Messin’ with Texas

I know I haven’t been writing lately. I am currently between jobs and living in New York with my family. When the next thing comes along I will get back to writing and probably revamp my blog to be a personal blog until I can get another international posting somewhere. For the mean time, here is an email from one of my readers who is considering going to Istanbul. If anyone else out there would like to ask me anything please feel free to do so:

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Hello Conrad,

My name is Mo and I am a New Yorker working in Finance.  Having 3 years of corporate experience, I have recently begun exploring career opportunities abroad, particularly in Istanbul.  While researching other’s work experiences, I came upon your blog,  www.conradwoodring.com.  Overall, it seemed as though your brief tenure was educational and exciting yet not up to mark with expectations.  But I wanted to ask you directly - how did you feel during and after working and living in Istanbul?

Secondly, how would you advise individuals like myself to look for positions overseas?  I know Turkey has a work and lifestyle culture dissimilar to that of the U.S.  Because of my background, I find such an atmosphere even more attractive than that of say, the U.K.  At this point, operating in an organization lacking a rigid structure actually interests me because I now know how a firm should be organized.  I was actually in Turkey recently and in Istanbul for the majority of my trip.  I realize visiting the city and potentially living in it are two different things.  Nevertheless, I can see myself living and working there.

If you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask.  Reading about your experience was very exciting.  I hope I have something like that to write about in the near future.  Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing back.

Kind Regards,

‘Mo’

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And my response:

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Hi Mo,

I am glad that you have taken the time to look over my website. Depending on how much you read, I am no longer in Turkey and that is why I have let my website sit idle. I will do something with it, but for the time being passerbys read it and ask for my advice, which I am normally more than happy to give.

So first question, how did I feel about working and living in Istanbul. I am not going to lie, it was very challenging but also very much fun. I integrated very well and had a large group of Turkish friends. Until my 8th month there or so I didn’t have any non-Turkish friends. We had an awesome time together. Turks make excellent friends. My small group spent every evening together in cafes and we did things on the weekends. It was an excellent social atmosphere. My job however was not terribly wonderful. There was a glaring double standard between the family members of the owner and the rest of us. <section deleted> That, in addition to them not compensating me appropriately drove me to my wits end and I quit and left Turkey. They were responsible to pay my bills which they never did on time so I would lose heat, electricity, phone ect, and they never paid on time.

Because I got little help from my company integrating and living in Turkey, it was challenging. Figuring out really basic things was challenging at times. Where I was living, there were very few english speakers (if you took a job you would be in the financial district where everyone speaks english. I was in the industrial sector on the outskirts) so getting laundry done, dry cleaning, shopping, eating out, ect, were all very difficult. I eventually adapted, but it was frustrating to get no help. Dealing with traffic was also very nerve racking. All in all, it was an incredible experience, and I miss many many things about my life in Turkey. I would never work for my previous employer again, but I would love to go back there and get a different job.

I am not sure what advise I can give to people looking over seas. Both of my overseas jobs that I had found me more than I found them (I worked in the Republic of the Marshal Islands before moving to Turkey). If you are thinking about taking a position, I recommend you visit the place and see everything first. I went to Turkey before I moved there and checked out the company and where I would be living and gave everything a thorough looking over. I even drove around because I knew I would want to go into the city so I had to get a feel for what the drive would be like. Even though I knew I wouldn’t like living and working so far away, I decided it wouldn’t be so bad.

My biggest piece of advice is be PATIENT! I can not stress this enough. Whenever outside your own culture, it is very very easy to see only the negative sides of you host culture, and to become very frustrated. I think it takes a special kind of person to see only the good and to remain positive in the face of adversity. I don’t mean to make assumptions, but judging by your name, you probably have feet in two cultures, which should make you a lot more flexible. I have a lot of friends who went abroad and hated it. They complained all the time about their host culture and let culture shock get the best of them. I even caught myself doing that in Turkey sometimes, but I didn’t let it get the better of me.

