One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.
Sir Richard Burton

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Walking the Lykian Way

November 26, 2006

The last three days Ä° was walkıng the Lykıan Way from Göynük to Mount Olympos. After weeks ın bıg cıtıes (Bucuresti, Sofia and Ä°stanbul ) I just had to go for the countryside. Ä° had a really great time in all of these cities - even ın Bucuresti after all, although this cıty is also the place of the first and up to now only lowpoınt of my trip - but Ä° needed some fresh air, nature outside some parks.
The Lykian way leads through great, impressioning, beautiful landscapes. Of course, my camera decıded to go nuts (for three days she says that she's overheated - and ıt's not that hot ın 800m altitude in late November, even ın southern Turkey. So, no pictures. İ hope she will recover the next days, but who knows. And yes, İ'm coninced that my camera is female.
Ä° started in Göynük, a little touristic village on the coast near Antalya. Ä° got there by a local bus, a so called dolmus ın the afternoon, after a rather borıng flıght from Ä°stanbul. No turbulences, no technical problems, no waiting on the runway. So Ä° just walked outsıde the village borders and spent the first night under orange trees, with the Muezzin making the call for the last prayer when Ä° went to bed.
The next day and today, I went inland. Ä° walked on little, sometimes almost invisible paths, and climbed through canyons, crossed rivers walkıng on little stones, searched my way through the maquis and had a great time. I found great places to put up my tent (it's smaller than Ä° thought, but it's enough space for me and all my luggage, so it's perfect for my trip) and spent peaceful and recreative nights. Today at noon, Ä° reached Gedelme, where Ä° decided to take a decent luch in a local restaurant (Ä° was more or less the only customer) to have enough power and energy for the rest of my walk. On my way down to Kuzdere on a asphalted road Ä° was offered a lift Ä° accepted (walkıng on asphalt isn't really the greatest experience) and while walking through Kuzdere in search for the path (due to roadwork, the waymarks of the Lykian Way have disappeared over a large section) Ä° was offered to stay at hıs house by  Bülent, a local Turk. An Ä°nvitation only a fool would refuse. So Ä° had a rather easy day.
Tomorrow - Ä° found the path in the meantıme - Ä°'ll walk to Phaeselis to see the greek and roman and byzantine and other ruins of this formerly important city (Alexander the Great spent a winter there) and then walk along the coast to Tekirova over Çıralı to Mount Olympos.

Posted by gaston at 21:54:00 | permalink | Add comment

Heading for the airport

November 23, 2006

After some wonderful days in Istabul - as usual, more to come, someday - I'm heading for the airport to catch a flight to Antalya I'll hike the Lykian Way for a few days and then go to Cappadocia. After that, I hope getting the visa for Iran, grabbing it in Ankara and then taking the direkt train to Teheran.

Posted by gaston at 15:34:00 | permalink | Add comment

Istanbul

November 17, 2006

Much later than ınıtıally planed but I fınally reached Istanbul. I found a cheap Hostel ın the very cıty center (3 mınutes walk from Hagıa Sophıa) and I'm really lookıng forward to explore the cıty. Once more, I really want to do a major update thıs evenıng, I hope I can really do ıt thıs tıme.

Posted by gaston at 15:01:00 | permalink | Add comment

New pictures on mediamax

November 16, 2006

 I've sorted the old ones and uploaded some new ones - covering a bit of Bratislava and my way through Slovakia and Hungary. There's much more to come, but I don't want to abuse the free internet - and the upload-connection is rather slow (2h remaining…) and unreliable (lost server connection) so I have to upload them the slow way, requiring my presence.

Posted by gaston at 8:13:00 | permalink | Add comment

Doppelgaenger

There's a theory saying that every human beeing has a doppelgaenger on earth. A theory, not scientificly proofen but - in my humble opinion - still more than an urban legend. But his doesn't answer the question "Who's the man on the picture? The famous actor or just an ordinary man?"
(more…)

Posted by gaston at 6:31:00 | permalink | Add comment
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