Traveling The World

INTRODUCTION

This is my guide to survive in Turkye as a stranger !
First of all, get a visa ! If you are italian or european you don’t need it.
When you came in Turkey they will write Giriş, that means “Enter”.
Giriş means Enter. While Cikiş means “Exit”, and they will write on your passport when you exit.
In theory they can’t. But they do.
Turkey is a big and beautifull country with 70 milion people of which 13 milions are just in Istanbul, which is a very big city, never ending city like.
It’s not an arabic country, even if it is mixed with arabic culture, and also with greek and all around cultures.
But it’s muslim, so it’s more easy to find people speaking arabic, expecially on borders with sirya, iran and iraq.
Turkey is a country with a lot of influence from every culture surrond it, even in history, and was, in part, greek, a lot of time ago.
Don’t argue with Turkish, Greece and Cypriot people about greece and turkish territoy and things like that, because it will probably end up in a flame. Also Turkish people are very national, proud to be turkey, and attached to their country and things like that. Which i do not approve, by the way, also in italy. I think every culture has is own “Country and national people” and “Open-minded and “international” people”. I prefer the second one !

TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION

Turkey as a system of highways and streets that connects everycity. You can get a bus from every city in Turkey.
Autobus Station are called “Otogar”. Oto means car, i think.
You can find an “Otogar” like everywhere in Turkey, and buses are really cheap. It’s just 50 Liras (21 euros) from Adana to Istanbul (1000 Km), on a 13 hours ride bus, with all comforts, stops, tv, and music.
In smaller cities Otobüsüs, it means buses, are smaller, like vagons. And also cheaper. 40 KM, can be just 2-10 liras (0.80-4 euros).
In big city like Istanbul and Adana, there are metros and trams and buses. It’s easy and cheap to transport. Tickets are usually veru cheap, like 2 liras, you can get from the bus station, the machine, or directly pay on the bus. Little buses, doing like 30-100 KM transportation, or city transportation, usually don’t have tickets and you pay directly on bus, often when you land off.
If you need indications, just ask people around you. Not everyone speaks english, but you can easily find someone speaking it or arrange your self speaking a bit of Turkish and english and spanish and most important of all, body language. German people and Turkish are very closed. In berlin there is the biggest turkish community that is not turkey ! So you can find easily people speaking german, than finding someone speaking english. In bigger city, like Istanbul it’s more easy to find even people speaking Italian ! If you are a tourist be aware, because it’s easy to be “anchored” in situation of people asking you for money. Don’t be a tourist, don’t act too much as a tourist, because in some place, tourist are just a way to make money. Like in Venice, in Italy. Be in the culture, as the possible as you can.
If you need information, e-mails and somethings like that, internet cafe’ are everywhere in Turkey, and they are in generale, really good, and very cheap. The cafe’ from where i am writing is about just 1.50 liras per hour. It means just 0.60 euros per hour. Very cheap. Internet cafe’ usually serve locally çay tea, that you can find everywhere, even on the street, and it’s usually very cheap, like 1 lira.
Change is very advantagious for european, england, and american people. 1 lira is about 2.3 liras. With 5 liras, or maximum 10 liras (4 euros), you can get lunch like döner et dürüm (Meat Kebab wrapped in bread). Life is not that expensive, except for turistic areas in bigger cities like Istanbul. South turkey it’s even cheaper.
You can find change office without commission everywhere in Istanbul, and all over Turkey. If you have an ATM card, there are ATM machines everywhere in Turkey, even in the most unknown village, and they change your money directly.
For my card, cost 10 euros every change.
In turkey you pay like everything, even bathroom or toilet. In that view it’s expensive.

