I got a good start out of Tevan. It was crisp so I had 5 layers on but needed another so the raincoat that will not fit over 5 layers I put on backwards. It worked.
As usual the landscape is dramatic. High ranges, villages, spectacular views, rivers, and a most unusual sight as I crossed a bridge. I was cold but there in the river bed were people washing carpets. It was an astonishing sight. How they could work in water that must be close to freezing was truly impressive.
We do not know we are alive.
I was treated to boiled mutton for lunch, very greasy but very welcome as it was hot. The usual attendees watched me eat accompanied by the usual questions, where are you from, New Zealand, odd look and repeat, where are you from, Australia....Oh yes Australia thats godd do you like Turkey, ..yes, how old are you ?
The road was the same as well, the usual tractors, sheep goats, roadworks, very poor villages with some sadly substandard accommodation but as well today, the cold.
I could not understand how it could be so cold on flat plains but then realised they were 2000m above sea level.
As the city approached I could see snow on the hills, ice from last winter in some shaded gullies so yes it was cold.
The city is like most. Crowded, noisy, polluted, but unlike others was dark at 4pm. The call to the Mosque is made just the same, and I suspect it is done from a computer via a telephone line. Even the mosque is not safe from technology.
I have become used to the food so it must be time to move on although I sense a more arabic feel about the people, darker skin colour, and a sence of a different people, but Turkey is a big country with many races merging into one society.
I hope you see the carpet washing in sufficient detail, I was on a bridge, and the village was very isolated and poor.
nzl04
