Turkey: Kars, Istanbul, and back to Cairo

Spring Break Day Eleven (continued from part ten)

The last day of my trip, I didn't have any plans to travel to any other cities, since I had a flight out of Kars back to Istanbul at 2:45pm. After having breakfast at the hotel, I wandered around Kars again. I headed back to the citadel, but this time the castle was open.

Kars Kalesi, as it's known, was constructed in the 13th century as an Armenian fortress, and later used by the Ottomans. The view of the city from the castle is quite good.

Views from Kars Kalesi.





Just below the castle is the Armenian Church of the Holy Apostles, constructed in the 10th century, which has been converted to a mosque in the last ten years. I didn't go inside. There are also some hammams (Turkish bathhouses) nearby which are old, though I'm not exactly sure of their period.

Church of the Holy Apostles.



Ancient hammams.


Some bridge that has supposedly been here for hundreds of years.


After that, I wandered around the city some more, visiting a few shops and one of the many "baklava salons," which are like cafes, except they serve baklava and tea instead of coffee.

Kars did not have any of the conservative Islamic atmosphere that one might expect. While there were mosques, I did not notice the call to prayer, and most of the women were not veiled. Bars were as common as they are in the United States, in comparison to other places in the region where it is almost impossible to find a place that serves alcohol. Many of the bars were packed with men playing card games, and gambling on soccer scores was very popular.

Although most of the young adults and many of the women dressed in by Western standards, it seems any Kurdish man over 40 had a dress code. Every single male I saw over the age of 40 or so wore black shoes, slacks, a dress shirt, a colored sweater vest, a blazer, and a flat cap. I did not see any exceptions to this.

This picture clearly shows Soviet architectural influence in Kars.


Since Kars doesn't have an international airport, I had to return to Istanbul for a return flight back to Cairo. I took the shuttle from the Turkish Airlines office in Kars to the airport and arrived at the airport a little past noon. There was nowhere to get lost there - the airport only has one gate, so planes leave one at a time. The flight back to Istanbul was actually quite big, flying on a Boeing 737. I sat next to an elderly Kurdish man on the flight who couldn't sit still. On top of that he kept yelling at me about my iPod, as if he thought it was prohibited for me to use it on the flight or something.

I arrived Istanbul around 5:30pm, and after getting my luggage I proceeded to buy a ticket back to Cairo, only two hours before takeoff. I took the 8pm flight into Cairo with EgyptAir. The flight went smoothly. I was one of the few people who selected the fish option when asked about their in-flight meal choice. It turned out the last decision I made on my trip was the worst one, as I narrowed down this meal as the one that gave me a bad case of food poisoning for the eight days after that. I didn't notice it at the time, though. I arrived in Cairo around 10pm, welcomed by the madness of an Egyptian airport crowd. Getting my student visa stamped was not a problem, and after a long taxi ride back to Doqqi, my spring break was done.

Overall, a good trip with a lot of valuable experiences. The number of countries I've visited now numbers four, three of them being Middle Eastern countries.

Turkey: Kars, Ani

Spring Break Day Ten (continued from part nine)

The hotel served a good breakfast, though unusual by American standards: eggs, olives, bread, tea, honey, molasses, and some sort of sweet fudge-like squares.

Celil met us at 9am and drove us the 45km to Ani, the medieval capital of the Armenian Kingdom. When we arrived at Ani, we were given specific instructions: we were not to go on the citadel, near the bridge or the stream, or down into any valleys. I didn't ask what would happen, but I imagine arrest and deportation would be options. It doesn't make sense to me that Turkey controls the former Armenian capital, especially since it's situated right on the Armenian border, but raising political questions like that didn't seem like a good idea either.

Just outside the Ani site.





As you can tell from the pictures, the Ani site is spread out across a wide expanse. Most of the buildings that remained were churches from around the year 900 to 1100. There was also a palace, a fortress (prohibited), some houses, some shops, and a wine press located on the site.

The site takes a couple hours to walk around and fully appreciate. There were only a handful of tourists there, and the village around Ani only has a few people living in it. As a result, the whole site is quiet and peaceful.

Various pictures from the ruined city of Ani.










