SRE07 Upswing

The Silk Road Expedition 07 is just a few days away. Our scheduled departure is August 11. This is the second attempt to launch this summer, but National Elections and summer finances worked together to keep us in town longer.

In anticipation of our pending departure, we are posting a few pictures of last year's expedition. More on our route and time table soon.

Iranian and Turkish Border

Plains of Ararat

Kurdish Village

Laundry Day

Drying Socks in our 3 Star Hotel

Breakfast Report

Turkish Breakfast

We had the fortune to fall in with a great group of folks when we lived in LA the year prior to our continental shift. I talked to one of them last week and he requested that we blog more frequently about the minutiae of our lives. Making his point-- he said everyday things that our clan now takes as "normal" were not normal for us 16 months ago when we first moved to Asia...And "that" is what he wants to read about.
Hence the "Breakfast Report".

I am not a breakfast person...I know it is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but I figure that it was designed for Important People. I am happy waiting until late afternoon before I start grazing. If I eat breakfast it makes me want to get to lunch...which leads to dinner coming earlier and then I am forced to fit in a late evening meal.
Here in Turkey breakfast is culturally big...not to say it is the most important meal of the day...in fact, anytime Turks sit down to eat it is a big deal. As an example a few days ago a knock on our door brought in half the occupants of our apartment building...since it was so hot they asked if we would mind turning on the A/C...We did and they brought the food and we had a party.
Kemal & Metin


This "Klima" party rotates from one apartment to another depending on how hot the day is and who is willing to turn the A/C on and pay for the electric. Those without A/C are few, but all of us are frugal...So if just one or two apartments a day run the A/C the rest can come with food, little electric is used, everyone is cool and everyone eats. Quite a concept, eh?
They sat on the carpet, the couch and some even laid down and slept while the rest of us talked. When others heard there was a "group eat" going on at the Stewards...our little apartment filled up. Our afternoon of work stopped from 2pm until they departed after 7pm. While that is so culturally different from the States...it was a truly delightful afternoon.
Begum, Benal & Ann


This morning as we were eating our breakfast on our small balcony which overlooks one of Istanbul's busiest avenues when I realized how I had changed. There, on my plate, were 21 olive stones from my breakfast. It amazed me that I now expect and look forward to the time each morning where we sit and look out at the street and eat. The vendors below us, (a market, clothing store and used car dealer are located on the ground level) walk out and look up to see if we are out and about each morning. Once they see us in place and yell their greetings to us, their world is in order and all is right.

Our typical Turkish breakfast is:

• Fresh Bread (not less than an hour old)
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• White Cheese (goat or cow...close to Feta)
• Olives (black and green...both in brine)
• Apricot or Raspberry preserves
• Hot Tea or Turkish Khave
• Plain Yogurt
• Hard boiled Eggs

You put a spoonful of crumbled cheese on a slice of bread, cover it with apricot preserves, tomato and cuke and eat. The yogurt is eaten plain or with some apricot preserve mixed in and the olives are consumed in vast quantities...believe it or not, it is not uncommon to go thru 10 or 15 pounds of olives per family a month.

You leave a Turkish breakfast feeling "light and cool"...and unfortunately looking forward to çay and sweets, and then lunch. That my friends, is the Breakfast Report for today. Afiyet Olsun!

Tweaking

Out To Lunch
For the next few days our site SilkRoadNomads.com will be going thru a tech remodel.
Along with the tweaking we may lose our E-mail for a few days. We are trying to coordinate Virgina, California, Sweden and Turkey....so you may not be able to access our site during this time.
And what do you get for all this trouble? Absolutely nothing...all the changes are in programming, not aesthetics. View this as brain surgery, not liposuction. I'll still be ugly....just smarter.

Grocery Gypsy

Giddy Up

Every Thursday our little corner of Istanbul is transformed into the largest street market we have ever seen. With 1000's of vendors selling produce, cheese, apricots, almonds, dry goods, hardware, clothing, and almost anything else...it is the event of the week.
Every neighborhood in this teeming mega-city has a pazar within walking distance at least one day a week. Our's begins across the street and runs south, east and west for over a mile.
This collection of sellers moves daily and sets up in different locations on different days. There is a schedule and a choreography of tarps, tables, ropes and anchors that takes place every 12 hours. Tearing down and moving on and setting up is the life of these vendors. Somehow their stores are replenished, the tomatoes and watermelons are always fresh, the fish never smell and the dates, olives and almonds are fragrant and delicious.
The pictures below are of the same street...just a few hours before and after.

Hell No (But Close)

I don't know why it always seems that the local weather guru's numbers don't match our own temperature readings at home...but someone has messed up this week. A lifelong Istanbul local told me the other day that in all his decades of experience in this city he has never lived through a summer this hot.

