Travelling to Iraq: ''Iraq....you are crazy, you have a deathwish or something?''

I look on the clock, six pm already. The low sun burns the left side of my face, we are driving north. I stared out of my window, looking at a landscape I had been looking at for the past week. Dry, sandy hills lying under a blue sky which seems to be always cloudless. Suddenly, I was focussed on the road again. The driver slowed down and stopped behind a row of cars. An old Toyota van with a numberplate in Arabic was waiting in front our BMW. Slowly we moved to the front of the que. A man wearing a greenly camouflaged suit walked towards our car, he had a dark skin and a big mustache. I saw a Kalashnikov hanging over his left shoulder. He puts his head in the window of our old BMW, his eyes going carefully through all the passengers in the car. His hand points at me and he said something in a language I don't know. 'Hollanda', I said, figuring he asked for my nationality which usually is their first concern, I gave him my passport. He made a sign I should step out of the car. One of the other passengers followed me to the office and said he would translate for me, as he knows some English. The Peshmerga (local name of the military forces) flicks through my passport. He asks: 'why are you here?' 'Tourist', I replied him. He nods and continued searching my visas. Than his hand stops moving and he shows me the sixth page of my passport. He asked: 'you have been to Iran?' 'Yes', I said with a question tone in my voice. 'Why you have been to Iran?', he asks emotionless. 'Same reason, tourism', I said with confidence. And than he gave me the answer I was waiting for: 'Ok mister, that's all'.

I step back into the car and the driver accelerates quickly to 120km/h. Within an hour I arrive at the destination I payed him for: Ibrahim Khalil. Ibrahim Khalil is different than other border crossings. It is a heavily fortified maze of roads, checkpoints, Turkish trucks, army vehicles and fences. The border separates two states, but at the same time, it divides one nation. Ibrahim Khalil divides the biggest nation in the world without a state. And all thought on the southern side of the border the splitted nation, the Kurds, control their lands, have their own government and their own military forces (Peshmerga) I felt strange crossing a border which shouldn't be there. I was traveling to the northern side, to a country which is considered to be safe, a country without terrorism, a fully functioning democracy, a country completely different than the one I just came from. I was crossing into Turkey. In total I had to wait 6 hours to be on Turkish ground again, the reason is an amazingly slow and extensive car-search on the Turkish side. Also I had to wait for a taxi across the border to fill up. I wasn't complaining though, as I managed to get the taxi for free. Also I spoke to a friendly Turkish guy who has been living in Germany and he invited me for a diner. Two hours after, I was standing on a bridge. The bridge connects the two countries and is considered no-mans-land. The bridge was full of cars, one row for passengercars, the other row for trucks. Slowly our taxi moved to the front of the row. It was almost midnight, still four cars in front of us. I look up to the sky, full moon.

Finally, we were able to drive further. Our car was searched by the Turkish military. They searched everything, the spare wheel, they looked into the engine, we had to unscrew everything unscrewable in the car. It took almost half an hour before we were able to drive on. I wandered why the hell they are unscrewing everything; for drugs or weapons, they can use dogs, can't they? After the searching everything went fast, I got my Turkish entry-stamp and before I know we are driving towards Silopi, the first town in Turkey. On the way the driver gave me back my passport and I look at all the visas and stamps I collected. Then suddenly I start to believe what country I just came from, I realize I had been traveling in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. I realize I have been to Iraq.

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One week earlier: 20/08, Diyarbakir, Turkey.