I hope this answered some of your questions. Please feel free to contact me with any further questions, or clarifications incase I have not answered your questions in the way that you meant them to be answered.

Regards,
Conrad
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One of my first reactions after returning to New York from Istanbul was how hot it was. It felt a lot hotter than Istanbul and it was definitely more humid. I thought this could be an anomaly but I remember a friend’s mother claiming that New York is actually warmer than Istanbul, so I looked it up. Here is the average temperatures of New York and Istanbul by month (it’s in Farenheit). You will notice that Istanbul is warmer in the winters and cooler in the summers. I also confirmed that it is dryer year round than New York

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I also looked up the latitude of each city. They are nearly the same (Istanbul is actually further north than New York):

Istanbul, Turkey: 41° 1′ 6″

New York, USA: 40° 42′ 51″

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Well today’s weather was a little crazy so I took a few videos. As you will see in the videos some of the hail stones were as big as my thumb nail. It lasted about twenty minutes and it got really freaking cold during the storm. Our basement flooded (also in the video) and a bunch of branches got broken. It was pretty cool!

The first video is when it first started. It went few a few minutes, died down and then came back again.

The second video is just more like the first one. I am running around the house taking shots from different rooms. This is during the second round of hailing.

The third video has my basement flooding from a waterfall through an open window. Looks pretty cool. Made a huge mess.

In this video, the fourth video, I run outside to collect some ice pellets for gin and tonics. After all if god gives you lemons… in this case he gave us ice, and we already had the gin and tonic water.

After the hail storm, I did a bit of digging around and apparently you can buy what is called a hail cannon that is supposed to prevent hail from forming in the atmosphere. Check it out, it’s pretty cool!

http://www.hailcannon.com/

FOLLOW UP:

Later in the evening I took these photos and this video of what was a double water spout forming over Long Island Sound. A third one nearly formed but dissipated. Of course lots of idiots with boats went straight into the heart of the storm (I probably would have done the same if I had a boat).

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I was contacted by Robert and Cynthia for advice about visiting Istanbul. They found my blog online and did the right thing by asking me for advice. In return Robert offered me a brief run down of his trip to post on my blog. Hopefully Robert’s experience will be useful to other people thinking about making the same trip.

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We are just finishing up our three month stay in Turkey.
We always start out with our first week in a hostel.
We chose Cordial House which was about 50 YTL
with a shared bathroom.  During this first week, we
found a realtor with which we were comfortable, then
arranged for montly rates at furnished apartments.
In this case, we also booked Cappadocia and Ephesus.
Please note that prices mentioned vary with the seasons.

We stayed the first month (June) and it cost 2500 YTL
(about 1250 Euro, or $1,800) because the Formula One
race was in town, and the only apartment we were able
to find was on the third floor in Sultanahmet overlooking
the Bosporous.  It was beautiful, but (for us) pricey.

Our second (half) month in Sultanahmet on the bottom
floor of the same housing complex, rented for only 1500
for a month (750 YTL for two weeks).  It was smaller,
but actually quite lovely, with a private garden.

After that, we took the bus from Istanbul for tours in
Cappadocia, Konya and Ephesus.  We wanted to go in
train sleeper cars, but logistics of getting from the bus
terminal to the train terminal were difficult.  Plus, there
are changes that (since we don’t speak much Turkish)
would have been problematic.

Lodging near Cappadocia, Konya and Ephesus were
double or triple that in Istanbul, because we were staying
in hotels.  Not fancy hotels, but hotels nevertheless.

Our third month was at a seaside villa in Parkkoy, Silivri.
It was also 1500, and belonged to the man from whom
we rented our first apartment.  It was bigger than our home
in Spain, but there were NO tourist facilities AT ALL,
but the bus ran frequently from Parkkoy to Silivri, which
has everything you need.

