Where We Went

We started off in Istanbul, a fascinating place worthy of weeks of exploration. ("Istanbul, not Constantinople…", pictures here and here.)

From there we took an overnight bus down to Selcuk to see the ruins of Ephesus. ("Slow-paced Selcuk", pictures here.)

Next we went inland to Pamukkale to see the travertines and the ruins of Hierapolis. ("Pamukkale", "Day 19…", pictures here.)

Then we hit the Mediterranean, stopping at the beautiful city of Fethiye for a few days. ("Sailboats & British holidaymakers, a.k.a Fethiye", "Don’t Laugh at the Sensitive Meatball!", pictures here.)

Chilling out at Olympos was our next stop, and as happens to most people, we stayed there longer than planned. ("Olympos – The best place in the world to do nothing at all", "The waves of Olympos", "Chimera – The Burning Mountain", pictures here.)

Following our several days of doing little, we journeyed our farthest inland to Cappadocia, using Goreme as a base to explore the interesting area. ("The wonderland of Cappadocia", "The old man and the donkey", pictures here.)

After Cappadocia we left the heavily-touristed areas of Turkey and started our venture out East. Our first stop was Malatya, our base to see Mt. Nemrut. ("We’re finally being stared at – Malatya", "Mt. Nemrut", pictures here.)

We broke up the long journey to Sanliurfa by first stopping in Gaziantep, where we sampled the local baklava, reputed to be the best in the world. ("Getting out of Gaziantep")

The interesting Sanliurfa, or Urfa, kept our interest for a few days. ("Holy and Hospitable Sanliurfa", pictures here, pictures of Harran here.)

From Urfa we entered the southeastern corner of Turkey, a traditionally Kurdish region. Our first stop was the walled city of Diyarbakir. ("The Black Walls of Diyarbakir", pictures here.)

We visited Mardin on a day trip from Diyarbakir. ("Overlooking Mesopotamia at Mardin", "Backgammon – The Ancient Game", pictures here.)

After Mardin it was on to the modern city of Van, situated on beautiful Lake Van. ("Van, city on the lake", pictures here.)

Our last stop was Dogubayazit, just near the border with Iran. We came to see the views of Mt. Ararat and the Isak Pasha Palace. ("Wonders on the Frontier – Dogubayazit", "The Market in Dogubayazit", pictures here.)

You can look at a detailed google map of our path here.

Final Thoughts

I think if you’ve read any of these pages, looked at the pictures or watched the videos, you’ll know that we had an awesome time in Turkey. The people are amazingly hospitable, there is so much to see and do you could never get bored, and the food is awesome.

Five weeks is a long time, but we could have easily spent more time. There are several regions of the country we didn’t get to explore, and of course you can never see or do everything in the places you do get to. If you ever have a chance to visit this fascinating and beautiful country, do it. You won’t regret it.

The 2 hour mini bus from Van was relatively easy to arrange, and the views on the way were awesome. The road winds around Lake Van for a good while before the landscape changes to stark mountains dotted with shepherds tending their flocks of sheep. When we got into town it was raining, so we decided to take it easy and planned on getting up early the following day to hopefully catch a glimpse of Ararat and to see the palace.

The main reason to come to Dogubayazit is to see the Isak Pasha Palace, a 17th century structure that has been a palace, a fortress, and a mosque. It sits up on the rocky slopes a few kilometers out of the modern town. If you are lucky you can catch a glimpse of Mt. Ararat before the clouds sweep in and cover the summit.

We woke up early in the morning to get our sightseeing taken care of before catching one of the last minibuses to Van. First we walked out of town to see Mt. Ararat, and indeed we got lucky. The summit was unobscured by clouds, framed by a pristine blue sky. It dominates the surrounding mountains, and has supposedly been part of legend and myth for thousands of years.

The next mission was to make it up to the Isak Pasha Palace, the last spot on our itinerary and probably the place we’ve been most excited about for weeks. Seeing the palace was the main reason we set out this far east – everything else was just a bonus. We paid a minibus driver 10 lira to take us up, and when we got there we couldn’t have been more pleased. Almost no one else was there; we had this immaculate, elegant palace/fortress/mosque perched on a rocky hill with a commanding view of the surrounding mountains and countryside to ourselves to explore. We took tons of photos and video, which will do it more justice than words here. Our trip to the edge of Turkey was definitely worth it.

After that we made it back to Van, chilled out, and flew to Istanbul the next day. Next stop: Cairo.