It is 6.30 am in the morning, I open my eyes. I see people walking in front of me and I hear the sound of cars. I am still tired and my back hurts, the price I payed to sleep on a bench in Diyarbakirs bus station. I took my bags and walked into a cafe for coffee. I sat there for an hour or so, still waking up from the painful night. Two cups of Turkish coffee later, I walked out of the station and catched a bus to the center. I walked a bit and stepped into the Balkar Hotel, this was the place where I was supposed to meet Edward, an Irish guy who was also traveling to northern Iraq. I made the receptionist call his room and a couple of minutes later I met him in the lobby. We talked a bit, had breakfast, a quick lunch and we sat in a bus towards Silopi, a Turkish town 15km from the border with Iraq. Like with all Irish people I've met, I had to get used to the accent, all thought Ed's accent isn't very strong. During the bus journey we talked more about our destination and the difficulties we might approach. The Kurdish region in Iraq is supposed to be perfectly safe, the mean difficulty is that we didn't had information on the area, as no one is crazy enough to write a guidebook for Iraq. We drove for about 100km past the Syrian border before we arrived in Silopi. I was full of excitement, I was 15km away from traveling into a country most people only know from carbombs, chemical weapons, sectarian violence or a crazy dictator with a big mustache. We went into an internetcafe to find more information on Iraqi Kurdistan, used the ATM and chartered a taxi to take us across the border. There was lots of paperwork involved for our crossing into Iraq, but after about an hour we sat in a small building on the Iraqi side. The borderguards asked us a couple of simple questions and gave us free tea. Soon after we said goodbye to our driver and hired another taxi to the first city in Iraq: Dohuk. In Dohuk we found a place to stay, a small hotel with very helpful and funny staff. As we were almost starving, we had an amazing diner directly after. The owner of the restaurant sat on our table as well and we talked quite a bit with the friendly man.

Next day started with coffee and some hanging in the hotel. We enjoyed kebab for breakfast in the same restaurant we ate the day before and I walked a bit over Dohuk's bazaar after. The city is very busy, with hordes of people and too much cars on the roads. It has a nice atmosphere and made a good introduction for Iraq. But soon after we moved on, to the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Arbil (aka Hawler). The guy controlling the car, drove like a maniac, making dangerous curves and seldom driving slower than 100km/h. Seatbelts he only wears when a policecheckpoint is ahead. Speaking about checkpoints, the roads controlled by the Kurdish forces are full of checkpoints. During our two hour journey we passed at least 8 checkpoints. Usually the driver waves at the soldiers and we can move on, but occasionally they ask for our passports and we answered a couple of simple questions. When we were halfway, things started to become a bit dodgy, because we saw Iraqi flags weaving above housing instead of the usual red-white-green Kurdish flags. We left the Kurdish territories for a couple of kilometers and drove through the Iraqi controlled land, 15km outside of the extremely dangerous city Mosul. But luckily, before we knew we saw the Kurdish flags again and continued our journey to Arbil.

Arbil is quite an amazing place, it is a huge city and even busier than Dohuk. There is a big citadel overlooking the city on top of a hill and we slept in a hotel next to the chaotic bazaar. Like elsewhere in the country, it was extremely hot in Arbil, with temperatures rising as high as 47 Celsius. Probably the heat has been one of the reasons why Ed became sick, he had stomach problems the first day in Arbil. I bought some stuff for him on the bazaar and went out by myself after. Strangely enough, all the shops were starting to close at about 9pm already, totally different than Dohuk, which was very lively even after midnight. So it took me a while to find a place to eat. I had some sandwiches with meat and went to an internetcafe after. By the time I walked out of the internet, around 11pm, the atmosphere in the city was rather dodgy. There was absolutely nobody walking the streets and everything looked pretty empty. Also one guy scared the shit out of me. When I walked out of the internet there were two guys standing at the exit of the cafe. One of them, an old man selling cigarettes and wearing old clothes, he was holding an AK-47. I was used to seeing a lot of kalashnikovs due to the many checkpoints on the road, but the fact that a guy who sells cigarettes caries an AK with him, made me feel a bit afraid. I said 'Salam Aleykum' and didn't had problems with him, but I quickly walked back to the hotel and didn't feel like making an evening stroll in the city that night.