Robert and Cynthia have started a travel-writing business
together.  Their web site is http://www.OurAdventure.EU

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My time in Turkey is coming to an end. Since leaving my job in April, I been considering what to do, what my next step should be. I decided I needed to figure out what makes me happy and pursue it. After extensive thought and consideration, I realized that the answer to that question was not Turkey. Already my farewell entry has not started as I thought it would, so let me explain how I have been feeling.

* * *

Working here has been tough. My employer was extremely unprofessional. Problems included but were not limited to:

• I was rarely paid on time
• Business trip expenses were not reimburse for days even weeks sometimes.
• The lack of a strong leader meant we had little vision, no company culture, and no guidance. There was also very poor dissemination of information between the different parts of the company.
• Often my bills were not paid on time (part of my compensation package) resulting in the loss of utilities in my apartment.
• A clear and blatant double standard between the owners and everyone else.

There were other things, and many specific cases where I thought I was going to snap (and instances where I did snap). Most of the time I had to act on my own to get anything done. With no clear leadership, a decision making process was virtually non-existent, so I learned to make judgments on my own. Furthermore, to keep motivated, I had to set my own measures of success, and build my own confidence. This was something that was very difficult to do. From when we first enter school, success is easily and frequently measured. Tests, quizzes, homeworks, projects - all allow for a numerical representation of success. For 18 years I was constantly evaluated and provided with feedback on my performance. Working here in Turkey I did not have that. The owners hardly said a word about what I was doing. I was more or less on my own. I had to redefine success, to throw out my 18 year old definition, and make a new one myself. This was one of the most difficult and enlighten tasks I had during my time working here in Turkey

This stress at work got so bad at one point, that I developed Reynaud’s Syndrome from the emotional stress, in January. This syndrome is incredibly inconvenient because even the slightest chill sets off a strong reaction. I also have quite an uncomfortable pain in my wrists - from a combination of bad typing posture and rock climbing - that really killed what self motivation I had left towards the end of my employment. Although the Reynaud’s syndrome has passed, my wrists seem to show little sign of improvement.

Despite all the downsides, I did some math, and I think I may have been the best compensated employee there. But I also learned that money is not the most important thing to me.

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My life here in Istanbul has also not been what I wanted. My company and my apartment were both located far outside the city in a place called Buyukcekmece. Very few people out in Buyukcekmece speak English. This meant that after work, I was alone. Those of you that know me well, know that I am very social, and like to surround myself with my friends all the time. Getting out of work I had two options. Staying in Buyukcekmece meant being alone and isolated. My computer would be my only connection to friends, family and other English speakers.

My second option was to drive to the city and see my friends. This meant at least one hour in traffic each way (very stressful), and then I was often faced with the challenge of trying to find someone to stay with before driving to work in the morning. If staying in the city that meant planning ahead by bringing clothes for the following day. Coming to the city a second day meant that I was essentially living out of a suitcase on friends’ couches and extra beds. Combined with my busy travel schedule, I spent less and less time in my apartment until I was on average four nights a month in my apartment over the past six months. It feels like being homeless.

In addition to the stresses of constantly being displaced and stuck in traffic, many other factors have contributed to my growing discomfort here in Istanbul. Humans are creatures of habit, and although adaptable, it’s tough moving to a new environment. I am from a small town in Long Island, New York. I lived there most of my life. Istanbul is a huge city, that is noisy, the air is dirty, it’s hot, too sunny (I like rain), the food is different, the culture is different, the language is different. All these factors contribute a small amount of stress. If you remember my post “Home Sick” I talked about how the taste and feel of the air one November morning reminded me so much of being in New York. I miss the way the air tastes. I miss bagels for breakfast in the morning. I miss people stopping at stop signs. I miss hearing people’s stupid conversations about the weather in the deli (I never thought I would be saying that). As the stress has slowly accumulated, I started missing home

