Syria is giving me wonderful surprises every day. People are amazing, they say hello, they ask, they tell you, they make you feel good. As soon as I say I´m spanish they all congratulate me about the world cup, they like football a lot, even though it seems impossible they have a lot of Spanish flags everywhere. They are very happy to have Spain winning instead of Germany or Holland. Being Spanish is quite good for travelling, people usually likes us.

It was not easy leaving Aleppo but the dead cities aroused an intense interest to which I couldn’t say no. To arrive there is no public transport  so you have to find a taxi for half a day to go. From the one who likes them with a passion for a while there are around 600 settlements, from isolated monuments to full cities. I visited four of them and was lucky to find two “friends of the day” in the hotel to share the taxi and not going alone. Here are the pictures.

In the city of Al-Bara there are funeral tombs, the one in the picture is the best preserved one.

Greg on top of a wall overlooking the horizon, the city seems it never finishes. It’s eerie walking between the houses, walls and the olive trees, we are totally alone discovering what is in each building, in each corner. The reason why they were abandoned is not clear, seems that the trading routes changed and the population moved away gradually leaving this isolated landscape.

In the shade it’s 40 degrees.

The name of dead cities is not totally right, there are some people still living in them.

Clothes drying is an unmistakable symbol of life.

Jedara and Ruweiha are two cities that are together and they are some of the biggest. In the background the Byzantine church of the 5th century, it’s used nowadays for living.

Goat.

The last city we saw was Serjilla, one of the best preserved and most prepared for tourism with explanation panels. Some houses have two floors created building an arch inside the house to hold the second floor, I liked the idea.

The next stop was Hama where I went to see the water Norias.

Orontes means revel river as it’s the only one in the area that goes from south to north, it in fact starts in Lebanon mountains where there’s even a ski resort.

For the Zaragoza Expo I’ve been told they constructed one, now I want to go and see it as they brought the same people to build it that maintain the ones in Hama.

As soon as I click the publish button I’m going to the airport to collect my father, he’s coming a few days for visiting. Hope the flight is not delayed.

See you soon
Fernando

I can finally post a video, the last two I tried to do looked horrible so I haven’t posted them. I recorded one of them with Ana about an Oraculum in Greece and the second was about my backpack so after a lot of time I’m very happy to edit a video and post it here.

The video was totally improved, I arrived there and liked the activity so much that I thought capturing it in pictures would have lost the meaning of constant movement. Different to the Istanbul bazaar there’s nearly no tourism, I only saw four foreigners in four hours. It’s a local market with no souvenirs with Syrians buying Syrian things.

The music is Turkish because I still have no Syrian music, they are Burhan öcal & Pete Namlook.

I’m going to tell you quickly my last steps in Turkey as I went through Antakya, one of those names that sounds so biblical and you don’t know what to expect.

I knew there wouldn’t be much from what I had read, and in fact apart from the centre of little alleys the rest is quite ugly. In the picture an alley downtown.

What I’ve liked the most is the mix of culture, I tell you; in the guide books you read that Antakya is one of those places where Christians, Muslims and Jews have always been living together in peace, bla bla bla….and when I read this I think that it sounds beautiful but with those things I always think that it’s something written in the books but that there is no way to feel it in the city.

In Antakya this is more tangible than in other places. Apart from the fact that you can see mosques, churches and a synagogue, the interesting thing is that when somebody stops you in the street to talk(yes, it’s very normal) after giving a cordial welcome they tell you the same, that here they are all mixed and happy and tell it proudly. It’s comforting that there are places in the world that co-living exists.

To finish feeling what the books says I stayed that night in the HOSPEDERÍA of the Christian church. They are old houses where you can sleep. There were some musicians preparing an event of songs for peace in the cave-church of Saint Peter. There was a very good atmosphere around, it was like sleeping in a music school where music of any instrument could start at any moment as well as a chorus starts singing. I was planning my trip to Syria for a couple of days.

Religious symbols of all religions. Barbara showed me the place, she´s been there 38 years and broadcasts peacefulness.

Also staying in the place was a German, Jens, an anthropologist working for an American university he was doing a study of the integration of religions. As he had an interest in the silk route we were talking for a while. An interesting guy.

Antakya museum is one of the most important in the world regarding mosaics, It has a lot of pieces from the II and III century.

The day of the canticles. One of the songs was in Spanish so during rehearshal I read it in Spanish so they would know the right pronunciation.

