Monthly Archives: June 2016

Day 308 – Opportunities

Using some time after breakfast for blogging

What a blissful night! The bed was really fantastic. Our hosts had to leave for work early, but kindly allowed us to sleep in and take the time we needed. When I got up, I had a text telling me that they even left some breakfast outside for us. Thank you so much!

Last night I got a message from a good friend about a job currently on offer in Frankfurt. After having missed the opportunity to fix up my application papers in Oman while staying with Lina, I thought I would leave any job hunting until we reach my dad’s place in Würzburg. This one really was too good to let slip, I had to admit. That meant I would have to call them at some point today to get some more details. Then, I probably would need a day dedicated to writing the cover letter, wrapping up a German style CV and gathering all the required documents from their various storage places.

Isn’t Tiny cute? She pretended to sleep but kept an eye on us while we packed

After a brief discussion with Nina, we decided that a nice campground on the Turkish Mediterranean coast would be just the perfect place to do so, provided Nina would be allowed to buy her next book. 😉 So we packed our bike, said goodbye to “Villa Naz” and headed towards Kaş.

We were hoping to find a place somewhere along the way, or if not to go to the campground we heard about in Kaş. Of the attractions along the way, the only one marked as a must by Nina was the sunken Lycian city of Simena. Although this was best accessed via Üçağız, only 35 km from Kaş, so we could also do it as a day trip from there.

Beautiful coast

None of the other bits along the road really tickled our fancy that day, apart from the scenery on the coastal road section. But these were taken in anyway. We had our lunch picnic in the woods near the road after first failing to find a nice beach and then refusing to pay 40 lira to get to the one we saw from the road.

So we rolled on, with the mood getting a bit better along the coast, but my mind constantly drifting towards the job offer. What to write, what to say, how not to bumble like the fool when trying to sound professional in German (remember, no practice for four years). When we came to the turn off to Üçağız, we gave it a pass and pushed on to the campground. It was late enough that I would need to call Germany soon before they would go home for the day.

The view from our tent

The campground offered a pretty cool location. Lucky for us, not too much is going on right now. The arrangements of the camp spots has a lot in common with the locally famous sardine dishes … but it was only maybe 15% full. The host is also a bit quirky, refusing to let us get our bike down to the spot. So we had to strip the bike at the entrance without shade and have him taxi all our gear down in a cartoonish electric trike.

We finished setting up the tent and I had my call. Afterwards, I only was more excited for the job. Needs must, tomorrow I would need to set my application straight. So excited!

During dinner, cats appeared looking very hopeful

Dinner was another sad fail, on both the main and the dessert part, unfortunately. We went to a fish restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet. The place managed to go down to abysmal quality and raise their prices in the short time since our edition came out. Quite the feat. The fries were half raw and dripping and the anchovies soggy and bland. To make up for it, Nina felt like having a waffle. We both nearly choked, though when we heard that it would cost 15 lira, for a single half-cooked waffle with way too much cheap Nutella knock-off slabbed on top of it. Welcome back to tourist land …

We did jump into the sea at out campground, which made for a pretty lovely end for a very mixed day.

: Using some time after breakfast for blogging

: Isn’t Tiny cute? She pretended to sleep but kept an eye on us while we packed

: Nothing to see here; dinos coming through

: Amazing windy road right at the coast line

: One of the many, many bays along the road. Most have beaches however

: Looking along the coastal road

: A section near the road had a wall for some reason

: Beautiful coast

: One stretch of road leading inland

: The road leading towards Kaş

: The view from our tent

: Waves breaking on the rocks

: Back from a swim

: Looking towards the small town of Kaş

: Our tent in prime location 🙂

: During dinner, cats appeared looking very hopeful

Day 307 – Sürprise

Getting up and making breakfast wasn’t much better than dinner last night and I guess, we didn’t take a single picture of our camping spot 5m from the restaurant. All we wanted was to get going, ride the 160km to Antalya, have lunch and decide on a plan. For quite a while, we had wanted to skip Antalya altogether but now, it was conveniently placed. Also, Flo wanted to at least have a look around the old town. Where to go from there, was completely up to debate: Go inland to Pamukkale and skip most of the Mediterranean coast? Follow the coastline which might disappoint and then double back to see Pamukkale?

just say yes …

The ride to Antalya was nothing special. We put on some music and it mostly flew by. Getting close to the inner city, we stopped in the shadow of a bridge to see which places the Lonely Planet recommends for lunch. Flo hadn’t even managed to get the Lonely Planet out when a BMW rider stopped just a few meters in front of us. Actually, they rode two up as well and with the panniers, their silhouette looked much like ours. We closed the distance so we could speak and they asked us if we needed help. Oh! “Nah, we just need a bit to figure out where to have lunch” – *brief conversation in Turkish between the two* “Okay, follow me”.

