Hosap Castle and Van Castle

I met with Remsey this morning and we drove about an hour to Hosap. There, perched on a hll is the stunning Hosap Castle. After exploring the castle built in the mid-seventeenth century and stopping for pictures at various angles we stopped in the village below for some tea. From Hosap we drove to the site of Cavustepe, an ancient site dating back to the 8th Century BC. There are no buildings here to wow you but the history of it is very important and interesting.

From Cavustepe we drove back to Van and I caught a minibus to the extensive site of Van Castle. After Hosap castle I was sure Van castle would disappoint but I was quite wrong happily. This picturesque castle sprawls over a hillside overlooking the city of Van with some stunning views. The castle itself is also very photogenic and I quickly filled up my memory card snapping away in the lovel afternoon light.

There are also various other buildings in the vacinity, in what is known as Eski Van or Old Van including a church, several mosques, stone bridges and tombs. After wandering around for a couple of hours I was getting tired and caught a bus back to town where I arranged by bus ticket to Kars. A bus from Van to Kars! A little surreal...

- David

Akdamar island and its Armenian church

The day started with one of Van's famous breakfasts on what is casually known as breakfast street. This street is full of "breakfast places" that serve up the copious breakfasts that Van is famous in Turkey for. After a long bus ride from Diyarbakir to Van and catching up that evening on a few business bits and pieces I was off to Akdamar island the following morning. After a bus ride, a short taxi and ferry ride across the lovely blue waters of Lake Van I was on Akdamar island.

This small beautiful island 3km from the shores of lake Van is famous for Akdamar Kilisesi, an Armenian church from the 10th century with stunning relief stone carvings on all the exterior walls of the church and some lovely frescoes inside though some colours have faded. The trip to the island and the wonderful church are a must for our trip I think for both the natural beauty and the church itself which is one of few Armenian remains that survives in such good condition in Turkey.

When I got back to Van I had a lovely chicken kebab in a local restaurant and then went back to my hotel and chatted with Remsey, a local guide and organiser and planned out my next few days. He will drive me to Hoshap castle tomorrow morning and in the afternoon I will check out Van castle. after that I will go to Ani, a former Armenian capital with supposedly stunning architecture, then Ishak Pasa Palace, which is a UNESCO heritage site and one of the supposed highlights of East Turkey (though there seems to be a real abundance of highlights in this region!).

- David

Diyarbakir

After Gulay went to work I grabbed a minibus into Diyarbakir centre. The city is known as Amed to the Kurds and the capital of a would-be Kurdistan. The population is also predominantly Kurdish. After arriving at the walls I sepnt a couple of hours walking around the walls, sometimes outside, sometimes inside, and sometimes on top. They are very impressive and stretch for about five and half kilometres around the ciy centre. I noticed that if I walked around with my camera in my bag and my sunglasses on no one noticed I was a foreigner (the beard probably helped), but with the camera out or the sunglasses off (the blue eyes stand out here) I was immediately noticed, which mostly meant offers of tea, but sometimes kids following me, which gets a bit annoying after a while, but all I had to do was pop into the nearest mosque for a minute and they would disappear.

When Gulay was finished work I met up with her and a friend of hers, Kadir and they showed me around the city. The Ulu mosque and the Armenian church were particularly impressive, and Hasan Pasa is a lovely square in the market area, perfect for a tea break. I also found a lovely 16th century Han (house) that has been converted into a hotel. the rooms were fairly functional but the hotel itself is lovely and full of charachter.

We then met up with Gulay's brother and a coupleof his school friends who were visiting for a few days and we decided to hit a bar. I had a lot of fun, and the levels of English varied quite a bit, but I managed to communicate with everyone pretty well, though some required a little translation,mostly from Gulay.

After a few beers we went back to the apartment for some food and a couple more beers. It gets a little hazy there but whenImleft in the morning everyone was gone as one of the girls was flying to Istanbul. I was sorry tomiss them but we had exchanged details the night before and I will certainly stay in touch, and hopefully some day I can repay the kindness.