The last night I made a stop in Odeon, a café that I’d spotted in one of my walks around Antioch. A chatty Turk came to talk with me, he was a biologist, specialized in butterflies and he worked for the university. He made 1000 Euro a month, that let’s you do a lot of things in Turkey. I proposed playing Backgammon with him, he was the champion of his town and as that’s the application I use the most in my phone, I decided that was the perfect person to try my game.

We started with a very sad 0-2 to him as he set up the board in the opposite way my phone does and I was a bit disoriented at the beginning, after a little while we were 4-2 to me. When the owner of the place came to chat with us the board was mysteriously closed and moved to a corner as if nobody had ever played it. The owner was a very nice guy, he had been travelling all around the world selling gold and now he was taking his time to enjoy live in a relaxed way.

Next day to cross the border with Syria I got a shared taxi, it’s a bit more expensive than the bus but I keep checking where my passport is exactly. It also takes a few less hours as the arrangements for 50 passports in a bus takes a while.

By the road I saw men and women harvesting potatoes, the harvest seems to be much earlier than in Spain, there were a lot of cereal crops already reaped in pieces of land that the dessert has not taken. A few more potato fields and the wire fencing and the watch towers announced the border. Once more I felt the excitement that I have when I’m taking my passport out of my pocket to cross a border.

See you soon.
Fernando

I leave the Aegean sea where Kudasai goes by the coast to Syria. The first place I stop is Dalyan on the shores of Dalian river where the Kaunos ruins can found, a Carian settlement of 10th century B.C. 

Here the tourists smell mosquito repellent, seems to be the perfect habitat, that’s why in ancient times this was a malarian zone. The foreigners blamed the figs as they were very common in the area. Near Dalyan is Iztuszu beach that is protected due to the turtles that come to lay the eggs in it’s sand, they are massive up to 130 Kg.

To go to the ruins you have to cross by boat, in the picture is a boat woman.

I explored Kaunos surrounded by lizards and yellow winged grasshoppers. In th entrance loud disco music was playing, as the ruins were so big I left the sound behind me very quickly, but while walking in the ruins I could hear the call to pray from a nearby mosque. That was the soundtrack.

Thistle, new word for me. Loved the colour.

Next day I had breakfast in the terrace overlooking the tombs in the cliff, the oleanders‘ smell. I prepare the things to go to the Dalaman river, the reason why I’ve come here. I like the river company, they were a mix of guides from Costa Rica, Turkey, Nepal and Ukraine. They managed the safety in the river very well so I paddled very comfortably. The kayak they let me was really bad but as the river wasn’t difficult it gave the day a bit more of emotion.

The guides were apologizing for the colour of the water, normally is a wonderful blue but due to the previous days rain it got cloudy. I like rivers with this colour.

I suppose that she has not thought that if she falls into the water the skirt can cover her face making it difficult to breathe, but each one get’s into the river as they desire.

Doing the last class IV rapid I rolled, in the last picture it can be seen how I’m getting ready to roll back up with the paddle aligned with the kayak.

The next stop was Kas, in the middle of the turquoise coast. It’s a very charming village with bougavillas, ottoman houses, a centre with no cars and a seaside with amazing colour to explore by boat. To complete the image the mountains border the coast and a bit more inland they are as high as 3000 meters.

There are Lician tombs in the village.

In the morning I go to the port to get a boat to go by the coast and to see some of the ruins of the area. This excursion cost like 20 Euro to spend the day in the boat and you get food.

Kekova is a gorgeous submerged city, the earthquakes of the second century sank it. It’s forbidden to stop the boats or swim.

We stopped in Ucagiz village that is on an island.

I didn’t wanted to pay the entrance to the little castle so I went around to see what could I see and I found this Lician tomb just for me.

 Turkey has two types of vipers. The ottoman(didn’t make a big effort to get the name…) is very poisonous.

The picture is a bit too burnt, but at least you see how the place was.

I bought tea from him and after the picture he gave me a granddad kiss. He cultivated the tea himself.

On the boat I met a French woman, she loved Turkey having been here 20 times she had travelled all over the world including Afghanistan 40 years ago, she had also travelled all around Africa providing aid when she was young, she was my friend of the day. We were talking about Greece and Turkey rivalry. They really dislike each other, for example the Greeks still call Istanbul, Constantinople in some maps.

On the way back to Kas after a good day. Apart from the memories of the ruins what I’ve liked the most has been diving. There were not too many fish but diving in the silence of the blue water while the rays of light penetrate the surface is just blissful.

