As I think about all of the experiences and impressions of the past 10 days, I'm really struggling with where to start. Of course, the beginning is a very good place to start, as Julie Andrews would tell you. However, I don't always like to start at the beginning. As anyone who has ever seen my bookshelves will know, I tend to organize and think in themes or genres, not alphabetically. When I think about the trip, there's the chronological timeline, but then there are topics like tea, taxis, new friends, old friends, kids, thunderstorms, bathrooms, bazaars, men, women, Americans, driving, bargaining, etc. And I have over 75 pages written in my travel journal (even though I feel like I forgot to write about a lot), so focusing and condensing will be a major accomplishment.
At any rate, I guess I'll heed Julie Andrew's advice and start at the beginning, but I reserve the right to take some detours.
On Friday, 15 April I flew to Istanbul. I had to go through immigration in Switzerland (as well as in Istanbul), and I found it very interesting that the Swiss immigration control demanded to see my work permit before they would let me out of the country. Once I had purchased my Turkish visa (multiple entry, thankfully), I met up with Jessi and Brian. We took an illegal taxi (on accident) who refused to turn on his meter and tried to charge us double for our short 3 km taxi ride. We started counting out coins to pay him and took forever, so eventually he took what we were offering just to get rid of us.
We stayed in a hotel quite close to the airport (Airport Residence) since we had to fly out at 7 am the next morning. The great thing about this hotel was that it was basically in a somewhat run-down strip mall. We had to walk through the mall, past the pet store and the bakery and the discount grocery store as directed by a flashing neon "Hotel" sign. The sign directed us to a false lobby with potted plants and an elevator, which we took to the real lobby on the 3rd floor.
Despite the less-than-promising exterior, the hotel was actually quite nice, and the staff were very helpful. We got a room with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchenette and bathroom. And, since there was a grocery store downstairs in the mall, we were able to acquire dinner and breakfast for the next day quite easily. It was really lovely to catch up with Brian and Jessi, since I haven't seen them in person for almost a year!
We exchanged presents: I brought Swiss chocolate, and she brought me the Pioneer Woman's new book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. The book handoff has an interesting back story. I somehow stumbled across the Pioneer Woman's blog a couple of years ago and have been hooked ever since. I also introduced Jessi to this blog, who them passed it along to her family. Black Heels to Tractor Wheels (which is the story of how the Pioneer went from being an aspiring lawyer to being a rancher's wife) came out this spring, and Jessi's grandmother saw that there was going to be a book signing near where she lived. Thus, Jessi's grandmother offered to get us books and have them signed, since we are both out of the country and not able to do things like that. Thus, Jessi's grandmother had two copies signed and brought them with her when she visited Jessi and Brian in Tel Aviv in March. Then Jessi brought my book to Turkey, which is how I now have a signed copy of the book with me in Zürich.
We ended up talking until way too late and woke up just as the call to prayer was starting to echo across the city (around 5 am). I have never heard the call to prayer before, and there was something quite other-worldly and haunting about waking up in the dark in a strange new city and hearing the call to prayer sounding from several minarets near our hotel.
After a white-knuckle ride back to the airport, we caught our flights to Ankara, and from Ankara to Kars. For our first (and early) flight, we had to take a bus from the gate to our plane. The bus driver had parked just far enough from the curb that you couldn't make it in one step, but close enough that you wouldn't notice unless you were really looking. Jessi and I made it safely on the bus, but then we just sat and giggled, watching people unknowingly miss the step off the curb and stagger drunkenly, arms and bags flailing, onto the bus. It's the small things, especially at 6 am.
We made it into Kars around mid-morning and taxi-ed our way to Hotel Güngören, where we ended up staying. The hotel has a men's only hamam (Turish bath) in the lower floor, so there were always lots of Turkish men in the lobby staring at us. As a group, the three of us definitely stuck out: we all have blonde hair and blue eyes. Jessi and I are tall-ish (especially for women in that area), and Brian is really tall at 6' 5". Jessi and I dressed modestly, but we didn't cover our heads. And we all dress like American backpackers. Let me tell you, we may as well have had a neon sign flashing over our heads for the amount of attention that we attracted. Being a private person, I found the attention discomfiting, even though I knew that this was going to be part of traveling off the beaten path.
Our hotel receptionist called a tour guide for Ani, although we had told him that we already had something arranged. Of course, it turned out that he was calling the guide that we had emailed with, and we were able to re-confirm our tour for the next day. Kars really is a small town (75,000 people or so), which we were already discovering.
We headed out to see what Kars had to offer after a delicious lunch of lamb pides, which is a sort of Turkish pizza on pita bread. Immediately we were followed by a couple of little Turkish boys who kept on repeating the same phrases over and over to us: "Hello! Where you from? What your name? Sisters? Your hair (insert gesture here)..." They showed us around a mosque and an old church before leaving us. We saw them at least once or twice more before we left (remember, Kars is a small place), and they would wave and shout at us every time.
