Start of a Big New Adventure!

And, for something completely different from the last weeks in Europe, Monday I flew to Turkey which straddles both Europe and Asia - Istanbul being the only city in the world to be on two continents.  My journey took me from Nice to Istanbul airport where, after a layover of several hours, I flew to Kayseri in Cappodocia.  I first met Atahan as my guide when I was there two and a half years ago.  Since then, I've done several road trips with him and this will be my fourth and longest.  Over this time, we have also become buddies so I am anticipating it is going to be a lot of fun as well as interesting.  Cappadocia is really our "jumping off point" so to speak as we need to get over to the eastern side of Turkey to really begin our tour.  Therefore, we only stayed one night here; this time in Uchisar.  Regardless whether it is day or night, the scenery here is breathtaking.  Tuesday morning when I leaned out my hotel window, I could see the sky was filled with hot air balloons.  As I have blogged about this region before, I will only post some photos before I start talking about the new places I am seeing.

From Uchisar, Tuesday we drove halfway from Cappadocia to close to Turkey's eastern border with Syria.  It was a 6+ hour drive to our first overnight stop, Elazig.  It was basically a large city and we checked into our hotel, ate dinner there and slept.  The landscape along the way was stunning in a stark and empty sort of way.  The hills and mountains were dramatic and there were very few towns and villages.  The people are mainly farmers here but the land doesn't give much in the way of arable fields so working the land must be a real challenge.

Wednesday, we had another long driving day from Elazig to Van, a city on the shores of the lake of the same name.  The lake is the largest in Turkey.  The scenery today was still stunning - there is certainly a lot of wilderness in this part - and there was also a lot more agriculture and animals grazing in the fields than we saw yesterday.  It appeared this area is also more prosperous than what we'd seen yesterday.  At one point, Atahan asked me to quickly get my camera ready - I had no idea why as we were driving about 95 kmph on a four-lane highway but, I looked up and saw all the cars had their four-way flashers on as there was a huge herd of sheep and goats being driven on the highway.  That happened twice on our way to Van.  

Our hotel here is a five-star and very affordable.  When we checked in, Atahan who runs a tour company, told the manager that he was here to evaluate the hotel to see if it would be included on his tours to this region.  I am pretty sure that is why what we were upgraded and treated like royalty!  My room is luxurious and has a view of the lake in the distance.  Thankfully, we are here for two nights so no long drive tomorrow, just a boat ride to an island in the lake.  While I am here, I am hoping to spot a few of the famous Van cats. More about them and my boat trip on the lake and its island in another post.  It's now dinner time and I have eaten almost nothing today!