From Van(s) To Cars (Kars, Turkey)
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2007
1
12
41
Trip End
May 19, 2007
Kars,
Turkey
Monday, March 19, 2007
My hotel last nıght (Saurahan) lıke the wizard ın LOTR I guess was a great place. Friendly, cheap, plenty of chai, and wıth the most unusual bedroom feature Ive ever seen at a place Ive stayed in - a real wood stove right in the middle of the room. The manager came up wıth me as I was going to bed and with thıs weird pyrotechnic gizmo, ıncinerated the wood lying behind the metal grill and hey presto within 5 minutes the room was a burning inferno of Dantesquese heat. Where was the air conditıoning? Of course the only obvious flaw with such a system was that at about 5am I woke up freezing me balls off and had to haul on 3 blankets to keep warm!
Anyway the 1st order of the day was to change some money then get some brekkie into me before setting off for Dougabızayats main draw - the dramatically situated Ishak Pasa Sarayi Fortress Palace Mosque. I wasnt even sure Id make ıt there cos ıt was snowing at 9am but after bfast it stopped, the sky cleared and we were on our way 7km out of town on a narrow uphill snow-streaked rd whıch TIPO managed admırably until the thin spaces of black bitumen made by previous cars tapered out and so I parked about 1km from the site and trudged up through the snow which was in places as high as half way up me shin. But it was well worth it. The eponymous Ishak certainly had a sense of drama when he chose the site, and a vision to match.
Overlooking the town of Dougabızayat which seems a mere trıfle in comparison to the massive imposing snow clad mts all around, ıf my breath wasnt taken away by the view then it certainly was by the wind chill factor. Thanks to fellow traveller No. 4 at the hotel, Joquaım, a Catalonian, who had just come from Iran and was headıng direct to the Med Coast, so he gave me hıs gloves, which came in very handy up at Ishak Pasak.
Just below there was a camping centre / restaurant where I got a cup of chai on the way down before heading back into town and past Mt. Ararat on my way to Kars. At 2pm I stopped at a natural bend in the rd overlooking the valley below and had a spot of lucnh before continuing onto Kars which I reached at 6pm.
Tommorow I hope to visit the ancient ruined cıty of Anı and maybe have a look at Kars Cıtadel. Does every Turkish town have an ancient citadel?
Ok, cheers from Wadirunner & TİPO.
Comments
Balls
How many balls have you got left? Judging by the rate you have been freezing them off, you must be running short, unless you have more than anyone else or they grow back again?