At 10 o'clock the morning after, Ed decided to travel back to Turkey as his sickness started to become worse. We relaxed a bit and I joined him to the taxi-stand after. When he left for Silopi, I walked to the big mosque of Arbil. The 10 minute walk was pretty hard, because there was no shade on my route and the hot wind and fierce sun burned on my head. I tried to remember the heat I experienced in Iran the year before, I couldn't believe it was hotter overthere, it must have been at least 48C that day in Arbil. The mosque was quite nice, but I didn't stay long, I fled into an internetcafe soon after. Later that afternoon, when the city cooled a bit down, I hiked up the citadel. To my surprise, I was called over by a Pesha when I tried to enter the historical site. He body-searched me, asked me lots of questions and wanted to see my passport. At first he didn't want to let me in, but gave me a go after. So I walked into the citadel and within 10 seconds, a couple of other soldiers called me over and I had to answer their questions. They said I wasn't allowed in the citadel, only the two small museums. So I did what they told me and I walked into the museum. The museum shows some traditional Kurdish carpets, but besides the old stuff, there was a guy in a camouflaged suit holding a huge gun inside the museum. When I walked out of the museum, a couple of other soldiers again asked me questions and told me I wasn't allowed to see more of the citadel. It seemed there is some kind of armybase up there, as it was full of soldiers and army vehicles, and the strict security of course. Walking out of the citadel the soldier which spoke to me first wanted to see all the pictures I made, which I showed him. After I walked down to the bazaar. It really is a pity I haven't seen the citadel, because it is one of the oldest in the world. Some people told me Arbil is the longest inhabited place on the planet, it had been a city for over 5000 years. Back down I strolled over the hectic bazaar and I spoke a bit with a UN-soldier from the Fiji-islands. In the evening I met the two guys I shared the room with, a Kurd from Sulaymaniyah and an Arab from Basra. We watched some Hollywood B-movies on the satellite-tv before I went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up, my hair wet of sweat; the airconditioner was turned of in the night. I made myself some coffee and did some reading. In the afternoon I went to the 'Suly-garage' for a shared taxi to As Sulaymaniyah. The friendly driver spoke some English and we set of for As Sulaymaniyah (aka Slemani or just Suly) quickly. The journey was pleasant and we drove for 200km through the desert. Again the road was filled with several checkpoints. Halfway, I started to become quite nervous. We drove into Arab territory and into one of the most dangerous cities on earth: Kirkuk. The driver told me it isn't problem and that the Kurds control the roads, but driving in the suburbs of Kirkuk really gave me some dodgy feelings. We didn't had problems though and when the driver waved the last Iraqi checkpoint farewell, we were back on Kurdish territory. We stopped for a while in a roadside restaurant and an hour later, I was in Slemani. Like the other Kurdish cities, also Suly is hectic, a truly Middle Eastern city. I found a hotel and met some friendly guys overthere. The two guys are both named Ali, one coming from Baghdad, the other from Kirkuk. They work as tolks for the American army and were enjoying vacation in Slemani. The stories they shared with me were more than amazing. One of them had been kidnapped, the other one was also close to death as he was in the middle of a shooting incident. Their work can be called extremely dangerous and I listened to their anecdotes with much respect. We watched a bit of tv together and I went to sleep soon after. Again I had a satellite tv on my room, with as many as 1405 channels (!), unfortunately most of them were in languages I don't speak and strangely enough most channels are Italian, but also Sudan TV, Indian Karaoke TV, Vietnam TV, CCTV (China) and many others.

When I walked down to the hotel lobby the morning after, I met a man named Ayob. I talked a bit with him and he invited me for breakfast. Later on I met the Ali's again and we strolled over the huge bazaar. Much more I haven't done that day actually. I went back to my room early and washed my stinky clothes sindarella-style. With an Italian musicchannel on the background, I read a couple of chapters of my book and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I looked on my mobilephone and blamed myself for sleeping so long again. It was almost noon already. Quickly I got dressed and made myself some nescafe. I went into a small restaurant for falafel and walked towards the suburbs of Slemani. After asking several people, I found the place I was looking for: Amna Suraca (also called Red Prison). It is a museum about the horrors from the Saddam regime in Kurdistan. I was able to join a free tour with a couple of other Kurdish people. They showed me the prisoncells and the ways of torturing. The prison has an empty atmosphere and I could see some bulletholes in the buildings. Outside of the building, some tanks and artillery stuff were showed. The guide told us the tanks are still working and we were allowed to play a bit with the warstuff. I made some fun pictures on the tanks and thanked the guide after. The tour was free and I walked back to the citycentre. In a country as hot as Iraq, it feels like someone is blowing with a hairdryer in your face all the time and I went into a small cafe to escape the heat for a while. I continued my stroll back to the hotel and had kebab in a good restaurant after. The overweighted and friendly owner welcomed me into his restaurant and asked me if I could speak German. 'Ein bischen', I said and I had a long conversation with him in my broken German after. For some reason, he kept thinking I was coming from Greece as he asked questions about the weather in Athens and kept talking about Greek passports. He gave me a big discount on the diner and three cups of tea. Back in the hotel I did the same as the night before and went to sleep late.

