we left for antakya, turkey in the afternoon of the 18th. just outside of aleppo, some sketchy sweaty guy hopped on our bus at a run (it didnt stop, only slowed a bit) with bags and bags of unknown stuff. julie, our trip leader, informed us that he was the alcohol smuggler who always rides this bus and tries to tell customs agents that the alcohol is ours. ok. it was a relatively easy process getting out of syria into the no man's land before the turkish border (there is always about 200m of no man's land in between borders here) although the official didnt believe my passport was actually mine and quizzed me for awhile. after this, julie took off with money and our passports to buy our turkish visas and i went to change money and go to the bathroom. when i got out, sketchy guy was yelling at me for my passport and money to hurry up and buy a visa (he was getting nervous about all that alcohol sitting in the van with all the bored customs agents around). marshall was there too and eventually the guy's yelling got the attention of a customs guy who then demanded our passports. didnt have them cause julie still did. he didnt speak english, we dont speak turkish and he was getting pissed. finally he just gave up and we went to get in the van with everyone else and it had already pulled through the border. we tried to get in it, but again attracted the attention of the customs guys and were questioned in turkish, still without our passports. FINALLY julie came back without our passports because no one would issue a visa without us being there in person. so we then ran back to the visa station because the bus driver was yelling at us because of the alcohol. finally it was all sorted and we left. the customs agents didnt even ask about the alcohol. sketchy sweaty smuggler guy was now sweating even more and STARING at me. i tried staring back at him but got creeped out and i think it encouraged him. i couldnt take it any longer so i asked loudly so the whole bus could hear "why are you looking at me?" he freaked out and was really awkward and embarrassed. haha i guess women dont normally call him out on his creepyness. he didnt look at me again for the rest of the ride. the scenery was really nice right over the border. finally some fall colors and that fall haze right at dusk. it looked alot like parts of england with farm fields and aheep and hills in the distance and little villages scattered throughout the valley. except there were minerets poking out of the trees instead of chruch steeples. Antakya is a really pretty city too. it is surrounded by pine covered, grey granite mountains and most of the buildings and houses have brown and red tile roofs. the ontes river ran through the middle of town. turkey appears to be much more westernized than anywhere we've been yet- women wore "western" clothes and i saw lots of angsty teenagers with dyed black hair and skinny jeans waiting for the bus. we now have to retire our meager arabic vocabulary for comparatively more difficult and long-winded turkish (thank you in arabic= shukran, in turkish=teshakuraduram). one, two, three, four is beer, icky, ooch, dirt in turkish.
this morning i woke up early for a nice run along the river and then we caught a bus at 8am for nigde (pronounced nid-eh) where i am now. the ride was long (7 hours!), but absolutely gorgeous. we got our first glimpses of fall colors as we have mostly been in desert until now. we passed ruined castles perched on rocky hills and granite mountains in the style of yosemite with little contorted pines growing on them at all angles. at one point there was even a silty little river which made us suspicious about potential glaciers somewhere. yep! a half hour later we came up over a pass to a grassy valley with a small river and poplars with the last yellow leaves. behind a few brown grassy foothills were huge snowy mountains. i freaked out when i saw them and yelled snow and all the turkish passengers glared at me. but they were spectacular! they looked a bit like the rockies i guess. and right then i was listening to mon's ipod and wagon wheel, one of my favorite songs, came on. mon and i sang along to that and stared at the mountains and were so happy to be in turkey! i tried to take some pictures but the bus windows made some awkward reflections. we passed the valley and turned towards nigde, which is much drier. there were lots of farms on the outskirts of town with little french-looking farmhouses among grape vines and lemon and fig trees. nigde itself isnt all that exciting, but it does have really good turkish delight (i have a headache right now because i ate too many) so thats a perk. before dinner we took a taxi out to an 11th century monastery cut out of caves with some really amazing frescoes and lots of cool, dark secret passages. we ran around there for awhile and then came back for dinner. tomorrow we head to the ilhara valley and then on to goreme in the cappadocia region.