Everywhere we’ve been in Turkey, people are playing this game. Backpackers play it at their hostels and hotels, and people both young and old spend hours playing in tea houses, nargileh cafes, parks, and bars.

This is the sound of men chatting and playing backgammon while drinking tea in a tea house just below our hotel in Diyarbakir. You can hear the roll of the dice and the clacking of the pieces as they move them along the board.

I recorded this sound while walking through the market. You can hear the shoppers haggling with vendors, sellers shouting out their deals, and several attempts to engage me in conversation. Because I was recording I had to just wave them all away, not always an easy task! The clip is about five minutes long, but I didn’t know how to shorten it. So close your eyes and imagine yourself squeezing through the throngs of shoppers, wooden vendors’ carts, and cornucopia of wares as you make your way through the buzzing marketplace of this town on the frontier between Turkey and Iran.

We didn’t really know what to expect from Van, except that it was going to be colder than anywhere else we’d been so far. It wasn’t freezing or anything, but we did have to break out the long underwear a couple of times.

Night buses are convenient because they save a night’s accommodation and technically get you in town with the whole day to do walk around and see things. It never really works out that way for us because we’re always so tired when we arrive. The buses aren’t terribly uncomfortable or anything, but I don’t think many people can sleep very well on them. We certainly can’t. The road from Diyarbakir to Van was particularly rough, causing the bus to vibrate at a sharp, low frequency all night long.

So when we arrived at 6 am, the first goal was sleep. The first hotel we tried was still closed from the night before. We had to bang on the door for a few minutes before the guy at the reception desk, bleary-eyed and moving slowly, came to unlock the door and let us in. Then he told us that the price was much higher than we were expecting and that we couldn’t get into our room until 10 am. So we went searching for another hotel. We had to repeat the same door-banging procedure there, too, but this time he only told us that the price was higher than we were expecting. We put our things down and promptly passed out.

Getting to Van Castle

Once we woke up we found some lunch, always a challenge to varying degrees during Ramadan. From there we began the mission of making it to Van Castle, situated on a large rock overlooking the lake on one side and the new city on the other. We flagged down a minibus, which took us right to the corner of the compound in about fifteen minutes. Every time we ride a crowded minibus it is a mini event for the people on the bus, and of course this time it was no different. Everyone is always very smily and nice though, so it’s usually light-hearted and amusing.

Getting to the castle was much easier than getting into the castle. The LP told us to walk along the fence until we came to an opening, so we did. Before we got there some kids told us to go a different way, which we tried for a minute before quickly turning back. On one side of the castle complex there is a small mosque that is the pilgrimage site of a Muslim holy man who can help infertile women. There were lots of women there praying, and the kids tried to steer us up a hill dotted with graves leading toward the castle. We felt uncomfortable and got ourselves back on the small road winding around the complex.

That road took us to the entrance to the castle park, but it’s not a common site to see tourists walking down it, so we became easy targets for the street children hanging around. They would come up to us and ask for money and try out their English before disappearing. Eventually we made it inside the gate, but from there it wasn’t that clear how to get up to the castle. The LP said to look for some steps, but there weren’t steps to be found anywhere. The sun was getting low in the sky, and during Ramadan you have to be very careful about needing any kind of transportation right before or after sunset. You could easily find yourself stranded while everything grinds to a halt and everyone gets the first sustenance of the day.

Eventually a small boy appeared and told us we were going the wrong way and pointed us in the right direction, so I gave him a lira and he seemed happy. We climbed up the rocky hill and made it into the castle, which was really neat. Much better than the castle, which was an old Urartian fortress, complete with spikes coming out of the walls, was the view of lake Van. The changing light from the setting sun turned the water several different shades of blue and white, and the castle is up high enough to see for miles in all directions. It was definitely worth the effort.

Ice cream with a knife and fork

After enjoying the sunset we made it back to town without incident, found dinner, and then set out looking for ice cream. If you’ve ever had Turkish ice cream, you know that it is very thick and sticky. The first time we saw it was in Japan at the Gion Matsuri, where the Turkish vendors serve it up using metal poles and then spin the cones around playfully before giving it to you. In a nearby town we weren’t able to stop at they make the ice cream even thicker than usual, and they say you can eat it with a knife and fork. So we wanted some.

We found some at this trendy cafe full of smart looking young people who looked very different from the inhabitants of Sanliurfa or Diyarbakir. The waiter brought out the silverware first, and we laughed when we noticed something: there was no spoon! Then out came the ice cream, and we tucked in using our knives and forks. The knife isn’t really necessary, but when someone puts a plate of ice cream in front of you and only gives you a knife and fork, you might as well use both of them.