Despite having many Turkish friends before coming here, and having almost exclusively Turkish friends in Turkey, and having adapted quite well, I never quite felt right. I always felt like I was doing something wrong, stepping on people’s toes, or overstaying my welcome. Some people told me, and some didn’t, but I felt like people thought I was taking advantage of them. Because of this, I was not quite able to get comfortable, and recently, I have discovered the comfort of being around other Americans. Towards the end of my stay here I have met a few Americans, and I have found that I feel so much more at ease and comfortable being around them. Don’t get me wrong, my friends here were great, and many of them will be my friends for life, but something never quite felt right. Perhaps there were some small subtleties within the culture that I just didn’t pick up on, or that I didn’t adapt to. Although not consciously aware of these things, I felt them.

There were also certain mentalities and ways of thinking here that I strongly disagree with, but for peace’s sake, I kept my mouth shut.

I spent my first few months running around like a maniac. Spending long hours at work, traveling, partying with my friends, taking weekend trips. I never had a minute to stop. It was a wild rush like that first year at college. It wore me out. When I stopped the madness and tried to quiet my life, I realized how much some of the cultural differences were weighing on me. Slowly in the past six months or so I have really felt this pressure. A lot of it comes from the language barrier. I know, it’s my own fault for not making the effort to learn it. As I said I was running around madly for my first few months. Coupled with my stress from work, the last thing I wanted to do was put my mind to work on a new problem, so I just pushed it under the rug. What I have realized is that I am not as resilient as I thought. The cultural differences and the language barrier really start to grind on you. I know enough Turkish words to get by most of the time, but it’s not enough. The Americans I have met in the last few months have been a welcome retreat. Even things like eating bacon and eggs and then throwing an American Football around is a wonderful comfort.

* * *

When I came here, I agreed to work one year and evaluate my position. I started March 25th, 2007 and walked out of the office as an employee for the last time March 26th, 2008. At times myself, and colleagues, did not think I was going to make it six months let alone a year. I was frustrated and angry so much, that everyone thought I was going to snap. Heck, I even though I was going to snap. Had it not been for two very special people (I am not going to name any names) in my life here, I would have never made it the full year. Without them I would have left one year ago. I would give anything to take them with me to my next step in life. I am forever in their debt.

But I have learned a lot from my experience at my job. My father said once that if you are not struggling, you are not learning anything. By that statement, I should be able to build a nuclear weapon blind folded with one hand. I did learn a lot. First off, I got to see first hand the wrong way of doing things, but mostly about myself, and the interactions between other people. Through my job I got to travel through many different cultures, further honing my cross cultural communication skills. I got to see how people do business around the world, and how they approach it (I could go on and on about this subject, but I will spare you). Most important, I learned a lot of patience. I learned that you can’t fight every battle and expect to win, I learned to shut up and roll with it, and I learned to be completely autonomous and self reliant within a business frame work. Although hard learned, I feel these lessons will be invaluable.

Further thinking on the subject, I have realized that I can learn a lot more working in my home culture. I think what I would like to do is work in the US in a large multinational corporation for a few years, and then go out again (hopefully not alone). I want to have the skills and knowledge that I was not able to get here. Although I learned a lot working here, I still have a lot to learn. Such a job in the states would teach very different lessons.

Good bye Turkey. Everything was great. Sorry I couldn’t tell you more about the Turkish girls (I never got to date one). I am also sorry that I missed so many things about Istanbul that I had wanted to share with you. It’s truly a wonderful place and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for adventure, or a simple change of pace. You won’t be bored, I promise. I am also sorry to my friends. I hope none of you feel like I am leaving or betraying you. The simple fact of the matter is I haven’t been living the life I want for myself here. It’s been an adventure and it’s been fun, but it’s not right for me. And lately, I have felt that my mental health has deteriorated to the point that I need to address the issue.