The next day, I went back to Arbil. Again I was pretty nervous about crossing through Kirkuks suburbs, but like the first journey through Kirkuk, I also didn't have problems this time. After Kirkuk the driver did something unusual, he drove slowly and wasn't overtaking cars anymore. Strangely, the other cars were doing the same and the cars coming from the other side all stopped on the site of the road for a while. Soon I realized what was going on: we were driving behind an army convoy. Ahead of us, I could see three camouflaged hummers with artillery on top. I wandered under which flag they were driving, but up until now, that stays a mystery. When we arrived at the next Checkpoint, the convoy turned left and the driver was free to go crazy again. During the way, I had been questioned twice at the checkpoints, which caused some delay. Back in Arbil I went to the same hotel again and shared the room with three Arabs. One of them was the same man I met before, a friendly guy from Basra. I watched some B-movies with them again and went to sleep.

My last day in Iraqi Kurdistan, I woke up late, had kebab for breakfast and went back to my hotel. For quite a while, I had been talking with the Arab man from Basra. He told me how much he hated people with extreme ideas about religion and he showed me pictures on his mobilephone about his work. He works as a blacksmith and he teaches Arabic language to small children. After an hour or so, I said him farewell and walked to the taxistand. I chartered a taxi to Ibrahim Khalil. The ride was nice and relaxing and at about 7pm I arrived at the border. Around midnight I finally finished all the paperwork and carsearching and the taxidriver brought me to a hotel in Silopi named the Habur Hotel. I asked the reception to call room number 204. Within 5 minutes an Irish guy walked down the stairs. I was talking with Ed about my journey in Iraq for a while and gave him a small present I bought for him in Arbil: an old Iraqi banknote with Saddam Hossein on it. When I asked the reception about the roomprices, I figured I didn't want to stay there as it was quite pricey. I showed him my sleepingbag and pointed at the floor of the lobby. 'Ok, no problem mister' he said. I slept on the floor of the hotellobby for free!

While I was lying on the hard floor, I thought back of my journey in Iraq. Most people I spoke to before I went into Iraq told me I am crazy. They see pictures in their eyes about war, sectarian violence and danger. Big media companies show us the violent part of Iraq, they show us images of death people, carbombs and army presence. But as allways, media is something we shouldn't fully rely on; if you know what you are doing and stick to the safe areas controlled my the Kurds, travelling in Iraq is as safe as travelling in Turkey. The Kurds are amazingly friendly people and, besides a couple of moments, I felt perfectly safe and had a great time exploring a truly Middle Eastern country.

Out of the Caucasus, into the Middle East

From the Georgian town Ninotsminda, I tried to hitchhike towards the main coastal city Batumi. But as hitchhiking goes, sometimes your lucky, and sometimes your not. This time, I had to wait about an hour for a car to pick me up. The guy brought me a couple of kilometres further and soon after, a second lift took me to Akhalkalaki. In this small town I walked into a cafe for khachapuri. And within 30 seconds in the cafe, I was invited by some Armenians to join their breakfast and a bottle of vodka. I talked a bit with them and did some vodka-toasting, before I headed to the marshrutka stand. I decided to continue by public transport as I was in the middle of a town and planned to travel far that day. I took the marshrutka to a place called Khertvisi, in other to see the amazingly beautifull fortress overthere. The fortress is one of the oldest remaining fortresses in Georgia and has a spectacular location. I walked around there for an hour or so and continued my journey towards Batumi. Unfortunately, the road was pretty much empty and as I didn't managed to stop a car until 3pm that afternoon, I ended up taking a marshrutka again. The marshrutka brought me to a provincial town named Akhaltsikhe, where I decided to spend the night. I found a cheap place for 5 lari ($3), dropped my luggage and had Adjarian khachapuri for diner in a small cafe with a really friendly owner.

The next day, I took a marshrutka throught the autonomous region of Adjara, until the coastal city Batumi. The road was in a pretty bad condition, which caused that the journey was long and painfull. The scenery was very nice though and it seemed like the area is inhabited by some kind of Amish people. The way of living is very primitive and when three local women entered the marshrutka, they seemed like they had never been in a car before. Stepping out of the marshrutka five hours later in Batumi, I had to get used to the solid ground again. I walked a bit and found a place to stay. Soon after I went to the city-centre and walked around. Batumi is quite a nice city, it has a subtropical climate and it is the main domestic tourist destination of the country. Full of palmtrees, beaches, expensive cars and a relaxed atmosphere, I was happy to stay there for a couple of days. I haven't done much though, I used the internet quite some time, enjoyed numerous khachapuri and coffee and did some walking. Also I was supposed to meet some girls from Tbilisi who went to Batumi for a month or so, but I haven't seen them more than 5 minutes. So as I didn't spend time with them and also because I haven't met any other travellers, I felt a bit lonely after a while.

