Budapest - Isztambul - magyarul

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Cheating

I'll cheat - I'll take a bus. This is the plan, at least this is the plan now. I decided not to play the tough guy and I'll leave the south-eastern part of Turkey out of my trip - the bear-hunter-doggies, the mines, the kurdish riots. Instead, with one jump I take a bus to the middle, to Cappadocia (e.g. to Nevshehir), look around there, than ride south near the Ala mountains. These are the plans, as for now.


First night in Istanbul

Surely it would be a big thing to ride around the globe and draw a continous line on google maps, but, instead, I'm trying to become friends with thought not to be the hardcore guy, the tough guy, but to register on giveashit.org, and at one time, just do it (I mean giving a shait) on taking a bus, on poisoning the planet with evil gas and on using petrol to travel. This is not an expedition, this is not carrying the flag of only-the-bicycle-is-the-vehicle - this is travelling easy, at least in some kind of environment-friendly manner. Travelling, and pedaling, and writing.

Ghosts and Garbage in Galata

Writing, about how it feels to be in Istanbul. I quite surprised myself when I didn't get to extasy when got here. Well, it was almost the opposite. Ok, I was knocked out when I arrived. Then I was having a more or less big rest. But after it the city still couldn't sip me in. I'm almost having a got-to-go-now feeling. It was strange for me when I found myself taking only a few photos when cruising up and down in the city with bike (whoah, that could be a separate blog-post riding in the city!), tram, bus, metro and on foot. All right, the place is beautiful, I admit - of course it is! The heavy days from centuries ago can be felt in the air at some locations at some occasions. Sometimes unbelievably mind-blowing buildings come across me, a mosque can jump right in front of me on any corner. When this happenes, usually I don't hesitate to go in. Great places to spend the time inside - there is usually no crowd, but the opposite. Even at praying times there are only a few people inside.

Alone in Tulip mosque

Imagine this: near the Grand Bazaar the crowd is dense, the traffic is heavy. A main road is full of passangers, a crossing road also - and on the corner there is a gate. After noticing it I stop in the pulsing crowd. Contemplating the gate for at least a minute I can't beleive there are no people coming in or going out. Ok, that's my place, let's go in! I found myself in an amazing mosque, totally alone, sitting on the soft carpet in the silence - in the middle of the old town, in the busy, touristic area. It was fantastic. Later I found it was the Tulip Mosque. Anyway, an empty one. I liked that. I like the small ones, the quiet ones, the almost empty ones. Not the ones where the guide books take the crowds - they are full, lines are waiting - and I'm sure I couldn't catch the feelings I had in the small, quiet mosques. And I have to admit, I didn't go inside Haghia Sophia - is it a shame on me? I couldn't stand in the line.

Antique bookshop in Galata

Oh, and the bookshops are super places also! I found many of them, tiny ones, friendly ones. In one of them I spent hours looking at the books and I was thinking about buying a dozen, and don't ride anywhere till I didn't read it all. That would be the time! Anyway, it didn't happened, but still I bought some books (e.g. Mr. Vertigo from Paul Auster, hunting it for a time... and a book of one clever-guy from Oxford about the Middle East, and some kind of a science-history-literature book about Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes).

Calming down on the ship

Ah, and I took a small ship-tour over the Bosphorus! Huhh, what a time it was! It made me calm down in the harsh, loud, crowded city - some fine, sensetive moments on the water. Well, it turned out it was necessary. And finally my mood came to take some photos! So, on the other side I just had a little walk, looked around, bumped into the atlas-style, detailed map of Turkey (I was looking for it in many places without success - needed for the ride later), ate tons of cakes, and shipped myself back to the west side. Hart-melting it was. And yes, the cakes. I haven't ever eat this huge amount of desserts, cakes, chocholates and sweet stuff in my whole life as I am eating here - if I can get through Turkey without getting diabetes, I will never get it! They are unbelievably amazing and fine, giving me hard moments fighting with not to go inside every little, glowing dessert-shop. Usually it hurts my bank account, but I don't care. And usually I loose the battles with myself not to go in and try some from the one-thousand and one kind of magical cakes.

Evil circle - Desserts and GlucoMax glucose meter

Well, writing went long again. Slowly I try to finish it. But some more words - it's good here, it's a must trying how it goes here, to be in the city, to live a few days with the city. I'm having a great time (thanks for my nice host and friend, Nil, and for Kerim!), even if the let's-ride-again mood is getting stronger in me. I think more and more of Cappadocia, of the Ala mountains, of the bike, of the road, of the wind, of the weather, of the villages, of the sun, of the cold, of the dark, of the steep uphills, of the trucks horning at me. Soon I'll leave this city, leave to Cappadocia, than heading south to the Mediterrian Sea, following it's coast facing west, maybe back till Istanbul around the border of Turkey. I'll see, at least I'll test how is the weather down there in October and November. And when back, I hope I can take my small packs and bike and myself to a warmer place for winter, where summer begans.

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