Eminönü, Istanbul

 

 Batumi - Samson


The first thing we heard when we were entering the room for passport control at the Turkish border was screaming and shouting. Everybody tried to see something, pushed each other and squeezed each other even more into the crowd. It was strange but nothing more happened.

Finally we made it through the passport control and caught pretty fast a ride through Hopa the next Turkish city by two older Turkish guys. After ten minutes waiting at the side of the road for our next ride a taxi pulled over and asked where we want to go. We said the direction of Trabzon. And so he told us he will take us. We were really confused because we thought we would need to pay but we ended up not paying all the way to Trabzon because there was a guy in the taxi who rented the Taxi for a couple of days and decided to take us along. Omer was from Istanbul; had a huge chain of Antique stores, is super rich and somehow lonely. He flew on Friday to Trabzon and took this taxi to go to Batumi, spend a day there, couldn't get a direct flight from there to Istanbul which was the reason why he was in the taxi driving back to Trabzon to catch a flight from there the day after. It was strange to see how easy he handles money, how he just invited the two of us and the driver for lunch, gifted Julie and the driver two packages of cigarettes with the words: my bags is too heavy, Take it! But it was really nice of him to take us along. 
Julie's feet over the Bosphorus
In Trabzon we arrived at the airport and made our first and luckily only experience with the Turkish police. Julie was wearing quite short shorts and as the black sea region of Turkey is quite conservative she decided to put a pairs of long pants over it right at the spot. Unfortunately the policeman probably didn't see her shorts because of the long t-shirt and came up to us and wanted to see our passports; asked us why she out on some pants here, why we are in front of the airport, etc.. After checking our passports preciously, opening up our backpacks, shortly interviewing us we finally were allowed to gather our stuff and leave. And we did that as fast as possible!

It was getting late but the sun was still up and we wanted to continue hitchhiking as it was still over 1200 km to Istanbul where we wanted to reach the following day. And we had luck once again. A middle aged Turkish guy took us all the way to Samson where he was living with his family. He told us that he saw us and as he think hitchhiking in Turkey is not safe for girls, he had the feeling it was his responsibility to make sure that we were getting safe to Samson. Therefore he turned around to get us. So we made it to Samson the same night and spent the night there in a random cheap Hotel to continue the next day.

Samson – Istanbul:

Waking up early in Samson we tried to find a bus to get out of the city which wasn't the easiest to find but we managed and as we were just standing on the side of the road a small truck already stopped and took us. The two guys needed to bring a broken car from Samson to Merzifon. They were super interested in what we do and how and why and therefore we tried to communicate as well as possible in Turkish. Afterwards we caught a half an hour right from Merzifon to Osmancik. And there we met our hitchhiker of the day: Tarek. Super nice guy, around 30 years old, born in Germany but when he was 8 his family moved back to Turkey, used to work for the police and is now in real estate. It was so funny to drive with him all the 700 km to Istanbul through all the traffic jams where he always found some small roads to cut through it, to visit a friend of his for lunch on the way who was running a restaurant and hotel on the highway, to let Hannah drive the car for an hour as he got bored of driving, all the jokes and stories he told and finally when we arrived in Istanbul he even asked a friend of his to drop us out our couchsurfers place as he needed to go somewhere else. 

In the car with Tarek

What an amazing nice guy!! For sure we will come visit him again when we come to Turkey again!

Istanbul

In Istanbul we were staying at Doğukan's place - the friend of a friend who we met in Tbilisi. It was super nice of him to over it to us. His apartment is in a new building complex in Maltepe on the Asian side of Istanbul and through the window you had an amazing view - specially by night. 
 

Our one day in Istanbul we used to stroll around through the old center of the city, walking over the big bridge, through Karaköy, Kabatas all the way to Bisiktas and then back with the ferry to Kadiköy to have Cigköfte for dinner! Hannah's favorite Turkish food which she kept on talking about the entire time before we arrived in Turkey. 
Blue mosque

Beautiful decorations in the Blue mosque

Ferries to cross the Bosphorus
 
Cigköfte with Ayran
While walking around the Hagia Sophia we could make one dream become true. We found a spot to put the sticker of our friend Ain as close as possible to the Hagia Sofia as it was her dream. 