* * *

My last week in Istanbul was night after night of good bye event. The day before I left it rained all day. Some friends said that this was because Istanbul was crying for me. I would be a liar to say that I didn’t also cry for Istanbul and all the great people I met there along the way. Although everyone had fun and we smiled a lot during our goodbyes, I had a lump in my throat every time I said goodbye. Some people were harder to say good bye to than others, but none were easy.

Someone asked me if I am sad to leave Istanbul? Yes; more than anyone will ever know. I have departed from Istanbul with a heart as heavy as gold.

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During my last week in Istanbul I had quite a schedule. We arranged to do a variety of my favorite things. I wanted to post some pictures and give you the schedule.

Wednesday - Diplomacy and board games.

Thursday - Catered Moroccan dinner in Harvey’s apartment.

Friday - A night of epic drinking in Taksim. (So epic we got thrown out of the bar)

Saturday - Erman’s birthday party and more drinking.

Sunday - Recover, play some games relax.

Monday - Meyhane ( a kind of Turkish restaurant). This led to more drinking.

Tuseday - Izzy helped me arrange the shipment of my things and I spent the evening with a couple I couldn’t see otherwise.

Wednesday - Tophane.

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Well, this will be a huge disappointment to some of you, but I am leaving Turkey soon, very soon. I haven’t been posting because I am making my rounds, saying my good byes, and preparing myself for the next thing. In thinking about what to do next, a previous blog entry came to mind. “Adventures” is one of my favorite entries, and I felt it very appropriate to post it again, before I leave Turkey. So if you have read it already, enjoy it again, if you haven’t, here it is. (the original post was posted May 30th, 2007).

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I have been thinking a lot lately about why I came to Turkey. Things have not been as easy as I had anticipated they would. There are many things that bother me, and that are not going as I would like them to. I won’t go into any great detail because frankly, it’s not interesting.

This is however not the right question to answer. I am already in Turkey, who cares why I came. The proper question is “why am I in Turkey?” Of course you must be able to answer the first question before you can answer the second question, and you must be me before you can answer either I suppose. The consensus among people who Baris tells of my coming to Turkey is that I must be crazy. The common reaction is ‘who would leave America for Turkey? Everyone wants to go the other way.’

I guess the answer is me, and a small group of other people who must think in a somewhat similar way to myself. What was I thinking when I came here; adventure! Since the first time I took that big step over the pond to Europe way back in the summer of 2003, I have been enamored with the idea of traveling and seeking adventure. I remember growing up and having my father all the time returning from business trips with stories of different cultures and places. Returning to school in September meant hearing of Vlad and Lukasz’s adventures in their home countries. I was jealous, but patient. That first trip, I remember being absolutely overwhelmed with excitement as my plane touched down in Amsterdam, as I took the train to Germany to spend a week with the Van Elten family before moving on to Turkey. It’s like it happened yesterday.

Since that time, I have been a glutton for traveling, for trying new things, for meeting new people, for adventure. I somewhat fancy myself as an adventure seeker. Like a drug, each fix I get, only leaves a greater hunger for more. Will it end? That I am afraid to answer. For now, I live in the present. I have little if any responsibility, I own nearly nothing, and I have no ghosts in the closet to hide from, and I like that.

At the moment I am in Tunisia, sitting in a garden beneath a nearly full moon, surrounded by rather unimpressive yet beautiful white buildings having a beer and smoking a nargile (I know, they are both bad habits). The atmosphere is wonderful. It inspires in me a pleasant calm, and a desire to write. Sitting here, I can’t help but think about what were my favorite things about all the places I have visited.

In the Marshall Islands, it was being there with Danny. In Egypt it was Paal and Graham. In Switzerland it was Paal, Kathi, Otto, Nuno and Alyse. In Turkey it was Izzy and Basar. Always it has been the people. My favorite thing about each place I have been is the people that were there with me. Going somewhere is one thing, but having a friend there with you changes it completely. Having someone to share the experience with, to laugh at the jokes, to laugh at each other, to talk to, to argue with, makes everything that much better. One of my favorite moments in the past few months was a rather mundane evening on a boat in Egypt in which my brother Graham told a rather stupid joke after an equally stupid joke from me. It was hilarious though. We laughed for a good 10 or 15 minutes with tears running down our cheeks and a pain in our sides. Trying to retell the joke made us laugh even harder. Had anyone else told that joke, it wouldn’t have been funny. That is my favorite memory of Egypt.