No Keys to the Castle

The next day we set out for Hosap (pronounced Hoshap) Castle, an old Kurdish castle built on a steep, rocky hill. We got a shared taxi out there full of nice people who tried their best to communicate with us on the way, pointing things out and asking us easy questions. They drove us right up the doorstep of the castle and let us out into the cold, mountain air. And that’s when we found out that the castle was closed. We’re not ones for visiting the tourist office in every town we visit, but we learned our lesson and will do it more often now. We ate our lunch on the rocks right beneath the castle walls and lamented the fact that we couldn’t get inside: it looked awesome.

Getting back was even more interesting than getting there. We walked down to the little one-horse town below and looked for minibuses heading for Van, but there weren’t any. Then a man asked us if we were going to Van and said we could ride together. I asked how much and he laughed and said no money. It turns out he was a medical student and should be a doctor in two months. We chatted a bit on the ride and then when we arrived in Van he wrote down his number and said if we needed anything to call him. The amount of times people have been ridiculously nice to us in Turkey is astounding, so we are no longer surprised by it, though we’re always grateful.

The next day we went to Dogubayazit to see the Isak Pasha Palace, our final sightseeing destination in Turkey.

At first we weren’t incredibly impressed with the town because the main street was really dirty and the narrow sidewalk was packed with slow-moving pedestrians, and the narrow street was packed with slow-moving cars. After walking around a bit and getting our bearings, however, we started to enjoy the town for what it was. We had lunch in a beautiful old Syrian Christian house. It had high, arched ceilings and looked really fancy with heavy, dark wood tables and nice silverware. The menu was pricey, but for lunch it wasn’t too bad.

The restaurant also had a terrace (closed unfortunately) that afforded us our first glimpse of the incredible view toward the vast plains stretching away into the horizon. This perked us up a little bit and sent us back into the town with renewed interest. We found the post office, which is located in an 18th century building and has a rooftop with views of the city and of the surrounding areas. A nice police officer approached us and practiced his English, asking us where we were from and telling us a few interesting points about the town.

Tourism on the Way

It was obvious during our time in the mostly unvisited areas of eastern Turkey that they are getting ready for tourism in earnest. Mardin, like Harran, has few places to stay and doesn’t see many guests. Sanliurfa is ripe for tourism, but is still mostly visited by Muslim pilgrims coming to see the holy sites. Everywhere we went we talked to people who would ask us how we felt about their city or town, giving us the feeling that they hope more visitors start coming their way soon. With so many interesting historical sights to visit, and with mostly dramatic landscapes, I’m sure it is only a matter of time.

After finding out what time our bus would take us back to Diyarbakir in time for our night bus to Van, we drank some tea at a cafe with a splendid view over an old mosque and down to the plains below.

More Ramadan Observations

We got on the bus for Diyarbakir about fifteen minutes before sunset, so we were in an interesting position to see what people would do on the bus. Would people start pulling out food and drink excitedly and have a mini celebration right there on the bus? Would the bus attendant walk by with special food for everyone? We glanced constantly at the sinking sun while we observed our surroundings and waited.

A few minutes before the official sunset time, the bus attendant came by and gave everyone (except us) a sealed cup of water. All the men kept checking their watches, and most of them opened their waters early and either held them or set them back on their tray tables. Right before the sun dipped below the horizon they started checking the exact time of sunset, and one man in front of us thought it was time and quickly downed his water. He then realized he had jumped the gun a little and sort of looked around at everyone else with a sheepish grin on his face. Then the sun was down and everyone quickly drank their water. The bus attendant came around with more water for everyone (but us), and someone handed out some candy. Fifteen minutes later the bus stopped at a restaurant and everyone ran in and ate amid chaos while Val sat at a far away table and tried to stay out of the way.

The city itself is an ancient one, and like most old cities around here it has been occupied and battled over by numerous cultures and civilizations for most of its long history. It sits in what used to be known as Mesopotamia, with the Tigris River skirting around the Eastern part of the old city. The city’s most prominent feature is the tall, black basalt wall forming a ring only broken by gates around the old quarter of the city. The walls are dotted with towers, and there are inscriptions in both Latin and Arabic. The walls are thought to be from Roman times, but were restored during the Byzantine period.