FOOD

Turkish cuisine it’s very huge, vast an delicious and also pastry it is and sweets. Probably it will be very difficult to eat all Turkish dishes, as it would be difficult to find restaurant make less unknown turkish cuisine. The things you find the most,
around the street, and more cheaper, are kebab, çorba, lahmacun, pastry, tea, ayran.
Kebab is most easy thing you can find, and it’s all around very good, and probably home-made. I’ve seen a homemade Chicken Döner Kebab cooking in Taksim, the central square of Istanbul. So forget about that shitty kebab you are used to eat behind your home.
There are a lot of variety of kebab, and sub-variety.
Döner is the most famous in the world, merely for the fact, it was the food of turkish people in Berlin, 20 years ago i think. And so it became famous and so it expanded worlwide.
Et Döner (Et means beef) is the enourmous roll of meat slices, cooked with the heat of fire, marinated in yoghurt and spices, and mixed with special tail fat of turkish mountain mutton, that gave to meat it’s special flavor.
It’s served in bread, like sandwiches, and is called Yarim.
Dürüm means rolled in a thin paper like bread, like pita o pida, which is a tipical and special bread of turkey, greece, cyprus and also in arabic country.
I suggest you to specify because, if you don’t, they probably assume you want it on a plate, and they will serve to you with starters, vegetables, and rice.
If you say take-away and you don’t specify you want a dürüm or a yarim, they will probably pack all starters and main courses, and you will end up in a lot of food and things you don’t want, as it happened to me ! And you will also, probably, pay more that you expected !
There are a lot of variants of döner.
Tavuk döner is the same of et, but without mutton fat, and it’s made of chicken. Tavuk means chiken.
There is also Tavuk döner with red and green sliced peppers inside the roll, between the chicken slices.
There is also a variant of döner made with sausages, and probably a lot of other variants i didn’t eat yet !
Çorba is the Turkish most known soup, and you will find everywhere. There are places making just çorba. It is served with lemon, and bread. Also there are a lot of variants, and probably çorba means soup. But you will find the red one.
You squeeze lemon inside, and it’s very good ! Everywhere. They even sell it on supermaket, like Knorr style, which i don’t like. There is a variant made of milk and mint, while the red one is made of vegetables and spices like cumin and mint !
Pilav it means rice, and it’s usually served with pine kernels, i think they are pine kernels, i didn’t understood yet, and with butter.
It’s also served as fast food with checkpeas and pomegrade sauce, or some sauce on top.
Lahmacun it’s like a pizza, cooked on fire woods or oven, fortunatly you can find easily wood fire everywhere in turkey, and with a sauce of meat, spices and tomato on top. It’s very good and very cheap. I think it’s origin it’s Armenian, but it’s so diffused that it’s called “Turkish pizza”, in Turkey.
Chiken it’s also very diffused and cooked everywhere.
You can find easily pida bread, and paper like bread everywhere, they even make it handmade, in front of you, and they cook it traditionally.
Potato are diffused, in some place they bake potatoes and serve to you, filled with all sort of godness, you choose.
Pastry is so vast, and good, you will find all sort of sweets and dessert, from fantastic and delicious cakes, to traditional baklava, sweets with honey and pistaches, and almonds.
You have just to try !
In turkey you will find everywhere nuts, almonds, pistaches, figs, dry fruit, and mix of these, also seed of all kinds, toasted or not, to eat. They are like snacks for turkish people, and more easy to find than in italy, or other european place.
You can find all the spice, and the most esotic one you want, and you will go to heaven, if you visit istanbul and its bazaar near sultanamhed and its spice markets near sirkeci tram station.
Fish is called balik, and in general is very good, and maybe served fresh and just get out of the sea. In Istanbul the galata bridge it’s famous, and famous are also the fishermans, fishing from the top. You will see all that fishermans lining up.
The restaurant under the galata bridge i think they are also famous.