Önder and Nazan in road attire

One of the advises the Lonely Planet gives you for Iran is “just say yes”. Wondering if that sentence still applied for Turkey, we followed the BMW as it wove through the traffic. Stopping at a place that is owned Antalyaspor, the sport’s club, we introduced ourselves. Önder and Nazan were on a day trip to Kas, about 200km further down the coast, and back. They invited us to join them but 400km starting at lunch time seemed too daunting for us. So while we had lunch and they had a coffee, we explained our journey. It ended with an invitation to Önder and Nazan’s house for tonight. They would be back in the evening so we had the whole afternoon to explore Antalya before being hosted. Such a sweet deal was not offered often so we said yes once again.

Riding through the old town

Already being slightly late for their expedition, our two future hosts left soon after to get on the road. We took a bit longer in figuring out what to do. Mostly, both of us were tired already. Thus, we spotted a park on the map for a relaxing nap and a bit of reading time before doing anything else.

Three hours later, the light started to look golden so it was now or never to see Antalya’s old town. Access to the old town is restricted but Flo managed to get us in without having to take a ticket. Maybe motorcycle don’t count. Once we were at the car park, the owner saw our license plate and started speaking German with us. He had actually lived in Frankfurt for 16 years and seemed happy to speak German again. An invitation for tea followed soon so we sat down for some çay and some talk about Frankfurt. It almost seems as if there is a pattern emerging: A lot of people we met have lived in Germany and have good memories about it and speaking German. Others, who probably haven’t lived in Germany, seem to be slightly hostile. If that is because of an abundance of German tourists or because of the recent political things, I cannot say. Being German provokes a reaction is all.

Another ally and minaret

After tea, we started on the walking tour that the Lonely Planet recommends. Strolling through the small streets of the old town, it reminded us of Höchst’s old town, the quarter in Frankfurt where we had lived. Yes, there are a lot of hotels and restaurants catering to tourists but you can also find quiet corners. We really enjoyed it despite our negative expectations beforehand. It is pretty. Having more money would be good because then you could actually try one or two of the hipster food places that we now only imagine are lovely. When we got to the marina, we noticed the other reason why we might like it: The lack of tourists. Yes, the odd ones are there but given that it is high season, the city is practically empty. Turkish tourists can be found but not in masses.

We came past some old houses, a mosque which had started as a church, ruins of old, the old city wall etc. etc. In the end, Flo stopped with a surprised shout. One of the motorcycle rental shops had a transalp in barley yellow on display. Rocinante without being Rocinante. For us, it is the first time we have seen another yellow one but not a lot of people seem to be riding the Transalp anyway.

15 km through the night, always the eyes on this

By now it was 7pm. Önder and Nazan hadn’t gotten back to us yet so we dined in one of the nicer restaurants. Veggie kebab for me and half a chicken grilled over charcoal for Flo kept us occupied. Still, we hadn’t heard anything. So that is my excuse why I had dessert. 🙂 Another round of sweet rice pudding and also a text from our hosts made me really happy. It took them another hour to make it into Antalya but they picked us up from our parking spot so we could follow them to their home. They’ve had a hard time making it back as there had been a 15km traffic jam, adding to the already long day both of them have had.

Finally, we made it to the place where we could rest our heads. I was slightly surprised when we turned into one of the gated communities. Once we’d parked, a tiny kitten which I thus dubbed “Tiny” greeted us. Being pre-occupied with the kitten, I was flabbergasted when the door opened. Despite being “forewarned” that we would get a whole floor to ourselves, I couldn’t believe it. It was a whole flat just for us. A fully functioning flat with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. And after refreshing ourselves with a warm shower, we were invited for tea upstairs.

By now it was really late and everyone was dead tired but we still had a lovely tea with nibbles and conversation. Önder suggested a couple of things that we might look at along the coast, especially Kas where they went today. Flo, on the other hand, promoted Ted Simon and Horizons Unlimited. After that, we just fell into bed intend on sleeping in.