These are the readings from our shaded balcony yesterday...3 separate thermometers were used and the variance was less than 2 degrees between them.

Warm? You betcha.

Another Slice of Life in Istanbul

Ramazan Pide
Getting bread delivered to our door everyday is a luxury we take for granted in Istanbul. Three times a day our Kapaci (building handyman) delivers hot loaves of bread to a basket hanging on our doorknob (8am, 10am and 3pm).
All of the loaves are baked in massive ovens over wood fires...I watched a few days ago as one of the local bakers pulled 75 loaves from one shelf of the oven, shuttling them out with a 15 foot long wooden rake.
With bread regarded as the "substance of life" and sacred in Middle Eastern cultures, having fresh bread is nothing less than a daily necessity. In fact bread that is more than a few hours old is deemed inedible and whisked away to be fed to the birds, or dropped in the sea to feed the fish. While old bread can be left for the birds or animals...it would be taboo to throw it away.For less than 50 cents a day we get hot bread and a great slice of Turkish culture.

20 Hours in Istanbul

We have been home for almost two weeks. That may not excite you...but to our crew it is a welcome break from being on the road.
Twenty five years ago Ann and I were looking at apartments in downtown San Diego. The "Frost House" (the home of 19th century lumber barons) in Golden Hills was high on our list. The apartment was located in the attic of the historic home and had an incredible view of downtown and the harbor...if you didn't mind standing on on tiptoes to look out a small round window high in the gable. We have often talked about a thought we had as we looked out that window; A book titled "365 Sunsets from the Frost House"....we had the idea of mounting a camera in the window and taking one picture a day, every day, for one full year, at the same time of day and of the same view.
Nothing ever came of it, we didn't rent the apartment, but I have never forgotten the view or the idea.
Since we have been in one spot for more than a week and had some time to spare...I thought I would give you the Istanbul version of our decades old project. No spiffy names for this one...just watching a day pass by in Istanbul.

6pm

4am

2pm

Dracula, a Full Moon & Roman Ruins

We are home after a hectic few weeks of travel. Our route? Istanbul to Antalya, back to Istanbul thru Bulgaria to Romania, a stop in Bucharest and a return to Istanbul. The first half by car and the rest by train.
Stanley in Antioch Psidia

Our Romanian hotel was not too far from the lake and island where the grave of Count Dracula is located. Our schedule didn't have room for us to stop and pay our respects to the Count...figures, there was even a full moon for ambiance.
Now back in Istanbul there are just a few days to go before the kickoff of the The Silk Road Exp 07 and we are at full throttle with repacking and pulling all the loose ends together. We are really tired, but looking forward to a great season in the mountains.
Passing through Antioch Psidia Stanley played historian/archaeologist and tour guide. He had spent the weeks prior to our trip reading up on the Roman occupation of Central Anatolia.

Downtown Antioch

Bosfor Express

Elle and Stanley's Cabin

Crossing The Danube

The SRE07 will take in the Black Sea coastal villages of Turkey stopping in for several weeks at our Dogubeyazit digs and then concentrating on the Iran and Iraq border villages in southeast Turkey. The kickoff is approaching fast-- stay tuned!

Running on Fumes

Urgup Cave Pension

The last three months have zipped past us...and over us. We are running on fumes after logging about 10,000 overland miles crisscrossing Asia Minor.
We are home for 4 days and then off to Romania returning next week in time to pack our gear to hit the trail as the Silk Road Expedition 07 kicks off. July thru September is prime time for hanging with the nomadic tribes. More on the SRE07 next week before we lock and load for the summer run.

Elle and Stanley

Last Week's Visit to a Tarus Range Village Mosque

Istanbul Sirkeci

One of the only mega-city Train Stations in the world where all reservations and tickets are still drafted by hand and carbon paper. No computers, no Visa cards...everything is manually completed and filed on a clipboard. Even though it takes most of a day to get tickets...the nostalgia is worth the hassle.

8 Forms Filled Out for our Romania Run

Bad Cookie

Within a few days we should be ready to move into our new flat. The fixing up process took a turn for the worse last week and we ended up eating another remodel cookie. Plaster, paint, ceramic, plumbing and electrical...it all fell apart as soon as it was touched. The repairs were extensive and have left us tapped out financially and physically...the upside is that we are planning on making this our permanent Istanbul base. If that works out then the hassle will be worth it.