From there, we hiked up to Kars Castle, which is a fortress at the top of a hill overlooking Kars, with a view across the plains towards the mountains (and Mount Ararat) to the east. Kars is located in the high steppes (1700 m) between mountains ranges, so it really looks like what I would expect Mongolia to look like- vast, stark, windswept plains. With an emphasis on the wind. It was cool to climb around the castle and explore.
We were especially interested in this super strange statue that was on the opposite hill, since it wasn't mentioned in either of our guidebooks. Thanks to the magic of a Google phone, we found a news article in which the prime minister of Turkey had referred to this statue as "bizarre", which it was, indeed. The story said that it was a monument to humanity and Turkish-Armenian friendship, but that it might be torn down soon. Interesting.
From there we wandered around some ruined hamams that were down by the river. These buildings were listed as having preservation status, which really just appeared to mean that they had a sign out front and weren't going to be actively torn down, although vandals and time seemed to be doing the job for them.
Up to this point, we really hadn't seen that many people (aside from the kids that had followed us around), so we decided to hit up the main street to see where the people were. We arrived at the main street of the town to discover that it was closed to traffic because they were cutting down all of the trees that lined the street. There was a man with a chainsaw, two men with a rope and about 100 onlookers, who we joined, until we became the spectacle instead of the trees.
We wandered around the town, found the street listed in the guidebook as having old Russian-style buildings from the "Belle Epoch" and then realized that we had pretty much exhausted all of the points of interest listed in our guidebook. Heh. Which probably explains why when we told other Turkish people that we were going to Kars, there response was, without fail, "Why?" And then, "It's... different there." And, to be honest, Kars really does seem to be a strange mix of Russian-style buildings and mosques, nice sidewalks and dirt roads, new buildings and broken down huts, satellite dishes and dung fires, western-style dress and traditional clothes. Very unique.
We found a tea shop and had a nice tea break while plotting our next move. When we were ready to leave, Jessi and I both tried to get our waiter's attention to get the check, but he wouldn't bring it, since Brian looked like he was still busy reading. Only when Brian put down the book and signaled the waiter did he come to the table and help us. And this was pretty much our life for the rest of the trip.
After taking a short nap back at the hotel (we had been up since 5 am), we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant in town with a fake cave room. The dining room was a little more private, so we were able to have dinner in peace. Until our tour guide for Ani waltzed up to our table and wanted to confirm that we were still on for the tour the next morning and to check if we were okay if a few other people joined. Somehow, he had been informed of our whereabouts and followed us to the restaurant to talk with us. Enter feelings of living in a fish bowl where everyone is watching and knows what you're doing at any given point in time.
After dinner, we were pretty happy to return back to our hotel and escape from the watching eyes, although our proximity to the hamam meant that there was a foghorn-esque noise from the steam works every 2 minutes or so the whole time we were there. Got to love the randomness.
At any rate, I guess I'll heed Julie Andrew's advice and start at the beginning, but I reserve the right to take some detours.
On Friday, 15 April I flew to Istanbul. I had to go through immigration in Switzerland (as well as in Istanbul), and I found it very interesting that the Swiss immigration control demanded to see my work permit before they would let me out of the country. Once I had purchased my Turkish visa (multiple entry, thankfully), I met up with Jessi and Brian. We took an illegal taxi (on accident) who refused to turn on his meter and tried to charge us double for our short 3 km taxi ride. We started counting out coins to pay him and took forever, so eventually he took what we were offering just to get rid of us.
We stayed in a hotel quite close to the airport (Airport Residence) since we had to fly out at 7 am the next morning. The great thing about this hotel was that it was basically in a somewhat run-down strip mall. We had to walk through the mall, past the pet store and the bakery and the discount grocery store as directed by a flashing neon "Hotel" sign. The sign directed us to a false lobby with potted plants and an elevator, which we took to the real lobby on the 3rd floor.
Despite the less-than-promising exterior, the hotel was actually quite nice, and the staff were very helpful. We got a room with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchenette and bathroom. And, since there was a grocery store downstairs in the mall, we were able to acquire dinner and breakfast for the next day quite easily. It was really lovely to catch up with Brian and Jessi, since I haven't seen them in person for almost a year!
We exchanged presents: I brought Swiss chocolate, and she brought me the Pioneer Woman's new book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. The book handoff has an interesting back story. I somehow stumbled across the Pioneer Woman's blog a couple of years ago and have been hooked ever since. I also introduced Jessi to this blog, who them passed it along to her family. Black Heels to Tractor Wheels (which is the story of how the Pioneer went from being an aspiring lawyer to being a rancher's wife) came out this spring, and Jessi's grandmother saw that there was going to be a book signing near where she lived. Thus, Jessi's grandmother offered to get us books and have them signed, since we are both out of the country and not able to do things like that. Thus, Jessi's grandmother had two copies signed and brought them with her when she visited Jessi and Brian in Tel Aviv in March. Then Jessi brought my book to Turkey, which is how I now have a signed copy of the book with me in Zürich.
We ended up talking until way too late and woke up just as the call to prayer was starting to echo across the city (around 5 am). I have never heard the call to prayer before, and there was something quite other-worldly and haunting about waking up in the dark in a strange new city and hearing the call to prayer sounding from several minarets near our hotel.