DRINK
In turkey you can drink about all you are used to drink at you home, except for sparkling water, that as in france, and other places that are not italy, is considered a “special drink”, and maybe served with freshed lemon, or orange squeezed juice.
In italy we use to drink sparkling water every day, and it’s very diffused, and very cheap, while in other countries it seems an alien thind, and very expensive, and served as a “drink”.
You can find really good Turkish coffee, and even the spiced one. You can find very good quality of coffee, that are not easy to find in other part of the world.
The thing you will find the most is Salep, an hot-drink made with orchid, milk and spices, like cinnamon, ginger, ecc….
It’s light brown-white, served with a mix of spices on top, like cinnamon, and nutmeg. It’s very hot, very good in cold seasons, and cold days, and very good.
You can find it in cafe’, served in cappuccino like cup, or on the street, with the traditional salep maker, that usually boils, and you will see all the smoke coming out, and the guy screaming “SALEP”. It is usally very cheap, like 3 liras.
You can find çay, that means tea, everywhere, and it’s the most of the times very good. Some varieties of tea are coltivated in turkey, near the black sea. You can find it in supermarket, and i suggest you to buy, because it’s not easy to find in other place of the world.
There is the turkish çay, the red one, the most diffused one, and probably the one they will serve to you if you order çay, in the tipical circula glass, you will find everywhere, even layed on the street.
There are all kind of variations, apple tea, in powder, or the original one, mint tea, same for apple tea, and all sort of fruit tea.
Apple tea is the most known and diffused fruit tea, and it’s very good. Apple is called elma, in turkish, so apple tea is elma çay.
Nane is mint, so mint tea is nane çay.
One very good tea, is ada çay. Ada means salbei, and it’s a tea of salbei, very good, served with lemon, or a fruit that seems a mix of lemon, orange, and mandarin. You squeeze the lemon inside, or you put it inside, and you drink.
Don’t forget sugar, that is called şeker. Ş ıs pronounced Sh. Like the noise you make, putting the index finger in front of your mouth, to say: “shut up !”.
Water is called su, while juice suju.
You can find fresh squeezed juice everywhere in turkey, it’s very popular. Grapefruit it’s also very popular, and they will squeeze it up in front of you, and maybe mix it with orange that is called portakal.
Juice mix it’s very popular, and they have a machine that make easy to squeeze fruits, because it’s just a lever, you press, and it crush the fruit in 2 second, making all the juice coming out without effort. It’s better than that machine, with that thing looping, that are very annoying and time consuming.
They also use a modern electronic machine to make fresh elma suju (Apple juice).
It’s very good to eat an et döner kebab yurum with fresh elam suju and portakal suju.
Portakal means orange, so portakal suju is orange juice.
Şalgam is a red salted juice of pickle, they say it’s very healty, but i don’t like it ! Also in Istanbul you will find pickle everywhere, even with kebab, and i don’t like. So if you don’t like it, like me, say to the people serving you !

HOTELS

You can find all kind hotels, from the most expensive ones, like four seasons in Istanbul (370 euros per night…………………………………………), to the most cheaper (like 40 liras, 16 euros, per night in Aksaray), and even hostel for 10 liras per night, about 4 euros.
So you a lot of choices, and it can be very cheap to stay and live in Turkey, if you want.
Just tecnologic things are very expensive, and can cost the double of the price in Italy, for example. I don’t know why !
It exits also couchsurfing !

So for now that’s all.

I visited the temple of the dead of the sister of Mohamed, the muslim profet.
Very peacefull, calm and meditative.
Sorry for the voice, but ı’m training and i maybe i was a bit tired !

Here are the videos:

