Brown Signs

(Click on the map to enlarge it) Position: 36°54’08.0″N 36°44’44.3″E Brakes screeching, smoke and dust billowing from under her rear tyres, Clio, our trusty Renault, juddered to a halt. Coaxing her into reverse we pulled back for another view of …

English Practice

Position: 36°12’29″N 36°10’06″E Tourism in eastern Turkey dropped off sharply 10 years ago. The conflict in Syria, the rise and fall of ISIS, and long-standing internal struggles between the Kurds and the Turkish government meant Southeastern Anatolia was broadly off …

Of Marginal Value

The real joys of travel are found in the margins. No matter where you’re headed, a national park, an ancient monument, a museum displaying the pedestrian origins of civilisation, the things you take away are the things that engage you …

Pigeons

Position: 37°08’54″N 38°47’20″E Hiking down Rose Canyon just outside Göreme took us along its arroyo’s tortured course to an open plain five kilometres distant. In a heavy rainstorm it would be deadly. Water must cascade over the huge boulders then …

Carol’s Gang

Position: 36°49’11″N 28°18’25″E Wild boars aren’t the first animals one thinks of as pets. In Europe they’re more comestible than companion. Turkey, however, is 99% Muslim and pork simply isn’t on the menu. (One wonders how ex-pat Germans survive – …

Trafik, Fire, Athena, Pregnant

POSITION: 36°45’23N 28°15’56″E “Turkish isn’t a particularly difficult language once you’ve mastered the alphabet”, our waiter advised, in lightly accented English. Diving into Google Translate and YouTube later yielded some practical advice on pronunciation. After two weeks our vocabulary now …

Ancient Greek Turkey

Position: 36°49’11″N 28°18’25″E Given all their history, it’s easy to forget that Greece and Turkey are a mere discus throw apart. Zooming in on our chart plotter, the red line separating the two countries comes with a note: “This boundary …