Over the past two weeks we have moved from winter to summer without stopping for spring. The pictures show a 3 week window of the seasons in our little corner of Asia.
Our Wandering Elle

Karakoy


Wrapping Up in the Aegean


Cesme


Artichokes

Falling Apart in Istanbul

After close to 5000 miles of travel we are back in Istanbul for a few weeks and have a major move across town, visitors from the States, and loads of writing ahead of us,(I don't seem to be "springing back' like I used to). An elderly friend of ours used to say "just relax and fall apart"...exactly what we plan on doing...soon. In the meantime we offer another Ocular Buffet for your peckish palates.
Elle Near Tatvan

Mountain Home

View From Our Window

Along the Syrian Border

Persian Village

The Kids And The Euphrates

Stanley In The Taurus Range

The Navigator, Babe, Boss Lady


Rockslide Near Samandag

Hummer

Our border to border run got off to a rough start. It must be my cycle of chaos because this month, our rent, insurance and other bills were all due on the same day…and that happened to be the same day our income was scheduled to arrive in our Stateside bank. With the Easter holiday things ran late. This tweaked our plans and kept us in Istanbul past our departure date to make sure everything was paid before we left…and to give us moolah for the miles.
My Ticket to Somnolence...Maybe
Being 10 hours ahead of PST we were sweating this one out…finally we saw via E that it was available. A quick run to the ATM made things worse. The transaction processed as usual, the receipt was issued, my card returned and the screen said “Please wait for your money”…and then, after several long minutes, a series of “ka-thunks”, a “ping” , the sound of bills being sorted, and the visible lurching of the cash withdrawal door unsuccessfully trying to open…ended with these words on the screen “Please try again, our connection was lost”. Another try, the same result and the score was now…Steward 0-ATM 2. According to the security guard at the bank the ATM “thinks” it dispensed the cash…twice.
Finally another ATM issued us enough to keep the landlord happy, the truck insured and get us on the road on a slim budget.
So…it is thus: 1:43am in Central Turkey after a long mountainous drive from Istanbul seasoned with a slightly stressful preceding 36 hours and I am tired but unable to sleep. We have an early departure planned with a 14 hour drive ahead of us through some of the most rugged terrain in Asia Minor. I must admit with shame that I indulged in a moment of self pity. For that, I apologize.
A look out the window of our ramshackle, 120 year old pansiyon and things got better. Just like the river outside my window…life flows. I am now going to hum like a monk, and try to drift to somnolence.

Out and Back

Eğirdir Gölü near Isparta

The gods of compositional chemistry are active again and we are heeding the call to head east and then south into the Taurus Range to research and write before turning full east to the Iranian border. Adana, Antakya, and Dogubeyazit are our first stops…our return route should take us through Kapadokia if time permits.
Picking up on our UK gear-up fiasco from December, we have found an outfitter who can add the necessary outback gear to our truck…just 900km away from Istanbul.
We are planning on a lightning strike trip out and back, hopefully home within a few weeks. Keep your eyes on the “Global Nomads Live Window” for GPS and brief updates.

Petri Dish Party

Disasters make for good literature, and while quaint doors beckon of quaint interiors...our week in Greece was a complete mess. The village life of this island was beautiful, if you could live outdoors…but in our little rental things went toes up fast.

The Setting? A mostly abandoned village (for a reason), a 1000 year old dwelling in a medieval wall, big bugs in the bed, and sewage floating thru the house made for some lasting memories…not good ones, but memories nonetheless. It was a long 10 days.

We are in the middle of nuking our gear clean and a reboot for a departure towards the mountains within the next few days. More later. For now...we will show the beauty of Greece...minus the beast.

Oh Thank Heaven...for 7/11

I have had a lifelong relationship with 7/11 stores. Several of my uncles were the first to buy into the Southland Corporation’s franchise back in the mid-60’s. And being a San Diego based outfit, there are 7/11’s everywhere you look in SoCal. I worked at 7/11…got fired from 7/11 and rehired at 7/11 as a teenager. As an adult working the streets of SD, 7/11 was an hourly stop. They were family. 7/11 is uniquely Southern California culture.


For 25 years I had a Super Big Gulp within arms reach 24 hours a day. One superbly crafted 64oz plastic cup lasted me 15 years. From the PD to Montana, Oregon, France, Beirut and back to Los Angeles, it traveled as my own personal beverage butler. Due to worries over its life expectancy it remained behind when we made the move to Istanbul.

Imagine our surprise to be cruising along in southwestern Turkey a few weeks ago and run across this vision…this mirage of ice cold beverage beguilements a world away from home. While the sign, logo, and association were valid, nothing inside was familiar. No Slurpee’s, no Big Gulps, no Hot Dogs. There wasn’t even an ATM stuck in the corner next to the magazine rack.
Beguiling Beverage Blowout

It is true when they say you can’t go home. Can you do a favor for this poor guy on the far side of the world? Go to 7/11 today and buy a Super Big Gulp (Dr. Pepper please), sit in the parking lot and sip it while you sing “Oh Thank Heaven for 7/11’s Baseball Trading Cups”. You sip...I'll smile, and life will be good.