March 31, 2011.

Despite our intentions to leave Erzurum, we spent the whole day here. The house in which we were sleeping, turned out to be an ordinary Muslim house, though we wondered whether this is not a sect. We had to look at them praying and read Muslim books. Fortunately there was a language barrier (my companion was less lucky, because he spoke some Russian, and there were Russians among them). 

March 29, 2011.

Cappadocia again.

Yesterday coming back from Ankara, I made a break by Tuz Golu lake (no tourists, the truck driver didn't understand why I wanted to stop here). In the evening I met in the Ihlara Valley an international society (2 retired couples from New Zealand, traveling 6 years around the world mainly on their yachts -that's an idea for retirement). This time I didn't organize myself a place to sleep - I wanted to sleep in a cave, and I did. Today I' was hanging around with a very nice Spanish-German couple, and at night I will stay again in the cave. I do not want to  leave these stunning place, but there is still much to see further. 

March 27, 2011.

Everyone advised me not to go to Ankara, but I did the trifle 300 km to get to a Holy Mass today, but I didn't find any church. I'm glad I've seen the mausoleum of Ataturk, it was a good history lesson. The city is  big and big cities I don't like, I'm leaving this place as soon as possible. 

March 26, 2011.

Cappadocia was wonderful, the view from the "castle" in Uchisar was absolutely amazing. I got lonely a bit. Words I heard at Camino came back to me "it's people who make life rich". It's worth spending a few days in Cappadocia, I have here wonderful hosts through Couchsurfingu, and it's hard to leave the place..

A lot of caves here, apparently created by the early Christians fleeing from persecution. 

March 24, 2011.

Konya was disappointing, terrible housing estate. Although it was once the capital of Seljuk empire -it's hard to notice any sign of that. This morning I finished a very interesting conversation about faith with two Muslims. Unfortunately, they had to finish their evening prayers before 4 in the morning. Talking with them was more interesting than the whole town and Mevlana museum. Today I went from Konya to Nevsehir-Cappadocia ... 

March 22, 2011.

Amazing. I was trying the day before to get out of Istanbul (using the advice of maps.hitchwiki.org), but I didn't succeed. When I asked about the way to the highway (to hitchhike there) the guys put me on the bus going back to the city center. They told me to take the train to the outskirts of the city, but I missed it (I was late twenty minutes). So I decided to wait obediently for the morning at the station, from which the police threw me out (they didn't bother anyone else; probably because I didn't agree to a very thorough checking, they claimed they were looking for a gun, and they checked my notes).

Later, in the morning a Turk invited me home (he wanted to buy me a ticket to Konya). We talked in an internet cafe using googletranslator. He asked me very personal questions including sexual experience. Finally I had enough of authoritarianism (eg crossing the streets on the commend "stop" and "go" and I said goodbye. Now I have to expel him from my facebook friends to which he added himself. After that instead of going southeast some very fine guys took me to Nazilli. We spoke with each other using  one page of my Turkish-Polish phrasebook (I printed just a few expressions from the internet).

Today some locals put me on a coach to Konya. I told them I don't have money for travelling -they said it's ok. Language barrier caused that I drove the way without a ticket. At some point a woman who spoke English got on. Then it turned out  that they thought I was robbed (or something alike), and people were showing mercy -a bit ashaming... 

March 20, 2011.

Today I'm leaving Istanbul, which is certainly an amazing city, though expensive and I started to be fed up with everyone bothering everybody.  After all, I am a man of the wild:) 

March 18, 2011.

Istanbul is fascinating. If I had a flat to be furnished  I would come here, and do a big shopping. Great decoration stuff here, and for the kitchen as well. Plenty of mosques. I  like the ferry transport  very much - they depart very often. A bit tiring are the vendors, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, waiters, everyone wants you to use their services, to enter their shop. Also Turkish cuisine is interesting - especially the variety of sweets. 

March 16, 2011.

Completely different impression of the city, I'm starting to like it. Spread on two continents, of which Europe is the most attractive part. City is jointed together by two bridges (closed for pedestrian due to some suicidal attempts). The ferries depart between different harbours very often, and the ticket costs just as much as a public transport ticket. I'm hosted by nice students from England, of course thanks to CS. 

March 15, 2011.

A morning visit to the post office, where I sent a parcel home (almost 1.5 kilograms  -i.e. a second pair of trousers and a heavy knife -old Boy-scout habits ...). I did feel a big relief after getting rid of unnecessary stuff.

Today I arrived in Istanbul. Fist impression was a bit scary (I want to go to the forest!). Large  city, crowded and completely uneuropean language (well, at least thanks to Ataturk the switched to the Latin alphabet). 

March 14, 2011.

Plovdiv. I'm paying only five lew (2,5 EUR) to spend the night in an internet cafe. The city isn't very interesting, I thought about traveling to Varna, but perhaps it's wasting time for Europe now. One guy who gave me a lift told me about local earnings - average 250 EUR per month, prices only slightly lower than in Poland. 

March 13, 2011.

Yesterday morning I was hiking on the hills around Sofia, later I hitchhiked to the Ryla Monastery. The Monastery is  really impressive.

This morning after three hours of an Orthodox Mass I had enough (although they sing beautifully, I must admit). Now I'm stuck in some village in Samokov, it's not easy here to hitchhike. 

March 11, 2011.

Yesterday a Gypsy (speaking quite good English according to local standards) cheated me. For the equivalent of 20 euros I got 50 lew - old ones which aren't valid any more (what turned out to be a usual practice of the gypsies). I got very racist, trying to hunt this gypsy for half an hour. Finally I gave up. It's not high price for a good lesson of prudence.

In Sofia stand next to each other a Catholic church, a mosque, an Orthodox church and a synagogue. The Orthodox dominate here. Today I almost bought a tent for 10 euros, but after all I found it to be too heavy (1.8 kg). 

March 9, 2011.

Yesterday I visited Belgrade,  still  reminiscent of he NATO bombing in1999.

Poor cuntry (40% unemployment), people are happy with living somebody else's life here. Currently there's 20 reality shows going on. Of course, they're of a low quality and they set up bad examples. However the newspapers don't worry about it  and they report what's going on in the reality shows.

Today I managed to get from Belgrade to Sofia, and even go for Mass. There it turned out there is a Polish priest )Capuchin). 

March 7, 2011.

Two days in Budapest, beautiful city, definitely underrated. I had a wonderful host here. I thought to stay here longer, but something pushed me forward. Today I had 370km to go from Budapest to Belgrade, and it took around 10h. Very poor average speed, very cold, what on earth tempted me to go at this time of the year (LK)?