A complete tour of the fascinating Turkey with our motorhome

content:
photos:
Vote this travel review

WITH THE MOTORHOME IN TURKEY

Of
Antero & Mary

From September 16 to November 1, 2007

Most of Turkey, in our opinion, may be considered similar to any European country: The people, streets, landscape, climate, way of life in their own customs and habits are all similar to ours. Only the east, near the border with Iraq and to the south near the border with Iran and Syria (where the Kurdish people that we have found welcoming and warm), there is much poverty and there are other customs . With the exception of the population who live off tourism (docet cappadocia, just warm and very European), and in general the population is entirely peaceful, friendly and very hospitable. Wherever we felt safe and welcome, much more to the east and south, not in the center. We noted a strong both economic and political inequality. The country seemed to us net divided into two social categories. Many wealthy, many poor. (We are on the same road?) While in the north, west and the center is being, in the south we saw so much poverty but always a great honor. To the east there is wealth and poverty (now also found oil) but there are political problems faced by inhabitants of this part of Turkey. Cities The major cities are not just great: they are huge. The hills around Istanbul are literally covered by hundreds of thousands of residential buildings. The same phenomenon we observed in all cities, even smaller, we've been through. Even the coast have suffered the same fate. The Mediterranean coast is a succession of huge barracks, most of the coast of the Aegean sea has hills overlooking the beautiful bays that are completely covered by hundreds of small houses, all alike. Roads The roads of the city are very wide and trees. Turkey is making great strides in building the infrastructure. The whole nation is reached by a widespread and well maintained road network, the roads are under renovation and enlargement, there are construction sites everywhere. Poor signage in case of need one must remember that it is difficult to get information from the Turks for their limited knowledge of foreign languages for our ignorance of the Turkish language. Purchase prices are lower than ours by 30% but everything changes in tourist areas where prices are higher than those charged by us. Go to a restaurant means to support a cost equal to or higher than what it claims to Italy, if we decide to eat European style (chairs, cutlery, wine, fresh fruit, etc.). If we eat their products and spend little, but we must give up the wine (it costs on average 7 / 10 euro per bottle). Tourism in The Turks were nomadic caravan, for their hospitality is sacred. The camps, in theory, many, in fact few, are expensive in relation to the cost of living and quality of services offered, with only a few people used toilets, most of then are simple plots of land. Most campsites are located on the north coast of the Black Sea, Cappadocia and the Aegean coast, but with the 15 / 9 tourist season ends, most of seasonal campsites being closed and only a few campsites are open and these annual counted on the fingers of one hand. No security problem: the police (jandarma) is everywhere, people are hospitable and peaceful. You can stay anywhere, in or near absence of campsites can use otopark (car parks) that are found in all villages, towns and cities. The discharge may be made at any retailer (asking) for the quantity of water, there are no problems, there are everywhere along the roads with water spouts.

CASTIGLION FIBOCCHI September 16, 2007
We start early from home, after greeting the children and grandchildren. We head to Ancona, where we arrived at thirteen. Quick lunch and then a quick check-in, because at sixteen point sail the ship that takes us to Greece. We spend the afternoon watching from the deck of the ship that leaves the coast and the sea becomes more blue. The evening dinner in the camper and then do a walk under the stars and made the night, we go to sleep in our camper. 17 / 9 Monday Promptly at seven the next morning we land in Igoumenitsa. A short break for breakfast and then we go to Kalambaka to visit "Meteora" (monasteries). We leave the port of Igoumenitsa using the motorway but it is still being finalized. So we climb the mountains admiring beautiful landscapes. We stop in Metsovo, a small village in the mountains, where people still use the typical greek costume, but unfortunately to get in the middle of the village's single street, so narrow that two medium breeds, they have to maneuver. We went down with the camper, we are in trouble ... .. so much so that, in the middle of the country, we can not go on the road very narrow. So we are forced to back down until you arrive at a clearing and we can turn the camper back on the road to exit the country. However, what we've really enjoyed going there, is very characteristic, like a village in the Alps. is full of small shops where artisans make and sell their wood products. Let's continue our journey, we arrive in Kalambaka, how wonderful!. Very big rocks rise up in front of us are scattered here and there and each of them was built by monks from a monastery. Difficult to explain the emotion that comes from being with his eyes turned up to see the sleek shape of the monasteries. We spend the afternoon visiting all the monasteries. We are lucky, we now have the roads to the top of every rock, but think back to when, in ancient times, the only access road to the monastery was raised by hermits in a network with pulleys. It was the only means available to bring up men or goods! We stop at the camp of Kalambaka.

18 / 9 Tuesday
Early morning we start with Asprovalta destination. We overcome Larissa, Mount Olympus (covered by high clouds), Leptokaria, Katerini, Thessaloniki and then to get to our destination. The road is still top of the mountains and the roadside you can see small chapels in the shape of the church. We find many, many works are underway to widen the roads is to finish the highway that will soon take to arrive in Thessaloniki. We cross the big city, we make the waterfront up to the International Asprovalta Camp where we spend the last hours of sun and night. 19 / 9 Wednesday we approach the border with Turkey. it's all highway. Let's Amphipoli to see the great Lion, and then to Philippi, a famous archaeological site where we spend the whole day and night just to reach Alexandroupolis, where we stop for the night. 20 / 9 Thursday after only 40 km we reach the border, we get over the Greek and then we get to customs Ipsala in Turkey. Red tape are quite fast, taking the road which is now flat and monotonous. is still daylight when we stopped at a campsite about 60 km from Istanbul. And so we have the first real impact with the Turkish language