Visit to Larnaka Temple 1

Visit to Larnaka Temple 2

They cheated me !
Yesterday night i was in a Pub, near Sultanahmed.
Some guy called strangely ‘Ahmed’, drinkin an Efes Pılsner beer, started to talk with me, claiming it was from north side of cyprus, but before he said it was from the south side. He said then that his mother is from the south side, and his father from the north side. And i though it was cool, but it was also strange. The 2 parts do not talk or interact very easily, as i found (I’ve been in Cyprus – i will write about it).
After a while he invited me to join him, and go to a Taksim, one of the central place of Istanbul, place and drink something and listen to music. But just for a while, because tomorrow he had to wake up early at 8:30 AM, because he has got to work.
He claim he is a Buisness man, wıth a Textile Industry in Cyprus, that it has been ran by his father, and now he is running his father’s business. He said he will go to Saudi Arabia, to do his business. But it was strange to me, because sauidi arabia visa’s are not so easy to obtain. He said that he has got a business man card, so it is easy for him to obtain visa. I was asking myself what is a ‘buisness man card’, but it is also true, that for work it is easier to obtain a permission.
So we pay, and we go to this ‘Taksim place’.
We exit the pub, and we meet another guy who claim he work for the reception of one of the hotels in the area (this is an high concentrated hotel area), and he want to go also to Taksim to have some drink, because he don’t know what to do, and he has got to go to the airport about 2 or 3 hours later.
He has got a company car, but he doesn’t want to use it due to the fact it’s the company car, and he claims he want to take the tramvay (tram way), but it’s late and he doesn’t know where the tram will pass, so he asked Ahmed, the just known friend, that asked me, and i said: ‘I don’t know’.
The fact of encounter another guy, wıth a car, claiming he want to go same place we are going, it was the first point make me doubt, and understanding they were cheating me in some way. But im too kind, so i wanted to see what will happen, and i was friendly with this guys, so i let it go. But i was carefull.
İt was also strange he didn’t want to take the car.
So Ahmed proposed to take a taxi, and the other guy, of which i don’t remeber the name, said he doesn’t pay taxists. So Ahmed said he would pay it for him, but after a while he said he would have taken us to the place.
So we enter the car, and while he was driving i was looking if we were really going to Taksim.

We arrive in a place, but it was not Taksim. There were this place called ‘Yeni Arena’.
Yeni Raki is the famous and ‘acclaimed’ turkish raki, so it was strange also the name of the place.
We entered, and there were bodyguards. There were also a price listing, but i didn’t look at it, i was like draught by the situation, as it is normal.
We then ordered Turkish Yeni Raki, 35 Cl., and after a while, i was drinkin it, but the ‘new friend’, just drank it a bit, and then they were drinking water ! We eat the fruits and the nuts, and the cheese, they claim it was good, but it was not so good.
Pratically they were serving just me with Raki.
There were some girls, a bit old, dancing on the floor, with high heels.
After a while some girl seated near us, asking for consense. I said at the beginning no, because i though they wanted to dance with me, and also i didn’t like the girl………………………
The girls asked for a drink. And we offered it.
I was asking myself how it would cost, but i said to me: ‘How can cost a drink ?’. So i let it go.
After 3 girls drinks, they brought the price listing and each drink was 100 TL, about 40 euro per drink. And the drink was like 20 cl of beer !!!!!!!!
The bottle of raki was like 150 TL, and they charged just me ! When it was of everybody. the same bottle at the supermarket cost about 50 TL !!!!!!
The girls were working for the place and called ‘Artısts’.
I said to the guy, i think the owner, that ‘Artists’ doesn’t mean girls, and ıt was the fırst tıme ı was there !
The bill was about 830 TL, about 350 euros !!!!! But they charged just me and ahmed. The guy whit the car, dıdn’t pay anythıng !
So ı pretended that Ahmed will go to a ATM and takee cash and pay half of the price about 450 TL.
The guy with the car, dıdn’t want me to see Ahmed pay wıth the credit card, because i think, they were acting, and don’t want me to see Ahmed not paying….
But Ahmed returned with the money and payed half the bill.
I didn’t see him take money, so ıt’s possible the owner gave him the money, and ahmed after paying give it back to him.
After we have payed, we exıted and Ahmed want me to pick some Russian Girls. But i said it was too much for me that night.
He said: ‘You don’t travel the world wıth 400 TL’. Yes ıt’s true, but IT DOESN’T MEAN I HAVE TO SPEND IT ALL IN ONE NIGHT !!!!!!!!
Also it was strange. A guy that had just been cheated, doesn’t want to go and pick russian girls ! And pretend me to go with me !
Fuck him !
They cheated me and they were like the cat and the fox in the Pinocchio Story of Allodi.
Nice experience, but costed too much in term of money !

