Toasty in Turkey

Ali and I arrived on Wednesday evening after a long period of flying -- five flights for me and three for and Ali. We flew separate routes and met up in Munich for the last leg of the flight. I almost missed the Munich flight because my previous flight got off to a late start in Amsterdam. We landed just ten minutes before the Ankara flight was scheduled to take off at which point I and two fellow Ankara traveling companions were whisked off the airplane and deposited in the van of a good German who careened around the tarmac for fifteen minutes delivering us to passport control and then through secret passageways to our flight which was being held for our arrival. I think those might have been my fifteen minutes of fame because I felt like a real celebrity. It was great to see Ali on the plane.

Because we are carrying personal belongs for five months of travel and living abroad we decided to drive around turkey rather than drag our luggage on and off buses, trains and planes. So today we take off to Capadoccia in Anatolia to visit ancient underground cities.

So far we like the Turks although our communication is limited to grinning and awkward hand and body gestures. Lots of grinning. Ankara is a large, noisy, polluted city, but the areas that we have seen are clean and well maintained. And it’s toasty here – in the 90’s or so. But it’s quite pleasant in the morning and evenings.

Stay tuned for Turkey road tales.