- David

Hasankeyf and arrival in Diyarbakir

I left Midyat after breakfast and quickly found a bus to Hassankeyf. I arrived shortly afterwards, and after depositing my bag in a cafe it was time to explore. I didn't get far however as I was soon met by a kindly older Kurdish man who spoke German (as many older Kurds do, many having worked in Germany). He insisted on buying me tea and we chatted about Germany, the Kurdish situaion and the issues hanging over Hassankeyf. He was a true gentleman and told me if Iwanted to I could come and stay in his house, five kilometres from Hassankeyf. I had to decline and started out to discover the sights of Hassankeyf.

Sprawled over a hillside the site of Hassankeyf is still being excavated and not fully discovered. What can been seen now however comprises a very pretty set of builidings including a castle, some mosques and various domestic buildings of a honey-yellow colour. The setting is superb as well, looking down over the Tigris plain below. I met with Derick again after about an hour and we explored together before having some lunch in a restaurant recommended by some friendly locals carrying out the excavations. From there we took the bus to Diyarbakir (known as "Amed" in Kurdish parlance), where I was to stay the night and Derick was to continue on to Urfa.

We said our goodbyes and I got a taxi across town to meet with Gulay, a friend of Sehmus', who had offered to show me around and offered me a room in her appartment while I was here. After a quick shower we headed out for some dinner with a friend of hers and then found ourselves in an appartment on the other side of town, drinking beer, eating snacks and watching the Man United - Besiktas game, which they were all very pleased to see Besiktas win. A very nice evening and a really good group of people. Tomorrow I will head into Diyarbakir, famed for its walls which the 2nd biggest in the world after the Great Wall of China, and alledgedly can been seen from space but I have yet to verify this.

- David

Mor Gabriel Monastery and Midyat

Today I had only one sight on my schedule but it was a little bit out of the way. After catching a bus to the bus station, another bus to the wtown of Midyat, yet another along the highway towards Cizre I was dropped off by a turn-off on the road. From here I walked the 2.5km through sandy silent landscape nonetheless populated with many hardy tress to Morgabriel monastery. This beautiful Christian monastery is the home of the archbishop of the Mounatin of the Servants of God and is where St. Gabriel was buried. The sand near his tomb is believed to have healing properties. The monastery dates from the late 4th century and its frescoes, carvings and subtle architecture are a real treat.

Here I met the first Westerner I had seen in several days - an American, Derick, who is teaching English in Istanbul and with whom I shared a taxi back to Midyat. He brought me to a beautiful old Han (house) which now serves as a restaurant and we had some lunch and tasted some of the areas wines, reputed to be the best in Turkey. Although served cold, which may just have been the result of where they were stored, they were certainly very palatable.

Tomorrow I will check out Hassankeyf, a village not far from here that is famed for its history, its beautiful honey-coloured buldings and its setting above the Tigris river. It is due to be flooded however, (if and) when the government builds a dam that will flood a vast region and many historic sites. Hopefully an increase in visitors to this area will deter the government and the project will be pulled.

- David

Detour to Mardin

Ok so the title of the blog is slightly misleading as it was not to Mardin that I made a detour but to a town on the Syrian border called Nusaybin. I left Urfa after checking out a few hotels (there are some decent options) and got on the bus to Mardin. On the bus I got talking to a Kurdish junior doctor, Sehmus (pronounced the same as the Irish name "Seamus" for those who know how to pronounce that).

We chatted for a couple of hours and then Sehmus invited me to spend the night at his house in Nusaybin, a half an hour past Mardin. As it was already beginning to get dark and I would have little sightseeing time in Mardin that evening I accepted and we continued on to Nusaybin and went to his house. When we arrived his sister welcomed us, and even my miniscule Turkish was no help here as she only spoke Kurdish but the wide smile made it clear I was welcome. Her young sons greeted me by kissing my hand and touching it to their forehead, a traditional greeting of respect amongst the Kurds.

