Kaçkar Mountains; Çamlihemşin and Ayder

We are now in Ayder, a village inside the Kaçkar Mountain National Park. The narrow road is cut into the side of a steep grassy slope, and there are lodges and restaurants on either side. Cows are free to graze and their bells tinkle with each lumbering step. The blue-grey, snow-covered peaks beckon from a distance.

We stayed one night at the Serender Pansiyon, then moved over to Ecodanitap where we will be under the wing of Mehmet.  Mehmet is an enterprising fellow who runs Turku Turizm, Ecodanitap, Fora Pansiyon, and more.

The Kackars are often compared to the Alps.  For me it invokes Yosemite.  Which is rather apropos, since I just picked up a copy of John Muir's "My First Summer in the Sierras."   In it, he recounts his adventures accompanying a dour shepherd and 2500 head of "hoofed locust" to the summer pastures in the Sierras.   There are many pages of romantic rapture at the mountain vistas and meticulate descriptions of trees.    The original tree-hugger!

PARODY OF JOHN MUIR

"We are taking a flock of sheep up to their summer pastures in the Sierra.   Today, we went up the hill, and I saw A TREE.  <3>  This was the best day of my life!  Later, we rounded up the sheep and made camp. ...  Today we went along a river, and I saw A FLOWER.  <3>  I could die right now and be happy.  ... Today we ran out of bread and everyone was surly, but I saw A ROCK.  <3>  Oh the raptures of nature are unceasing.  ...  etc. etc. etc."

EKODANITAP

Ekodanitap is the latest brainchild of Mehmet.  It is his headquarters for running his yayla (high-altitude summer pasture) tourism empire.  It's situated on a hill with a patch of tea bushes in the middle (Camelia sinensis).  At the bottom of the hill is the common area, with a kitchen, salon, restroom, and a porch.  The salon and porch have a beautiful view of the Fırtına river and valley below.  The chipboard outside is stamped "Canada, May 2007."  In the corner of the salon is an iBook G4, which I am commandeering right now while Mehmet hangs with his peeps.  Mehmet is Hemşin, and his extended family lives along the valley.

The four eco-huts are written up in Lonely Planet as being solar-powered, but really they're just connected to a solar water heater, which is pretty much standard-issue in Turkey and Greece.  They are very nice little huts, brand-spanking new, with a double bed, bathroom, and mini-living room  downstairs, and a ladder up to the loft where there are two single beds on either side of a plankwalk.  Everything is plain pine, and you can see sunlight through the walls.

We were slated to go on a trekking tour with a Canadian couple, but inexplicably they changed their minds within the course of a dinner, apparently due to "foot problems." We haven't met them, so don't know the whole story.  Now the plan is to hang out and do day hikes until a foursome arrives from Poland.  Then we'll tag along on their trekking tour.  Mehmet has kindly offered to waive the 5 person minimum for us two, but we are trying not to make him extra work if we can avoid it.

The Hemşin are ethnic Armenians who settled here in the highlands and intermarried with the Turks.  The lowlands are predominantly Las people.   Mehmet and his wife Kader made us a delicious Hemşin lunch.  There was mahlama, a fondue of cheese, eggs, milk, flour, and butter, kısır, which is like a tabouleh but with green onions, tomatoes and chili paste, and a yogurt salad that was like a tzatziki but with dill and small-leaved greens.  There was also makarna, which is basically macaroni in a tomato sauce, and sekerli makarna, which is macaroni in a sugary syrup!   This was a very nice change from the typical lokanta fare.

Mehmet and Kader have a four-year-old son, Daglar ("mountains"), who loves to play with guns.  He'll point his toy gun right at your face or jam it into the flesh of your arm and press the trigger for that satisfying click.   I think he will do well in his askerlik (mandatory 15 month military service.)  

I like to ask the young men about their askerlik, where they served, what they did, etc.  One young man, Ali, had some English skills and was stationed at Antalya outside the officers' resort.   This is what he said to trespassing tourists: "I'm very sorry.  This is a military area.  Tourists are not allowed."  

I got some comments on the blog from Robert, an American who is also travelling in Turkey.  He and his wife have taken a flat in Istanbul for a month.  It is delightful to hear from a kindred spirit!

Early in the trip, I was browsing in a bookstore and saw some lovely children's books by Mevlana Idris.  They had titles likes "The man who was losing his hair", "The man who gave away money," etc.  I picked up a 10-book set and carried them around to give as gifts, since there are always kids running around.   I think they appreciate the gesture.  To really send the kids into apoplectic fits though, I simply read from the books in my terrible Turkish.  

