better.
So when going little further to the road and starting to hh away from that place, the turkish heart of the ticket salesman won over the businessman attitude. He called us back and let us pass for free.

































































Later, few days after this evening, our friend translated the sentence that little Mohammet wrote on a piece of paper:

"Burada çok caravar var !" - There are ghosts here !

Ankara

After night in hotel and little walk in waking Gerede, we headed to Ankara.

Turkish hospitality is endless.
We were picked up by a driver who bought us pears, took us to restaurant for a çai and turkish desert.
Near Ankara a bus stopped for us in the middle of the road.
We said: autostop, para yok
They said: gel gel, problem yok

In Ankara we were supposed to meet our host Asli in Kızılay center. We came off from the bus near a metro station. As we had no turkish money (after 3 days in turkey it was still not necessary) we asked if they accept if we buy the tickets for dollars or euros. They did not.
Lots of people gathered around us, one tryed to help us in German, the other in English.
Finally, as it is custom in Turkey - problem yok - so, the ticket sellers and security opened the gates for us for free...

Thank you, Asli, for your hospitality and help !

Turkish police - arkadash

Although the weather was cloudy and rainy, we still decided to leave the home of Laurence and Axel, because sitting on the back side of the van all day long, was not the way we imagined our trip.

So we gave ourselves into the hands of Turkey and Turkish people.

It was still Ramadan period. It is a period of appreciating the food and water, that we have been given, by not putting any piece of food or any drop of water into the body from the sunrise tıll the sunset. So it is very common that soon after it has turned dark outside, people start eating and inviting anybody who is near to join.

We joined 3 Turkish men in the petrol station. The bread and chicken tasted so good, especially after having our own "sort of Ramadan day".

After one truck put us off near the city of Gerede, we found ourselves in the cold windy Turkish mountain area night, with no idea of where we gonna sleep tonight. We started to walk until a police car stopped next to us and asked what are we doing in the night in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks to Branko's sufficient Turkish language, we managed to explain them: "tourists, autostop, no money, problem, rain, cold, no idea where to sleep, maybe tent by the road, Turkey beautiful country...." they took us into their car and went patrolling with us, at the same time trying to figure out what to do with us.

So eventually they came up with the plan to put me into some kind of "woman's only" place and Branko could have been sleeping in the police station. Probably because we did not seam to be very satisfied with the plan of being separated, they took us both to the police station to meet the big boss in order to find further solutions.

The whole station was so excited. After a friendly chat with the Commissar and the rest of the police gang, they asked if it would be ok for us if they will put us into hotel for that night.

We said: "para yok" (no money)
They said: "problem yok" (no problem)

So, we were taken to the hotel by the secret police.
One of them went first alone in the hotel, had a 5 min chat with the receptionist and after that we were given the keys of our double room and wished a nice trip to Ankara the next day.

Voulez vous aller avec nous ?

Next day, 12. Sept, our new adventure started.

We were picked up near Thessaloniki by a french hippie family. Laurence behind the steering-wheel and 9-year-old Axel, soon about to become 10, on the front seat.
We were welcomed ın their home.



























And .... we all had the same direction - India.

The question of where to spend our next night was also easily solved.
As driving around with the van, looking for a nice place for night stop, we eventually ended up on the Marmara Sea coast (still high altitude enough, to prevent the floods of western Turkey from troubling us). Accidentally our way crossed wıth a french techno-people caravans.
So it was a traditional turkish french evening. French people usually have troubles with foreign languages, but even if the communication was not excellent, food was delicious.

Sleeping ın van was peaceful, unlike thousands of evacuated people from region. Army in the streets and rescue helicopters ın the air were saving people from their flooded houses.

We continued with Laurence and Axel the next day too, until we crossed İstanbul area.

Thessaloniki reggae

Chaotic Greek city of Thessaloniki, hometown of Arıstoteles, attracted us only few hours.























































































In the afternoon, we decided to leave the city and go somewhere else, to spend the night on the beach.

Hitchhiking ın Greece is not the easiest, but after few minutes we were sitting in the car.

İt was a great pleasure for us to meet Tasos, sit in view-point restaurant above Thessaloniki and talk about Greek history, food and language. The food was really delicious.
Ouzo, oh Ouzo... were there really rats running around restaurant yard, or we drank too much ?















We made our second attempt to leave Thessaloniki, but thanks to nice offer from Tasos, we got a very cozy place to spend the night.

Thank you, Tasos !

MΠPANKO ΣKOKAN and KANTPI POΥΛ

Benzine and Disco Polo night

If you want to go to Greece, just go to Kosice, take tram nr 4 to the last stop, start hitchhiking near the Pope statue and wave specıally to polish cars !
We dıd ıt!
So, ınstead of goıng to Romanıa, where we had already organized accommodation through CS, we ended up ın Greece near Thessaloniki ın the morning. The driver was like a dwarf - he stopped the car for us, took us to Greece and disappared. And it did not matter, that we didn't even got to know his name. The most important was that we had a chance to listen to polish disco polo music all night and inhalate strong smell of Serbian petrol.

So, we are going...

Goodbye Poprad, 10. september 2009