8. Cappadocia

So up in the mountains we are. No problem anymore with the oil, The Cruiser is cruising like it should be! Last night we slept on a great spot in a field up in the mountains. a fantastic view but I tell ya’, it was bloody cold at night!

We are up up up in the mountains, oh yes we are!

Before arriving in Cappadocia, we stop in Konya. Konya is a more conservative city and it shows. More than we’ve seen before there are a lot of women who wear a headscarf. In Turkey this is definitely not the rule. It is not a Muslim state, although 98% of the people are Muslim. Religion and how you choose to practice it is a personal choice. So you see girls coverings their hair but their friends do not. At the beach most are in a bikini but some of them have a bathing suit, literally a suit that covers the entire body and the hair. No one turns their head for that, no one looks down on the other.

So, after two days of driving we finally arrive in gorgeous Cappadocia. The area of Cappadocia was formed when mount Erciyes erupted, leaving an image of chimneys and underground cities. You can spend days here walking through the different valleys. And off course like in all touristic town you can hire a guide. Kosta and I are not so guide-minded so we decide to have a bit of a hike on our own. Our first walk is an easy one, no way to get lost. When we want to hike the Love Valley we take off on our own again. And although all the hikes are easy and the entrances are probably easy to find, we have no patience at all for finding the entry to that valley. So we decide to go up the hill, ‘cos logically there is a valley behind. And this my friends is true and a more fun way to hike… but have you also noticed that hills always seem easier from further away than they really are? LOL Not that we’ve climbed the highest mountain, but I am sure the path leading to the valley would have been an easier option. But it was all worth it!

After this great hike we hitch hike back into town. And this is really great in Turkey: you just put your thumb in the air and the first car that comes along, stops! We have not used the car once since we arrived here. Or we walk, or we hitch hike. But of course it could also be that the cars just stop for me ‘cos when Kosta goes into town on his own to see if a parcel from Germany has arrived, he has to walk down into town and walk back up again as no one stopped to take him along! LOL LOL LOL

We are by the way sleeping on a campground. The first days all is quite, but then the troops arrive! First 23 Belgians (Flemish) and their caravans arrive. The next day 13 French caravans pull in. There is also a tour bus full of Germans that stay here. They sleep in a rolling hotel (really, I am not making this up, it is even called Das Rollende Hotel). This is one busy campground. But that really is no problem for us: by the time we take a shower in the morning. the ‘older’ people have left for their organized daytrip. By the time we take a shower in the evening, they all have already taken theirs. A 100 people, 4 showers and it all works out! It is all about good timing my friends. :)

After having visited the underground city, we finally get the parcel we were waiting for and are on our way again. A couple of days more in Turkey and then we'll enter Syria.

7. Our sick baby

Just before heading into the mountains we make a stop in Antalya. Not that we are interested in seeing the city, no we have to do some shopping. Even the men will understand this as this is not a quest for clothes but one for a computer. I have dropped Kosta’s netbook. First we still had about 10 centimetres of screen, but after driving on a bumpy road, the screen has totally gone black. And as I have the moral responsibility to write a blog for my friends, I am in need of one. For the next week I will just live on bread and water, this is what I do for my friends. LOL

Quiet late we drive out of Antalya. It’s always better to start looking for a sleeping place before it gets dark. Unfortunately for us it’s already dark at 8 o’clock. We have lingered a bit in the shopping malls. Not because we love to shop that much, but just because we are the biggest air-conditioning fans ever! LOL Never ever have I enjoyed doing grocery shopping so much. As we need to buy fresh food everyday because of the heat, entering one of the supermarkets has definitely become one of the highlights of my day. That cool breeze that gives me goose bumps… haaaaa it is truly paradise on earth!

Anyway, so off we go. It’s quite difficult to spot a good sleeping place in the dark and especially near cities. But it is Kosta’s speciality, so I never worry. We end up close to a construction supplier where the big trucks pick up sand and gravel. Not the most romantic place but quiet and peaceful. Yes people, we sleep everywhere!