Ain's sticker

 Istanbul – Edirne:

The next day was already a travel day again and we were leaving or trying to leave Istanbul but easier said as accomplished. Istanbul is already huge and the outskirts of the city are fusing together with the small towns around it. So it was super hard to find a good spot to hitchhike and also because it is impossible to get to the highway as it is fenced or walled up and put lower into the ground as the normal streets. We had three different rides which always took us a little bit further out of the city but we got really desperate. But the two guys who were our third ride were really nice and really concerned about us hitchhiking to Edirne. They were so concerned that they didn't end up bringing us to a good spot from where we could hitchhike easier but instead they brought us to a bus stop. We were quite confused but everything went quite quickly and in the next moment we were sitting in a bus to Silivri which they stopped for us and with a bunch of Turkish Lira in our hands which they just gave us with the words: 
Please, take a bus! So unexpected, so nice and so kindhearted of them! Thank you so much!
After the bus we caught another two rides and finally we made it to Edirne where we met a nice Turkish guy in our age who wanted to help us. He constantly kept on talking in Turkish to Hannah and even her explanation that she only speaks a little bit of Turkish didn't demotivate him on keeping to talk to us about everything. Well in the end he showed us the bus to the center of the city and from where we could catch a small mini van to the border. So finally by 3pm we arrived at the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
It was a short trip to Turkey. Unfotunately we didn't have the time to discover the diversity and different places in Turkey but that just means there is a reason to come back!


Before starting reading this article, please have a look to the actantial model you can indentify in stories and fairy tales - here with the example of Star Wars.


Keep it in mind... but it is another story we want to tell: one of our little stories, the one of Georgia! A well-built and well-ordered little story, with introduction, frame of the actions, helpers and adventures and an (happy) end. 
To be in the right mood, please play [Chakrulo], a typical Georgian polyphonic choral folk song! 
Enjoy!

Introduction: Georgian culture thanks to Lela

First day in Georgia and already a beautiful landscape!
When the sun rose on the first morning, we were passing the border of a new land: Georgia! We were very excited and very glad to share this experience with our American friends. We got one of our last stamps of our trip!

After some organization (finding money, couchsurfing and coffee – which is needed), we were able to contact one of Hannah's friends: Lela, from Georgia. She lives in Tbilisi since a while and last time Hannah went to Georgia, they met each other! That day, she invited us for breakfast to her place.

We left our friends for that moment and we found slowly the way to her place – which was not an easy task! But with her two children and her partner she welcomed us very nicely. We also met Dogokan, Kathie, … (colleagues, friends or friends of friends of her) – Dogokan even offered us to stay at his place in Istanbul, where he is living! We had an entertaining international breakfast!
Mtskheta
Few hours later, after the others left, Lela drove us and her children to Mtskheta, an old village in the north of Tbilisi. The place was really beautiful and interesting! We had a late lunch – with (a lot of) traditional food!- and we saw the monastery of Djvari and the cathedral Svetitskhoveli. 
Georgian sweets (with nuts inside!)
We didn't see that the time was going so fast and at some point we had to go back very quickly to the center to meet our couchsurfer on time. We want to thank Lela for the quality moments we had with her and her two lovely children, in spite of her busy schedules! 
Hannah, Lela and her two children!


Frame: Tbilisi, between Europe and Georgia

Mosaic on the Clock Tower

We walked through the Capital during the night: it was already beautiful. The atmosphere during daylight was a bit different but we enjoyed it as well. After leaving our backpacks at the guest house of our American friends, Hannah chose the places she prefers in Tbilisi to show it to Julie and we made an efficient and nice city tour: Clock Tower, Sameba Cathedral, Metekhi Church, old Hamams and finally fortress of Narikala. 
The impressive Cathedral
Most of all we enjoyed the peace of the Sameba Cathedral: the place is amazing and we were impressed by the deep and powerful sound of the bells. We also liked to climb up on the top of the hill, on the fortress, to have a wonderful overview over Tbilisi. 
Hannah - on the top of the world!