I guess I am extremely social (I guess we probably all knew that). I try to be friends with everybody, because everybody has good qualities. Everybody can be fun, and enjoyable to spend time with. Everybody has bad qualities as well, but if you look at them in the right light, there is a friend in everybody. It is because of this that I want to say thank you to everyone whom has been a friend to me and still is:

Tom, Brett, Vlad, Lukasz, Nick, Bobby, Jennie S, Katie S, Andra, Ilya, Dave, Parisa, Rahul, Rahal, Eric, Jeremy, Paal, Otto, Hacker, Shitling, Vince, Charles, Vicki, Nuno, Stefan, Kathi, Alyse, Liz V, Jessica, Foli, Ma, ChoCho, Maung, Joseph, Dr Santiago, EiEi, Kristen, Liz P, Patrick, Pee Pants, Chewie, Clann, Rhina, Adrienne, Inger, Izzy, Basar, Tahsin, Leigh, Kim, Aubrey, Arun, Danny, Jennie K, Amy, Arianna, Irene, Tommy Puddles, Philthy, BD, Holt, Chris D, Chuckles, Alan, Johannes, Esteban, Fubar, Bruce Lee, Jerome, Lauren, OTR, Raka, Kelly, Sam, Kami, Murat, Liz C, Daneille, Kostya, Karolina, Kat, Anastasia, Roberto, Butters, Kentai, Dan C, Bird, Santiago, Donk, SeanO, Stefanie W, Andre, Buffalo, Dave M, Amin, Davide, Mireia, Baris, Franziska, George, Liz A, Yann, Jason, Lock, Beth, Martin, Israel, David S,Will, and of course my family.

So, who just did a search for their name on this entry? Tool.

The conclusion that follows is do you really need to go anywhere to find adventure? It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do. Instead it’s about who you go with. For all you know the next great adventure could be that person sitting next to you in class, or that person that stops you to ask for directions. We need only keep an open mind and wear a smile, and adventure will find its way into our lives. But where does it end? Is it possible that there is that one adventure that can be the final chapter in each of our stories, that lets our stories come to a satisfactory ending?

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Sorry everyone, but I got too wrapped up with some things in my personal life and didn’t have time to give the fourth and final leg of my incredible journey through the south of turkey: The Butterfly Valley. The only route down into the valley was extremely difficult, hence most of the valley’s visitors go by boat. I however had no intentention of turning down this challenge and after a bit of prodding, David was on board with the plan as well.

This picture was taken from the final flat section before the trail takes a sharp turn downwards. The butterfly valley beach can be seen below in the background.

This is the first section that was practically a rock climbing slope. All though it was short, it was difficult to climb down with heavy packs. David had a particularly hard time because he carried that guitar with him the whole way down! It would come in handy later though.

Working our way down. The path is heavily marked with red dots everywhere so it’s impossible to lose the trail. At some parts you still say to yourself, ‘there is no way the path can actually go that way, that’s crazy!’

There were some sections so difficult that ropes had been put in place so you could use them to climb down.

That’s the half way marker! Only another 250m of vertical descent left. I think David wanted to cry when he saw this. Fortuneately the first half is much more difficult than the second half, so it got a lot easier.

In the valley there were many people doing paragliding (I think that’s what it’s called). You can see one of them at the top of this picture. I guess they are starting up the hill somewhere and just jumping off it. The valley is very near to Oludeniz, a popular tourist destination. I think that paragliding trips are run from there.

Another beautiful shot from the trail down into the valley. At this point we are nearly there.