My last visit through the coast is Antalya. More otoman houses, this time on the top of the hill overlooking the sea. All the coast is packed with tourists, I expected this from the places nearby Ephesus but it spreads all along the coast.

Here are the Taurus mountains, the country has 70% of the territory covered with mountains and near the city a part is protected as the Kopruli national park. I went kayaking in the river but it was a mistake, there were hundreds of rafts and literally thousands of clients, have never ever seen anything like that, instead of seeing the river you’d see rafts and rafts. A huge mistake, I had to make an effort to enjoy, there was zero contact with nature.

 Antalya has an spectacular museum with items compiled from the ruins around. Here is the sarcophagus room.

 The face on the left is the one I liked the most. In fact I only put pictures of museums to pretend that they are interesting.

I eat a gozleme, something like a creppe. By the time I want to take it a picture I´ve finished it!

The sunset from Antalya with Olympus mountains in front(nothing to do with Greece) It would have been a better choice to stay here as it’s quieter as it’s further from the  International airport.

The next post will be a video from Syria. Yes a video after a while!!

See you soon
Fernando

This is Pamukkale. With a million visitors a year it is one of the attractions of Turkey. During the 80s it become so overly touristic that was close to being destroyed it but some hotels were demolished and even it though it is a bit damaged it is still worth visiting. Quite a few years ago it was quite a common destination as honeymooners from Spain.

Before visiting Pamukkale we went to the Hierapolis. Founded by Eumeus II in the year 190 BC on top of the mountain. The thermal waters became famous during the roman empire and the city grew until some earthquakes destroyed it and it was abandoned. In the picture one of the city doors with thick walls of a few meters. I liked the city as much or more than Pamukkale.

You can’t miss the Necropolis. It also has a very important amphitheatre for 12.000 people that is in great state but as I’ve already shown you a few so I’m changing it for some wonderful tombs.

The necropolis continues a few kilometres to the north. There was a lot of people coming here to be healed but seems some of them came a bit too late. Derya was asked the previous day, probably by an American tourist, “Why did Romans make so many ruins”?.

Tombs in the calcium area. Rest in peace.

Before going to the travertines(name given to the terraces) we had a bath in the “Antique Pool”, thermal water with columns in the ground. It was good for the remains of my killer tourticullis. When the torticullis was at its worst I was thinking  “Seems impossible that a head is so heavy”.

General view of the travertine formed by calcium carbonate.

There are areas where the calcium is not very thick and doesn’t look that white. 

After the travertines you can see the valley where the village is nowadays.

It’s absolutely packed with Russians, must be a very famous place there, maybe because it looks like snow but you can be in a fuzzy bikini. If you are a Russian girl you can’t leave the place without a hundred pictures posing. By the way, Russia is the only country that like turkey spans two continents.

Pamukkale means “cotton castle”. Cleopatra is supposed to have come here.

Me and the water sliding down the wall depositing the calcium.

There is a section of travertines that is open and you can walk barefoot and bath.

The wind was blowing.

 Other view.

On the way back we saw a few villages with bottles on top of the roofs. If you have daughters in of marrying age, this is the tradition. A bit later we stopped to get a couple of wild sunflower plants for Andrés and Derya and at the last stop to see a hidden Roman aqueduct that is conserved really well.

To finish the day we had a seabass cooked in salt in the newest restaurant of Kudasai. The price was less than 20 Euros. I have to say that the seabass was much better than the Spanish omelette I cooked the previous day. Cooked with crisps instead of potatoes following the recipe of the famous Spanish cook Arguiñano.

My next stop is Dalaman river. It’s said it is one of the most beautiful in Turkey!

See you soon.
Fernando

I slept seven hours in the night bus, so i was ready for an intense day in Ephesus. As i didn’t wanted to miss anything I got an organized tour. The first surprise: I had a guide that talked in English, well, he was Spanish. There were also an Argentinean couple in the bus that we became friendly with. The two Korean girls seem like they didn’t have much fun in their English tour.

About Ephesus I’m not going to tell you much as Wikipedia tells it better than me.

Cruise: noun. Big boat that has the skill of instantly filling up any monument with en enormous amount of people. In the background the remains of the library.

