Turkish Delight!

What a fan-friggin-tabulous country. Any pre-conceived western ideas anyone out there has about Muslim countries can be dispelled immediately upon visiting one. I can't even count how many free drinks we have enjoyed from the hands of the sometimes too friendly Turkmen and women. Yesterday I was handed 10 Lira from a women and told to go have a nice Turkish dinner. This has been the normal hospitality for us.

Starting from the beginning. We entered Turkey from Bulgaria and rode 3 rather swelteringly hot days into Istanbul. We stayed with 2 separate hosts, Emine and Elif. They were both excellent hosts and we enjoyed a night of dancing or 2 and a scenic boat tour up the Bosphorous. (Upon other excursions) We never realized, but upon crossing the Bosphorous, it was good-bye Europe and hello Asia. After applying for our Iranian visas at the Persian embassy we headed towards Ankara.

We took a very smelly busy exhaust filled highway. The stink was all over us and deep into our poor lungs. We took about 70 kilometers of "stick to your ribs" disgusting exhaust before we saw a beacon of hope in the form of a ferry sign to the other side of the sea. Thank goodness.

Whilst on the ferry we met more amazing people. (Excuse me for mis-spelling your names, the keyboard and my mind are in English!) Savas and Doygu. They were totally amazing. They took us all over Bursa the fourth largest city in Turkey and we were treated to all the Turkish delicacies and fantastic hospitality. We miss you guys! We should all experience hospitality like this at least once in a lifetime. Thank you sooooo much guys!

I would like to tell you everything about what we've been up to but I am restricted to the un-fair confines of time. We would like to thanks our hosts in Ankara for a great visit. We now have Pakistani visas! Thanks to Berat, Kurai, Alper, Deniz and Honda! I'll write more about Ankara another time.

In closing this post I would like to share a contrast in ideas and views I have noticed upon visiting Turkey. When trying to get our visas for Pakistan we were asked for proof of identity from our Canadian embassy. Pakistan is known in the west for being a "terrorist" state. This is of course arguable. When we arrived at the Pakistani embassy we were greeted by a guard and we told him we were there to apply for a Visa and he smiled and pointed to the door. Upon entry to the Canadian embassy we were searched, made to go through a metal detector, questioned and we had our pockets emptied our walkmans confiscated and our integrity insulted. We were then spoke to through a fiberglass window with a hole in it from our Canadian representative where he fearmongered us about our chosen route. No wonder he wouldn't come out and talk to us face to face. He seems to be living in fear. Of what I am not sure. Our next visit was much of the same. A canadian representative told Steve to ,"Watch out!" and ,"I am scared for the both of you!" and "Can you ride faster than a bullet?" It was like CNN. What a distorted view of reality we live in. Our treatment at the Pakistani embassy was completely opposite
to our Canadian visit. When was the last time we experienced terror in Canada or when was the last time we heard 1 horror story about a Canadian being beaten or mugged in a foreign country. I stress the word 1. You'll be sure to hear about it on our sensational news. Our representatives and our treatment at the embassy reflect a sad state of affairs that is prevalent in Canadian society. Fear. Give me a break. I am not naive. I take precautions and care everywhere I go. Words like Iran or Pakistan have been severely distorted to conjure up images of god knows what people think having never visited or researched a place. The only place I have ever been mugged, threatened or beaten has been in Canada. This is life. There are crappy people everywhere.

On that note, our Muslim hosts are taking amazing care of us almost to a fault. It is a life changing experience for the both of us and shame on us for ever letting our media taint and distort our opinion and views of such a wonderful group of people and religion.

That is the view from here. We think about everyone often as we sweat away in the 35+ degree turkish heat. I'll have some new blues to bring back to Canada. Lots and lots of love to everyone in the land of baklava and Kebabs!

Philosophizing with a Hammer

I felt like sharing some of my thoughts in two short poems. I am growing beyond my former self gaining new wisdom from this multifaceted journey of my body, mind and soul... loving every minute of it

Reflection Through Introspection
Learning to fly

New capillaries like rivers,
flow through my body.
Bring oxygen for new demands.
My muscles are pulling me,
like rubber bands.
Almost ready to snap
as I stretch myself, my soul
bending the envelope,
filling these holes.
Pulling my tendons to a new extreme
Redefining,
this new human, being.

