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Sunday and Monday, October 9 and 10, 2005 - Walking to the Ghost Town of Kayakoy, Hitchhiking Back to Fethiye, Meeting the "Widowed" Dolphi, Benny's Thoughts as we Approach the West


Sunday, October 9 Our Lonely Planet said that it would take us one and a half hour to walk to Kayakoy. It took much longer, about 2.5 hours and it was a pretty strenuous road, up the mountain and than all the way down, and than up again to reach the ghost town of Kayakoy. On the way up we met Alison Young from Scotland, who is traveling alone. She wanted to know "how come when so many people do Aliya to Israel, we live outside of Israel..."Well, we stood up on the mountain and had a long discussion, where both Benny and I admitted, that no matter how far we travel from Israel and how comfortable we are in the states, we are forever Israelis.

Kayakoy. The reason we were interested to see the place is because it has a very tragic story. After the Turkish republic was established (1923), There was an organized ethnic cleansing, ethnic Greeks in Turkey and ethnic Turks in Greek were forced to leave their ancestral homes and move to their respective ethnic nation-states (1934). The people of Kayakoy, or as it was called, Levissi, were mostly Orthodox Christians, moved to the outskirts of Athens and founded Nea Levissi there. As there were far more Ottoman Greeks that Greek Muslims, many of the Turkish towns were left unoccupied after the exchange of populations. Kayakoy, as it is called now, has only a handful of Turkish inhabitants. There are about 2000 deserted stone houses with two churches; both retain some of their painted decoration and black and white pebble mosaic floors. It is the subject of the movie "Birds Without Wings".

It was a strange feeling walking thought the streets, homes, looking into kitchen with nicely carved stoves, all deserted. I imagined the place full of life, with children running up and down the stone alleys.

We started the climb up, back to Fethiye, each one tried to be a hero. But we knew that it is going to be a long way. A car passed by, Benny lifted his hand and they stopped for us. We actually hitchhiked!!! The nice Turkish couple that spoke no English gave us a ride back to our pension.

We had another home-cooked meal at Tan Pension in the company of a young couple from Slovenia, a young Korean boy and a new guest, Dolphi, from London. She is 68 and traveling alone with her backpack!

Monday, October 10

I woke up to the sound of drums. Reminding people to wake up and eat before the sunrise. In the evening, there is a canon fire to announce the end of the fast for the day.

The young couple from Slovenia is packed, ready to move on. They told us that Slovenia is a very small country, only 2 million people. There are many more older people in comparison to younger ones because people do not have more than two children. People used to retire at 55, now they changed the law and people are working to the age of 63. Education is free. "You have to be very lazy not to go to a university". He is studying computer science and she studies farm animals.

Dolphi is joining us. She only drinks black coffee for breakfast. Born in Holland, she moved to London. She was born in 1938; she suffers from Rheumatic arthritis (don't know the spelling), but still carries a backpack and travels by herself. She survives on painkillers and other medications. She amused me; she said that for the purpose of her trip, she invented a husband and family.

When people ask her, "how come you travel alone?” it is easier to say, "my husband died", than to say that she was never married.

Dolphi is leaving today for Kabak. She is going to walk part of the Lycian Way that goes from Kabak to Antalya. We walked part of it on our way from Olympus to Chimaera. I checked in my book to find that Kabak is a favorite with yoga devotees. Dolphi recommended some good reading from a popular Turkish author. Orhan Pamuk.

Walking down the street we passed an old amphitheater and the status commanding the brave pilot who gave the city its name.

Tomorrow we are heading to Pamukkale.

Benny wrote this report:

October 10, 2005

We left home on August 25, and we are now into our sixth week in Turkey. As we sat with ourselves, it is only the beginning of a very long trip in which we plan to go around the world, visiting as many countries as we can. Neither of us have ever done this before, traveling on a low budget, with two backpacks, using public transportation and preparing and eating our own food.

Traveling this way is a new experience for both of only time and us will tell if it will endure, but so far, it is everything that we expected and more. There are different ways to travel and see the world. You can do it with a tent or you can travel from Hilton to Hilton. In each way you see the country you are visiting from a different angel. We enjoy the way we are doing it since we have the opportunity to meet and be involved with people of all walks of life in the country we are visiting, as well as the opportunity to meet a lot of travelers, like us, from other countries, exchange information and get different impressions of the different sites from their point of view. We met a 47 years old banker from Germany that was a theologist in his early years. It was very interesting to discuss with him history and religious of the area, as well as a candid discussion on the mental state of the Germans and their feelings as a result of the Holocaust.

As I mention above, we are in our sixth week in Turkey and we have an amazing time. It is an eye opener for us since we did not know much about the country and really did not have much time to read or prepare. We are learning as we go.

Turkey is a large country with about 80 million people. This is a country that is trying to transform itself from the old and Eastern traditions to modern westernized and capitalistic society. The transition is obvious and you can see it everywhere you go. Perhaps the change is too fast were most people cannot catch-up. Old and new is mixed together. For example, we were in a pension where the kitchen was just a bare room with a concrete floor, no furniture no appliances, (excluding an old refrigerator), and the host couple were sleeping on the floor in an open area without any privacy but the guest room had air condition and the common area had a TV and a DVD/VCR player. Our host also had a car, an old one, but still in a good running condition.

I should mention that the public transportation system in Turkey is excellent, comfortable, quite efficient and very reasonably priced.

The history of Turkey and the Middle East is being revealed to us through the archaeological sites that we visited. There are many sites in Turkey that need to be excavated and preserved. Actually, it is endless. A German man in Goreme took us to very old churches, over 1000 years old, that the authorities do not know about. The locals are using them as storage spaces and do not want them to be discovered.

Only about one month ago, the authorities opened a new site near Urfa that is 5000 years older than any other known civilization. Unfortunately, we heard about this only after we had already left Urfa.

Turkey has a great appetite for the new and the modern. But since progress is too fast, there are some problems that come with that reality. You can see major improvements in some areas, like parks, streets, street lighting etc, but the finish is sometimes crud and you and can tell that this is not a money related issue. You also can tell that when a project was budgeted, no one thought of budgeting for maintenance, therefore, beautiful improvements are deteriorating fast.

Turkey is a great country and we are watching it in its progress. We are traveling form east to west from the old and traditional and you can see the influence of the modern world as you go west.

One thing is very common in Turkey. The people are very warm and helpful. We feel safe walking everywhere, day and night, in the middle of town or in the wilderness. The Turkish people are very warm and inviting. Even when they do not speak English, they will try and help.

We were shopping in an open market and passed a cart with plums. The merchant offered two plums each. I refused to accept the free plums and instead, took a pound of plums and put on the scale. The Turkish man refused money and we were going back and forth, only motioning with our hands, since he spoke no English, he would not let us pay.

Every day we have great experiences that require books to describe. We are thankful to Amnon for creating and managing our website for us.

My only wish is that the Turks will smoke less. Every male Turk is smoking and some of the women too. There are no restrictions for smoking and no area dedicated for none smokers; it does not make any difference how small is the room you are in. The pollution from cars and motorcycles is terrible and we choke here everywhere we go. This is still a subject that needs a major improvement.

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