( This template doesn’t make it very obvious, but I’ve linked a lot of things in this post with pictures so you can see where I’m going. So if it's a link I put an asterisk next to it - just click and enjoy! )
Africa left me with a lot of things. Most of them were wonderful: cherished memories, new family, wonderful friends, fun and adventure. But it also left me with the world’s most unpredictable and volatile digestive system. I’m lactose intolerant now, thanks to my doctor’s incompetent treatment of an intestinal parasite, but there are also other things that set me off. Anyway, I’ll spare you the gory details but after spending a sleepless night battling heat (it’s become so hot here) and my own body, I decided to stay home from school today.
Having a day “off” did allow me to finish my itinerary for post-teaching travel as best as I could. Of course something will inevitably go awry along the way and throw the whole plan off, but at least I have some idea of where I’m going and what I want to see. The timeline will work itself out along the way…I hope. I left myself a few days of cushion in case I got stuck somewhere, although I can’t imagine I’ll even begin to run into the sort of transportation nightmares that beset you in Africa.
From Gümüşhane, I’ll head to nearby Erzurum*. Compared to the town I’ve been in for the past month, it’s a booming metropolis. It also happens to be quite historic, and it’s the regional transportation hub. I’ll spend a day there to see a mosque with twin minarets, some famous madrassa and whatever else is around. You can throw a rock and hit something important/historical in Turkey, so I’m sure I can stay occupied.
From Erzurum I’ll head south to Diyarbakir*, the largest city in the southeast (1.5 million) and power base for the Turkish Kurds. The Kurds, God bless them, are the largest ethnic group without a home country – they’re scattered across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and lost out on creating Kurdistan. They tried and they would have succeeded, too, if it weren’t for those meddling colonial powers, which exercise an entirely different type of meddling than the gang from Scoobie Doo (although come to think of it Daphne is a French name and Fred’s ascot is decidedly British).
If you’re aware of the troubles between the Kurdish PKK (a “terrorist” group) and the Turkish government then you might think traveling in the southeast of Turkey is inadvisable. On the contrary! It’s actually quite safe if you aren’t a Turkish soldier, and I like to think that while there are a lot of things I can be and have been mistaken for, a Turkish soldier is not amongst them.
From the famed black basalt walls of Diyarbakir, I’ll set out for Sanliurfa* (or just Urfa), which used to be called Edessa back in Crusader times. In fact, the Crusaders set up an entire Crusader state based around Edessa and held on to it for a good while. Urfa is also considered the birthplace of Abraham and a whole host of other things.
I’ll use Urfa as my base to visit nearby Nemrut Dagi* near the foot of Mt. Nemrut*. It has giant head statues constructed by some crazy ass king that ruled this area hundreds of years ago. Apparently he was kind of big on himself, so he had enormous statues of himself constructed standing next to the Gods to show that he was their equal. I’d never heard of him before, so I guess he wasn’t all that. The popular thing to do here is to arrive either slightly before sunrise or sunset – I think you can guess which one I’m opting for. Urfa will also be my base for the “Long Harran Tour” that takes in a number of sights down by the border of Syria, including the remains of an ancient university* and traditional beehive houses*.
Then I’ll head on to Midyat*, which is famous for its monasteries and filigreed silver jewelry. I’ll also visit nearby Hasankeyf*, a town that features amazing homes carved into the side of a sandstone mountain along the banks of the Tigris River. Unfortunately it’s scheduled to be completely flooded when a nearby dam is brought online in a couple of years, so I thought I should take advantage of its above-water state while I could.
I’m not going to lie – the proximity to Kurdish Iraq was seriously tempting. The route to Erbil*, a very famous, beautiful and historic city in northern Iraq, is supposedly very safe and the Kurdish authorities let Americans in without having to pay for a visa. But…it is Iraq. I mean, there’s kind of a war there even if it has left the northern Kurdish territories relatively unscathed. I guess I’m getting old or something because my sense of self-preservation outweighed the desire to gain bragging rights and experience some adventure. So I had to cut out Kurdistan, along with the Turkish cities of Van*, Dogubeyazit*, Kars* and the former Armenian capital of Ani*. I’ll be heading back north to Trabzon after Hasankeyf in order to catch a bus to the Georgian border.
God willing I can catch a bus to Tbilisi*, the Georgian capital, from Trabzon. It’s a long haul, but I’d much rather stick with one bus than piece together a bunch of minibus trips. Tbilisi is supposed to be a very beautiful city in and of itself, and I’ll be doing one of the famous Caucasian homestays while I’m there (you live with a family, they feed you, and you pay them).
In Georgia I’ll also visit Kazbegi*, a stunning mountain location famous for its Tsiminda Sameba Church*. Only 25km from Tbilisi is Mtskheta*, the spiritual heart of Georgia, which boasts all manner of churches, cathedrals and monasteries. The fact that it’s nearby makes it really nice to do it as a daytrip from the capital. And finally I want to visit the Cave City of Vardzia*.
Armenia got dropped altogether from the itinerary, and there were a ton of other things I wanted to see and do in Georgia. But there’s only so much time, and I wanted to leave some wiggle room for myself before I needed to head back to Trabzon to catch a flight to Istanbul. I sure as hell don’t want to miss my flight back home.
I can’t wait to get home, but I’m so excited about my trip. I love taking the road less traveled, and I think this itinerary is different far away from the Black Sea & Mediterranean resorts that most tourists frequent. The only foreseeable problem is the Georgian language. This is what their alphabet looks like, and I’m not even kidding:
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