The most interesting thing about this area of Turkey is the Roman and Greek past. The Romans can be found in the ruins, the Greek is a bit more hidden. The Greek expansion had a big repercussion in the Mediterranean coast, this was part of Greece so part of the Greek thinking was born here. For example, a bit to the north, in Mileto the philosophers started thinking about the works, the beginning of philosophy, they speculated of what the cosmos consisted this being the first time anyone would think about it and the first time calling it : cosmos. The philosophers were not even thinking about men yet. Tales were from Mileto who created a trigonometric theorem, was also a great philosopher, the first of the seven wise Greeks.

Pergamum library between Mileto and Ephesus grew so much that Egypt prohibited exporting papyrus to it as it was starting to over-shadow it’s great libraries and that was a way for them to stop creating books and grow. So Pergamum had to develop their own form of writing material, creating something similar to current books and not being rolled as papyrus.
Thoughts are more dangerous than armies that’s why I’ve gone through so many burned libraries, from Sarajevo to Alexandria and now here, also Ephesus library was destroyed. As the book about Greece and Turkey I’m reading says( Ulysses Heart from Javier Reverte), ‘Burning books is as old a sport as writing them’.

Doesn’t it remind you to the pharmacy symbol? Yes, it comes from here.

Artemisa´s statue hidden in a room. Don´t know why they hide one of the best sculptures they had. My guide pointed it to me.

The amphy theatre.

We went to visit the place where virgin Mary was supposed to die. It was discovered by the dream of a nun. On the wall you can see the papers of people that ‘make a wish’… I mean… ask for something.

Ruins of San Joan monastery, the Artemisa sanctuary was destroyed and there’s only one column left, when it was built it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

If you want guides around Turkey, Andrés and Derya know everything, Derya is Turk and talks English and Spanish perfectly, she´s an official guide in French and Rumanian. Here are their mails in case you want a tailored trip with them, around turkey or just Ephesus. They know someone may call, they’ve got the mail from here. dibiri@hotmail.com and a_velmon@hotmail.com.

Isa Bey Camii mosque. Normally mosques have a big carpet that covers all the floor, here rugs are donated, much more cozy, some of them are really elaborated ones.

The tour finished and as good Spaniards and not knowing very well how we ended up having a beer. Cristina and Isabel had to wait to go to the airport and we were having a chat in a bar in the seaside.

A beer, let’s go to the bar of a friend, why don’t we have a swim in the pool at home? Spain this and that, why don’t I get some Spanish jamón with water melon(typical Spanish summer dish)… astonishing! Spanish ham, so good!!! Andres was cold turkey of Spanish blood and me, without knowing it too. A little reminiscence of Spain with a beer, jamón and laughs. Like an episode of “Spaniards around the world”(a Spanish TV show that goes to different countries to meet Spanish expats). Andrés, two years in Kudasai, tourist guide, he’s got breakfast with a ColaCao(Spanish brand of cacao for breakfast) on the table and watches TVE International, the Spanish TV, so he’s updated on what’s going on in Spain.

I met some of his friends, he talked to me about his job and the relationships with Turks, we compared the food, the customs, the bards, we talked about Madrid… the night became long. In the background “Faithless” music was pumping, I asked for something fast, after the night bus and the long day I needed some energy.

Ladies beach at night. An english quarter.

Andrés showed me all the bars in town, a much bigger variety than what I could imagine. The most extreme for me was seeing the bars where English ladies around 70, dressed as if they where 14(in England when they are 14 they already wear heels, mini-skirts and make up…) went to experiment what Andres called “Turk passion”, and I think it may be as an exchange of some liras…

DJ Box.

I’m curious to see how was it for Cristian and Isa. They were going to be 3 days in Madrid before going back to Buenos Aires. They want to eat well so I made some recommendations that they didn’t know about.
– They wanted Spanish ham so I sent them to eat Joselito ham to “Sula” in Jorge Juan street.
– They wanted Tapas so I sent them to the most curious tapas in “la Gabinoteca” from the same people as “Las tortilla de Gabino”.
– They wanted Japanese so I sent them to “Kabuki”.
– To send them to something intermediate between Asian and Mediterranean, I sent them to “Nodo”, already a classic that in summer they have a fabulous terrace. Mmmmm that pork ear dim sum is one of the rarest and best things you can eat.
– And even they didn’t ask for anything like this I told them to go at night to “Pan de Lujo” asking for a table next to the window, a real lux.

I hope he sends me an e-mail and tell me if he’s liked the places

Next visit Pamukkale.

Fernando

I’ve got my Iranian visa!!!!