In the butterfly valley there is only one place to stay. 30 ytl gets you a beachside tent, breakfast and dinner. They also have beach bungalows for 40 ytl per night, but the tents they provide are more than adequete. This was the cafe where people would eat. The cieling is actually grape vines and is one of the few nice shaded areas. You can’t sleep too late because when the sun comes up, you start cooking in your tent.

Looks like paradise eh?

There wasn’t too much to do there so we napped a lot, played backgammon, went swimming and explored teh valley. I actually only stayed one day here and then left. I cut my trip shorter than planned, and was glad I did.

This adoring couple were a pair of hellraisers. They squaked and made all kinds of racket all day. If you walked near them, they would try to bite your toes, or at least chase after you. I refused to let them intimidate me, so they left me alone. Others were not quite bold enough to stand up to them and would run away.

I found this book in the book collection they had there. ‘J Stalin’ is in fact the Joseph Stalin. It was a tough read but short. I needed something else to read because while I was there, I was reading ‘The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish Arab Divide,’ a book about the Israeli citizens that are arabs. The book is, to say the least, very critical of the Zionists. For whatever reason there seemed to be a lot of Israelis in the butterfly valley while I was there and I felt a bit uncomfortable reading what was probably the most critical view of Israel (at least in mass distribution). So instead I settled down with Stalin (not much better I know) for the day I was there and finished my other book on the bus back to Istanbul.

This cafe set back from the beach was the coolest cafe ever. It was this really nice old guy living there with a couple from Israel (go figure right?). They would help him out with the fields and he would bake a cake every day and sell it to the people visiting the valley. They served other things but the group I went with were the only people that went there the whole day. The cake was white chocolate and apricot (apricots fresh from his apricot tree, and never picked, only the ones that were ripe enough to fall are used).

Because the valley is so isolated there was no electricity. They ran the generator for a few hours a day, but after midnight it went completely dark. This is where the guitar came in handy. David played guitar by candle light to a scattered audience. They all loved it and the next night they arranged a camp fire on the beach and David played and sang for everyone. Too bad I wasn’t there to see it.

Finally, here’s a video of David’s performance of the song, “Save Tonight,” which happens to be one of my favorite songs.

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For those of you that do not know, the European soccer (football) championships is being played right now. After losing to Portugal and barely beating Switzerland (who is terrible), Turkey’s chances of moving on going into their third group stage game. The game was against the Czech republic, and the outcome would be the deciding factor of who would go on to the quarter finals against Croatia. Turkey’s chances never looked dimmer than at the start of the second half, down 2-0, and soaked to the bone with a Swiss summer rain. They looked like a bunch of wet dogs.

Somehow though they managed to knock in three goals in what was an incredible second half. From what I saw of Turkey’s three games, they play with a lot of emotion. When they realized they were about to get knocked out in front of all those fans, they really picked it up. Once they caught their first goal, they were super charged. I think the whole team believed they could pull it and they did. Maybe that’s why the fans get so intense during the game; because it actually does make a big difference. It’s not just in football either. Turkish people seem to be a lot more emotional in all walks of life (at least compared to me and what I am used to). Perhaps it’s downfall, perhaps it’s a strength. It has pluses and minuses.

Anyway, here is a video I took. The celebration after the game didn’t have nearly as much energy as the celebrations after each goal. I watched the game with Ant, Doruk and Adnan in Tophane, although I missed the first 20 or 30 minutes due to a prior engagement.

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Our route along the Lycian way started in Alinca. The plan was to hike 7-8 km to Kabak, stay there one night, then hike 7-8 km Faralya, then hike a long 10-15 km to Ovacik. Faralya is where the beautiful butterfly valley is, which we never made it past. Despite rather short distances, the path was quite steep, and at times hard to follow. It was a bit too hot and the sun too strong, so 7-8 km a day turned out to be just right.