My lonelyness was the main reason I left Batumi after two days for Turkey. I took a marshrutka to Sarpi, which is at the border and after an easy bordercrossing I was in Turkey. The border is heavily fortified, with fences all over the place and it is full of Turkish trucks. As the only form of public transport from the Turkish side is a taxi to nearby Hopa, I decided to hitchhike. After changing money, kebab and coke, I walked to the main road. Within a minute I pulled out my thumb, a big truck stopped for me and brought me to Hopa. From Hopa I had a second lift to a small town in a beautifull valley and soon after a third ride to a mid-sized town named Artvin. The guy who picked me up had been living in Nantes, France, and I communicated with him in my basic French. He gave me lots of fruit and roasted corn on the way and in Artvin he found a cheap hotel for me, which he insisted on paying. Really an amazingly nice man. In the evening I enjoyed tasty lahmacun and went to sleep early. Around midnight that evening, I woke up because of Georgian prostitutes knokking on my door. I didn't open, because I knew they were working girls as I saw them in the hotel before.

The day after I had something else disturbing my sleep at 04.30am. My room had an open window and was next to the main mosque, so I woke up because of the morning prayer call. After sleeping a bit more, I started my journey towards to Iraq. Throught a travelforum I met an Irish guy, Edward, who was going to Iraq as well and we arranged to meet in the southern Turkish city Diyarbakir. So on that day, I travelled for over 700km from Artvin to Diyarbakir in two different bussus, as I had to change in Erzurum. In the second bus, from Erzurum to Diyarbakir, we were stopped by a militairy checkpoint somewhere halfway. Appearantly, it had something to do with the PKK, as I was entering Kurdish territories. I arrived on Diyarbakir's Otogar (busstation) 30 minutes past midnight and as the only way to get to the centre was by taking an expensive taxi, I decided to sleep on a bench in the busstation. The day after, I went into the republic of Iraq, but more on Iraq later on.

Welcome

Welcome on my weblog, here I share my travel experiences in Asia. Next summer I will start my trip to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and Iraq. I am planning to travel in that area in July and August, so I start posting from the beginning of July. My intented route is visible on the map. For pictures of my previous journeys in Asia, see http://community.webshots.com/user/mart87.
I hope you enjoy reading my experiences and anecdotes.