: just say yes …

: flags overhead

: Suprisingly tall mountains in the back

: Önder and Nazan in road attire

: OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

: OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

: He is looking after Rocinante

: Umbrella lane

: Umbrellas close up

: close up of the most famous gate

: Built in honor of the Emperor’s visit

: Through back alleys

: only a hand full tourists out and about

: Minaret in the old town

: Propped up ruin

: Another ally and minaret

: one more ruin of a former church come mosque

: Felines everywhere … Nina in heaven

: Ruin and minaret

: a more touristy lane

: The harbour was in use since the Roman era

: Looking out from the harbour

: This beach is right in the city center

: It took me a moment, Then again … lock at all these stock parts 🙂

: town gate come clock tower

: 15 km through the night, always the eyes on this

: she was sooo … attached

: A living room … just for us!

: Look at this … books!

: Probably the best bed since Sohar

Day 306 – Southsun groove

The roadworks picked up at some point in the morning. So although the light morning haze kept the sun from burning us out of our tent, we got up eventually. The morning ritual was performed efficiently if a bit lacklustre in the energy department.

The whole island is taken up by another fort, just off-shore from the castle

Soon after though, the rhythm of the road started coming back to us. The wall of high-rise vacation bunkers loosened up and soon we finally felt like riding along the Mediterranean. There was a cool double fortress / castle very early on that got us a bit excited. One castle stood on shore, the other maybe 500m into the sea, fully occupying a small island there. All nicely illuminated by the morning sun shining down a now clear blue sky.

The first planned stop were the caves of Heaven and Hell. The Gorge of Hell is a massive sinkhole that ancient Greek colonists believed Zeus imprisoned the 100 headed monster Typhon. The view down the almost vertical shaft from a little viewing platform perched over one edge was a good warming up exercise. The real star was the massive cave at the bottom of the chasm called Heaven.

The sparsely lit cave was indeed beautiful

After a brief climb down to the “bottom” of the open chasm, an enormous cave opened up at one end of it, leading way deeper into the earth. The footing going down was treacherous, but we managed to reach the lowest part without a tell-tale “mud butt”. The cave was huge, going down almost 200m and was in places maybe 70m high. The ancients believed that the river at the very end to be an access to the underground river Styx – not for us though, since the river was currently dry 🙂 It was really cool, nonetheless. On our way out, we had a short breather and rest at the Chapel of the Virgin Mary, build in the 5^th century by the Byzantines to let a raucous bunch of teenage school kids pass.

Great lunch right at the sea

On our way to the next destination, we had lunch at a beautiful and quiet restaurant right on the water’s edge. The eccentric proprietor served us a beautiful vegetarian bean dish and we enjoyed the sounds of the calm sea for a while.

Said next destination were the ruins of Anemurium. This city founded by the Phoenicians was ruled by Romans of one kind or another (Byzantines) until destroyed in 580 AD. The ruins are a magical place and exploring them in the beautiful afternoon light was just the thing we needed to get us back on track. Some of the public buildings still have bits of ancient mosaics decorating them. All can be explored freely and there was almost nobody there. Just an amazing spot.

An overview over Anemurium

With our spirits soaring, we were ready to tackle the road once more to reach the next campground along the coast. Unfortunately, this one was another 150 km away. Until now, we travelled pretty quickly on the brand new 2 lane coastal highway, with its many new tunnels. The next bit would go through the national park and while supremely beautiful, the more careful routing of the new road meant that it was not done yet. Any other day, this would be perfect for us. A quiet one lane highway, hugging the coastline as close at it can with hundreds of turns along the way.

From Anemurium, it was another 100km to the next camp ground

We made the best of it, grooved along towards the setting sun and enjoyed ourselves. We had one more heart-warming encounter with two Kurdish guys at our last fuel stop and made it to the outskirts of Alanya sometime after 6 pm. The “campground” turned out to be a rather odd thing. Mainly a restaurant, they directed us to a tiny patch of grass within 5m of the diners sitting at the edge of the beach. We did not care much, though, got our cooker out and keeled right over after dinner was had. Earplugs helped a lot to drown out the sound of jolly diners and surprisingly loud peacocks.

