Metapictures - the kung-fourist-mantis

Metapictures - Cappadocia, Turkey

Travel statistics - the series

The "travel statistics" will be a series of posts we intend to update during the trip. It will basically consist of the most thoroughly collected and relevant data about the world and our interactions with it. These posts will provide think tanks, research companies, governments and our mothers with a plethora of inputs for their data bases, a humble but valorous contribution from two engineers on the road.

Downloads of Access files will be available in the future (at a modest price).

So here goes a draft of some figures:

Days on the road: 89

Countries visited: 9

Number of countries where we saw Bolivians playing El-Condor-Pasa-like songs: 6
Number of countries where we heard Michel Teló and/or Gustavo Lima: 8 (in Israel we have not had the pleasure of listening to these masterpieces, but a friend did, many times)

Number of different types of beer we tasted: 108 (+1 tonight)

Days sick (sum of both of us): 0

Number of people we met who knew The Devil Makes Three: 2
Number of people we met who were doing round-the-world trips (or similar): 6
Number of words we learned in written Hebrew and Arabic: 0 

Will to stop travelling and start working (0 to 10 scale): 0

Leaving some deep quantitative knowledge for the future generations (Wadi Rum, Jordan).

Turkey - Istanbul

The surreal and the crescent

After a while in Industrieland Germany we finally arrived in Istanbul on October 9th, our first stop in Turkey. First impressions were the weird characters on signs and the traffic that was able to surprise a couple from São Paulo.

The former Constantinople is a beautiful city encrusted with mosques and full of people of all (actually most) kinds, a picturesque meeting point between West and East. Uncountable handleless cups of tea rush among people, calls to prayer give the city a ubiquitous musicality (and prevent you from hearing any other sound while they last), cars stop at crossroads, cats secretly have absolute majority in  Parliament, leeches are cheap, alcohol is not and kebabs/falafels/Turkish delights (all hail) keep people alive.

Sun eclipsed by mosques (Istanbul).

This was our first time in a place where most people are Muslims. That really made an impression, though many Turks consider Istanbul the most western Muslim city.

Terrace at Harmony Hostel, definitely recommended (Istanbul).

In Istanbul we did couchsurfing on the first couple of nights and stayed at a hostel after that (Harmony Hostel), both experiences were great. Of the sites visited, the expensive Topkapi palace and the famous Blue Mosque were highlights. Street markets were also quite interesting (and packed with cats).

Mutant pomegranates and regular oranges (Istanbul).

Fatih mosque (Istanbul).

After 4 days of mosques, cisterns, islands and the Frankenstein Hagia Sophia, Livia learned how to say thank you in Turkish and we moved on to Ephesus with an overnight bus.

------------------------------------- Oh, the overnight buses in Turkey -----------------------------------

Overnight buses in Turkey are peculiar. Most have Wi-Fi, 3 employees inside (driver included), entertainment systems (in Turkish), cake and tea, but no toilets. Though they are overnight, they are not meant for sleeping. Lights go on a lot and stopping in frequent, both in gas stations/stores and in middles-of-nowhere where people just hop on/off.

We were served tea at 3 AM....

... and the tea was good.

Awake like walking deads, we even thought about the economics of not having a toilet (and thus adding 4 seats), but having 3 people working per vehicle - it seems to make sense operating like that as occupation rates seem pretty high.

Anyway, as Voltaire used to say:
Take the night bus from Istanbul to the Blue Coast or Cappadocia and thou shalt feel like shit on the day after.

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Later we will post about the Blue Coast and Cappadoccia, probably the highlights of Turkey.