Then his sister brought out an enormous plate of food and put it in front of us. Chicken, lamb, couscous (or something very similar) and very thin pasta were piled onto one enormous plate from which we ate together. On the side was bread, olives, a tomato and cucumber salad dressed with a pomegranate dressing and delicious Kurdish bread. We were hungry and both tucked in. When we were finished eating his sister and the four boys continued where we left off. When I wandereed into the yard there was a turkey staring up at me. A turkey in Turkey! That was first for me! We watched some news on the Kurdish channel (the Denmark-based one as opposed to the newly established official government one) and chatted about music, politics (mostly Kurdish politics) and football. Myself and Sehmus then went out for a wander through the town and stopped for tea before calling it a night. The next morning after a delicious breakfast prepared by Sehmus (who burnt the bread though!:-)) Sehmus insisted on buying me a scarf as a memento of my visit and left me to the bus back to Mardin. A fantastic ambassador for his people he even invited me to his wedding penciled in for August of next year in Izmir in the West of Turkey. I will certainly go if I can.

After arriving in the beautiful Mardin - clinging to the side of a mountain with a lot of blue and white houses- and finding my hotel I set out to explore the sights. A very popular site for Turkish tourists Mardin boasts impressive mosques, churches, centuries old buildings with fine stone carvings, a meandering bazaar and a lovely monastery nearby. I was not disappointed despite the hype about the place I had heard. The highlight was probably the market despite having seen quite a few already but it was a close call. After spending the day walking around I rewarded myself with a meal at the famous Cercis Murat Konagi restaurant where local heroine Ebru Baydemir has set up a fantastic restaurant specialising in local dishes and pioneering the concept of the working woman in the area. A ground-breaker both in the culinary and social life of Mardin, the meal was an experience for the taste-buds and the imagination.

- David

Harran and Gobekli Tepe

Ismail arrived at my hotel after breakfast (and this hotel's buffet is even better, my particular favourite is a grape syrup mixed with Tahini, one of the essentials of hummus!) and we walked down to the bus station. We hopped into aminibus for Harran and after a short nap we were there. Famous as a place where Abraham (from the bible) lived for some years and mentioned in the book of Genesis, Harran has an impressive history. First We headed to the walls which once stretched 4km long and had 187 towers. Little remains of this but the nearby minaret dating from the 8th century is said to be the oldest in Anatolia. Nearby are the ruins of the first Islamic university in the world.

Harran is full of beehive houses (baked-mud structures whose genius is the constant temperature through the year regardless of the blazing sun or the winter's cold outside. However there are two that are particularly elaborate and now done up inside as cafes and lodges. Each dates back well over 250 years. After a short visit to the castle we went back to one of the beehive homes for some tea and to wait there as they called the bus to come and collect us. That's what I call service.

As I waited one of the locals spotted a foreigner (me) and insisted I come to eat with them as they had just prepared lunch. I sat down with them and chatted over bread, yoghurt with cucumber and a delicious red-pepper and olive oil paste, washed down with Turkish tea. After saying goodbye to my gracious hosts we hopped on the bus back to Urfa. After a quick stop at the cave when the Prophet Job holed up during a tough time in his life and filling my water bottle up with some holy water (drinking water too I was assured) myself and Ismail hopped in a taxi to Gobekli Tepe.

After a drive through some exquisite scenery we arrived at the site. Discovered only two years previously the site of Gobekli Tepe is thought to be the oldest human site in the world, dating back twelve or thirteen thousand years. More impressively the site is said to have completely redefined how we look at the history of humanity, the origin of religion and pehaps even the truth behind the garden of Eden! One prominent archeologist descibed the discovery of the site by a Kurdish farmer as "simply the most important historical find in the history of the world"! The site is too new new for a consensus to have yet emerged on what it really means but there is no doubt it is a very, very important place.

Fortunately however the site is also interesting to look at as well as ponder its significance. There are some very impressive stone carvings that are very well preserved including foxes, lizards, boars, ducks and big cats (as yet no one is sure which cat, or even if it is even something that still exists). The surrounding views are also quite spectacular with a stone-studded landscape and ridges and troughs of various colours.