You can get very close to the Turkish-Armenian border at the site, close enough to throw a rock across the stream that separates the two countries. Some of the staff walked around to let people know which areas were off-limits. We noticed three soldiers who were making patrols, one carrying a teapot, no less.

The stream separating the two countries.



Soldiers passing by, one carrying a teapot.



After returning to Kars, I wandered around the city a bit, venturing up to the citadel and near some of the ancient hammams which reside in the city. I had dinner at a restaurant on Ataturk Cad, though I don't remember the name. The staff didn't know any English, but it was obvious they were excited to have a foreigner eat there. I couldn't understand anything on the menu, so I picked something at random, and it turned out to be a plate with meats prepared in various ways. The food was great, and they treated me like a VIP.

That night I wandered around the city a bit more, visiting a couple Internet cafes. Although only half the size of Van, there was something about Kars that made it more interesting. The only tourists I saw in the city were the ones I had already met, including a British guy who was on a motorcycle trip from Greece to India.

Ataturk Cad in Kars at night. I don't know the reason for the lights.


Outside my hotel in Kars.

Turkey: Van, Doğubeyazıt, Kars

Spring Break Day Nine (continued from part eight)

The next day I woke up early, since I wanted to make sure I had ample time for travel. I had breakfast at the hotel, strangely enough consisting of olives, eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and tea. I met another tourist there, coincidentally another American. He was a former Navy corpsman and was traveling all across Turkey, so we talked for awhile about the interesting things we'd seen.

Because of my ATM dilemma, I wanted to make sure I bought a plane ticket back to Istanbul before I spent any more money. The airlines office had to get a shopkeeper from next door to translate English for me. I could barely understand what he said, but everyone was friendly enough and I had a ticket back to Istanbul two days in advance.

After checking out of the hotel, I walked over to the bus station and bought a ticket to Doğubeyazıt for 15 lira (less than $10 USD). There were two French tourists on the bus also, but the rest were local Kurds. The trip to Doğubeyazıt was about two hours, but the ride was incredible and was an attraction in itself. It passed first along the shores of Lake Van and then through remote highways on brown plains. Occasionally we would pass through a small village or see farmers working in their fields, but for the most part it was remote and undeveloped. There was a heavily-fortified checkpoint manned by Turkish Jandarma Genel Komutanlığı, but they didn't inspect passengers, only the bus driver.

The road to Doğubeyazıt, with Lake Van in the background.






We passed very close to the Iranian border.


I arrived in Doğubeyazıt around noon. Doğubeyazıt is a Kurdish town with only a few thousand people. It seemed to be much poorer and more agricultural than Van. I wasn't sure at that point whether I was going to stay there that night or go somewhere else, but after I got off the bus a man approached me and began speaking in English to me. He said he could take me to Kars that afternoon for 25 lira if I wanted. He also told me to open my guidebook to the Kars page to find his name listed as the town's best tour guide, and sure enough, it was there. That sounded good to me.

I walked around the main street Doğubeyazıt for a bit, though there wasn't really anything I could visit. However, I was there to see the palace, so I took a taxi to the summit, which is about 5km off the main road.

Along the way to the palace is a large Turkish military base, and I noticed at least twenty armored tanks parked there. Doğubeyazıt is only a few minutes away from the Iranian border, and apparently there have been troubles in recent years with drug smuggling into Turkey. Additionally, much of Kurdistan was not suitable for tourism until the late 1990s, since PKK, a Kurdish separatist group, had been known for committing terrorist acts in the area. The Turkish military had since increased its presence in the region and the PKK presence is no longer a threat. Although I felt safe while traveling, I did feel there was a considerable amount of tension in the region.

At the top of the mountain outside of Doğubeyazıt lies İshak Paşa Sarayı, a partly-ruined Ottoman palace from the 18th century. The scenery atop the mountain is spectacular, and ranks as one of the best things I've ever visited. Unfortunately the top floor was closed for restoration, but you could still see good views from the ground floor. The palace was divided up into many rooms - courtyards, a kitchen, a mosque, a hammam (thermal bathroom), a library, basement, and dungeon. The architecture is pretty bizarre, looking like a cross of a fortress and an ugly mosque.

The weather on the mountain was cold and damp, somewhere between a drizzle and light flurries.

The various sections of the palace.








The mountains around the palace.