Helpers (and friends): our lovely American gang 

Souvenir of the ferry boat

Hannah, Eric and Julie at the Bus Station of Baku
We kept on meeting our friends. The first evening we met Casey, Brittany, Gina and Elva for a yummy dinner and a night stroll. We had a lot of fun and nice conversations – by the way: it is insane how you nver get bored with these guys! Brittany even stayed with us for a promenade on the Bridge of Peace and a drink.

The day after, we met randomly Gina, Soloman, Eric and Brittany in the cathedral and again non-randomly for a late lunch. The last one! We had an amazing time with them and it was really hard to say good bye. We wish them all the best for their project (if you want to have a look and to support them, it is here: Jordan project) and to keep on spreading love and happiness wherever they go. 
Good luck on your own canoes!


Adventures: far far away, in Kutaisi


Parks in Kutaisi
However we had to leave the capital so as to achieve our project: going closer to Europe. That's why we went further... Kutaisi was waiting for us! We arrived in the night, met already nice people in the hostel (no Couchsurfer in the area) and planned to visit the town the day after.

Adventures, we said: indeed we visited some mysterious caves close by, the Prometheus caves! We don't have any picture of the place, unfortunately. But we can tell you: it was wet, slippery, mysterious, cold, impressive, dark and crowded.

Afterwards both of us made a city tour… we needed calm and peace after the throng of tourists in the caves! We enjoyed walking slowly in the streets of the small town: market, bridges, park, fountains, religious buildings… everything was nice! We were especially very interested in the churches and in the orthodox services we saw inside. 
Cathedral

The evening was also entertaining: we had dinner with one of our friends of the hostel, Sascha from Ukraine, and we bought a delicious Georgian wine we drunk in the company of another Sascha from Ukraine and David, the owner of the place. We had a lot of fun! And it was also really interesting: Sachsa is a new policeman in Ukraine – he choose recently this job because he thought he could influence the political changes of the Ukrainian society. We also learned that David is the brother of a quite famous Georgian photographer: Georgi Abdaladze. He is known for his pictures of the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 – which gave us the opportunity to have an overview of the complexity of the political situation in the area.


Happy End: leaving Georgia via Batumi

Batumi
On the way to Turkey, we stopped before the border. Our hitchhiker left us in Batumi, a seaside resort on the Black Sea, where we spent some hours. It is a very touristic city with very impressive and fancy buildings and parks. We walked here and there under the sun and we had an incredible lunch. The magic recipe was: bread + a lot of cheese + a lot of butter + one egg. What else? It was super fatty but also super yummy! 
Afterward we started to hitchhike again but it was 2pm and the sky was not cloudy at all. But Iraklim saved us from the dehydration: he was going to the airport of Batumi but he had time and dropped us to the border between Georgia and Turkey! The border is surrounded by an amazing landscape (mountains and sea) through where we left the country… one of the last of our trip! 
Between Georgia and Turkey



Do you remember the actantial model of the beginning?
Georgia's story seen like a tale:
  • subjects= Hannah & Julie
  • helpers= the American gang
  • object= go back home
  • sender & receiver= ourselves and our friends and new friends
A tale but... without huge adventures and most of all with no villain in the story. Only heroes and heroins! So...
Thanks all of you for helping us and thanks Georgia for the beauty of your cities and countrysides!

View over Tbilisi
It is amazing how we are meeting so many different people with different lifestyles and ambitions through couchsurfing: singles and families, poorer and richer people, people with no time and lots of time, lonely people and super engaged people. Every time we meet our couchsurfer the first time it is exciting! Only then we will figure out completely how the situation is and the person her_himself… so it always keeps us excited!

When we arrived in the morning in Tbilisi - the capital of Georgia- we started to write requests for couchsurfing for the same day. We knew we were way to late and didn't really think somebody would response but Martin did within an hour at 7 in the morning. He told us that he can't welcome us because he has work meeting in the evening but that we could stay at his apartment for a night. We met up in the evening and he showed us his apartment. It was huge (100 square meters) for himself with a view over a big part of Tbilisi. He said the apartment is way to big for him but he likes to live here a lot and that also gives him the possibility to host people easily.

