It was raining on the border, with the weather came uncomfortable difficulties on the road ahead. The border guards noticed that I didnt have a visa for turkey, without knowing any english they pointed me to go further on to get a visa and then come back to the checkpoint. It puzzled me as to why the visa registration booth was actually after the visa checkpoint.

I attempted to do as instructed but couldn’t find the office, until I crossed to the other side, weirdly enough the side where people were traveling from turkey to georgia seemed to hold a small office for registering turkish visas. I approached the counter. Yet again the officer looked at my passport to find that the iran visa flops open in the middle with a photo, he says ‘Iranian?’ I say ‘No. Flick to the first page of the passport, I’m australian’. I regretted this a little, I was 1 second away from getting a free visa, $25 later a small visa stamp is printed on a pristine and valuable new page of the passport.

I bought a sim card for my phone and a bus ticket to Trabzon, A city on the edge of the black sea, every turk seems to believe that this city is always raining. At this time at least, the populous were correct. I tried to find accommodation as the sky was bucketing down. Every hotel seemed to cost $20 or more for a room, there were no hostels, no couchsurfing responses. The city was modern, the western icons were prominent; namely McDonalds, along with free wifi, noone ever questioned the fact that I never bought any McProduce when I casually setup my laptop on one of their hipster furnature designs – Western civilization returned. I tried about 10 hotels before one dodgy looking, non-english speaking, hotel and reception respectively; accepted an offer of $10, for a tiny closet of a room, somehow managed to still fit in a TV, even though the power cable for the TV had been cut off. Many other hotels were used as brothels, this was after all the most liberal of all turkish cities, being right on the border of georgia.

The next day I bought a jumper while it was still relitively cheap, as my wool jumper had enough holes in it to be classed as a messy ball of yarn. Due to the weather, I purchased a bus ticket to capadocia instead of hitchhiking – the bus journey was very comfortable and cost $20.

Upon arriving in nevseheir near capadocia, I met with my couchhost, a boy living with his mother, sister and brother in a traditional turkish family homestead. He asked if I would like a shower after I settled, I replied yes, he mentioned it will take 30min to prepare; not knowing what this meant, I waited then entered the bathroom when the preparation was completed. The room held a large coal boiler made in old cast iron, there was a bucket in the corner and a cold water tap just above it – the setup reminded me of indonesia, the method of having a shower was to simply fill the bucket and pour the water from above, the only difference being that it was snowing outside and the boiler contained nice boiling water to be diluted with the cold; in Indonesia hot water was never a requirement. The food they served for every meal was very traditional and delicious, I felt cultural similarities to iran when I wasn’t allowed to enter the kitchen, also the sister of my host seemed to do everything – including filling up a glass of tea once it was empty, she would sit and wait while the men talked.

The next day I took a dolmash (bustaxi) to goreme for $1. Goreme is the core of capadocia, a series of unique rock formations that were used for hidden cave hideouts during times when roman catholic crusaders invaded the lands, sending the protestant christians fleeing. A bed in a hostel room, within a cave, cost $10 a night – it was worth it for the cave sensation. I met an american guy in the hostel and together we decided to check out the underground city of Derinkuyu – just 20km north of nevsihir, where I was to stay another night with my host. We arrived at the town and headed to the underground city. There were many vast caverns, each room provided an essential social element – they even had church rooms and common rooms. The caverns twisted and curved for many kilometers, I decided to head back, else become lost within the abyss. I returned to the surface and couldnt find my newfound friend, I waited 2 hours, still nothing – I decided to head back to nevseheir alone. Perhaps one day I will come across my companion of the lost underground… perhaps one day.

I slept one more night on a couch provided by the local family and was even an audience for when my host’s brother played the traditional three string guitar in a very professional way. I thanked them for their hospitality and entertainment and hopped on a bus to the outskirts of the city. From this point onwards I would embark on an epic hitchhiking adventure all through turkey.

After taking a local bus out of town, the first car to pick me up were a couple of mechanics who managed to take me as far as aksaray. I then flagged a fish van, an almost tolerable stench of fish lingered during the journey, but it was worth the trip. The man shared a cigarette with me and we attempted to mime small talk, upon approaching my destination of konya, he took me right into the centre of the city – quite a detour for him. I stayed with a couchhost in konya who is the owner of a large computer consultants chain for businesses all through turkey. Konya is known for the whirling dervishes, monks who spin for hours on one spot. The dervishes were actually adopted into the muslim culture, before the islamic invasion they used to represent a local shamanist tradition. I hit the road in the direction of antalya.