After a white-knuckle ride back to the airport, we caught our flights to Ankara, and from Ankara to Kars. For our first (and early) flight, we had to take a bus from the gate to our plane. The bus driver had parked just far enough from the curb that you couldn't make it in one step, but close enough that you wouldn't notice unless you were really looking. Jessi and I made it safely on the bus, but then we just sat and giggled, watching people unknowingly miss the step off the curb and stagger drunkenly, arms and bags flailing, onto the bus. It's the small things, especially at 6 am.
We made it into Kars around mid-morning and taxi-ed our way to Hotel Güngören, where we ended up staying. The hotel has a men's only hamam (Turish bath) in the lower floor, so there were always lots of Turkish men in the lobby staring at us. As a group, the three of us definitely stuck out: we all have blonde hair and blue eyes. Jessi and I are tall-ish (especially for women in that area), and Brian is really tall at 6' 5". Jessi and I dressed modestly, but we didn't cover our heads. And we all dress like American backpackers. Let me tell you, we may as well have had a neon sign flashing over our heads for the amount of attention that we attracted. Being a private person, I found the attention discomfiting, even though I knew that this was going to be part of traveling off the beaten path.
Our hotel receptionist called a tour guide for Ani, although we had told him that we already had something arranged. Of course, it turned out that he was calling the guide that we had emailed with, and we were able to re-confirm our tour for the next day. Kars really is a small town (75,000 people or so), which we were already discovering.
We headed out to see what Kars had to offer after a delicious lunch of lamb pides, which is a sort of Turkish pizza on pita bread. Immediately we were followed by a couple of little Turkish boys who kept on repeating the same phrases over and over to us: "Hello! Where you from? What your name? Sisters? Your hair (insert gesture here)..." They showed us around a mosque and an old church before leaving us. We saw them at least once or twice more before we left (remember, Kars is a small place), and they would wave and shout at us every time.
 |
| Jessi and Brian with one of our tour guides. |
From there, we hiked up to Kars Castle, which is a fortress at the top of a hill overlooking Kars, with a view across the plains towards the mountains (and Mount Ararat) to the east. Kars is located in the high steppes (1700 m) between mountains ranges, so it really looks like what I would expect Mongolia to look like- vast, stark, windswept plains. With an emphasis on the wind. It was cool to climb around the castle and explore.
 |
| Castle over the city. |
 |
| Jessi and Brian. |
 |
| Overlooking the city of Kars towards the mountains. |
We were especially interested in this super strange statue that was on the opposite hill, since it wasn't mentioned in either of our guidebooks. Thanks to the magic of a Google phone, we found a news article in which the prime minister of Turkey had referred to this statue as "bizarre", which it was, indeed. The story said that it was a monument to humanity and Turkish-Armenian friendship, but that it might be torn down soon. Interesting.
From there we wandered around some ruined hamams that were down by the river. These buildings were listed as having preservation status, which really just appeared to mean that they had a sign out front and weren't going to be actively torn down, although vandals and time seemed to be doing the job for them.
Up to this point, we really hadn't seen that many people (aside from the kids that had followed us around), so we decided to hit up the main street to see where the people were. We arrived at the main street of the town to discover that it was closed to traffic because they were cutting down all of the trees that lined the street. There was a man with a chainsaw, two men with a rope and about 100 onlookers, who we joined, until we became the spectacle instead of the trees.
We wandered around the town, found the street listed in the guidebook as having old Russian-style buildings from the "Belle Epoch" and then realized that we had pretty much exhausted all of the points of interest listed in our guidebook. Heh. Which probably explains why when we told other Turkish people that we were going to Kars, there response was, without fail, "Why?" And then, "It's... different there." And, to be honest, Kars really does seem to be a strange mix of Russian-style buildings and mosques, nice sidewalks and dirt roads, new buildings and broken down huts, satellite dishes and dung fires, western-style dress and traditional clothes. Very unique.
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| A little sign of familiarity- Migros is a Swiss company, I believe. |
We found a tea shop and had a nice tea break while plotting our next move. When we were ready to leave, Jessi and I both tried to get our waiter's attention to get the check, but he wouldn't bring it, since Brian looked like he was still busy reading. Only when Brian put down the book and signaled the waiter did he come to the table and help us. And this was pretty much our life for the rest of the trip.
After taking a short nap back at the hotel (we had been up since 5 am), we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant in town with a fake cave room. The dining room was a little more private, so we were able to have dinner in peace. Until our tour guide for Ani waltzed up to our table and wanted to confirm that we were still on for the tour the next morning and to check if we were okay if a few other people joined. Somehow, he had been informed of our whereabouts and followed us to the restaurant to talk with us. Enter feelings of living in a fish bowl where everyone is watching and knows what you're doing at any given point in time.
After dinner, we were pretty happy to return back to our hotel and escape from the watching eyes, although our proximity to the hamam meant that there was a foghorn-esque noise from the steam works every 2 minutes or so the whole time we were there. Got to love the randomness.