Martin studied Political science and peace and conflict studies and is original from Kandy, Sri Lanka where Hannah was in February to get a new Indian visa. How small the world is! He used to work for the United Nations all over the world and since a couple of years he is working for the European Union to watch the border between Russia and the northern provinces of Georgia. In 2008 Vladimir Putin decided to declare war against Georgia and to back up the independence struggle of the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Till today a lot of people who fled during the war couldn't and also legally can't go back to their homes and are displaced all over Georgia. 
Old town of Tbilisi
Due to his work meetings and our short time in Tbilisi we didn't have more time to talk to each other but we really enjoyed the short time and the stay we had. We were impressed by his work and motivation towards human rights and hope to see him again with more time on his hands!

Clock tower in Tbilisi


It is... the same time than in Germany and France! Can you believe it? Personally we can't. After such a long time far away from our homes it is hard to realise it. We don't even really know where our homes are now. But is it important to know that?

We just reached Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

It is 7:47pm.
In India, where we used to live, it is 11:17pm.
In Malaysia, from where we started our mad plan (dixit Mads), it is even 1:47am.

It is a weird felling to be back in Europe. Sometimes we feel like strangers to this part of the world. We guess we kind of are.

But it is also very exciting! We are starting to look forward to be back and are remembering all the experiences we made on our way. Soon the Transience is over but for now...


We want to enjoy the last two weeks!
And we are sure we will.

Baku - old meets modern architecture

 Ferry to Baku



We needed to wait a long time in Aktau to catch a ferry as you now but in the end we were happy that we did. Otherwise we would have never met 13 amazing American people. They are doing a world race. For one year they are travelling around the world and volunteering in between in different projects organized by a christian organization. During the planned 30 hours on boat we talked, sung, tried out some light painting, had deep conversations, shared experience, watched meteor strikes and the super clear milky ways and had lot of fun together. Besides listening to guitar music Emma was playing the Ukulele and Julia was singing along. It was amazing meeting them and enriched our days a lot.

Soloman and Eric playing the guitar
We also talked to some of the younger guys of the crew who spoke some English mixed with our Russian and Turkish knowledge. They were studying Engineering at University and they needed to do an internship over the summer: they chose this one. We arrived before lunch time in Alat -  port at one hour south of Baku. But we couldn't board right away and the crew kept on telling us in an hour, in another hour. Dinner passed and we stilled didn't know if we would spend another night at the boat or not but in the end the ferry was allowed to enter the port and we could get off at around 10 pm. We walked to the passport control and customs and there it took another eternity to get through again. We tried to reach our Couchsurfer in Baku and she told us to let her know when we are in the Taxi to her place. By 1am we were finally through the border check and tried to find together with the 13 Americans taxis to Baku. But there were only two and we needed to organize another one which took another enternity.
An amazing sunset on the boat

Baku

Around 4 am we were in Baku wandering through the streets because we didn't want to wake up our couchsurfer at that time. We tried to find a hostel but it was really hard. By accident we met a guy on the streets - Asef- who asked us for what we were looking for. We told him that we are looking for a place to sleep for the rest of the night. So he offered us to stay at his apartment - for free. He was really nice and therefore we went with him. It was amazing to finally have a bed to sleep and Asef was very kind to us and let us sleep till 11 the next morning. On top of all this he said that he works in a restaurant close by where we could leave our bag packs during the day and pick it up later. It was like a dream everything went so smooth that it was almost unreal.

Old own wall

The atelier
The city of Baku is just amazing! It is a mix out of Europe and Asia, Iran and Turkey. Just wonderful! Probably the most beautiful city we have been except of Auroville and India of course ;-). We walked through the old town - which looks nice by night and day, passed by a small atelier, visited the main old palace, green parks with fake "waterfalls", a temple with an ever burning fire, spectacular viewpoints over the entire city and the Caspian Sea, the Flame towers, statues and monuments. So much culture and beauty after Aktau was incredible! After picking up our bag packs and saying good bye to Asef we finally met our couchsurfer Asya and had a nice evening at her place.  