At the palace, I met the same tour guide, and he said he could take me back to Doğubeyazıt before we left for Kars. He had transported two Spanish guys and two Australian guys from Kars that day, and they were going to Van later. We all had lunch together at a very strange restaurant in Doğubeyazıt which was decorated in a Hawaiian style. After lunch we parted ways, and the tour guide, Celil (pronounced jeleel), took me to a carpet shop, which was the meet up point for the Kars trip. Waiting there were three other tourists: a German couple, both doctoral students, and an Italian guy, who was an undergraduate in Rome.

Street in Doğubeyazıt.


The five of us left Doğubeyazıt around 2pm on the road to Kars. Strange as it sounds, the road to Kars was the best part of my spring break. The scenery was among the best I've ever seen in my life, and every so often we would stop along the road, and our tour guide would explain the local area and its geography.

Along the road to Kars.





From the road we could see Mount Ararat, the largest mountain in Turkey, and what is believed to be the location of Noah's Ark. Because of PKK troubles, the mountain is off-limits for visit unless you obtain a climbing permit in advance. Not many people have climbed it, and apparently many of the locals consider it impossible and sacrilegious to climb it. From Doğubeyazıt you cannot see the top of the mountain because of cloud cover, but as you get further away from Doğubeyazıt the summit becomes visible.

We made a stop at this place not far from Doğubeyazıt called Iğdir. Celil had to meet a friend for something. It was a depressing little town with nothing going for it. We weren't there long.

Break in Iğdir.


The road from Iğdir to Kars passes across the intersection of three continental plates - the Eastern European, the Anatolian, and the Asian. Celil showed us exactly where the divides were, which explains the reason the region is prone to serious earthquakes.

We passed by a Turkish wedding along the way. I had heard about them, but I figured the chances of actually seeing one was slim - I was wrong. We stopped for a second to observe. It was a bit strange. The wedding was essentially a group of people on the side of the road with some music and some dancing.

At one point, we stopped on the side of the road to take pictures and for an explanation of the area. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia maintained military bases in Armenia, which are still manned today. The Turkish-Armenian border has been closed for many years, so the area is very sensitive. While we were taking pictures, a group of Turkish soldiers came up behind us and told us we had to leave. They were friendly about it, but they had certain border agreement they had to enforce.

We passed through two fortified checkpoints along the road to Kars and it was noted that there were foreigners visiting the region, but they didn't have us present our passports. Celil had to show his driver's license, though.

More along the road to Kars.





Near the Armenian border overlooking a Russian military base.




We arrived in Kars at around 4:30pm and the first reaction from all of us was that it felt like we were in Russia. I had never been to Russia before, but the Germans had, and they said it reminded them of Moscow. It turns out that Kars was under Soviet rule briefly after World War I. Kars is a small city of about 130,000 people, mostly Kurdish. The streets were wide and arranged in a grid pattern, and most of the buildings were plain stone structures with thick fences. Perhaps the most ominous thing was the statue of Atatürk outside the former military barracks. It could have been replaced with a statue of Stalin and it would have looked normal.

Celil helped us locate a place called the Güngüren Oteli. It was a clean place and I was able to secure a double room for 30 lira per night. Even here the Soviet architecture was striking. In the lobby, a bunch of men smoked cigarettes and watched television, while a small bust of Atatürk loomed in the background.

My concern was getting back to Van for my flight on Tuesday morning. I found out it would be difficult to get a ride back to Van unless I left early the next day, which would mean I wouldn't get to visit Ani. Celil called up the Turkish Airlines office and helped me moved my ticket depature from Van to Kars. That was convenient.

Soon after, I went out to dinner with the Germans and the Italian to a restaurant on the edge of the city. Again, in the Soviet style, the restaurant was much larger than it needed to be, and we were the only ones in there for most of the time. The staff spoke little English, but they were exceedingly friendly and were excited to have us there.

Near the restaurant in Kars.


I ventured into an Internet cafe for a bit before making my way back into the hotel. At night, Kars was freezing. It was funny to think only a few days ago I was burning up near the Dead Sea in Jordan, and here I was fighting to stay warm.

Overall, it was a tremendous day of visiting, and was exactly what I wanted to do. Celil offered to take us to the ruins at Ani the next day, so we agreed to meet in the hotel lobby at 9am.