Just as we were getting ready to set off, Turgut showed up again on his tractor, we managed to give him a photo because we found my camera last night. We said our farewells once more and then set off in opposite directions. We’re off towards Erzurum.
Just passed through Erzurum, didn’t stop though, it looked quite run down apart from a fancy looking entrance to the University. Now we’re heading towards Kars, I read about an ancient Armenian city near Kars, but I left the book on Turkey in the flat and can’t remember what it’s called.
We’ve just been in to Kars to get some food and cash. It’s a pretty small place so we got plenty of funny looks.
As we were driving out of town, we went past a sign for Ani, which I remembered is the city I’d read about, so we went to have a look since it was only 30km away. We arrived and the walls looked quite impressive so we paid 5 lira each to go and wander around. We spent all afternoon there because the place was huge. Lots of ruined churches and an old palace too. There was an excavation team there too so we couldn’t go all the way to the old castle. We also saw a group of men in suits with a huge SUV with diplomatic plates and a trail of unmarked police. Could have been the president of Turkey visiting and I wouldn’t know! Then as we came out there was a crowd of village folk around the entrance being told to get lost by a guard. Then they all crowded around our car and the kids asked us for some money. We drove off pretty quickly to head back to Kars.
Just stopped to get petrol and the guy at the pump insisted on washing our car for us! I had been growing attached to our dusty side-panels, but he power-hosed the engine bay too, which definitely needed a wash! And I doubt the car will stay clean for long anyway.
We’ve just come over a hill and got a great view of Mt. Ararat in the distance, it’s massive! It also turns out the guy didn’t do such a great job of washing the car after all, so we still have some of our dirt, it just looked very clean while it was wet.
Stopped at the side of the road to Igdir for the night, just off the road next to a phone mast (oh no! CANCER!) early night tonight, sunset was at about 7.30!
Photos from the day.
Just passed through Erzurum, didn’t stop though, it looked quite run down apart from a fancy looking entrance to the University. Now we’re heading towards Kars, I read about an ancient Armenian city near Kars, but I left the book on Turkey in the flat and can’t remember what it’s called.
We’ve just been in to Kars to get some food and cash. It’s a pretty small place so we got plenty of funny looks.
As we were driving out of town, we went past a sign for Ani, which I remembered is the city I’d read about, so we went to have a look since it was only 30km away. We arrived and the walls looked quite impressive so we paid 5 lira each to go and wander around. We spent all afternoon there because the place was huge. Lots of ruined churches and an old palace too. There was an excavation team there too so we couldn’t go all the way to the old castle. We also saw a group of men in suits with a huge SUV with diplomatic plates and a trail of unmarked police. Could have been the president of Turkey visiting and I wouldn’t know! Then as we came out there was a crowd of village folk around the entrance being told to get lost by a guard. Then they all crowded around our car and the kids asked us for some money. We drove off pretty quickly to head back to Kars.
Just stopped to get petrol and the guy at the pump insisted on washing our car for us! I had been growing attached to our dusty side-panels, but he power-hosed the engine bay too, which definitely needed a wash! And I doubt the car will stay clean for long anyway.
We’ve just come over a hill and got a great view of Mt. Ararat in the distance, it’s massive! It also turns out the guy didn’t do such a great job of washing the car after all, so we still have some of our dirt, it just looked very clean while it was wet.
Stopped at the side of the road to Igdir for the night, just off the road next to a phone mast (oh no! CANCER!) early night tonight, sunset was at about 7.30!
Photos from the day.
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