Next day we are ready to take The Cruiser up on the mountains. We’re really looking forward to having cooler weather as we’ve been boiling hot so far during the day. So we cruise up and down the hills, and up and down the hills, and up and… when suddenly I hear a change in the noise of the engine. Kosta wakes up at that same moment and tells me to pull over. The engine is overheated and our baby has thrown up. There is motor oil all over the engine and Kosta is close to tears. (but really, he was LOL) So there we are in the mountains, with a 2 ton car and far away from the German breakdown service. We push the car (and trust me, I write this way easier now than we actually managed to move that monster!) to a place were it stands straight so we can check the oil level better. After letting the engine cool down we decide the best option is to take the risk and drive back to Antalya. It seems the oil is not leaking anymore and driving further up on the mountains might not be the best idea. So we drive 200 km back at the pace grandfathers would drive their car. We have time anyway, it’s Sunday. Finally we arrive back where we started and the rest of the day is spend at the beach… Well, the day could have been worse.

The Toyota garage in Antalya can set our minds at ease on hour after handing them over the cars of The Cruiser: they just have to change the oil filter. Two hours of waiting in air-conditioning with cookies, water, internet and a Playstation 3 (!) at our disposal, again, the day could have been worse LOL. And so, once more, we leave towards the mountains…

Daddy following what is happening in the operating room LOL

6. Merhaba!

We have finally (well, it has really only been 5 days of travelling) arrived in Turkey. And of course as Turkey is not part of the EU, we needed to buy an extra insurance for the car: after the 250/160 they tried to make us pay for crossing Serbia we pay the 50 euros for Turkey with a smile!

About two hours away from Istanbul we stop at a campground. We want to do laundry, check the car and most important, we want to put our heads down at the same spot for a couple of days. On the campground we meet Arndt and Claudia, a German couple that is travelling around in their van. We spend a couple of days with them driving through Turkey. And it is really cruising as their van ‘Megatron’ has a maximum speed of 75 km an hour. No problem for us, The Cruiser can cruise as well.

In the Blue Mosque

In the Church of Wisdom, gorgeous (I'm referring to the building not to us. Well, maybe also a little to us LOL!)

On our way south we drive via the Gallipoli peninsula, a place of pilgrimage for Australians and New Zealanders and full of cemeteries. This little passage was the place where the ruling over the whole Black Sea was fought over during WWI. A true fiasco that ended up with thousands of men killed. And it might not be everybody´s cup of tea but I just love cemeteries! There are about 31 war cemeteries here, with a total of 22.000 graves. 9.000 men were identified and buried in individual graves, 13.000 rest in unidentified ones. The remains of another 14.000 men were never found. They are commemorated individually by name on several memorials.

Popular with the stray dogs of the peninsula

Our next stop is the city of Troy, or better, the couple of stones left of that legendary city. Trust us, the ruins are really not worth visiting. We spend our last evening together with Arndt and Claudia who head towards Greece afterwards.

Megatron and The Cruiser on the ferry

Camping at the beach

Kosta and I drive further along the coast. Pamukkale is our destination. We want to visit the ruins of Hierapolis and the gleaming white ledges, better known as the travertines with several natural pools. This place must have been a treat to the eye years ago. Unfortunately nowadays there are only a few pools left. Luckily some not so natural were made so we tourist can still enjoy a bit of cooling during the boiling hot day. We might have forgotten our bathing suits, so Kosta and I just plunge in our Grizzly Bear underwear.

And then it is time to spend a couple of days at the beach doing absolutely nothing else than relaxing. So we head out to a small backpackers retreat called Olympus… just like the rest of Turkey! Ramadan is finished and that is enough reason to give 72 million people a national holiday. It seems like half of those people are here in Olympus and the surrounding beaches! Good thing we don’t have to look for a hostel or campground as we can just put our heads down somewhere in the forest nearby.

