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Turkey is a country that completely captivated my soul and stimulated my senses. Out of the some odd 25 foreign countries that I have been to in my life, Turkey is by far and away my favorite. Within its borders lie everything a traveler could want. The west is full of beautiful beaches, amazing archaeological sites, and plenty of opportunities to party the night away. As you cross over to the eastern part of the country you discover an undiscovered treasure full of a very rich and exotic middle eastern culture (Turkey boarders Syria, Iraq, and Iran). However, the area is void of any type of tourism and tourist leaving the culture and daily interactions real and the traveling a true experience. I have never had such an authentic experience . . . i was seeing the real turkey not the tourist version . . . absolutely amazing.

Turkey : The Wildest Place I Have Ever Been

Andy Wunder
2007-04-19 22:57:13

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of travel I'm in pretty good shape). i found the polish right before the game and they joined me. we decided to stay for a Kurdish music festival that was taking place the next night in protest of the dam (the area is heavily Kurdish so the Kurds take it as an ethnic and cultural battle). that next day while we waited for the festival to begin we relaxed by the river and went swimming with the local kids. the night came and the festival was awesome. the poles and i did a lot of Kurdish dancing and a lot of attempting to talk in broken English over the music . . . we were like celebrities. one thing i haven't mentioned yet is that the eastern part of turkey is very religious. unlike in western turkey the people follow their Islamic beliefs very strictly. as a result at this point i had not seen beer in about a week. it was nowhere to be found. but what i thought was funny is that at the music festival they had a beer man replacement . . . a tea man. i couldn't believe it. oh well the festival was awesome and i can now check off my list the "dancing with Kurds near the Iraq-Syrian border in the middle of the desert" goal.¨

¨so we packed up our stuff and headed for the freeway where i would soon lose my hitchhiking virginity. the second pickup that we had on our way to Tatvan (a city next to a huge lake) was a big rig convoy of two 18 wheelers. the poles hopped in the first big rig and i hopped in the second. after about 5 minutes on the road and a lot of hand signals, my driver found out i was American and i found out he was an Iranian headed back to Iran after doing a delivery to Syria. he looked so surprised that he had nabbed an American - i probably had the oh shit look on my face. the first thing he did was call his friend in the truck in front of us (where the poles were). even though i could only understand one word that he said, ¨American¨, it was obvious that he was telling his friend of his catch. i spent some time after that trying to distance myself from bush . . . a talk that would have been easier to do if we shared more words than just "bush, America. and Iran." we very quickly warmed up to each other and were eventually drinking tea together for the rest of the trip (that's right he had a tea pot in the cab with him . . . I'm telling you they love their tea.) that night we ended up missing our stop because of the difficulties that come in not speaking a common language. but it ended up great. they bought us dinner and invited us to sleep in their trucks that night. needless to say it was hard to say goodbye to them the next morning.¨

¨they loved us and wanted to take pics with us. we ended up dancing in the car with these drunk guys and they invited us for tea. i rejected their invite for tea and for a split second they looked upset. . . then i said ¨lets have beer¨ and they went crazy. it was the first beer i had in about 10 days. we ended up drinking and dancing with them underneath the towns old castle. ¨

¨the next day the poles and i moved to a city that is about 30km from Iran, Dogbyazit. it sits under Mt. Ararat (where Noah's arc supposedly rests) and next to this incredible palace looking over a desolate valley.¨

Quick update. After turkey I headed to England, Sweden, and Holland for a month (blog to come soon). I am now on the coast of Ecuador surfing and partying till dawn.
Hope you enjoy the pics.
T

Andy Wunder
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/adub/