: Breakfast with a view

: Passing an old castle or fort on the way

: The whole island is taken up by another fort, just off-shore from the castle

: Arriving at the sight

: Platform above the abyss…scary stuff

: Overlooking the chasm from the top

: Hiking down toward the tree level…

: …and still going down

: Arriving at the edge into the cave

: The sparsely lit cave was indeed beautiful

: Looking back to the daylight at the entrance. Those steps were wet and slippery as hell

: Parts of the walls looked like tiny columns

: Quite similar to candle wax actually

: Without extra lights, the cave was just a black hole

: I’d call that a duck face 😉

: Almost at the edge again

: A last look at the amazing walls

: These arched windows face the cave

: The restaurant owned some cute puppies

: What’s that? Standing still for a photo? Noooooooo

: Great lunch right at the sea

: Ready for some sleep

: Riding along the coast…

: …is actually pretty without rows of hotels

: A whole city by the sea in ruins and no one there

: Space Invader castle!

: Quite the beautiful walk between the sites as well

: Flo giving a speech: The sound is still amazing

: Some places have been cleared to show the mosaics underneath

: The public baths still have a second floor

: These are in the bath house

: An overview over Anemurium

: Locals come here for picnics

: More ruins than you can possibly explore

: Walking towards the next cluster of ruins

: Flo and the cactus

: These mosaics are in the smaller baths

: A whole flank of the hill was used for the necropolis, the city of the dead

: For some reason, bananas were cultivated on every surface

: From Anemurium, it was another 100km to the next camp ground

Day 305 – Where’s the groove gone?

Time to finally leave the Göreme Camping camp ground which had been really good to us. The next camp ground would be at the Mediterranean Sea, some 250km away. Not really a big day, kilometre wise, and looking at the map…the road would be many-laned and fast. Thus we left, just to get the cloud cover back that was our constant companion before Cappadocia.

Loads of Lanes, no traffic

The beginning of the ride was unspectacular. Soon, we hit what must be the motorway…with a toll gate. There was no one around and no barrier, no sign that said motorbikes are not allowed so we just went on it. So far so good. About 20km in, we needed fuel and just to be on the safe side, Flo wanted to do a 3 km detour off the motorway rather than wait for a station on it. So we left the motorway again at the first exit. Again, a toll gate, no one around, no barriers. This time, when we left, an alarm sounded. Whoot? We stopped immediately at the side of the road to ask how to deal with it but THERE WAS NO ONE AROUND. Not even the alarm going off could produce a human being that we could talk to.

This time, with toll card

Confused, we rode to the fuel station and Flo googled how Turkish motorways work. There is a toll (*check*) and you need to have a card for contactless payment (*uncheck*). Okay, where to get such a card? “Every PTT and Shell station will sell them”. Asking the guy at the fuel station, we rode to the next post office about 5 km away. Fair enough, you can do that to avoid setting off any alarms. The real reason to fix this is because the bridge over the Bosporus us also a toll road and we really, really want to ride it. It took the staff at the post office about 15 minutes…to realize they could not help us and to send us to the post office in the next town. Great. By now it was 11.45am and with our luck, the office would just close at 12, right?

Bor, the next town, was another 8km away. Now it started raining. Yay. -.- Or not. There, the yellow of a post office! Flo jumped inside and while I got off to take cover as well, he came back out again. Too small, we needed a bigger post office. We took one wrong turn getting to the “right” one and I was thoroughly annoyed. This is hilarious…if they want you to pay the toll, maybe it should be a bit easier to get that stupid card?

We even got into one more brief rain

Now things worked out. Flo got his card, we had to put 50 Turkish lira on it as the smallest amount (!) and I now felt as if I could eat a horse. Figuratively. The first place, of course, was a kebab shop but they were kind enough to point us to a place further up the road where vegetarian food would be available. We gladly sat down and after the initial confusion about a vegetarian I was offered a cheese pide with fresh salad as a side. So good! Flo enjoyed his pide with minced meat and we were so happy about the food which was freshly made (even the dough!) that Flo had tea as dessert while I chose the sweet rice pudding. Also really good. 🙂

Feeling much better now that we didn’t have to deal with things on an empty stomach, we got back on the motorway. This time, the entrance toll gate even gave us a green light. Riding for 120km, time and miles flew past. Soon, we were only 60km away for tonight’s camp ground and had to get off. Again, the alarm went off. WHY? No idea. It should be contactless payment but it didn’t work. This time we stopped near by the three men standing around but really, they just said it needs to scan the barcode and that we should simply ride on. You have about a week to go to a post office to tell them that it didn’t work before you are fined…

Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

Welcome back to Europe’s bureaucracy. However, we don’t want to burn any bridges as we are unsure when we will want to ride through Turkey next so leaving with an outstanding fine seems like a bad idea.