I took the correct bus out of konya, however the weather turned bad just as I started hiking west, noone was picking me up except for a dolmash – the driver charged me $5 to get to seydisehir, the halfway point to where I intended on getting to, he didn’t allow the van to stop earlier once the weather cleared up (most likely he just didn’t understand what I was saying). I got off at the bus terminal for seydisehir, the weather cleared up nicely – I embarked on the next leg of hitchhiking only to find that 3km further up the road a massive traffic jam just outside the tiny town was forming rapidly. Puzzled, I approached a group of turks huddled in the middle of the road, they told me in very broken english that there has been an avalanche in the mountain range further up the road – there was no other alternative route to antalya. I asked if I could get a lift once the snow is cleared, drivers of a fruit truck agreed and threw my bags in the back. I waited an hour, still no change, some cars started to turn back. There was a large coach bus behind my intended transportation, the passangers were gathered below – one man spoke fluent english and I told him about my journey. The police decided that all cars are to wait at the bus terminal until all-clear. I was about to jump in the fruit truck until the man from the bus had a thoughtfully hesitation after I said goodbye and turned away, he called me back and explained he will pay for a bus ticket for me, all the way to antalya, once the snow clears. I was amazed at the generosity of this man. Once we arrived at the terminal he also bought me lunch at the canteen and a bag of biscuits from the nearby shop, this was not the last I would see of extreme turkish hospitality. The bus took me over an amazing mountain range, the snow being recently plowed was at the same height as the bus, it was as if we were driving through a snow tunnel. After an hour of snow driving, a green glow of rolling hills and thick trees shined brightly as an effect of an enveloping wave of sunlight; emerging from the clouded mountain highlands to endless heights of blue sky ahead. It was a pleasant sight, not to mention the magnificent Mediterranean sea and it’s picturesque white-rock turkish coast.

I couchsurfed with a lawyer in antalya, very nice house near the beach, quite fancy. I stayed there two nights then hitched to olympos. Olympos holds ancient greek ruins of a town, and impressive ruin of a castle sits ontop a cliff overlooking a nice beach. There are many hostels within the forest before the beach, I found the cheapest one and stayed for two nights $12/night, which included a really nice dinner and breakfast. During the stay, I hiked around the coast and up a hill to a location known as chimaera, with a guy from tajikistan. People who know their greek mythology will know that the chimaera is a beast with the head of a goat, the body of a lion and the tail of a snake – It resides in the firey pits of hades. The greeks named the location after this beast of the underworld because of the eternal fires that burn forever, located at the summit of the hillmountain. The fires come from natural gas vents, to the old civilizations it would be seen as magic. The fires themselves were quite small, most probably were a lot bigger back in the day; the remarkable thing was seeing scattered ruins on the ground and all over the place, all of which could easily be on display in a museum.

I headed back on the road towards Kalkan, hitched three cars:

– A dentist guy, who after he picked me up, stopped to help a campervan with a family of austrians, their battery was flat

– The austrians, who were heading to a town closer to kalkan than the turk dentist ;)

– A businessman in a fancy car for the last 20km or so

Kalkan is a settlement for english expats, I managed to get accepted for a couch there. My host owns and runs a clothes shop in the town, then during her spare time helps out the homeless animals (which there are a lot of in turkey). Her house was full of cats and dogs that had previously been abandoned somewhere. The traditional turkish way is to fear dogs and other animals, as such the animals treated very poorly by the locals. It was an interesting experience staying in a house full of animals, being greeted in the morning by a couple of dogs and cats, puppies covering the front yard. My host was heading to fethiye two days later and gave me a handy lift there. I stayed in a hostel ($10, free breakfast) for a night then hitched to the marmaris peninsula with a french couple.

A truck and a car later and we arrived. Marmaris is a very green area of coast and hills, with beautiful climate and crystal clear waters. After taking a dolmash to a semi-remote area of the peninsula, we had trouble finding accommodation, it was getting dark, but as always – we found a place in the end (2 bed villa, $7 each). We hiked up yet another waterfall the next day, then took a dolmash back to the main bus terminal. I took a bus to Izmir ($12), a small break from hitchhiking.

I was picked up by an australian-turkish couchhost when I arrived, he took me to his house in urla, a town right next to Izmir. I stayed there a night then hitched 4 cars to the great roman ruins of Ephesus, one of the highlights of turkey. It was once a grand city, holding an impressive amphitheatre and an impressive library. Unfortunately it cost $20 entrance, but it was well worth it.

I took a $2.50 dolmash back to Izmir and stayed with a host closer to the city centre. Izmir is a nice coastal city with a lot of bars and a youthful feel about it. I hitched a truck with a kurdish guy who bought be lunch, then a telecom van that was going to repair a line fault; and lastly a truck that was on its way to germany, it was very tempting to just go with him all the way – but I still had so much of turkey and eastern europe to see. I arrived in cannakale in the middle of a wild storm, I managed to walk 4km to the city centre without incident, my host’s house was directly in the centre.

I visited troy on the first day, being a fan of the horse of troy story it was very interesting to see the ruins of 5 different cities of different ages dating back to the 12th century BC. I settled in cannakale for a week and befriended some couchhosts that rocked up to a gathering at a bar, I decided to stay more than a few nights, as my host wanted to take me to Gallipoli on the weekend, the peninsula where many ANZACs died during world war 1. We took a car ferry over the dardanelles and drove to the top of the tallest hill that overlooks the entire west coast of the peninsular. This was the site where ataturk commanded the turkish troops to victory, it was easy to see how much of a strategic advantage the turks held. Well every australian knows the history, I won’t go into details, everyone else can wikipedia it – pretty much far too many australian and new zealand troops died during this one tragic battle. I found the name of my great uncle at the solitary australian memorial site called the lone pine.

The day after this excursion I decided to camp in galipoli, somewhat illegally, then start the hitch to istanbul from there. After a long hike to a remote area where noone could spot me, avoiding angry wild dogs along the way, I set camp under thick trees within a forest, hiding vision from all sides. The night was very cold, not having a travel mattress (the blue foam things) didn’t help matters, even when laying my jacket under the sleeping bag, it was still difficult to have a good night’s sleep – I should have believed bear grylls when he tells me that 90% of body heat is absorbed from the ground. I woke surprisingly refreshed despite the uncomfortable sleep, to the sounds of 1000s of muslim prayers echoing and reverberating. I walked to a clearing in the trees near a cliff, the view was amazing; it was getting dark when I set camp the night before, so I had no idea how high up I was, I could see the entire coast with cannakale over the strait. The muslim prayers that broke the timeless silence of the wilderness were coming from the city of cannakale all at the same time. It was the morning 6am prayer, a decent enough alarm clock considering my phone timepiece was well and truly flat. I packed and hiked back down to the main road.

Ok, I hitched:

– A hostel owner, who took me to his hostel in the next town. He didn’t mind that I walked away from it

– A large turkish guy who didnt know a word of english

– one truck that was heading to italy

– a cheese factory sales manager who not only bought me lunch at a canteen but also bought a bus ticket to istanbul for me and left me at the bus station with 10min to spare. This would mark the second time this happened in turkey.

I arrived in istanbul! chaos, everywhere – big city anxiety faded and I clicked into gear. I took a metro to the centre to get my bearings, then called the irish guys I met in georgia (I met them in a hostel, they live in istanbul, they offered to let me stay at their place; not sure if I mentioned this in the georgia post). I arrived, checked out a few mosques and markets the next day, then headed out the day after – quite eager to see europe, although technically I crossed to europe after arriving in galipoli and I was staying on the european half of istanbul.

Hitchhiking out of istanbul failed miserably, the city was too huge to get out of – I took a dolmash to the border city of Edirne and applied for a last minute couch while waiting in a kebab shop. 1hr later a host arrives to accomodate me; turkey is absolutely amazing for hitchhiking and couchsurfing.

I took a dolmash to the border of bulgaria and awaited my schengen european free stamp that entitles me to roam most of europe with no borders for 3 months. I was Officially back to the comforts of western civilization, at the beginning of my trip I told myself that the highlight of this trip will probably be europe, little did I know that it was to be the most dull part of the journey after the adventures I had already experienced through asia. Nevertheless, I’ll try and sum up the whirlwind euro trip in the next post.

*phew* damn this was a long post.