12. October 2020
It was about 3 days before when Bastian and I did some online research about cultural organizations near Lake Issyk Kul. While browsing, we found an NGO called Destination South Shore.
On their website they offered traditional tours like yurt building workshops or traditional felt art. One tour caught Bastians eye immediatly: Meeting a traditional Kyrgyz Eagle Hunter. "Viviane, we have to contact them!" Meeting an Eagle Hunter has been Bastians dream for for many years.
30. September 2020
It`s been 113 days days since we left Germany. While we travel, we document various information about our trip. Based on the data we collect, we will share facts and figures at the end of each month. Lets have a look at the data of September 2020.
25. September 2020
Our flight from Istanbul arrived in Bishkek in the early morning. We took a public bus from the airport into the city center of Bishkek for 70 Kyrgyz Som each (about 0,70 €). We walked through a sleepy, but very clean city.
At 7.30 am pretty much no one except some street workers cleaning the streets were visible. We had to find the apartment of Rustanbek, our couchsurfing host in Bishkek. All his directions and messages we received were in Russian. Google Translate was our best friend ;-)
15. September 2020
We started our trip from Mardin to the north of Turkey by breaking our daily record of hitchhikes. Seven different cars we counted. We started with Ismail, who took us from Mardin and bought us a bag full of fruits and sweets for breakfast.
Second car was a couple with their 4 year old son Jusef. We rarely met kids or women while hitchhiking. Since they were sheppards, they liked the fact, that we milked goats in Cappadocia ;-)
05. September 2020
It took six cars to get from Cappadocia to Gaziantep. We were happy that we made the distance of 409 km in one day. The conversations with the drivers were mostly through google translate and in Turkish. I was amazed that the drivers didn't feel uncomfortable talking to us in Turkish even though they should have recognized that we didn't understand.
Isa and Ali were the first two drivers who brought us towards Kayseri. From there a brand new Range Rover with brown leather interior stopped.
31. August 2020
It`s been 83 days days since we left Germany. While we travel, we document various information about our trip. Based on the data we collected, we will share some facts and figures at the end of each month. Lets have a look at the data of August 2020.
27. August 2020
Even with a little headache from yesterday’s night out, we went for a run to get our feet tired. That day we would spend a lot of time in the car. Our goal was to reach Cappadocia on the same day. After breakfast with our couchsurfing host Emilia we left Antalya.
We were back on the road for hitchhiking. It took us five minutes until a car stopped. Not exactly what we were looking for; A minibus. We had this situation before and knew that they would ask for money. But we got surprised. Not t
16. August 2020
Our hike along the Lycian way ended in Kaş. We were planning on getting some res, follow up with writing and organizing before heading towards Antalya. Kaş is a small town with cute cafes and restaurants. A little more expensive than usual because of tourism. This year there was mostly local tourism because of the pandemic. We were planning to find some free accommodation, since every hotel would be above our budget. It was not that easy because: Couchsurfing no one responded
11. August 2020
First night of our hike along the Lucian trail we spent in Darboğaz Koyu. A beach 20 min away from a tiny quit street. Not too many people know about this beach, exactly what we like. Swimming at night, sitting around the fire with other people, singing... good start into our next adventure.
The next morning we explained Irem and Isa our plan for today. Our hiking distance would be around 20 km. They decided to rather hitchhike to the butterfly valley, which would be our final destination
04. August 2020
Leaving Marmaris in the morning heat by walking 5 km towards a gas station near the main road towards Fethiye, made us tired. We were planning to hitchhike to Isa´s family to Fetihye that day. Isa is our couchsurfing friend from Istanbul that we spend one week with. At the gas station we bought some ice cream to cool ourselves down until Kubi stopped for us. He is a sailsman, transferred boats from one place to another and loves to travel in general. For him sailing doesn’t seem like work.