To top today’s great experience off, when we reached the Mediterranean coast, we were not impressed. Mersin and the next towns looked too much like the Caspian Sea in our eyes: Rows of hotels blocking the view. Arriving late at the camp ground next to a construction site of the road, we are left with a feeling of uncertainty as not even the coast excites us. Will we be able to enjoy Turkey or should we really just power through to get to Frankfurt?

: Bye bye cave villages

: Loads of Lanes, no traffic

: This time, with toll card

: We even got into one more brief rain

: Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

: half way done

: we like our rocky bit better than the wall of concrete over there

Day 304 – Blingdenstone

So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

Alright, enough about hanging out, it was time to get back on our feet for a bit. Not enough mind you to get up at 6 am to watch the balloons go up over the valley, but enough to set out on a day trip after a good breakfast.

We decided on one of the five underground cities of the area in D@#T. It was a short ride of about 35 km away and we were there by 11 am. The entrance fee was on the hefty side, at least for our tiny remaining budget, with $25 for the two of us. The general consensus is that these underground cities were used by the christian inhabitants of the land to evade several waves of invaders and/ or ethnic cleansing from about 800 AD into the 13th century.

This is the official way…try not to get claustrophobic

Going down past several warning sings was an eerie experience. The access tunnels were all extremely narrow and low. The one to the deepest accessible point was probably 50 m long with three separate massive round stone doors that could be used to seal the inhabitants in. The guides had to shout up the corridor when they were leading a group through, since it would have been way to confined for two groups to pass. It was an impressive experience, but we were definitively happy to see the light of day again.

It took us a bit of a longer way back to explore some of the back roads. We had a brief look at an old monastery built into the cliff-side before moving on to find a spot to have our lunch. The perfect spot appeared not soon after in form of a picnic area at a reservoir lake about 20 km from Göreme.

We popped back to the campground for a second to pick up the map of the area and hit the road one more time. We just had enough energy left to have a proper look at one of the valleys that make Cappadocia so famous. This particular one is interchangeably called fairy chimneys or love valley, for obvious reasons.

A whole fairy army must live here …

There was even enough time left that afternoon to finish up with a bunch of chores. All in all, it feels like we have rested enough to tackle the last stretch of our journey. The closer we get to Istanbul, the harder it becomes for us to motivate ourselves to still “do it”. I must be honest, right now, a lot of the times I would rater spend an afternoon with my favorite video game or have a BBQ with friends than to get on the bike to see another ruin, beach or city. We are going through the motions, waiting on inspiration as we go … but home continues to creep up on us.

: So we did get to see a balloon even if it was not in the air

: Entrance to the underground city in Derinkuyu

: Going down! Not suitable for people with heart diseases or claustrophobia

: Roughly hewn rock, here still high enough to stand up

: This is not the official way…probably because it’s tiny

: This is the official way…try not to get claustrophobic

: Secure the entrance with a giant as stone!

: Looking up from the 3rd level down: About 20 meters?

: Bigger spaces have been carved out for the church

: Going back up again. These were used as stables

: The seminar even comes with arches

: A glimpse into the Greek orthodox church next to the underground city

: Riding through Cappadocia

: There must be caves everywhere as you can see “windows” in a lot of surfaces

: Taking the long way back to the camp ground

: Quick look at a monastery before lunch

: Having lunch at the shore of a reservoir lake

: Rocinante waiting for us after lunch

: Back in one of the old streets of Göreme

: “Looove valley?”

: This one actually looks like a little fairy house

: Normal caves at the sides of the valley

: Having fun…

: lookout tower?

: A whole fairy army must live here …

: This time, a little cliff

: That kind off formation …

: they were formed by erosion. The top layer is sturdier, thus the interesting shapes

Day 303 – Need more energy

Day 3 of relaxing. We briefly thought that today might be the day we get up and see some of the surrounding area but right after breakfast, we decided against it…yeah, nah…

So delicious, all of it

So we had another day of charging our own batteries, snoozing in the tent, jumping in the pool and I finished my book which I started on our first rest day. 🙂 It just felt great to do nothing.

In the evening, we decided to go out for really good food in a restaurant that is slightly more pricey than what we usually go for. Flo was particularly hungry as he had skipped lunch. It took some searching to find it (google maps was asked once) but once we sat down, everything was great. Flo even found good beer which is a big thing after going through Oman and Iran where you just can’t buy alcohol.

Cappadocia, we are really grateful that you decided to be sunny and warm for days because we really needed this rest. Thank you.