Touring Turkey by camper

1 WITH THE CAMPER IN TURKEY By Antero and Mary 2 From 16 September to 1 November 2007

Most of Turkey, in our opinion, can be considered similar to any European country: the people, the roads, the scenery, the climate, the way of living in their own customs and habits are all similar to ours. Only in the east, near the border with Iraq, and in the south near the border with Iran and Syria (where the Kurdish people are, whom we found hospitable and warm) there is a lot of poverty and there are other customs. The population With the exception of those who live off tourism (Cappadocia docet, not very warm and very European), in general the population is all calm, friendly and very hospitable. Everywhere we felt safe and welcome, much more in the east and south than in the centre. We noticed a strong inequality both economic and political. The country seemed to us divided into two clear social categories. Many rich, very many poor.

(are we on the same road?) While in the north, west and centre there is prosperity, in the south of the country we noticed a great deal of poverty but always great dignity. In the east there is both prosperity and poverty (now they've found oil too) but there are political problems that weigh on the inhabitants of this part of Turkey. The cities The big cities are not just big: they are enormous. The hills around Istanbul are literally covered by hundreds of thousands of apartment blocks. We observed the same phenomenon in all the cities, even smaller ones, that we crossed. The coasts have suffered the same fate too. The Mediterranean coast is a succession of enormous barracks-like buildings; most of the Aegean coast has hills overlooking wonderful bays completely covered by hundreds of identical little villas. The roads The access roads to the cities are very wide and lined with trees.

Turkey is making giant strides in building infrastructure. The whole nation can be reached via a capillary and well-maintained road network; the roads are being renovated and widened, there are building sites everywhere. Signage is scarce; if needed, you have to bear in mind that it's difficult to get directions from the Turks, both because of their modest knowledge of foreign languages and because of our ignorance of Turkish. Shopping Prices are 30% lower than ours, but everything changes in the tourist areas, where prices are higher than those charged at home. Going to a restaurant means bearing a cost equal to or higher than what you bear in Italy, if we decide to eat European-style (chairs, cutlery, wine, dessert fruit etc.). If we eat their products, we spend little but we have to give up wine (it costs on average €7-10 a bottle).

Tourism by camper The Turks were nomads; for them hospitality is sacred. The campsites, in theory many, in reality few, are expensive in relation to the cost of living and the quality of the services offered; in fact only some have usable sanitary facilities, and most are simply plots of land. Most campsites are in the north, on the Black Sea coast, in Cappadocia and on the Aegean coast, but the tourist season ends on 15/9; most campsites, being seasonal, close and only a few year-round campsites stay open, and these can be counted on the fingers of one hand. No problem for safety: the police (jandarma) are omnipresent, the people are calm 4 and hospitable. You can spend the night anywhere; in the absence or near-absence of campsites you can use the otopark (car parks) found in all villages, towns and cities.

Emptying can be done at any petrol station (by asking); for filling up with water there are no problems, along the roads there are taps with drinking water everywhere. 5 CASTIGLION FIBOCCHI 16 September 2007 We set off early from home, after saying goodbye to our children and grandchildren. We head towards Ancona, where we arrive at one o'clock. A quick lunch and then straight to check-in, because at four o'clock sharp the ship that takes us to Greece sets sail. We spend the afternoon admiring from the ship's deck the coast receding and the sea becoming ever bluer. In the evening we have dinner in the camper, then a nice walk under the stars and, once night has fallen, we go to sleep in our camper. 17/9 Monday Punctually the next morning at seven we disembark at Igoumenitsa. A short pause for breakfast and then we head towards Kalambaka to visit "Meteora" (the Monasteries).

We leave the port of Igoumenitsa using the motorway, which is however still under completion. So we climb up through the mountains admiring beautiful landscapes. We stop at Metsovo, a small mountain village, where people still wear the characteristic Greek costume; unfortunately to reach the centre of the village there's a single road, so narrow that two vehicles meeting have to manoeuvre. We, having come down with the camper, find ourselves in difficulty..... so much so that, in the middle of the village, we can no longer go forward because of the very narrow road. So we're forced to reverse until, having reached an open space, we can turn the camper around and take the road again to get out of the village. Anyway, what we saw passing through pleased us very much; it's very characteristic, it looks like a little Alpine village.

It's full of small shops, where wood artisans make and sell their products. We set off again, we arrive at Kalambaka; what a marvel! Huge rocks rise up before us, scattered here and there, and on each of them the monks have built a Monastery. It's hard to describe the emotion you feel standing with your eyes turned upwards to see the sinuous outlines of the Monasteries. We spend the afternoon visiting all the monasteries. We are lucky; now there are roads leading to the top of each rock, but we think back to when, in ancient times, the only way of access to the monastery consisted of a net hauled up by the hermits with pulleys. It was the only means available to bring up men or goods! We stop at the campsite in Kalambaka. 6 18/9 Tuesday Early in the morning we set off for Asprovalta.

We pass Larissa, Mount Olympus (covered by high clouds), Leptokaria, Katerini, then Thessaloniki until we reach our destination. The road at first is still mountainous and at the roadside you can see little chapel-shaped shrines. We find lots and lots of works in progress, both to widen the roads and to finish the motorway, which we soon take to reach Thessaloniki. We cross the big city, we drive along the seafront until we reach the international Campsite of Asprovalta, where we spend the last hours of sunshine and the night. 19/9 Wednesday We approach the border with Turkey. It's all motorway. We go to Amphipolis to see the great Lion, then to Philippi, a famous archaeological site where we spend the whole day, and only towards evening do we reach Alexandroupolis, where we stop for the night.

20/9 Thursday After only 40 km we reach the frontier, we cross the Greek one and then enter the customs post of Ipsala in Turkey. The bureaucratic formalities are fairly quick; we take the road again, which is now flat and monotonous. It's still daylight when we stop at a campsite about 60 km from Istanbul. And so we have our first real encounter with the Turkish language