Asia 2006 (in DUTCH) - Iran

Ik zal het verhaal beginnen in Istanbul, vanwaar ik op de trein naar Iran stapte. De spoorlijn die loopt vanuit Istanbul naar Teheran wordt de TransAzieExpress genoemd en het koste me ruim 73 uur om vanuit Turkije in Iran te geraken. In de trein ontmoette ik 4 andere westerlingen, ook op weg naar Iran. 2 Duitsers, Felix en Jakob, en twee Belgen, Gregory en Eva.
Gedurende de treinrit zat ik praktisch de gehele dag in de restaurantwagon van de trein, wat te praten met de Duitsers en met wat Iraniers. De rit was echt schitterend, de trein was vrij lux (en goedkoop) en ik kon heel Turkije vanuit mijn raampje voorbij zien komen (waaronder Kayseri). Na een dag of twee arriveerde de trein bij een meer in Oost Turkije genaamd het Van meer. Aan de westerlijke oever van het meer stapte iedereen de trein uit en stapten we op een boot om het meer over te steken. Aan de oosterlijke oever zou een Iraanse trein op ons wachten en s avonds konden we de trein naar Teheran betreden. In de nacht die volgde passeerden we de Turks-Iraanse grens en vanaf die dag (5 augustus) was ik in Iran. De voorzetting van de treinreis door Iran was schitterend, de trein reed door dramatische berggebieden en over kale droge hoogvlakten. Behalve de uitzichten kon ik in de trein al wat over het land leren, ik heb met
ontzettend veel vriendelijke Iraniers over hun land gepraat en gediscusieerd en ik kon met hun hulp al wat Farsi (taal die in Iran gesproken wordt) leren. Uiteindelijk kwam ik rond middernacht aan in de hoofdstad Teheran en ik ging per taxi naar mijn kleine hotel. O ja, van de
conducteur in de Iraanse trein kreeg elke passagier een kadotje voor het reizen met de Iraanse spoorwegen: een blik tonijn....
De volgende dag had ik men eerste volle dag in Teheran en die dag dwaalde ik voor uren door de stad. Het was ontzettend warm, zon 43 graden, en in de stad was eigenlijk vrij weinig te zien. Teheran is een enorme metropool (ruim 12 miljoen inw.), is zeer druk en vervuild, en vrijwel alle gebouwen zijn lelijke betonnen blokken. Het verkeer in de stad is extreem chaotisch, ik heb geen enkel verkeerslicht gezien dat ook echt werkt, een straat oversteken is suicidaal te noemen en Iraniers rijden autos en motoren als gekken.
Nadat ik voor uren door de stad gelopen had was ik behoorlijk verdwaald, maar ik vond met de hulp van de Iraniers uiteindelijk mijn weg terug naar men hotel. De rest van de dag heb ik in het hotel gehangen, pratende met Iraniers en wat westerlingen. We vertelden verhalen en maakten wat grappen enzo. In de avond liep ik wat door een park, zoekende naar kebab, en ik werd door een aardige Iranier aangesproken en met hem dineerde ik. Zijn naam is Reza en de dag erna wou hij me wat rondleiden door de stad. Dus de tweede dag in Teheran ontmoette ik hem, we ontbeten en vervolgens liepen we samen door de stad. Ik bezocht de voormalige Amerikaanse
ambassade, die is vol geklad met anti-Israel en anit-USA leuzen en beschilderingen. 'We will make America face a severe defeat', 'down with Israel', beschilderingen van het vrijheidsbeeld met een doodshoofd en hezbollah vlaggen zijn daar te zien. Er lagen bij de ingang van de
voormalige ambassade ook vlaggen van de VS en Israel op de grond, zodat als je het gebouw binnen wou gaan je over de vlaggen moest lopen. Toen ik per metro terug ging naar mijn hotel liep ik helemaal naar de voorkant van het het perron, omdat het druk was achterin. Maar toen ik de metro instapte keek ik om mij heen en ik zag alleen maar vrouwen... Allemaal gekleed in chadors (zwarte gewaden die alles bedekken behalve het gezicht en de handen). Het bleek dus dat metrowagons in Iran gescheiden zijn, hetzelfde wordt gedaan in bussen (mannen voorin, vrouwen achterin). In de metro werd ik raar aangekeken, maar niemand zei iets.
Eenmaal terug in het hotel deed ik hetzelfde als de dag ervoor, niet echt veel. Wat met de Iraniers praten, wat cay (thee) drinken en ik heb men was gedaan. Ook ontmoette ik daar een jonge Belg en een Italiaan, waarmee ik in de avond om ging.
De volgende dag ging ik smiddags per bus naar Kashan, een klein woestijnstadje zon 3 uur ten zuiden van de hoofdstad.