It has not been that complicated, but like to get any visa I have had to fill up the common forms giving my information several times. Going to an embassy to get a visa is a process in which you have to abstract yourself and not think, put the head down, do what they tell you to do and not try to find the meaning to it. That they have the passport there for a week… OK. That you have to bring a photocopy of it… they could do it with the 60 Euro they are charging but…OK. That you have to put the money in a bank that is 15 minutes walking uphill… OK. Each time I go to an embassy(consulate technically) I have the feeling of being a kid in school that does things just because you have to do them, I feel like Bart Simpson writing 100 times in the blackboard “I want to get into your beautiful country and I promise not doing anything bad”,  someday embassies will make you do that just to get a visa.

I had doubts on coming to Istanbul this year but Istanbul is the European capital of culture and I couldn’t miss it…. Well, ok, I got to know it when I was there…. I thought that doing a trip along the silk road and skipping Istanbul didn’t make sense. I´m very happy about having come to visit for a few days so I arranged all to get the precious visa there. Now I’m super happy for having come here. I came here 7 yeasrs ago and it´s been interesting seeing the change, now it´s a LOT more liveable.

The first day we went to a Turkish barbers, it was surprising how much care they put on it, however I have to say I get a better shave when I do it myself.

From the typical things to visit, what i liked the most was the Byzantine Birbindirek cistern with the impressive dimensions of 65×143 meters with 335 columns. To bring the water here they had nearly 20km of accueducts.

Details of a column with a sidewise medusa.

Near Grand Bazaar. I didn´t enjoy the grand bazaar at all, just 4 types of shops repeated with nothing authentic. Most of it fake designer clothes.

Istanbul is a total metropolis, thinking that around you there are 16 million people is somehow disturbing.

Have I told you I have the Iranian visa????

Turkey is doing some big efforts to get closer to Europe. It all started with Ataturk that secularized the legal system and now Turkey is changing the laws to be more European. The question of if Turkey can become part of Europe is difficult and I´ll give my opinion once I leave Turkey.

I love corn. Ideal for a snack and not searching for a restaurant being starved, that’s the worst.

When you are travelling and you say you are Spanish everybody asks you about football. I know about football as much as about nuclear fusion so my football conversations are pretty sad. For you to get an idea, in Montenegro I got to know that Messi was playing in Barcelona and the other day I saw him playing with the Argentinian team, surprise for me because I thought he’d be Catalonian.

Under the Bosporus bridge with 1047 meters. Just next to it there’s an ideal area to have something in the evening with a real Turkish atmosphere, most of the tourists don’t come that far. The speciality is stuffed potato with absolutely anything you can think of inside. We went by bicycle, an extreme sport in Istanbul traffic.

We got the metro to the last stop, the area is called Masak, we were not sure what awaited us there, a posh area with designer cafes and restaurants with salads for Turks in suits. It was in fact quite similar to any other neighbourhood but with glass buildings, also there were tons of  garages, ah, and of course, a Starbucks.

Some taste of an American city.

I’ve been reading the book “The book of silk”. As it was pretty big I coudn’t bring it too far. The edition is very well done with a lot of pictures and examples.

The book is structured by geographical area and tells the story, how it was descended in Geographic and history from the unknown Chinesse masters to current designers.
It also tells how most of the countries has tried to start a silk indistry in their borders. Places like Syria, Egypt, Scandinavia, England, Ireland and United States has tried to plant mullberry trees to grow the worms.
Here in Istanbul it tells how unwanted wifes were strangled with silk scarfs in the Topkapi palace, but it also tells what has been found in Burgos, my home town. Very interesting.

In the port area under the Topkapi palace. “With so many fishermen I´ll sure grab something to eat”

What the cat was looking at.

Fish caught freshly in the Bospherous is cooked on the boats at the Quay side and sold to the public every night. It looked really well but with the amount of ships that cross the Bsophorous every day I had some doubts on the healthiness of eating it. I had it and it was good.

I love being around the Galata bridge when the call to pray, the song of each mosque arrives but not exactly at the same time. To come here in the tram a girl with scarf on her hair and last Adidas model had the music loud in her headphones and I could hear Katy Perry’s song “I kissed a girl and I liked it”. I think I need another shave.

Ancient Lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour. The most beautiful view of Uskudar, the asian area, is near the Kiz kulesi lighthouse. This was my last view of Istanbul before leaving to the bus station to get the night bus to go to Efesus.

Never ever in my life have I seen so many buses than in the Istanbul bus station. It´s also true that I´ve never been in a bus factory.

Let´s see how much I sleep!
By the one that has an Iranian visa in his passport.