New friends in Çosandere!

In the morning, we set out to visit Sumela Monastery. In the lobby of Maçkam hotel, we ran into Bahri, a tall, trim, kind, and courtly gentleman. He spoke enough English for us to communicate, and we arranged for him to chauffeur us to the Monastery. The road took us up the valley, with steep slopes of granite on either side (Note: the identity of any flora, fauna, and geologica in this blog are unscientifically established and to be qualified by an unspoken "well, that's what it looked like to me") and the trout-filled stream that rushed impetuously alongside. Once in the clear mountain air, we decided to spend the whole day there and managed with gestures, scribbles, and broken phrases to let Bahri know that he didn't have to wait for us.

The Monastery is most impressive from a distance, where it seems to cling to a sheer rockface. Once inside the courtyard, it appears quite cozy, with dormitories, a library, and a fresco-covered cave church. Much of the structure is off-limits, though, and we did not spend more than an hour there. We clambered down the steep footpath to the hotel at the parking lot, and continued along the road back toward Maçka town. It was a beautiful day, with the sun playing peekaboo behind cooling clouds, and a stiff breeze coming up the valley. We walked on the road along the stream for 12 km, all downhill, and just when my stomach was getting grumbly, came upon a fish restaurant.

We ordered fresh trout and salad and sat back to enjoy our streamside perch, especially the burbling bass notes.

This was where we met Ramazan, a most engaging young man with twinkly blue eyes and a sunny smile. After he brought us our food, we started in conversation, and then he asked us to stay a night with his family. We were delighted and agreed to come the next day.

The evening we spent with Ramazan and his extended family was the highlight of our trip.

... to be continued

Trabzon: The sea, the sea

We flew into Trabzon last night and are now in Sumela. We visited the Sumela Monastery this morning. We rented a car and are now mobile!

The Black Sea Coast is a lot like Northern California. The evil orb no longer pummels us with invisible rays.

We stopped at a restaurant in Cosandere and had fresh trout. We met a young Turk named Ramazan who was so excited to practise his English he invited us to stay at his home for tomorrow.

Jim just got a haircut and shave and is smooth-cheeked and happy!

Antakya: Holding pattern; movies

We're still in Antakya, in the holding pattern until we get to Trabzon and then the Kackar Mountains.

I'm in a bit of a mid-trip slump.

I just finished reading the Poisonwood Bible. It was intense and absorbing, especially the description of the unrelenting struggle for survival in the Belgian Congo, and the family dynamics of a mother and four daughters held hostage by their raving lunatic of a patriarch, a Baptist preacher. A beautiful, tragic, moving story.

Now I have "My Antonia" and "The Sound and the Fury" lined up. I had no idea Faulkner wrote in stream-of-consciousness, which makes reading feel like work. Well, at least it's shorter than James Joyce's Ulysses.

We watched a movie on TV last night that was in Cantonese with Turkish subtitles. It was kung-fu slapstick and spaghetti western called "Kung-Fu Hustler." Absolutely hilarious. It's set in a village whose leader is a sturdy, no-nonsense matron who periodically goes out into the square to chew everybody out, clad in a billowy white peignoir and hair rollers, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth, and a permanent scowl. She also has amazing kung-fu and her specialty is the lion roar, which blasts everything in sight. Due to a trivial provocation, the village comes under attack by a group of fedora-wearing, hatchet-swinging bad guys. The villagers would cringe and hide until they are pushed to the brink, then one of them would finally step up and reveal his or her kick-ass moves and crush the opposition. This happens several times, with the mafia types hiring increasingly lethal assasins, including a pair of blind zither-players and a guy in underwear and slippers from the insane asylum. Meanwhile, the lead bad guy gets over a humiliating childhood episode, finds the goodness in his soul, fights for the village, gets the girl, and opens a candy store.

Great movie, but now I wonder how many of these movies the Turks have been watching and if that's their primary mental association when they gawk at me walking in the park. I just might have to startle someone by breaking into a flamingo stance with a Bruce Lee chicken-squawk.

The TV selection consists of Turkish programs (news and drama), plus two channels of American movies and dramas (TNT and NBC), an Arabic channel (MBC), and random movies in German and last night, Cantonese. There's a channel that shows nature programs with no sound. And of course, all UEFA futbol matches are faithfully broadcast live with pre- and post-game analyses.

