Hotel Rabis Sanliurfa

... they charged 0 euros, 0 dollars and 0 Turkish Lira for the shot!!! A vaccination which costs 80 Euros in Austria is completely free in a rather low standard Kurdish hospital in Turkey. Unbelievable!! <br><br>On our 2nd day we went to Mount Nemrut which is about 3 hours away from Sanliurfa. Our driver Yussuf was a pretty weird/crazy guy, his driving was ok but his singing definitely not!! ;) At the summit we met Ulysses &amp; Diana ...

... door to door.<br><br>In the cooling evening, old women sit in front of mountains of pumpkins, outside their front doors, gouging out the pips, themselves then dried and eaten as a local delicacy.<br><br>Notwithstanding the buzz of the motorised beasts that normally head off into the yonder, along with tour buses, in the morning to return late afternoon, Goreme is slow of pace, unhurried, unperturbed by the steady stream that pops in for two days, drops a wad of dollars, and ...

... the city. Unfortunately, they let me off the busy highway, and the steward showed me to go to the other side and wait for a dolmus. And again I was left behind in the middle of nowhere in the dust, which seem to be a regular occurence these days. Luckily, the moment I crossed the road I managed to get one back. It was full but the driver's assistant let me sit in front while he stood at the back. The good thing out of all this though was that it was not dark yet ...

... is no exception - read on ............<br><br>The Ataturk Dam - HUGE, so many people died in it's creation but it's a good place to stop for tea, the loo (very clean), and to take in the sight.<br><br>Gobekli Tepe - if you haven't read about this on the Internet then log on now to discover about this fascinating and most important site. It predates writing ......... They believe the site is 12,5000 years old ...

... on the planet and ýt was my first real taste of Mesopatamýa. It was previously entirely dessert but the new Ataturk Dam ýn Turkey has allowed the landscape to gýve way to some new vegetatýon. The most ýnterestýng thýng about Harran are the houses, whých are made of mud and brick from the nearby ruýns and take the shape of a beehýve (see pýcs). They are actually quýte spacýous ýnsýde, wýth multýple beehýves alýgned to form larger rooms, and some outf ...

... been used for thousands of years by different empires. It's especially known for its patron Nemrut, the King of Babylon who attempted to burn Prophet Abraham alive. There are two skyscrapers in Urfa, similar to the situation in Konya: the Dedeman Hotel and Yimpas skyscrapers. Mikail: 15; I met him inside the castle; he is an unofficial tour guide; wants to be a teacher when he grows up; doesn't like Ibrahim ...

... looking forward to Syria to get rid of Ilhan and Keira!!! The main site that we saw was where King Nemrut tossed the prophet Ibrahim from the Kale fortress into a large fire. At the last moment, Allah turned the fire into water and the wood into Carp to cushion Ibrahim's fall. The site is now a pilgrimage spot and everybody feeds the carp so they are very fat fish. Locals say that if you eat carp while in Urfa you will go blind. We also saw the cave that ...

... of God giving the people the Koran. SO that explained the huge crowds of people everywhere. I enjoyed seeing all the Kurdish people together. You can easily Tell the Kurds apart from the Turks from the way they dressed. The Kurdish women all wear head scarves and either long dresses, big overcoats or these wide pants that look like pajamas. The head scarves here are all different colors. It is not like Iran where the women all wear black head scarves. Another thing I ...

... Because I didn't want to lose my money, I decided to just wait. The bus ride was actually 3 hours long and not 90 minutes as I expected. The 20 liras I paid for my bus ticket made more sense after I realized this. I ended up getting to Urfa at 815 pm. It was already dark outside. I hate arriving in new towns when it is dark. It hasn't happened too often on this trip. Actually, I think the only time I arrived somewhere at dark was when I landed in Nairobi at the beginning of my trip. SO ...

... pin to him. He immediately put it on. It was a neat encounter. We boarded the bus and headed out of the city toward Syria. Before the day was over we would be within 10 miles of that border. This area has been a target for Kurd separatists in their attempt to recruit support. The government has responded with an effort to improve education, increase tourism and build the economy through increased irrigation in what was once a part of the ...