Almost immediately along the route we got lost and found ourself amongst a flock of goats (is flock the right word for goats?). Although the goat herder didn’t speak English, he understood Kabak and pointed us in the right direction. Oddly enough, after following his circuitous directions we found ourself back on the trail and promptly ran into him a second time. There must have been a short cut he did not tell us about.

Every once in a while you would come across where a rock slide had been. Although it hardly rains in this part of Turkey during the summer, it rains quite a bit in the winter. On this particular rock slide there were two lonely goast who must have gotten separated from the rest of the herd (that’s the right one isn’t!).

All along the way to Kabak the view absolutely amazing. Tall mountains, turquoise sea, green forest, no people, no boats. What more could you ask for?

I know what it looks like but it’s not. This plant looks like cannabis but everyone assure me that it wasn’t. It was growing wild everywhere along the trail.

Another nice shot. We hiked down from up there.

As we got closer to Kabak we saw donkeys! Since Kabak is nestled in a deep valley on the coast, Donkeys are a very good way to get things in and out of the valley. I tried to convince David that all Donkeys spoke Spanish, but he didn’t believe me. Notice the guitar on David’s back. He carried that guitar for the entire five weeks he was in Turkey.

An advertisement in Kabak. All the places to stay had little makeshift wooden signs around. The whole valley had a very natural un-touristic feel to it.

The whole way down into the valley all I could think about was jumping in the sea. I was hot and sweaty and that cool blue water looked so good. We didn’t even bother to find a place to stay. We went straight to the sea and jumped in. David forgot his guide book so actually only I got to jump in. He had to hike about a kilometer back up the trail where we stopped for a rest.

This is the place where we stayed. Looks pretty comfortable right? The place was fantastic. The few guests that were staying there were extremely friendly, intelligent and out going. One was an American living in London who had grown up in Istanbul. There were two Italian families and David and I. After my cool swim in the sea, I lounged around the place admiring the view (the whole valley is surrounded by mountains), swimming in the pool (the beach was too far after walking all day), playing backgammon and drinking tea. I could have stayed there a lot longer than just one day. The place we stayed at was called Thuran Camp and was 35 ytl per person and included breakfast and dinner.

Our camp had a small library. You could take and read any book while you were there. If you wanted to take the book out of the camp with you, you had to send it back with a second book so they could add to their collection.

Thuran Camp is known for its excellent food. Besides a fantastic dinner and breakfast, you could also order stuff during the middle of the day. I of course could not resist the wild boar gulash, which was awesome. Apparently in the wooded parts of southern Turkey, there are wild boars running around.

I noticed that in this particular joint in the roof, it took them about seven nails before they were able to make contact with both pieces of wood. Made me a bit uneasy, but I inspected my bungalow and it was made much more professionally.

This shot was taken from the full moon camp, also in Kabak. We went there to check it out, but had very little shade, was completely empty and was too far from the beach. I am glad we didn’t stay here, but the view from their sitting area was quite spectacular. They had a hammock to the left outside the frame of the picture which was probably the best placed hammock I have ever seen.

Back on the road again the next day. The background is Kabak. We climbed up the hill and followed along a much less scenic but flat road. Climbing out of the valley Kabak was in was tiring especially since it was nearly noon when we left and therefore quite hot. However, it was nothing compared to what we were going to face in Faralya.

Some baby sheep came to greet us as we walked along the road. David was inspired by my bandanna and tried to fashion one for himself out of a towel.

An abandoned construction site overgrown with purple flowers.

we came across this fountain on the side of the road underneath a mulberry tree. We stopped and rested a bit while eating loads of fresh mulberries. We didn’t drink the water though. We had plenty and we were nearly at the end of our hike.

The last leg of the trip was hiking down from Faralya to the butterfly valley. A few people we passed on the road warned us of how treacherous the path was, and David told me someone had died while trying to climb down into the valley. Despite numerous warnings of having to use ropes in some parts, we decided to go anyways. With 20 kg (45 lbs) packs we began our descent.

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