Asia 2006 (in DUTCH) - Eastern Europe and Turkey

Na een weekje in Duitsland en vijf dagen in Tsjechie vertrok ik op de 23ste juli per bus naar Budapest, hoofdstad van Hongarije. Budapest is vergelijkbaar met Praag, een centraal Europese stad met veel histrorie. In totaal bleef ik vier dagen in Budapest. De stad bestaat eigenlijk uit drie steden die tot elkaar gegroeid zijn, de grootste zijn Buda en Pest. De eerste twee dagen spendeerde ik vooral in Pest, waar men hostel zich ook bevond. De andere twee dagen liep ik vooral door Buda. In de stad ging ik vooral om met twee Amerikanen, Marc en Becky. We bezochten wat bezienswaardigheden in de stad, zoals het Kasteel van Buda, Heroes Square en een ondergronds labyrint. In de avond zijn we een paar keer naar een terrasbar geweest voor een Hongaars biertje.
De vierde en laatste dag in Budapest ging ik naar het treinstation om men ticket naar Sofia te kopen. Alleen het wachten op dat treinstation voor men ticket duurde in totaal bijna anderhalf uur, omdat de ticketverkoop nog op vrij primitieve wijze verloopt. Alle tickets worden nog uitgeschreven en er zijn geen computers op het station. Uiteindelijk had ik dan men ticket gekocht en die avond stapte ik in de TransBalkan expres trein naar Sofia, de hoofdstad van Bulgarije. De treinrit duurde bijna 30 uur, dit kwam met name door de trage grensovergangen tussen Hongarije - Roemenie en Roemenie - Bulgarije. Opvallend is dat de trein bijna helemaal leeg was, in mijn wagon zaten drie mensen (ik, de conducteur en een Ier). Het einde, dus de route door Bulgarije, was erg leuk, want het Bulgaarse landschap was erg mooi. En omdat de conducteur een Bulgaar is, vertelde hij veel over zijn land en over de treinroute enzo. Uiteindelijk kwam ik ‘s avonds laat aan in Sofia, ik verbleef in een klein hostel in de binnenstad.
Mijn kamer deelde ik met nogal vreemde types. Het waren drie Albanezen, waarvan een kwam uit Macedonie, een uit Kosovo en een uit Albanie zelf. En volgens mij werken deze Albanezen voor de lokale mafia. Ze waren ‘s nachts namelijk vaak weg, een van hen heb ik beide nachten helemaal niet gezien. En overdag sliepen ze, rookten ze tig sigaretten achter elkaar, spendeerden ze uren achtereen in het casino, of ze keken naar Bulgaarse pornofilms. Toen ik vroeg wat voor werk ze deden, zei een lachend: Boss Mafia. Heel apart allemaal... Overigens waren ze wel erg aardig, een van hen sprak vloeiend Duits en een ander vloeiend Frans, dus ik kon met hen praten. Ze gaven me ook wat voedsel, als in vers fruit en pindas enzo.
De stad Sofia is erg apart. Het heeft niet echt een centrum en het is echt een arme, voormalig communistische, hoofdstad. Er zijn wel ontzettend veel kerken (orthodoxe) in Sofia, vooral de Alexander Nevski kerk is erg mooi. In totaal bleef ik twee dagen in de Bulgaarse hoofdstad. Vanuit Sofia nam ik dan de trein naar Istanbul. In Sofia kwam de trein al drie en een half uur te laat aan (tis namelijk een trein vanuit Belgrado, Sofia is niet het beginpunt) en gedurende de reis liep de vertraging op tot in totaal ruim 6 uur. Dit kwam met name weer vanwege de slome grensovergang tussen Bulgarije en Turkije.
Maar sinds eergister ben ik dan in Istanbul. De stad is enorm, het heeft meer inwoners dan Nederland en is opgedeeld in een Europees en een Aziatisch deel. Ik verblijf in een goed hostel in de binnenstad (Sultanahmet) en het leuke aan het hostel is het dakterras met prachtig uitzicht over de Bosporus en de twee grote Moskeeen Aya Sofia en de Blauwe Moskee. De eerste dag in Istanbul heb ik niet echt veel gedaan, ik was nogal moe na de treinrit en door die vele vertraging was de dag ook al bijna voorbij. De tweede dag in Istanbul (gister) heb ik wel veel gedaan. Ik ben in beide grote Moskeeen geweest, heb een paar boottochten over de Bosporus gemaakt naar Azie en verder liep ik veel door de stad. De sfeer is heel oosters, hoewel sommige delen van Istanbul redelijk Europees zijn. Verder is de stad echt prachtig, naar mijn mening de mooiste plek waar ik tot nu toe geweest ben. Gisteravond heb ik met wat andere lui in het hostel een Turkse waterpijp geprobeerd en dronken we een paar biertjes. Vandaag heb ik uren lang over de Grand Bazaar gelopen, dit is een enorme Bazaar, heel druk ook daarbinnen. Maar de sfeer die daar heerst is echt heel goed, het voelt echt als een compleet andere wereld dan West Europa.
Zometeen ga ik een kebab tentje opzoeken en nog wat door de stad lopen. Vanavond ga ik dan per trein naar Iran. De volgende mail zal over ongeveer een week komen, mocht ik de eerste paar dagen in Iran overleven.

Asia 2006 - Route maps

My journey in Asia from July 2006 until January 2007.

Countries visited: the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, UAE, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand