The second time I went to Turkey after exactly one year from the first time, it was because I felt I needed to finish that journey, discovering also the eastern side of the country, the more remote one, the one culturally and geographically closer to Asia than Europe, where sometimes I had to struggle in order to be understood, because english over there is not widely spoken. After having seen the cosmopolitan, modern, huge, international and sometimes intimidating size of Istanbul and the charming, quiet and colourful Safranbolu (the name comes from Saffron, since the city was an important trading place, especially for saffron trade), what was on my list this time was the capital city Ankara, the beautiful desertic area of Kapadokya, the very eastern city of Kars and the ancient ruin of Ani, on the border with Armenia.
Kapadokya was a chance to meet other fellow travellers from Asia, chinese and irani people, that were travelling that area coming from their hometown, someone hitching and someone biking. Some of those people despite the cold november kapadokyan nights and despite the barking, wild and skinny dogs around, decided to camp in the nature and lit a fire. Free-camping is supposed to be forbidden in Turkey but apparently after having talked to them, I had the feeling that generally police-men are not very concerned about people sleeping in tents in the middle of nowhere.
The Dogu-train crossing Turkey from Kayseri to Kars was probably the longest time I spent on a single train journey in all my life (1am to 8 pm). The experience is supposed to be once of a lifetime experience according to travel bloggers and other people who did the same route before. I have to say that the ride was overall pretty enjoyable and very much into "what locals do" since I haven't met any foreigner doing that route that night, maybe because of the off-season. I should have maybe book myself a cabin in order to have a more comfortable experience but I forgot and ended up on a broken uncomfortable seat for all the journey.
The very same night I reached Kars and along with me came the first and only turkish literature nobel price, Orhan Pamuk. He was there in order to investigate on a series of young islamic girls suicides in his book called "Snow" and when I was reading about his experience in the city, I tried to find my marking points too. I was hosted by a student from Mauritania called Sidi, that took me out with his student fellows for a sunday afternoon tea and it was somehow nice to feel to be back into student life for a while. The crew was very social and very international, the most of them were from Africa or Middle East and I think overall they felt pretty well welcomed in the country as foreign students.
Leaving Kars otherwise was not easy. This are the notes I took while being still there: "I am still here but I hope I will manage to go soon. I am left with no cash and no internet on my phone in a very modest, dusty and overpacked bus station that does not take card and that is why I missed my first bus. In order to jump on the next one and last one for the day, in about 3 hrs, I have to relocate to another bus station out of town and to do that, I found a taxi driver who said he could do it for 100 liras, basically all I have left in my pocket. The taxi driver accidentally takes me to the station where I was first and I start to lose my temper, having to face the same folks that refused to take my card just half an hour before. It starts to snow and I am completely unprepared for that weather. I thought Turkey was a warm country but once you go to the east, everything is completely different. The taxi driver wants to charge me double now and since I have no cash with me, I decided I will pay for the petrol of his car. I am filling the gas tank of a taxi in Kars and this feels surreal. Once I reached station number two, a bit more than 15 km out of town, I notice that I have just reached an abandoned building. The only thing I can spot from there, are a bunch of local folks sitting in circle inside a very small house. They said the bus isn't running from there and I feel this nightmare is never gonna end. The place where I am now supposed to catch my bus is a petrol station nearby and in order to reach it, I have to jump on another taxi and pay extra 150 liras. I am with no cash left except from the 100 liras I have still in my pocket and I try to make those folks understand my situation but all my efforts seem useless. I gave them all my money and luckily after they took me there, they turned out to be pretty helpful and called the bus company to tell them that that was their pick up point where they could find me. I was then welcomed to another small room and offered a cup of tea. After sometime, a man working there comes out and starts to talk to me and tells me to walk to the next petrol station, a bit further down the road. I am walking along the highway under the stormy, snowy weather and suddendly three huge tracks carring tanks pass me by, covered with a black plastic blanket, immense as the dark force of war. I started to wonder how does it feel to be there on the spot, on the battle field, standing under the snow all by yourself, with your wet feet and see those ancestral monsters move around and spit fire with their baritonal voice. It must feel like something too big to understand for a human, something that also nature can not explain."
**