My spirit is soaring,
I'm way up here now.
I recognize the past,
this shallow existence,
I hope will not last.

My laden history is past tense,
Stress no longer my friend of time mispent.
My heart has been freed,
I am allowed once again to be me.


Herd Animals

People fighting for scraps,
Sheepishly falling into the traps.

2 kilos of love in my brain,
fill my spirit with renewed faith.
2 kilos of fear ingrained,
driving others with corporate haste.

Humanity in all of it's childish greed
always wanting to fill the need.
Will we learn from history ever,
or will it be to late and never.
Will we always succumb to the Joneses,
or will we let this ego mind own us.

Can we press rewind, and live without temptation
or continue to fastfoward and fall into degradation.
What kind of legacy our we leaving for our future generations
I'm not sure but will the ever forgive us?




Yeah I read Catcher in the Rye recently... so shoot me haha. Beleive it or not, I am an optimist.
Stev-0

From Bulgaria Wıth Love

We have conquered yet another land mass! Bulgarıa is now just a faınt, mıld tweak in my knee.

What a place. We ended up a week behınd schedule as the Romanians were busy setting a new bench mark for hospitaliy. So we cheated and took a traın for 200km's. We are truly embarassed. We wanted to make it into Sofia so we could enjoy the week-end and our host could show us around. The mountaıns between Vıdın and Sofıa were breathtakıng. A litter problem along the waterways and old reminants of communıst ındustry gone wrong were the only drawbacks to the amazıng vıews.

We arrıved the day before one of those 'democracy' farces we know as electıons. In Bulgarıa it is ıllegal to sell alcochol on the day before the elections so we had to rely on the stock piling of Maria and company. We went out for a bırthday party at Marıa's frıends house and we got to see the aftermath of a bomb that was set at some guys door as a scare tactıc one week prıor. 6 storeys of shockwave had blasted out the wındows in everyones apartments and the staırwell and rendered the elevator useless. I felt kında uneasy lıke gettıng in a lımo wıth a chaffeur wıth a neckbrace, as we walked up the staırs, but we had a lıttle vodka and the world was all Kool and the Gang once again.

We had a great tıme ın Sofıa takıng ın the sights of mosques left behınd from Turkısh rule. Stunnıng architecture ıs everywhere. We went hıkıng ın the mountaıns a bıt and Marıa and her dog were attacked by another huuuuugggggeeeee dog as I yelled and Steve whıstled to scave off another attack. All part of the experıence. Thanks to Marıa for hostıng us! She ıs a wonderful host and person.

We pushed 5 days on to the Black Sea. Clımbıng some nıce hılls here and there and pushıng ınto some headwınds. The people along the countrysıde were pretty welcomıng too. Surprısıng as we were once agaın told how crazy Bulgarıa ıs for travellıng. Much lıke Serbıa, we were treated kındly. At one poınt, we stopped to strecth and a woman pıcked a bunch of fruıt and rasberrıes from her property and gave us a bıg bag. One second after acceptıng the fruıt a woman wıth a lıttle pıg comes walkıng down the road and takes us to the store for ıce cream. She asked me ıf I was sıngle, then took my maılıng ınformatıon and I thınk she ıs sendıng my mom a pıcture of her daughter to marry her off. Beıng sıngle opens doors I tell ya!

We were able to ıntervıew a farmer ın a town called Karnobat whıch is 80km's west of Bourgas and the Black Sea. He had a huge productıon of sunflower, wheat and corıander. He ıs faced wıth the same problem of North Amerıcan farmers. Get bıgger and spray chemıcals to be economıcally vıable or sell the farm and move to the cıty. He saw no solutıon to thıs trend. He was really excıted about the possıbılıty of bıodıesel when I explaıned ıt to hım.

We pushed onwards to Turkey and slept ın the woods about 30 metres from a full on barbwıre fence whıch represented the Bulgarıan\Turkısh border. I thought I kept hearıng mılıtary patrollıng the woods as we slept. İ was so tense you couldn't have gotten a pın up my butt wıth a jackhammer. Another sleepless night in the land of bicycle touring.

We survıved and now we're chıllın' out ın Istanbul and enjoyıng the Turkısh hospıtalıty whıch mıght set a new precendence. Who knows what ıs ınstore for us.

untıl next tıme, peace near the mıddle east!

Kevın