Akdamar Hotel Van

Actually thıs happened on the nıght of October 12. Before I went to bed I saw thıs pretty strange phenomena outsıde my room's wındow and I caught ıt on camera. The photos are posted here. There seem to be smoke or low level clouds movıng rapıdly from left to rıght. What should have been normal was that I should see ıt move contınuously, however there seemed to be an outlıne of a rectangular shape made by the ...

Even though the day before we had made a special trip to the pier to confirm with the staff there that the ferry would leave at 1 PM, when we arrived there we were told that things had changed, the ferry "may" leave in the evening, if at all. So we ended up doing the bus again. Luckily we got a ride from the pier to the city center and were able to chase down the bus to Van even though it had left the terminal already.

Van's ...

... by randomly placed buildings of no particular, distinguishing, unifying style, the large intervening spaces being either a sort of weed infested wasteland, or a once haphazardly developed landscape now left largely unmaintained. I walked around that landscape for perhaps an hour and a half.

And, no Van cats to be seen.

Back in the city I went to where I had seen the cat previously, in a tea garden at the base of the Van Castle. No luck there either.

Van, Van Province, Turkey oldrover

... plan from Diyarbakir was to head to Tatvan, at the western end of Lake Van, and then catch the ferry across the lake to Van. Unfortunately there was no published timetable for the boat, so we were left hoping that there wouldn't be too much of a wait when we got off the bus in Tatvan. As we arrived we jumped off the bus outside the first taxi rank we saw and made a beeline for the harbour. When we arrived at the port however the guard at the gate told us that the next ...

Yes you need to walk to the castle from the hotel - why? People stop and natter to practice their English, it gives you time to take in the local shops and sights, and the exercise will do you good.

The castle is huge 850 BC approximately, some of it made of mud bricks and straw and wood. Reminds me of a Persian King's Helmet. We took tea with the curator who proceeded to tell us he used to be a smuggler of petrol from Iran, we are not surprised we've met ...

... t went THAT slowly) for a few kılometers. I fıgured there would be a few other backpackers on board but I was the only tourıst. Van dıdn't really set my heart a-flutter, but I met some fantastıc people, whıch made ıt a nıce experıence. Stayed at the Aslan Hotel and had my fırst ıntroductıon to squat toılets... the actual squattıng part dıdn't bother me (although I really must work on my 'aım'), but the hole I dumped ınto was a deep dark dırrrrrrty pıt that defın ...

The next day I was granted the privilege of sitting in the cab with Adam as we continued our travels through the Turkish mountains. I giggled the day away, gossiping about the group and listening to Bob Dylan as we traversed our way around dam after dam, mountain after mountain, building site after building site. The mountains have been twisted and ...

... crew we met the previous night. They were pretty excited about meeting a Canadian and a New Zealand couple. Right after we crossed the checkpoint, the military presence did not stop. Machine gun carrying soldiers were driving in trucks and jeeps everywhere. If they werent in jeeps, you could spot them along the side of the main road. Tanks were common as well. Finally, I noticed that sandbags were piled very high on each side of the road to form a ...

... and they all said that the last bus to Van already left and that we should buy a ticket from them for the next day. They were too eager to sell us a ticket for the next day which made me think they were all lying. Meanwhile the cab drivers were all trying to get us to go to the border with them and also saying that we were wasting our time trying to find a bus to Van. I suggested we keep asking and it was only when we got to the very last office and almost gave up ...

... 1085;. Градъ 90; е с насел 77;ние около 300 хиляд 80; души и е много по-пъс
090;ър (сград
080;те ...