November 14th -
We went for a six hour walk around the new part of town, including the brand new church built overlooking the city. It is supposed to be the largest in the region, and if size was all that the Georgians were going for then they surely succeeded. For a modern structure it is plain, and on the inside the roofs stands bare, in stark contrast to the painted and beautiful roofs that adorn many of the churches in Tbilisi.
The highlight of the day was dinner. Noah and I felt adventurous, and without inquiring as to what we were ordering, picked two random dishes off the menu. Devin had salad. Both our orders managed to be disgusting, although Noah’s took the cake for being served cold. Both dishes were composed of pig fat and random pig parts. The only redeeming part of my meal was that it was served in broth, which I managed to soak up with enough bread and garlic to be semi-satisfied with my order.
November 15th -
We arrived in Batumi in the morning, and hopped onto a city bus. Our intention was to ride into the city and check out the bus station for rides to Ankara or Istanbul, but we stayed on the bus way past the city and all the way to the border crossing with Turkey. Since this came as a surprise, we were faced with the decision of what to do next. Should we A: go back to town and get to the bus station like we originally planned or B: just cross the border and see where we could get to from there. For a dilemma as complicated as this, we used the best decision making tool for a two-sided problem, a Georgian coin.
The coin landed on back to the bus station, and our fate was sealed. We spent the entire day in Batumi, a seaport town on the Black Sea, which happened to have wireless internet on the boardwalk. It was a beautiful day and we spent most of it on the beach, and the other couple of percents looking at the statue to Jason and the Argonauts, who are rumored to have landed at Batumi in search of the golden fleece.
November 16th -
We made it to Istanbul this morning. Our first task was to find our hostel, which we did with no help from our cabbie. After walking for 30 minutes to realize we had no idea where we were, we humbled ourselves into a cab and rode for about 15 minutes across town, at which point he showed us a direction and said good luck. With our bags in tow, we walked up and down the main shopping street of Istanbul looking classy. Devin said that I smelled, but who knows.
November 17th -
Istanbul is the first place on our travels where we have been joined by tour groups and is an actual destination for people. The other countries on our list don’t make anyone’s top 5 of anything, which is also why Georgia has to eat Russian borscht for the next 50 years. The tourist factor makes everything we do feel superficial, as if anybody could do it. This was the case in the other countries as well, and is a common complaint of serious climbers who don’t have the money to do Everest, but for three guys who spent 36 hours on a piece of tin crossing the Caspian, it’s an ego blow.
The other problem with Istanbul was that I remember it being a lot cheaper with my dad’s credit card. We have finally hit Western prices, and it’s affecting our tours, whereas it used to only affect our diet. Every site here charges a minimum of 10, but usually 20 Lira ($12) for entrance. We aren’t usually paying that much to lay our heads down, let alone see stuff. We’ll make an adjustment, but the palace and some museums that I enjoyed on my last trip here I won’t be frequenting again.
November 18th -
We spent the entire day on the train and we smell awful. More to the point, I smell awful. We were in a cabin with the three of us and a father and son. They boarded in the middle of the night after some of the smell had dissipated, but the morning brought on new monsters, and after a mid afternoon removal of the shoes, the father was forced to flee to the top bunk after a spout of coughing from hot being able to breathe correctly. Oh well.
We got ourselves in to Goerme, Cappadocia is a region, at 7 pm, a full 12 hours later than a bus would have gotten us there, but we each saved 5 Lira, so you be the judge. We found our hotel and made a fruitless search for food that produced bread, butter and Dortios ®. and prepared for a big day of hiking.
November 19th -
We spent the entire day in Cappadocia today. We started with a morning walk to a castle built into the surrounding caves. We didn’t follow the road, but rather the straight line path, which ended up being a two-hour out of the way path. But it was beautiful and we were dirty to start with. We made it to the castle and Devin and Noah rewarded themselves with their first Turkish coffees of the trip, though certainly not the last.
Since we were to be taking a bus back to Istanbul at 8, we spent the rest of the day trying to see as much of the region as possible by foot. This was frustrating only because of the massive tour buses carrying loads of Koreans by us every 5 minutes. Are there any Koreans left in Korea? We saw some churches that date from the 10th century and climbed around some abandoned cave houses. It was raining in the afternoon, so we were nice and soaked when we boarded the overnight bus back to the big city.
November 20th -
We arrived way too early to do anything in Istanbul. Add to that the hurt from certain bus positions, and it was a perfect set up for a bad day. Fortunately, we found a McDonald’s. We sat for one cup of coffee, went to the bathroom and brushed our teeth, and exited ready to visit other “holy” structures that would probably take more of our money and leave us less satisfied.
The main tasks on our list were to visit the Hagia Sofia and buy socks, in no particular order. We also had a dinner planned with a friend of mine from college, if we were able to get in touch with him. The Hagia Sofia, a sixth century church/mosque/museum erected by Justinian, is probably one of the most beautiful and most important structures standing that is able to connect the Western world to its counterpart. We went there first so that we could spend the rest of the day on the lookout for socks.
We met my friend Omar at 8, and he delivered a great dinner, just as he did the last time my family and I were in Istanbul. We sat with one of his friends and ate multiple types of doner and fresh vegetables, and then washed it all down with Turkish liquor and had some great desert and Turkish coffee to finish it all off. With this dinner and the one at Katie’s in Azerbaijan, we have been treated to two really fantastic meals that have made up for the lack of culinary satisfaction that has otherwise defined our travels.
November 21st -
Once we had cleaned ourselves (first time in over a week) and emailed, we began our walk around Sofia. The previous night at dinner we had heard some terrible things, but those were really unfounded, as Sofia is a really classic European town with just a dash of Soviet to remind you what could have been. The churches, though dating sometimes to the 15th century, are mostly refurbishments of their originals, many of which were destroyed during WWI. The big surprises of the day were the cheap pizza and the appearance of falafel, a dish which Devin was positive would be found in Turkey, but had to wait one more country.
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