Last night, I also caught the latest episode of Desperate Housewives, which made me *very* happy. It was the first time Jim's watched it, and his summary is "a show with multiple, very easy to follow, obvious storylines." Also I watched Smallville for the first time.

Jim has never seen the original Christopher Reeves Superman movie! By golly, it's like he grew up on Mars!

The plan

We have a plan! Monday we fly to Trabzon, where I can shout "thalassa, thalassa" in echo of the 10,000 led by Xenophon as recounted in the Anabasis. A day trip to Sumela Monastery follows. Coincidentally, the monastery was featured in a book we picked up at the pension in Rhodes. "The Testament" by Eric van Lustbader (can it be a real name?) is a "Da Vinci Code" copycat thriller that is so bad it was good.

After Sumela, we'll be off to Ayder in the Kackar Mountain National Park. Both of us are done with zipping around so we'll be there for at least a week. This makes our trip a "Four Corners" tour of Turkey.

Turkey advances to semifinals

Last night, Turkey played Croatia to see who would advance to the UEFA semifinals.

Turkey played well but Croatia a bit better, yet the score stayed at 0-0. The game went into second overtime.

As the excitement mounted, wedding guests in crisp suits and sparkling cocktail dresses from a party on the mezzanine filtered into the lobby of the Büyük Antakya Hotel.

With ten minutes to go in second overtime, Croatia scored a goal. The crowd held its breath and leaned toward the flat screen TV. With ten seconds to go, Turkey scored to tie at 1-1. The crowd leaps up with a holler. The game would now be decided by shootout.

Turkey wins the shootout. On the screen, the Croatian players are kneeling, clutching their heads, in tears. Jim's new friend leans over and says, "now everybody will go out into the street."

People stream out from every hotel, restaurant, shop, apartment block waving flags and singing. They clump around a few epicenters, of which our hotel appears to be the largest. Within minutes a master of ceremonies appears on the terrace to lead the chants. To me it sounds like " blablabla... TURKIYE, blablabla... TURKIYE." Between chanting, techno-Turk disco music booms. In the throng, instruments of jubilation appear out of nowhere - bass drums, tom toms, bongos, a trumpet, fireworks. And of course, flags everywhere - a sea of red. Our new host hands us sparklers and offers us tea.

After an hour or so of chanting and singing and dancing, the parade begins to form. Everyone know what to do. The vehicles ply a well worn track around downtown Antakya. There are motorcycles, cars, and trucks. Celebrators lean out of windows and sunroofs; horns are blaring. This goes on until 3am.

Turkish language

FUN WITH TURKISH

One nice thing about the Turkish language is that spelling is completely phonetic - what you see is what you get. Especially fun is the precise parsimony of Turkish when adopting foreign words, to wit:

feribot
motoryat
tren
makyaj (from French: maquillage = make-up)
mayo (from French: maillot = swimsuit)

Another nice thing about Turkish, if you're into Scrabble, is that it's full of two-letter words, for example:

ev - house
iş - work
eş - spouse
en - most
on - ten
at - horse
ve - and
iç - inside

USEFUL TIPS

When I'm offered tea for the 10th time today, and I've already had 20 cups, the most effective deflector I've found is:
"yok yok, sağ ol".

By the way, shortening sağ olun to sağ ol subtly signals that a not unsubstantial period of time has transpired since one had gotten off the boat.

MONEY TALK

The Turkish Lira was replaced with the New Turkish Lira (Yeni Türk Lira, or YTL) a few years ago. Storekeepers will often quote prices in old lira, so that 1 YTL is bir milyon and 2.50 YTL is iki milyon beş yüz. To discuss prices in new lira, YTL is pronounced "yeh-teh-leh."

MORE USEFUL WORDS
next week: gelecek hafta
this week: gerede hafta
last week: geçen hafta

GEZMEK? EKMEK!
We pick up a good number of hitchhikers while driving the rental car. The conversation is usually short, mostly to establish where one is going, where one is from, and so on. One farmer continued by asking "gezmek?" Since my dictionary was in the trunk, I could only smile and shrug. Jim was undeterred, and countered with the favorite word in his limited armamentarium: "gezmek? Ekmek!" This was delivered with a big grin and while pointing to the loaf of bread in the back seat.

Later we looked it up, and learned that gezmek means to tour or wander about. This proved to be a useful word with which to greet the natives while poking around their backyards.