Last update: Monday, September 05, 2005

Wednesday August 9.

That day we said goodbye to Peter, Maria and Demi. We hope to see them again in the winter of 2000/2001. We drove to Mount Olympos spending the night at the start of the hiking trail to the top of the mountain. Thursday we reached Kavala and decided to camp at a archaeological site approximately 15 km land inwards. The site itself was closed and only a few people where around. We had a restless night being kept awake by young locals on motorcycles and cars and ofcourse the usual share of mosquito's. Our skin looks like a moon landscape by now. We "love" those little devils.
 

Saturday, August 12. We're in Turkey!

Yesterday-evening we arrived at the Greek/Turkish border at Kastanies but weren't allowed to cross because Customs was closed already. Opening hours are from 9 till 11 am, we later read in the Lonely Planet. It didn't felt like a disappointment since we've driven the full afternoon in a blazing heat and hard wind. We put up camp almost in front of the border office, so we would be the first to show up in the morning:-) And so we did. Arno went with our passports and car-registration to the office. Because the soldiers and police had nothing better to do on this quiet border post, they checked our papers back and forth, almost with a microscope. Well they have been looking at us all evening and part of the morning, so that's worth for some extra checking. But hey we looked so charming, it was no problem and we could pass the border. After a 2 minutes ride through no-mans land we arrived at the Turkish border This side was even more a show-off of importance and authority. First, we had to apply for a visa in a large high-ceiling office. To make us feel very humble, the chairs were we had to sit on were very small and
had small legs. We had to look up to see the clerk sitting in a big chair behind his desk.
Well, the visa did cost 40 Dutch guilders, and we had 60, so that should be all right.
Ehhh, well, it wasn't actually. We had to pay it in Dutch money and only in billets of fl. 10 or fl. 100. He didn't accept coins or a billet of fl 25. And that's what we had!! Big problem. There we were, sitting in those small chairs, sweating all over, feeling stupid and a bit desperate. Is this the end of our journey we wondered. Finally, the clerk saw our desperate faces and must have thought to himself: "ahh, well, I did let them sweat enough, let's help them out". So, after talking to us as if we were little naughty children we could pay him with 3 billets of fl. 10 and 8 DM (in coins!). And 2700 Drachmas for the car customs registration document. (Which is in fact the same as a carnet de passage. After he finished these formalities, it was time for coffee. In the meanwhile Arno had to go to another office with our passports, visa-stickers and
car-registrationform. The clerk in that office put the stickers in our passports, stamped them and filled in the car-registrationform. And back Arno went. The first clerk checked if the other clerk did put in the visa-stickers all right and checked the car-registration with Arno's passport, this while I was sipping hot coffee with this man behind his huge desk. After that, Arno had to go to another office were a police-officer walked with him to check the car and camper. Pfff, we didn't have to unpack our closets. And back Arno went again. Almost all formalities were done, so the clerk could relax a bit (and so could we :-)). And with a grin from ear to ear he showed us a bottle of whiskey he was hiding under his desk. Now we know where his pale face
came from, grin. After finishing our coffee he showed us out and we had to go to another police-
officer. With a very, very serious look on his face he registered the number of the
car-registrationform in a very, very, important book:-) And that was it! We could pass the border!

That same day we stayed at a (commercial) campsite called Fifi near Erdirne, our first since we left home. We spend the day doing some housekeeping, reading and of course a shower. A german dog guarded our spot with some occasional barking and funny poses on the roof of his house. We where the only guests till late that evening, when a Belgium and Italian couple joined in.

On Sunday we visited the Mosque Selimiye Camii (The Mosque from Selin) in Edirne, the finest one build by architect Selin in Turkey (according to himself). This day was also had our first encounter with the daily live in Turkey. The large number of small groups of men on the streets was the first we both noticed immediately. Very little women around and if seen mostly accompanied by men and small children. The women sometimes dressed in western outfit but generally not very colourful.

When we approached the mosque through the souk at street level, beggars and small children tried to catch our attention, asking either for a picture or money.
The mosque Selimiye Camii was impressive, 4 large minarets surrounded a huge dome. Inside the mosque a huge open space under the dome embraced us, in the middle there was a wooden construction resembling a stage. Cracked paint and handmade woodcarvings made it look very old. It was quiet in the Mosque, only a few people where wandering around, mostly Turkish tourists. We circled the dome on ground and first level on our bare feet walking on thick handmade carpets. Janine dressed herself in a head scarf as most women did, but again feeling a bit awkward and mostly warm. After an hour we left and decided to drive to Gelibolou an peninsula just above Canakkale hoping to find a nice spot to spend the night.

The ride to Gelibolou took us some 4 hours, again in a hard wind and blazing heat. At the peninsula we tried to find the ruins of Sestos which was located on our map. Our GPS located the spot a few hunderd meters into the sea :-) Seems that our map is not quite recent for this area. During our search we saw quite a few spots to camp, but our attention was drawn to the huge amount of memorials remembering a massive battle between the Allies and the Turks in the 1st world war. In the evening near sunset we found a nice spot and set-up camp. We enjoyed the sunset and had a late dinner while discussing our first day on the Turkish streets.