I am not sure I have done justice to this site so Iam posting a link to an article about it here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html

Anyway after coming back from Gobekli Tepe, myself and Ismail had some Kurdish lamb kebabs in thick bread and headed to a cafe for the vening's entertainment: an Istanbul derby, Besiktas vs Fenerbace. The cafe was a male-only preserve and I was the only foreigner around (in fact I have only seen about four of five foreigners since I left Istanbul). Besiktas won 3-0 (after a scoreless first half)and this seemed to please most people, though mostly as they were Galatasary fans and this meant a win for Galatasary tomorrow meant they would share the top of the table with Fenerbace. At half time everyone reverted to their games but returned to the match as soon as it restarted. I'm sure I have lost a few of you over the last few sentances but it was a most entertaining evening and I made many new friends, and despite the obvious passions during the game, it was all very friendly, perhpas helped by the fact that everyone was drinking tea instead of something stronger!

- David

Halfeti, Rumkale and Urfa

My driver, Murat, picked me up at 8.30am after my final buffet breakfast at my hotel, something I'm sure I will miss. We drove about an hour and half to the village of Halfeti, though some beautiful landscapes, the most beautiful of which was the descent into Halfeti itself. The village clings to the side of a hill on the side of a beautiful lake surrounded by cliffs. We met with our boatman and headed across the lake and up the river. The scenery was lovely and the boat decked out in Turkish carpets and comfy chairs.

Murat hugged the front of the boat and I grabbed on of the comfy seats. As we the village of Rumkele came into view I could only gasp at the beauty of the village, with its honey-coloured houses and simple but beautiful minaret sloping gently up on the hillside. We stopped for a tea and to admire the tranquility before heading back towards Halfeti. After Halfeti we drove for about an hour chattign in Murat's broken English and my hundred words of Turkish, before we arrived in the holy city of Urfa. I said goodbye to Murat and set out to explore.

I wandered thorugh the old town with some beautiful stone buildings going back more than one hundred and fifty years and down to the bazaar. The bazaar is a riot of colour in the textiles and fruit and vegetable sections. Any time I got lost I would ask for what I was looking for and a smal child would be summoned with a whistle and lead me with an inquisative smile to where I wanted to go. Tucked away in the heart of the bazaar is a little square where men drink tea and play cards, chess, backgammon and other games I didn't recognise.

From there I headed down to the mosque quarter where a whole series of beautiful mosques are spread across a lovely park. Urfa is also a place of pilgramage and there were plenty around. From there I headed towards the citadel and met with Ismail, a friendly local guide whooffered to whow me around the citadel and some more of the sights of Urfa. The citadel itself is nothing special but the view across the city as the light began to fade were stunning.

The next stop were the two rectagular ponds that are home to holy trout (I swear I'm not making this up!). The pilgims buy fishfood by the side of the water and feed the rather large and plentiful trout in between visiting mosques. After speaking a bit more with Ismail we decided to go to Harran,an Arabic village with some ancient ruins and beehive houses the following morning and to Gobekli Tepe - an ancient archeological site that first came to light two years previously - in the afternoon. Now it's time for bed!

- David

Gaziantep

Gaziantep used to be known simply as Antep but after some heroic defence against French troops in the 1920s "Gazi-" (meaning "Veteran" or "War hero") was prefixed to the name of the city. Ataturk, the nation's hero and founder said that the heroes of Gaziantep had not only saved their city, they had saved the whole of Turkey. After a very early start (waking up at 2.40am) I caught my flight to Gaziantep, and arrived in the early morning sun. After checking into my hotel, I started out to visit the city. First stop was the impressive citadel,towering over the city and giving some excellent views across the city. Inside there is a was memorial detailing the defense of the city against vastly superior French forces that has since passed into legend.

From there I visited the colourful markets and the impressive and very friendly coppersmiths markets where I had various offers of tea and no strong arm sales tactics often found in Middle Eastern markets, some ancient houses and finally the museum of Gaziantep.

The mosaics inside are probably the best I have seen anywhere in the world, particularly the famous "Gypsy Girl mosaic" which is totally captivating. After checking out some lovely boutique hotels housed in builings over 100 years old, I then had the tough task of assessing Gaziantep's culinary claims. Where I live in London there is an abundance of baklava (pistachio pastries) shops and I have tasted Damascus' finest too but I have to say the baklava in really is something special here. The fresh kebabs with succulent lamb and fresh salad are also worth writing home about, even if only to make your friends jealous.

- David