Inside the walls is a throbbing, crowded city with a very Middle Eastern flair. There are more poor people here than we’ve seen so far in Turkey, and the skies have been cloudy and the weather a little cold, making it seem depressed. The crowded streets are dirty, the air filled with exhaust by the heavy traffic. Still, it’s exciting walking down the streets, which are always bustling with shoppers, vendors and the like. The trend of long, curious or indifferent stares continues, leading us to believe that not many travelers make it here. There are street children everywhere, some trying to sell tissues or some other trinket, others simply walking around shoeless and asking for money.

There are several beautiful mosques in the old quarter, all constructed out of the same dark, chunky basalt found in the city’s walls. There are also a few old churches from various Christian sects, but they are largely unused and have fallen into disrepair as the people who would worship in them have long since departed. The bazaars and street markets are interesting and packed, but we find ourselves wary of walking around the city for too long. We were told in Sanliurfa to watch our belongings here because of the many thieves on the streets, and upon arrival were promptly told by two separate locals to beware of the same thing. The LP warns of attempted robberies when walking along the walls as well.

Despite its seemingly gloomy appearance, we met some really nice people during our time in Diyarbakir. The people at our hotel were particularly friendly, and on the way back from Mardin we met some really nice Kurds on the mini-bus. Just knowing the one word, “spas,” (which means thank you) got us lots of warm smiles. One man on the bus gave us his card and told us to call him if we needed anything, and the driver kept trying to talk to us even though he couldn’t speak any English and we don’t know Turkish or Kurdish. When we got off the bus and I said, “Spas!” he lit up and put his hand over his heart, smiling and looking like the happiest man in the world. As we started walking down the street towards our hotel he honked the horn and waved as he drove off.

Right after getting off the bus from Gaziantepwe were greeted by really helpful and friendly people from the tourist office. They asked us to sit down outside their office while they told us about the city, gave us some brochures and information, and eventually put us on a mini-bus bound for the center of town. We really didn’t know what to expect from this place, so we stared out the window at all of the activity and the crush of people on the streets with excitement and a little anxiety.

We easily found our hotel and got situated, then promptly decided to stay for two nights, instead of just the one we had planned. It was obvious that there was more than enough to keep us interested, and we didn’t want to miss out on anything. We hit the streets and started wandering around, heading for the bazaar. Not many tourists visit Sanliurfa, so there was lots of staring, some smiling, and the occasional “Hello!” and “What’s your name?” from children, street vendors, or passersby. We got the feeling that everyone was happy to see tourists in their city.

We never really made it to the bazaar, but we did have our fist serious Ramadan experience in Turkey. We’ve been in Turkey for the whole of Ramadan, but it never really affected us (except trying to eat lunch in Malatya). Right before sunset the streets began to empty out. Quickly. By 6 o’clock we were the only ones walking down the street. Only ten minutes before there were people in all directions, street vendors, men hanging out in front of shops, and shoppers. There was not a single car, bus, or motorcycle racing down the streets. A few minutes earlier there was a cacophony of sound from all the traffic, and it was nearly impossible to cross the street. It felt eerie and strange, like we had gone from a bustling city to a ghost town in a matter of minutes.

It was incredibly quiet except for the sound of the final call to prayer for the day, the one that announces that it is time to break the fast. Right around this time there was also a few fireworks around the city, as people got excited about being able to eat and drink again.

The next day we walked through the bazaar and visited all of the major tourist sites. The bazaar was built by Seleyman the Magnificent and is very old. Some of the doorways still have heavy iron doors that are around 500 years old. There are lots of metalworkers in the bazaar, and walking down the lane filled with their shops is like stepping back in time.

The main attraction in Sanliurfa is the Dergah, a complex of mosques and holy sites revolving around the birth and story of Abraham. There is a beautiful mosque built next to the cave where he was supposedly born and spent the first years of his life hiding from King Nimrod. There is a castle on the hill where he was thrown into the fire, and there are two sacred pools filled with sacred carp, and a rose garden where Abraham landed. Pilgrims come from all over to walk around the complex and pray, and to feed the sacred carp. We had a local guide named Ismail show us around and tell us all about the area. It was nice to be led around for once, because it allowed us to go into places we might not have otherwise gone into. We both went into the cave of Abraham’s birth, which has separate entrances for men and women. It is a very holy place, always full of Muslims praying and filling up containers of water from a spring inside the cave. Val had to put on a headscarf and a robe in order to go inside.

When we started heading back to our hotel, the sun was about to set. Earlier in the day we had gotten some free candy from two teenagers working at a shop, and on the way back they implored us to sit down and have a cup of tea. They couldn’t speak English, and we can’t speak but a few words of Turkish, so it was difficult to communicate. As we were struggling, but having fun and trying hard, a tour guide walked by and started talking to us, so he was able to translate some. After we finished our tea it was almost time to eat, so they asked us if we would eat dinner with them.

Val and I had a late lunch because the only place to eat was back at our hotel, so we were full and didn’t have any room to sit down to the feast that follows a day of fasting. We politely refused, but felt bad about it. We had also had a little too much Sanliurfa hospitality all day, and weren’t up for the amazing struggle of eating with a Turkish family during Ramadan and being unable to communicate! We exchanged cards and went on our way.

By the time we left the shop the sun was down and it was time for Iftar, the breaking of the fast. By the Dergah there are lots of small shops and all the owners, the workers and their families were eating in front of their shops. Every couple of groups would try to flag us down and invite us to eat with them, waving us over excitedly and with huge smiles. We polity refused until one guy just wouldn’t let us pass without us eating some food with them. He kept breaking bread off the huge, Ramadan-sized loaves they make during the holy month and filling it with all of the stuff they had on their table. Each time we would try to refuse, pointing at our stomachs and saying they were full. And they were, I really didn’t think I could eat anything, no matter how much he wanted me to.

We had bread with soup, bread with french fries in it, bread with beans in it, and without our knowledge (until later) we had bread filled with the local specialty, which is a raw lamb kofte (meatball) mixed with spices. It was actually amazingly good, and we suffered no ill effects.

After a couple of rounds of food and attempts to communicate, we managed to make our escape and walked down the street laughing about how crazy everything was. We’re not sure if the incredibly hospitality was mostly due to Ramadan or whether it’s just always like that in Sanliurfa. I am sure that Ramadan helped, but that it’s just a unique city full of curious, friendly people.

All you have to do is show up at the tourist office located behind the main government in a tea garden sometime before noon and you can go. There a friendly and funny Kurdish-Turkish man named Kemal will arrange your tour. On the day we went, there were no other travelers, so we had the bus and the hotel near the summit to ourselves. Normally they’d charge you more to go in such a small group, but because the price is fixed by the city, it’s the same no matter how many people go.

From Malatya it’s a bumpy, nauseating three hour ride to the top. If you go from Malatya they drive you up to the summit in time to see the sunset, then you spend the night at a hotel just a few kilometers down the road, and wake up to see the sunrise over Nemrut before heading back to Malatya. The total cost of the tour is 60 lira per person (about $40). That includes dinner and breakfast too, so it’s a really good deal.

The road up to the top is bumpy and rough, and you are riding in a mini-bus, so it’s not really cut out for such difficult terrain. There is a very large element of faith involved in taking the journey at all, as there are times when a mistake by the driver would lead to a terrifying plummet down steep, rocky slopes.

The summit itself is definitely worth the journey. From the top you can see the barren, rocky terrain for miles and miles in all directions. The main attraction are the large heads that once sat upon even larger statues of the gods and King Antiochus. There are two temples at the top, the eastern terrace and the western terrace. They back up against a false summit, a large pile of baseball-sized rocks that makes the summit look like a perfect rounded hill. Watching the golden light preceding the sunset on the weathered heads, high up in the mountains of eastern Turkey is a really incredible experience. It gets very cold up there as the sun dips down, as the summit is at 7,000 feet.

After retiring to the hotel for dinner and an early bedtime, we got up at 5:30 and drove back to the top to watch the sunrise. There was a little bit of rain when we went up, and the clouds concealed the sunrise a little bit but it was still enjoyable (and cold). It’s just amazing that such massive statues and the supporting temple structures are on top of such a remote and rugged mountain, making a visit very worthwhile.

When we got off the bus from Malatya, everyone at the crowded otogar (bus station) kept asking us where we were going, trying to put us right on another bus and send us off to where we must have “really” been going. “Ankara? Antalya? Istanbul?” We just shook our heads and pointed to the ground and said, “Gaziantep.” Everyone seemed surprised that we wanted to stay.

It was really easy to get into town from the otogar, even though it’s 5 kilometers out of town. We hopped on a local bus and were speeding dangerously through the streets in no time. It’s usually easier to get on a bus leaving a train station, bus station, or airport in a strange place than it is to get off. Just because you have a map and know the name doesn’t mean that you will be able to recognize it or that your pronunciation of where you want to go will help the bus driver understand. But lately we’ve found that they always know where to drop off the foreigners with the backpacks.

After being deposited in the center of town, we whipped out the Lonely Planet and started trying to find our way to our chosen hotel. Before we had a real chance to get our bearings, a man walked up to us and said, “Hotel?” And we told him which one we wanted, and then another man came up and they started talking. One of them motioned for us to follow, then another man came up and they all three started talking, then he ended up showing us the way. It was only a few blocks and we would have found it without too much trouble, but it was really nice (and amusing) to have so much help so quickly. People really don’t go to Gaziantep very often it seems.

That night we made a point to eat some pistachio baklava, as Gaziantep is renowned for two things: pistachios and baklava. A marriage of the two was sure to blow our culinary minds. After grabbing a quick dinner we went to a place recommended by The Book, and managed to order more than enough baklava. Every time we move further east, the level of English drops a little more. In Gaziantep it was virtually zero (but the guy at our hotel offered to speak German to us).

We had decided to look like dorks and film a little for the next episode of BTBtv (coming soon!) no matter what, so we did. The guy spied me filming the insides, so he came over and opened one up so I could capture all of the honeyed, pistachio goodness inside the flaky pastry. Needless to say it was awesome, but you can see it all in glorious streaming video so I won’t waste any more space describing it here.

The next morning we woke up early and planned to hit the old castle, the bazaar, and maybe one more attraction before getting a bus to our real destination around these parts, Sanliurfa, or Urfa, as it’s more commonly called. Quick aside: Gaziantep is usually called Antep, its old name. Gazi means “war hero” and was added to the name after the war for Turkish Independence. Sanli means “Glorious” and was added to Urfa at the same time.

We found the castle first, and which didn’t look too impressive but has a long history. If you look at the map you’ll see that we’re getting close to the greater Middle East. More specifically, what was once called Mesopotamia. So all of these settlements have been inhabited and fought over by humans for thousands and thousands of years. So the hill that has the current Gaziantep castle on it has had a castle on it for longer than humans have been writing things down.

When we tried to walk in a guy in a uniform saw us and motioned for us to stop, then he radioed something and another guy showed up. He pointed us in the right direction, we read the sign, and then he showed us up and around the castle, giving us plenty of what we assume were useful tidbits of information in Turkish. The gate was locked up, so he had to unlock everything and he showed us around. The Book said that the castle was free, so I was thinking we had to tip this guy or something.

At the end of the tour (which due to our lack of Turkish language comprehension we weren’t quite sure was the end), he asked us for money. I pulled out 5 Turkish Lira ($3.50 or so) and he said more. So I pulled out 10 and he said more. He was happy with 20 Lira ($14) and I was pissed. We walked off and he insisted on shaking our hands, which I had decided I didn’t want to do because I knew he was being a jerk and ripping us off.

As we walked down the street, Val and I talked and got really irritated and decided we had to do something about it. 20 lira is a lot of money in Turkey. Two people can have a very nice meal for that, or take a 4 hour bus journey somewhere, or get into the most expensive, premier tourist attractions in Istanbul. I was prepared to give him some money for the guided tour, even though we never asked for one, but he was greedy and tried to take advantage of us.

So we found the tourist information office, where they have people that speak English. We told them what happened, and after a few times they finally understood that we didn’t want to go to the castle (which they said was closed) but that we had already been and had been ripped off. When they finally understood the man and woman we were speaking to got really upset and started making phone calls. They brought in some tea for us and said they would take care of it.

At this point Val showed him a picture of me and the guy that she took at the top of the castle. They thought this was funny because now the guy was toast. Val and I didn’t really expect to get our money back, we just wanted them to know that it happened so if it happened again something would be done. But eventually a woman from the city came, and a tourist police officer, and we all drove in a guy’s car back to the castle.

Val and I were nervous, because we weren’t sure what was going to happen. We walked up and the guy denied it at first, then finally admitted to it, and everything touched off. All the people that came with us were really angry at the guy, even his partner. Gaziantep would love some of the tourist money that their neighbors are getting, so they don’t need stuff like this happening to the only tourists in town. After a while and lots of intense discussion, he took out our 20 lira and handed it to me. Then they made him apologize, and I got the Turkish Apology. He grabbed my hand and kissed me on each cheek, and meant it.

We decided we had had enough and went straight back to our hotel, got our things, and got on a bus to Sanliurfa.