Chimaera, a cluster of flames that blaze from crevices on mount Olympus. Natural? It might have been once, but we are not convinced…

5. They tried to make us pay but Kosta thought no, no, no

Passing through Hungary, we arrive at the border of Serbia. Kosta and I have decided to skip Romania, and take the boring highway through Serbia to make our way down (faster) to Turkey. And so we wait in the boiling heat in the car at the border. Am I glad that the days are gone where you had to do this passing from any European country to another! As Serbia is not part of the EU it is a long and slow process to let all the tourists pass. Not only are the passports checked, but also the papers of the car, that is to say the insurance. The Cruiser is of course insured but we have one tiny little problem: we forgot the green card! And like we thought, there is no entering without any extra cash on the table. My passport is stamped, Kosta´s is linked to the car and therefor not stamped. We first have to go and get an insurance.


So Kosta goes to inquire. Getting an extra insurance for the car will cost €250. That my friends is a lot of money to pass a country. We're not even planning to stay more than a couple of days! Eventually Kosta gets it down to a 160 euro: 110 for the insurance and 50 for the guy ;). But after a tiny chat with the official it is clear we have a better option: the border to Romania is about an hour's drive away and with a bit of luck we won´t have to show any car papers there! So we re-enter Hungary. This time the car gets inspected, but really if they are looking for illegal stuff the way they check the car, I can imagen that the Hungarian border is the most popular smuggling border in the whole of Europe!

Driving in Romania...somewhere

And as we've hoped for, we are welcomed in Romania by just showing our passports. Long live Romania! Then again we are off for another long day of driving. The Cruiser is now making a bit of a weird sound. As we drive along a gorgeous road, we decide to look for a place to have a nice break from the heat and have a bit of lunch. We find this nice spot nearby a little river where Romanians come to have a lazy Sunday afternoon. If there wouldn´t be so much garbage lying around, it would be the perfect place to unwind. And speaking of garbage, this is one thing I have never understood. Why is it so easy to bring your beer cans, food wrapped in plastic and whatever, but why is it so difficult to take that rubbish with you again? For cryin´out loud people, it weighs even less empty! ;) Anyway, to make a long day short: Kosta checked out the car, found a problem with the whatever (I have no knowledge of any technical terms of a car LOL) and has fixed the problem temporarily. As it is late afternoon we decide to stay the night. We really are not prepared for this, so dinner consists of mashed potato and sauce. We are truly living like rockefellers. LOL

Mmmmmmmmmmh (it was actually good)

And then you think you found a quiet spot for having a lunch break LOL

The last country before Turkey is in sight: Bulgaria is just a ferry away! When you arrive in Bulgaria you have to pay a compulsory health insurance of 4 euro per person and of course the ´vignette´ for using their highways. And let me tell you, in every country we always bought it immediately. Austria, Hungary, Romania and we were never checked. So think we just buy it somewhere along the way when we actually fınd out where to buy it. What we didn´t get was that you have to buy it at the first petrol station, more so, you can get it at every petrol station. And as you can more than ever suspect, we are pulled over by the police. It doesn´t get any more typical than this! LOL

A couple of minutes before being pulled over I was wondering why people were signaling at me. I reduce my speed to about 60 an hour just to be sure (I have no clue at how fast we can actually drive here). I can suddenly see the cops waving at me. "Papers, please." No worries mate, all is good, I have my passport and my international drivers´license. “Original!”, he says. "Original what? Driver´s license? Well, euh…. I left that at home. " Now really people, what is the point of having an international one if you also need to have the Belgian one with you. If I travel with my passport, I don´t need my Belgian identity card, do I? No, indeed I do not. But oh yes, I do need the Belgian driver´s license to shine nice and bright next to the international one. The officer might have been in a good mood, or was (most probably LOL) just charmed by my innocent smile, but he leaves it to that.

