September 29, 2002

same same

i am feeling so much better (in general) now that i'm in turkey.

a) i'm with a bunch of great people for the next week (and i'll probably be able to hang out with them for at least the evening before and the morning of my birthday). the fact that i've been able to hang out with them for the last week has been brilliant!

thanks to simon, jon, rick and tish for making the last week so much fun for me. there'd have been no way that i'd have ventured this far off the traditional aussie backpacker route through turkey if it hadn't been for you guys.

b) everything is so cheap here! as we get further east it has become cheaper and cheaper, but even in istanbul i was loving life.

Posted by pipstar at 07:27 PM | Comments:

 

September 25, 2002

eastern turkey

it looks like i won't be getting to butterfly valley on this trip to turkey. simon, jon (who i met in istanbul), tish and rick (who we met on the bus to sanliurfa) and i have left sanliurfa and kept on heading east.

in the past four days i have been stared at in bazaars, looked at old stuff, climbed nemrut daði and been innapropriately handled by smelly turkish men, been stuck over a squat toilet when a blackout has struck, eaten fish on the tigris river in the heart of ancient mesopotamia and eaten a hell of a lot of kebabs.

yesterday we left sanliurfa and went to mardin, stopping at a couple of syrian christian monasteries along the way (syrian christians speak aramaic, the language that jesus spoke - these are old school christians... their monasteries also have the best toilets in turkey!) and spent the night in hasankeyf, one of the beautiful old towns under threat by the eastern turkey GAP dam plans.

tonight we're in tatvan, on the coast of lake van (van golu), the biggest lake in turkey, tomorrow we go to another nemrut daði (mt nemrut) which is an old volcano, then the day after we cross lake van and check out a monastery on an island and then spend the night in van (on the other side of the island). the next day we'll head up to doðubayazýt on our way to mt ararat!

i should be back in istanbul on october 1st and then i'll head to gallipoli the next day and then up to italy and croatia a couple of days later.

:::...

sorry, i won't be able to email anyone for a while (and sorry if i owe you an email - aidan, mum, nadia, katie, catherine, pete, karah etc) but the internet is filthfully slow here.

Posted by pipstar at 09:07 PM | Comments: *

 

September 20, 2002

van cats

the internet cafe i'm using at the moment has a van kitten, an unusual turkish breed of cat which is white with one blue and one yellow eye.

this aint any normal cat, it's behaving as if it's a dog!

Posted by pipstar at 02:28 PM | Comments: *

 

goreme > urfa

tonight simon and i get on a bus headed for sanli urfa, a traditional pilgrimage town (apparently the prophet abraham was born there).

urfa is much further to the east than i thought that i would go on this trip, but already sandrine has taken a bus there, and jon may also be joining simon and i on this evening's bus trip.

we'll be using urfa as a base to head north to mount nemrut, a mountain which has a peak covered with statues - a kind of mt rushmore of pre roman times (allegedly the egomaniacal king who ordered the statues to be placed there actually has his tomb within the mountain).

and then we'll probably go south towards the syrian border to harran, the town which has the best examples of beehive houses.

i think i may come back to goreme after the trip east and then i'll head south to antalya and the coast before selçuk for my trip to gallipoli on october 2nd.

i'm not expecting that there'll be any cheap internet access for the next couple of days, so don't be worried if i don't post for a while.

Posted by pipstar at 02:23 PM | Comments: *

 

teaçaychai

yesterday i went on a tour around the cappadocia region with simon and francois, the quebeccers who i met up with over the lonely planet website.

we went to pigeon valley which used to house hundreds of pigeons in dovecotes in the cliffs and then to one of the 30 underground cities which used to hide the christian residents of cappadocia during times of invasion. the eight level city could house up to 5000 people at any one time and were used as recently as world war 1.

many of the underground cities are still undiscovered, as the christian orthodox residents of turkey were swapped with greek muslims in 1924 and many of the secrets of the region went with them.

after an hour spent bent double crawling through the tunnels of the city we went to ilhara gorge, a rocky valley which once housed many monks in rooms carved out of the rock faces of the gorge. after a 3.5km hike we ate lunch and had a wander around the village of belisýrma, a mixture of the traditional (cow dung being dried for fuel) and the modern (satellite dishes on almost every building).

we then went to take photos of a region allegedly used as background in the original star wars film and then climbed through the remains of another monastery carved into solid rock.

another stop at a caravanaseri (a hostel used by camel caravans along the silk road for hundreds of years) and then on to a pottery display in avanos.

we just made it to rose valley in time to see the sunset, and then we got back to goreme in time to meet up with sandrine and jon before sandrine caught a bus to sanliurfa (urfa).

:::...

for the first time since aidan, james and i went our separate ways, i had a "proper night out" (i.e. i drank more than one drink. incidentally, i was drinking the local cappadocian wine.)

francois and jon both swapped stories about getting lost in prague after a big night out, and i occasionally dropped in a sentence in very poor french!

at one point jon revealed that he had travelled through hungary with a dj from RRR who always mentioned obscure bands. on a whim i asked - was his name anthony carew? and yes, jon had travelled with anthony carew for two weeks. it's taken six weeks, but finally i have a random connection with someone on the other side of the world story. (i think i've possibly spoken to anthony once - but i know luella, and she's spoken to him on more than one occasion! therefore 4 degrees of separation.)

after listening to the great range of music that the fatboy bar had on offer (i hadn't realised how much i missed hearing something for kate! i may have brought 40 cds, but i still miss the music you unconsciouly hear on JJJ) simon walked me back to my hostel.

i think that a 12.30 bedtime was a good idea. at about 4.30 jon came into the room, obviously distressed, but at the same time extremely relieved.

he wouldn't go into details aside from the fact that he got lost and that it was very cold outside - but i suspect that because he was drunk when i left the fatboy bar - he was probably very drunk when he left the bar, which could mean that any number of things have happened to him.

:::...

earlier today i was invited by the wife of man who owns my pension (keles cave hotel) for tea (çay). i took photos of her family and found out how to correctly put on a headscarf. over the next three days their house is going to be mad as the only daughter in the family is getting married. this evening is the first party of the wedding celebration when the women get together to apply henna.

Posted by pipstar at 02:07 PM | Comments:

 

September 18, 2002

theworld

i still recognise the reality of my world back in australia, but away from television and newspapers, the only other reality i recognise is the immediate environment around me.

at the moment the environment that surrounds me is goreme, bizarre rock scapes, churches and houses carved into the stone.

but occasionally news arrives from the rest of reality through electronic media - the democrats split - which reminds me of my adelaide reality or mother kills self and three daughters to escape dowry violence - which reminds me of a reality other than australia and my present environment

Posted by pipstar at 05:54 PM | Comments:

 

goreme

we (a french girl sandrine, a british boy jonathon and myself) arrived in goreme, cappadocia at about 8.30 this morning.

we've found a nice pension where the owner is currently in turmoil as his only daughter is getting married in the next week!

not only are we staying in a cool cave room, the cool cave room has an attached bathroom with the hottest water i've experienced so far on this trip! ace.

jonathon and i walked up the road towards the open air museum, but we ended up wandering around some rocks and historically insignificant cave houses (they weren't part of the museum).

and then i narrowly avoided losing my atm card in the cash machine when there was a blackout and i went back read some more anna karenina and went to bed for a post bustrip nap.

Posted by pipstar at 05:23 PM | Comments:

 

September 17, 2002

istanbul > goreme

tonight i'll be leaving istanbul on a night bus for goreme in cappodocia.

i'm definitely looking forward to getting away from the continuing hassling that tourists receive here...

"excuse me i have cut my finger do you want to eat here nice cafe"

"did i hear you say you want to buy a carpet?"

actually i didn't say anything of the sort, but i said that i wanted to travel to america - so we ended up getting in a discussion about america...

"america is stupid! don't go there!"

"ok. i won't. but i still don't want to buy [another] carpet!"

:::...

at the same time, i'm still expecting to get hassled. but at least i'll get hassled in the sun.

for the last four days it's been overcast and raining, but finally today, on my last day in istanbul, the sky has cleared and there are bits of beautiful blue sky.

i've just been to the aya sofia, the church (and later, mosque) which was the model for many of the 2000 mosques which dot the landscape of istanbul. it was a very beautiful building, but it was crowded in the same way that damaged my enjoyment of our visit to the alhambra in granada.

as the aya sofia is now a museum and not a mosque anymore, there is primarily a tourist attitude when you enter the building. people are laughing, a tv series is filming in the courtyard and there are postcards for sale around the entrance and exits. it's very hard to sit down and develop an appreciation of an environment which was intended for worship when there is a small (but quiet) fair going on around you.

Posted by pipstar at 12:01 PM | Comments:

 

September 16, 2002

magic carpet ride

i'd given myself a limit of us$150 on a rug (i saw quite a few beautiful dark red carpets), and i've managed to keep to that limit! but i ended up getting two p?eces.

i bought myself a pretty small embroidered kilim from the eastern turkish border, the selling point for that one was the pattern in it which represented life stages. (us$100) and i also got a small?sh kilim w?th very nice light colours for us$45 and a cushion cover thrown into the price.

my bag is now pretty full, luckily it's not too heavy, so i th?nk that i'll be send?ng back another package soon!

Posted by pipstar at 04:14 PM | Comments:

 

September 15, 2002

glee level - 95%

rather than risk losing a post via the slowest internet connection ever, i'm going to notepad this one out.

last night i ended up saying goodbye to three people, matthew, who i met on the plane to heathrow, and racquel and angie, the two girls who were in my dorm room.

i don't think i'll ever get used to these two day travel friendships. you end up having in-jokes which last for a day and you hear about interesting aspects of a person's life which you'd like to hear more about. and then those interesting people head off to their next destination, and you head off to yours.

though it's good to hear about people who meet up on holiday and who then hang out with each other again later on.

:::...

racquel is from sydney and angie is from the united states, and two years ago they hung out with each other in the greek islands for a day. angie said to racquel... "expect me on your doorstep, i will be coming to sydney!"

within a year, angie had come to visit racquel in sydney, and this year they met up with each other, and are now travelling through turkey and are then going on to do volunteer work in the czech republic.

:::...

it makes me hopeful that i'm going to be able to hang out again with people i've met so far. i was able to visit nadia and katie the other day when i went through london, and i'm already planning on meeting up with matthew, jonathon and christie and staying with them in italy in a couple of weeks.

what i'm hoping is that eventually i'll be able to meet up with everyone again, and hopefully they'll eventually be able to come down and visit me...

Posted by pipstar at 09:00 PM | Comments: *

 

September 14, 2002

spice bazaar power

today i went with matthew and billy to the egyptian [or spice] market. we walked through the new mosque which is 400 years old, and then got lost amongst the many everyday shops of the market.

there was a big difference between the spice market and the grand bazaar. every store in the grand bazaar seems to be selling items for tourists, but in the spice bazaar you could buy anything.

i tried a chewy turkish delight type candy with walnuts in the middle, and bought some henna which turned out to be clear, and not particularly useful as a dye for my hair. but that's ok, as i only had to pay 1000000 lira (just over $1) for 200g.

we also took a walk around the wall which surrounds the topkapi palace and returned to our hostel just in time to avoid a heavy rainstorm.

:::...

so far i've only walked around in the company of guys i've made friends with at the hostel. i haven't had to walk around by myself or just with other women yet, so i've only really had to deal with odd stares from young boys and older men when i've been walking around less touristy areas.

it will be interesting to watch people's attitudes and reactions over the next couple of weeks.

:::...

i've booked my ticket to goreme in cappodocia for september 17th, it's a night bus, so i'll arrive there to meet up with simon, who i organised to meet up with through the lonely planet website (newly redesigned).

i'm currently trying to decide whether to take a 3 day cruise along the coast from olimpos to fethiye. i'll be able to make my way back to butterfly valley once i reach fethiye.

i figure that it will be a good way to stop in at all of the smaller towns along the coast that i might miss out on. it would also be a great way to meet up with other travellers.

and i'm definitely going to take a trip to gallipoli. my current plan is to go on the anzac house tour from selcuk or kusadasi which will return me to the coast, and i'll be able to get to greece (and then italy and croatia) via ferry.

i decided that not only do i want to buy a small carpet, but i probably need to buy a sleeping bag. and i asked the guys at the travel agency downstairs and they said that in turkey there probably aren't such items for sale.

hmmm. i might have to do what another girl did here and buy a sleeping bag from a traveller about to leave, or just grin and bear it to greece and then buy one in athens.

my pack is going to seem so full again!

Posted by pipstar at 06:17 PM | Comments:

 

September 13, 2002

istanbul

nice weather. a bed on arrival. a 'husband' in paris and a 'husband's frend' accompianing me throughout istanbul.

the grand bazaar is scary. you bargain for an item, not knowýng how cheaply you could get it elsewhere.

on sunday i plan to look at small carpets and haggle the price down to us$130. one of the salespeople i spoke to today told me that the small ones would not be worth shipping home, but showed me how small i could fold my chosen size rug down to. i'm so glad that i just spent $102 shipping a couple of kilos back from the uk, i suppose that it will save me $100 + shipping a rug back.

i went to the blue mosque today wýth matthew, my 'husband' aidan's 'frýend'. we also went by bus to some place starting with b (i wýll put in the correct name later) but we couldn't find what we were meant to be looking at, so we ended up getting lost in a residential suburb. cool.

Posted by pipstar at 05:22 PM | Comments: *

 

cashed down

i spent just over 24 hours in the uk. i withdrew 100 pounds and managed to spend all but 6.

i was very scared.

Posted by pipstar at 05:08 PM | Comments: *

 

i wish i had a mini disk recorder II

the sound of the call to prayer at 5am
'please, may i hassle you?'
'for you i gýve 100% discount'

Posted by pipstar at 05:04 PM | Comments:

 

September 12, 2002

on i go

thanks to katie i now have clean clothes. clean dry, nice smelling clothes.

sweet.

i'm just about to post off my packages back home, and to buy some hair dye for the day when i get sick of being half blonde regrowth and a dull orange colour.

i'm feeling good about turkey. the only thing that i'm slightly nervous about is arriving in istanbul at 11pm. but that nervousness is also making me take the sensible option of catching a taxi to the hostel. independence is good, but being bullheaded and walking around istanbul at midnight is not a good idea.

Posted by pipstar at 12:21 PM | Comments:

 

September 11, 2002

london

i arrived at gatwick at about 12 today.

the views of england as we landed fulfilled every expectation i've had about the english countryside / patchworked hills with hedges around the paddocks and streams meandering.

i made my way to meet up with katie (who i met in madrid) without any hassles. but then i can actually speak english. navigating istanbul at 11pm will be a completely different experience.

i've been able to catch up with katie and nadia, buy toiletries, eat yummy asian food, watch neighbours (the episode where joe scully has his leg waxed), drink a cup of tea, and eavesdrop on public transport... and understand it.

tomorrow i send packages of stuff back home and head off to turkey. hopefully i'll be able to write a big post.

i've also managed to throw things away out of my pack. the two black skirts that i brought... gone to oxfam, two white tshirts (la tomatina and the avalanches top) and my cool green hemp shirt... back to australia tomorrow by surface mail. (i may arrive home before my packages!)

:::...

apart from some postcards and a red 100% toro tshirt bought at the last minute in alicante, i've managed to survive a month away without buying idiotic souvenirs.

but the one thing that i'd really like to buy while i'm away is a small, but cool rug whilst in turkey. possibly a prayer rug.

we'll see how i go.

and maybe an amber necklace bought near the baltic sea.

send me good luck for my turkey experiences!

Posted by pipstar at 10:42 PM | Comments:

 

September 10, 2002

on spain. and travel.

tomorrow at 9.50 am, on the anniversary of september 11, i´m going to be flying from alicante (on the east coast of spain, below valencia) to london.

i´ve been here for a month. and i´ve enjoyed my time here. i´m going to miss spain, even though i´ve had a lot of very depressed moments.

:::...

before i left australia, i thought that travelling by myself would be easier than travelling with friends. i´m now able to compare the two states of travel (having spent 11 days with aidan and his brother james).

there are so many good things about travelling by yourself. you can do what you want, when you want. you don´t have to make compromises. and best of all it is so much easier to meet new, wonderful and exciting people (you know who you are).

but they are also some of the downsides of travelling alone. often one person´s ideas aren´t enough to occupy a day, and travelling with another person means that you get to experience things you probably wouldn´t have done by yourself. (wine tasting in st emillion for instance, a day trip to salamanca or a shared drive from cordoba to seville).

making compromises is one of the lovely things about spending time with other people. it feels like a drag when you have to do it, but you miss out on the continued interaction and the development of relationships when you´re by yourself all the time. for seventh months my relationships with most people i know aren´t going to have a chance to develop because i´m not going to have enough contact and interaction with them.

meeting new people is great, your email list expands, but within a couple of days, or even within 24 hours, a person who you could have any number of conversations with, is on their way to the next city on their journey, while you head off in your own direction.

many people who i´ve met in the last month have asked me, what it is like travelling by myself. it´s hard, but i felt that when i was with aidan and james that i almost completely slacked off in taking responsibility. travelling by myself is making me take more responsibility for my own person than i have ever done before. it´s scary.

my conclusion is. it is very hard travelling by myself. particularly for the length of time that i´ve chosen, but i´m lucky enough to be able to meet up with people i know and travel with them in between. but i don´t think i could let myself do this any other way.

