Facing the option of either remaining in the waiting room for no one knows how long with hungry, tired and fed up children (and parents) or to squeeze all eight of us into one car to go to one of the underground cities, our choice was pretty easy. Carefully we drove one very packed land rover to nearby Derinkuyu, one of the biggest underground cities.
måndag 24 mars 2008
Turkey, Cappadocia
Facing the option of either remaining in the waiting room for no one knows how long with hungry, tired and fed up children (and parents) or to squeeze all eight of us into one car to go to one of the underground cities, our choice was pretty easy. Carefully we drove one very packed land rover to nearby Derinkuyu, one of the biggest underground cities.
Turkey, Pamukkale
Trying to catch frogspawn. /Pentax
Luka and Tanja happy in 26 degree warm water. /Pentax
Turkey, Ayvalik - Selcuk
In search for an ancient monastery... /Pentax
Tuvalie on a sunny beach. /Pentax
The next day we woke to a chilly wind and so decided to move on. Our next destination was Selcuk. On the way there we stopped off for a picnic at the Acropolis at Bergama, a very windy but pretty ancient Roman city. In Selcuk we had planned to visit the famous and most extensive remains of a Roman city, Ephesus. But being short of both money and time we left without going in the end. We were looking forward to Pamukkale instead, the natural hot springs…
Acropolis at Bergama. /Pentax
An empty pool makes a convenient playground... /Pentax
Turkey, Iznik
The tourist information told us to get hold of the tourist police and gave us a description. On the way there we did a wrong turn and ended up at a bus parking. As we have experienced, people in Turkey are very friendly, and this town was no exception. They immediately made space for us to park and gathered around the cars. Milan told some of the locals about the trip and that we are filming (in something between English and Turkish (which he cannot speak)). A guy who spoke german arrived after some time. His name is Timur HATۤۤۤ۠іPOĞLU and he works with selling tractors (a very lucrative business it seems since every second vehicle in Iznik is a tractor). Timur knows the Governor and called him as well as the tourist police. They wanted to show us where we could camp and Milan was shown along the beach of the relatively large lake of a circumference of ninety kilometres. They wanted to show the nicest places, we could camp wherever. It ended with them giving us the opportunity to stay at a house that during summer is used for youngsters learning to sail – the only house on the beach. We got escorted there by a police car with the blue lights on. Talk about a nice welcome! From the veranda of more than thirty square meters we had a view of the lake that lies as quicksilver in the sunset.
The fantastic view from our terrace. /Pentax
Tuvalie and Luka inspecting the famous Iznik ceramics. /Pentax
Lina and Oliver in front of the green mosque
Turkish tourists fascinated by our kids :) /Pentax
The day we left we passed by Timur’s office and got an unexpected round tour around the town during which he showed us an old aqueduct, an old gate to the town and a really nice view of Iznik.
söndag 16 mars 2008
Turkey, Istanbul
Left:Helpful camping owner showing Lina nice places in Turkey. Right: Mysterious man flushed out of the sea. /Pentax
Next morning we drove into Istanbul. We where all struck by the beauty of this enormous city (20 million). Following recommendations from the Lonely Planet we checked in at Bahaus Hostel at a place called SultanAhmet. This hostel turned out to be one of the best we ever stayed at, even before our trip. The entire place is very, very cosy and the view from the terrace overviews the Bosporus in one direction and the beautiful blue Mosque in the other.
Sultanahmet area with view from Bahaus hostel. /Pentax
Outside the hostel a local kebabman presented the first generous trade offer to Lina and Richard. He would happily swap his “wheels” with their Landy. I guess that there will be occasions when they will regret not accepting the deal :)
Man who wanted to swap wheels. /Pentax
The last day in Istanbul we decided to cross the water and visit the Asian side. Here Richard and Lina met a man who proudly stated that two kids is just a starter as compared to him self who have 16. In fact, having the kids around us attracts an enormous attention wherever we go and funny enough everybody think we have two pairs of twins. Having twins in Turkey is something very special and honourable, apparently. A bit less pleasant for the kids is that everybody pulls their cheeks, in particular Tuvalie and Luka find it annoying.
Father of many kids talking to Richard and Lina. /Pentax
The last nights at the hostel we became friends with “Nedzo”, the owner. He is a fantastic character who has travelled a lot. He kindly advised us on “must see” sites in the west part of Turkey. In fact it is not only seeing new places that is going to be an new experience according to him, but also meeting people even more friendly than what we have experienced this far. We don’t know if that is possible and with this in mind we set of to Iznik, the first town on Nedzo’s list.
lördag 15 mars 2008
Greece
Agios, off-season. /Pentax
Our next stop (Agois in Chalkidiki) turned out to be a real ghost town this time of the year. Every house was boarded and hardly anyone in sight. We all felt that this part of Greece this time of the year (very much off-season!) was not that alive and we just wanted to move on to get to Turkey as soon as possible. We headed on in the morning for one last cold camp night by the sea (just outside Alexandroupolis) and then we crossed the border...
lördag 1 mars 2008
Montenegro-Albania-Macedonia
Children playing on bunkers./Pentax
We spent three nights in Macedonia in a hotel in the UNESCO city Ohrid. The first day we spent walking around the town, in the market and along the waterside. Richard had a haircut/face and back massage and two hair washes all for about 3 Euros. In the evening we were recommended a well known fish restaurant so we thought we give it a go. It was very nice but possibly the most expensive place to eat we could have found.
Monastery. /Pentax
Pickled peppers and Macedonian brandy. /Pentax
Stone throwing contest./Pentax
Kolasin-Montenegro
Filming and slack lining in the mountains of Montenegro. / Pentax
The unfortunate blessing of its natural beauty, these lands are being bought by foreigners (in particular Russians and Albanians) and the tension building up within the locals is as evident here as in the rest of the country. Montenegro suffers from an enormous contrast between the very few rich, mostly gangsters and Russians, and the many poor.
Milan's Grandfather's brother, Miso, cutting his plumtrees. From the plums he makes Slivovitz (very strong spirit). /Pentax