Next question: "Wo ist das vignette?" I hear Kosta telling the other guy that we were told we only had to buy it once on the highway, so I sing the same tune. Kosta has some more explaining to do. I don´t know if it was his Colgate smile that did the trick or the fact that Kosta was playing the innocent (and annoying) guy asking too many questions, but we are lucky: no fine of a 140 euro, we only have to get that vignette about 200 meters further in the petrol station and come and show it to them. And there I was, thinking the cops already saw some (personal beer?) money in the pocket. A nice lesson learned. ;)

And just a little tip, make sure to get the vignette straight at the border because the next day we were stopped again. I am guessing they have tourist radars working. ;)

Tip of the day: buy this at the first petrol station you encounter! LOL

4. City girl will never become a real campground chick ;)

This night we thought once again we would be the smart ones and so we put our heads down on a parking lot in front of a campground. Knock, knock, knock on our window at 8 o'clock in the morning. We apparently are standing on the property the campground: 10 euro's later the showers and all other facilities are at our disposal. If we would have gotten up at 7 we would have been on time to leave, but obviously we are not the ´rise and shine with the sun' kind of people. So, we take our time after having paid, and Miss City here is ready for a nice long shower.

I have to say, I've really never been a big fan of shared bathrooms but over the years I often did not have much choice and am used to shower with my flip flop by now (it is almost strange when I shower without them at home LOL). And I'm lucky, right, 'cause I am a woman and we women are clean and have no nasty habbits. It is only men who clean their nose in the shower, clear their throat and spit without any shame. Yes, I am lucky to be part of the more civilized half of human mankind. At least that is what I thought until I, my friends, met, or must I say 'heard', the campground women! As I'm enjoying the hot water I can hear women spit more loudly than any other man and with disgust I have heard them blowing their nose like they're having the cold of their lives. Ladies, ladies, ladies! Why, oh why, oh why?! Is this really necessary? As I stand there under my shower feeling more happy then ever with my Havaianas, I can´t help but wonder, when has a bit of style gone out of fashion?

3. Here we go (again)

Four days later The Cruiser has a new generator and we have a new take off day! The sun is shining, Shakira is once again telling us it is time. Maybe we even make it further than an hours drive. LOL

Our first stop is Salzburg, a gorgeous town in Austria. We aren´t planning on stopping too many times before we arrive in Turkey, but Salzburg is definitely worth a stopover. Our first night is not spend in a hostel, but somewhere on our way to Vienna, at a lake. As we sleep in the car, we can just go with the flow and stop wherever we feel like sleeping. I have always travelled from hostel to hostel, so this is totally new for me. We transform our car to bedroom in about 5 minutes. Before we know it we are under our new duvet, sleeping in the coolest of bedrooms wıth the biggest of bathrooms attached: nature!

Vienna is also a nice town to spend a couple of lazy hours walking around, and just enjoying the fact that all luxurious products are still available. We were planning on staying on a campground here, but the price has made us change our mind quite quickly. 28 euro´s for The Cruiser and ourselves…. Hmm, maybe not. So we just start our day in Vienna. It is nice and hot here. And what do people long for when they have been boiling hot? Yes indeed, a shower! We do have a solar shower but a real shower is even better, a shower like on a campground for example ;). So we enter the campground cool, calm and collected as we are, go straight to the showers and afterward straight back to The Cruiser waiting outside the gate. Time to find a place to put our heads down for tonight ;).

And after the whole two days of travelling, we now really can say the trip has begun! :)

2. A 100 kilometers

Ok, here we go! After having been bit more than a week in Bavaria, it is time to hit the road. I slept like a baby last night, nerves for going travelling have never been in the way of a good night sleep. It is pooring down rain outside, what more of a hint can we get to pack our bags and be on our way. So we say goodbye to Kosta´s dad, Wolfgang, and his wife Monika (that is the dads´ wife, not Kosta´s LOL). I put on a bit of music, Waka Waka, it´s time for Africa is blasting through the boxes. I thought that would be the ideal song to start the trip. :)

And so we, Kosta, myself and The Cruiser start cruising down the streets of Germany. Inspite of the rain the scenery is gorgeous. Yeah, the trip has begun… Feeling the freedom of having your own car, nice, relaxing, haaaa this is it... until a 100 kilometers further up Kosta notices something strange with the battery. Hmm, let's stop on a parking lot and…. let's not be able to start the car again! LOL Yes, people, that is what we call a great start of a great journey! Thank goodness we are still in Germany and we can call the ADAC - the German breakdown service. It turns out that the generator has given us its last breath…. Ok, dad and Monika, we are on our way… back home ;).