Marco.

Sorry guys for haven’t updated anything in this days ! I’m in cyprus with my travel brother Christos, from walktheplanet.org, in Nicosia, cyprus side, at his home as a guest, and i’m using his internet to upload all things i didn’t upload ! So i didn’t update because i’m adding things for you ! Soon there will be so much to read and see, videos and photos !
Also if you want to make a donation, or offer me a beer, it’s not that bad, actually.

Stay tuned !
Marco.

I’m finally arrived in Istanbul.
I took the bus from Athens, and it was like 15 hours of it, very stressfull, between snow torments in greece, rain, wind. The couch was like on ice, where there was snow or wind or both !
I left Athens at 18 o’clock, and arrived here like on 8 o’clock in the morning, and nobody speak english, so i oriented myself improvising, and finally arrived in what can be called “The city”. The bus station is very very big and huge with like 100 couches everywere and 100 different companies, with screaming guys inviting you and asking where was you direction, for all kind of destination. You can go to everywhere from here. Really.
And that’s good for what i’m doing.
Here is very beatifull, but it’s snowing very much, and it seems like Russia, the kind of snow, and it’s not that cold, but wind, yes that is cold.
Good Narghile’ ! One of the best with wood carbon lighted at the moment and good parfume of wood, also in the taste, when smoking ! All around there are mosches with screaming guys calling for preying. I don’t like that, i don’t like religions…. but never mind, it’s their culture.
Chai is everywhere, they drink it all the time, and it’s good EVERYWHERE !
I’ve found guys drinking chai in the street, and the traditional glass cups where on the street, i mean, it’s worst then coffee habits in Italy !
So be an italian turist is not that good, because people treat turist, like a bit differently, but never mind ! I went to a patissery, here, and Turkish sweets were so good ! Also falafel and kebab ! Very tasty ! It’s not like in italy or in other occidental countries ! Here kebab and falafel are very good ! And are all over the places, cheap, like 2 Turkish Liras, and abundant.
Turkish people are friendly, but you have to be aware, because they may treat you on price, some asked me for 10 Liras for tobacco narghile, and another one, for the SAME TOBACCO, asked me 45 !!! But here you can negotiate, so i finally get to a price of 10 plus, included in the price, some gifts…
For people coming for eurozone, here is very convenient, i found an hotel for about 16 euros per night, that is like 40 liras. If you do the math, is like 1 euro = 2.3 liras !!!! That’s very amazing !
You can do all sort of things and more, you do in eurozone, but for less price ! Life is cheap. It cost like us, 6 liras for a plate of good turkish food. But 6 liras for me it’s lik 4 euros !!!! So it’s very convenient and cheap. Istanbul is full of snow now ! But it’s beautifull anyway…
I will stay there tomorrow and the day after, and then go finally to cyprus…
But it’s not finished there, i will return FOR MORE, in March.

Goodbye,
Marco.

This is my adventure of visiting the Athens acropolis during the night, it was so beautiful and amazing.
I’ve posted now because of problems uploding videos from my last internet connection in Athens.
Now i’m in a internet point in Sparti, and connection is working just fine.

Marco.

Visit to Athene acropolis in the night part 1

Visit to Athene acropolis in the night part 1

I’ve added a page on Facebook for my adventure, it is called: “Marco is traveling the world.”, and there is my bag as image !
And also i added a group with the same name, but in the image, there is the mountains of delphi.
So you can click “I like it”, or request the subscription !
I’m also adding Publicize, to make my post automatically pubblicized on many site, and easily available, and also i will add a share button !

Facebook Group Page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/365072653502979/

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marco-is-traveling-the-world/289119081150491

Marco.