Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Day 8 - Northern Turkey

Before we get started, a quick review of Hotel Ipek, Erzerum;

Facilities - Difficult to asses. 
I never came across any.
Location - 3 kebabs
But then I picked it for the location
Hospitality - 2 kebabs
He tried bless him and his English was fractionally better than my Turkish. I wouldn't describe him as warm though.
Comfort - 1 kebab
It had a bed.
Cleanliness - 1 kebab
The sheets looked clean. I may well have picked up Ebola from the rest of the room though. 
Overall - 2 kebabs
Only on the basis that I expect to stay in worse. 

Morning prayer is quite something isn't it? I ought to learn more about this Allah chappie. He must be quite important if one has to get up at 4.45am every morning and shout ones devotion to him. 

Looooong day on the road today with 2 coaches to Batumi in Georgia. The border crossing into Georgia was... interesting. Had my passport taken away for an anxious ten minutes before being allowed in. Was then offered a clutch of fresh and minty passports by someone on the other side (he didn't look like a Consul to me). I declined. I did get the feeling that I'd just entered the Wild West. I suppose most border crossings are a bit hectic. 
Climbed over a mountain range in Central Turkey during the day which was quite beautiful. 
I'm not sure that train station food is quite the deep dive into local cuisine that I imagined. Cheesy Doritos taste much the same here as they do at home. A few forays into the local stuff has given me a taster though and I've been more than pleasantly surprised by Turkey on that score (their wagon wheels are quite excellent). Georgian food I have yet to sample. 

Some Turkish mountains



Some women


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