Streets of Baku


Flame towers
The next day we went to the bus station to get tickets to Tbilisi and meet some of our American friends from the ferry which told us that some of them would be in on the same bus like us! We were happy about it, left our bags there and took a bus and metro to Yanag Dag. It is a mountain where a part of it is constantly burning naturally. It is super interesting out of a geological perspective but  slidely disappointing as everybody always said it is so huge and apparently it is one of the major attractions of Baku. 

Yanag Dag
Pedroglyphs

Because we still had lots of time left we decided to take spontaneously a taxi to Gobustan where mud volcanos are located. 50% of the world's mud volcanos are located in this area. First we went to a super new and intersting museum about petroglyphs in the middle of nowhere and then we actually saw this 1000 or more years old petroglyphs which were in an open air museum. So amazing! Afterwards we drove to the mud volcanos. We never saw anything like this before. They were bubbling and mud was everywhere. We expected it to be hot when Hannah touched it but it was cold. Afterwards we drove back to Baku. 





At the bus terminal

We met our American friends again and needed to figure out that they would take a bus before us so we wouldn't be on the same. Sad about it we told them "good bye" and walked to a close by cafe where we used the wifi earlier the day so Hannah would be able to skype with a shared flat possibility in Stuttgart. Yeah, besides travelling and organizing that and as we are coming closer to the of our travel we need to start organizing our lives after the trip like rooms to live in, university things, etc.. But unfortunately the cafe was closed and the wifi turned off and nowhere else in the entire bus station was wifi!!

Hannah, Eric and Julie at the bus station

Super frustrated we met some of our American friends again and they told us that two of them are not taking the bus and due to that there were two free seats. If we wanted to take them we could and... we wanted. After a little chaos and stopping the bus in the middle of the road and talking insistently with the bus driver Whitney and Sam arranged that we could take their seats! So cool! It made our evening!!! So we drove together with our friends to Tbilisi where we arrived at the border at 5 o'clock in the morning and while walking over the border the sun rose so that when we reached in Georgia it was already bright daylight!
Good bye Baku

From the streets of Baku

 
- Hey Asya! We are waiting for the boat in Aktau and we will reach Baku tomorrow or the day after! Could you host us?

- Yes, I can! 

*
 
- Hey Asya! Sorry for contacting you again but the boat still didn't come yet. We don't really know when it will arrive. We let you know as soon as we have more information. Is it still fine for you?
 
- Yes of course, no problem! 
 
*

- Hey Asya! After one week of waiting, we will leave Aktau tomorrow morning... Finally! We should arrive at Sunday evening. We will call you when we reach!

- Nice! See you the day after tomorrow! 
 
*

- Hey Asya! We are still on the boat in front of the port. We are waiting here since almost half a day but the captain said we should board in a few hours! We are really sorry!

- Don't worry! Call me when you are at the customs!

*

- Hey Asya! Sorry for calling so late! We are at the customs but they make us wait again. After that, we will find a taxi to drive from the port to your place. But we would reach super late...

- No problem! I keep my phone next to me. 

*

- Hey Asya! We reached Baku in the middle of the night and we didn't want to wake you up. Don't worry we found a place to sleep for the rest of the night. We will contact you tomorrow.

- I can host you tonight! Let's meet at 6:30 pm in the old center. 

*
 
- Hey Asya! We just got our tickets to Tbilisi! Thank you for yesterday night: we really enjoyed the promenade on the Boulevard and the dinner at your place (tell your mum that her dolmas were very yummy!). We are really happy that we met you and that you spent time with us even if your working days are very exhausting. Thank you for your help and your kindness! We wish you all the best.

- Thanks girls! Take care! 
 
Bulvar, Baku

As you can see, Asya was a very flexible and very generous young woman. She welcomed us in her room a bit outside of Baku. She advised us for our trip (with the help of her brother on the phone) and we had nice conversations. All in all a good time together!

We were very sorry to make her wait so long but a the same time really grateful to find her on our way!