:::...

spain.

i like this place, but i can´t say that i know about the country. then again, i´ve lived in adelaide, australia all my life and i don´t know anything about where i´ve come from.

the way people drink alcohol in spain seems sensible. throughout the night they have little snacks (tapas) which prevents them from getting plastered. if you want to see this in action, go to granada, where the tapas are always generously given away with a drink.

but then, i also saw people downing beer with their breakfast whilst in sevilla. that does not seem sensible.

[to be continued in london. the internet cafe is closing]

Posted by pipstar at 10:25 PM | Comments: *

 

September 09, 2002

picassohead

Posted by pipstar at 10:44 PM | Comments:

 

one month down

i´ve been travelling for just over a month now. yesterday marked a month since my arrival in spain and a month until my twenty third birthday.

i´ve just been reading through aidan´s reflections on his last 8 months and particularly his last three months of travel. it magnified for me his attitude to travel which i noticed during the week and a half we spent together.

before he left australia he had intentions about what he wanted to get out of his time away. he wanted to mature and gain independence, to understand the complexities of european history and to meet different people.

after a month, i´m still finding it hard to work out whether i actually have any intentions about my
time away.

i don´t feel stronger as a person. in many ways i feel weaker, and so very insignificant in the world.

in some ways i think that that is a good thing. it´s helping me to understand how immense and varied this world is.

but on the other hand, this feeling of insignificance has made me retreat into myself more and more. i seem to spend all my time sitting in parks reading.

my stepdad once said of me in my youth, that i didn´t seem to actually live my life, i just lived vicariously through the books that i was reading.

before i left adelaide it was similar, i was reading books, but i was also spending hours reading other people´s websites, blogs and travel stories. now that i´m actually travelling, i wonder whether i have any stories of my own to tell.

i wish that someone would tell me why i´m doing this!? did i mention anything about what was driving me to do this?

or did i just decide to go travelling as some type of rite of passage? because if i did, it doesn´t really seem to be worthwhile.

i´m here with access to these amazing places. i walk past famous works of art and through cities where tremendous acts of history have taken place, and it doesn´t seem to make an impact on me.

i feel like i´m on a film set. everything is clean and shiny, and i´m surrounded by other tourists... everyone seems to be holding a map of the city in front of them. this doesn´t feel real to me.

i feel like i should be on a mission.

if i was an artist, fine, then i could be driven by the art which i have access to. an architect, the buildings. but what am i being driven by, a web designer´s desire to assess the internet cafes of europe?

someone please remind me of why i´m not wasting my time or money!

Posted by pipstar at 04:20 PM | Comments: *

 

on my cold

i´m feeling healthier, but i also experienced horrid symptoms that i suffered in my youth.

my eye is better, and i don´t need to blow my nose every five minutes. but i do have a horrible cough which prevents me from sleeping.

Posted by pipstar at 03:58 PM | Comments:

 

September 06, 2002

travel health: 85%

since my second to last day in granada, i´ve been suffering from some horrible summer lurgee which initally manifested itself as extreme fatigue and then conjunctivitis in my right eye.

luckily in spain you can purchase anti-biotic medications over the counter, so i was able to get some eyedrops.

but i now seem to have some variety of very productive sinus infection on my right side as well.

because i need to see the sights of seville and i need to wake up in the morning for breakfast, i´m not getting much recuperative sleep. and i´m unable to inhale eucalyptus laden steam, and i don´t have any cough medicine.

so it´s going to take a while to feel 100% again

Posted by pipstar at 11:08 AM | Comments: **

 

September 05, 2002

sevilla

one of the reasons why i wanted to come to seville was the film nobody knows anybody, which i saw late at night on sbs.

now i´m finally here!

and i keep on recognising landmarks from the film!

Posted by pipstar at 12:53 PM | Comments:

 

cordoba

mezquita good. marred by cathedral parts.

felt a little lonely, but met nice people in the hostel. still haven´t washed my clothes.

best food was chickpeas with spinach (Garbanzos Con Espinacas) though i´d miss out the boiled egg listed in the recipe.

nice ruins to the northwest, thanks to nanny for the ride there and to seville. pity we couldn´t have a picnic on the site.

i had conjunctivitis in my right eye, but i got hold of some antibiotic eyedrops and everything seems a little bit better now.

Posted by pipstar at 12:47 PM | Comments: