Kategorie: Turkey

Hello!

Coming back from a very long trip through Persia, Arabia, Pakistan and India we were very much looking forward to visit Turkey again in February. Back in Europe! That maybe doesn’t sound like a big thing, but it was, for us. Even if travelling in foreign countries and different cultures is so much exiting (it really is!), you are never able to completely really understand the spirits and behaviours over there. Returning to Europe means ‚returning to better known habits‘, returning home. And this starts in Turkey, a country that is a mixture of Muslim and the Western world. It may sound funny, but it is relaxing to live again in a better-known environment, life is just simpler to be managed, and everything is much easier to understand. This is not only about languages, it’s about understanding cultural and religious habits, gestures, mimic and gestic.

The memories from our last visit of Turkey in 2022 were so fabulous that we were very happy to return. Arrived we saw again the wonderful Mount Ararat with blue sky and snow at the top, a great start! Unfortunately, we could not enjoy the East part of Turkey extensively since we had an appointment in the city ‚Adana‘ (at the coast). We got 4 new batteries for our cabin since the old ones were dead after 14 years of usage (what a good result for Victron AGM batteries!). Heike took a flight home to Germany from Adana to do tax statements and to organize some bureaucracy. During the 2 weeks of her absence, I used the time to get some more things fixed at the truck. That worked very well at Mercedes Tarsus so that Wischnewski is almost completely prepared for our trip to Africa (that will start in September 2025). After Heikes return we spent another 4 weeks in Turkey, and we enjoyed very much to be able to shop groceries in real supermarkets (real bread and real sausages!). A big surprise was the price level in Turkey. 3 years ago, Turkey was a very cheap country to stay for us, but it is not anymore due to high inflation. A very beautiful event was visiting Cappadocia with its special mountain formations and almost 100 balloons that we could watch lifting very early in the morning. Another special site to visit was Istanbul. We had extraordinary look to meet friends from Pakistan (Hussain from Lahore) and Oliver & Michelle from Germany, they also visited Istanbul when we were there too. What a nice coincidence!

Greetings from
Heike & Carsten

(–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

Hello all!
today we make our last pictures from Turkey available. This is remarkable since last year we visited the region in the east of Turkey that recently was so hardly hit by an earthquake. Too sad that so many people of that region got injured or even killed, so sad!!!

We were very impressed of that part of Turkey that – from our perspective – was the ‚real Turkey‘. The closer we came to the borders to Syria, Irak, Georgia and Iran the greater the mix of people became: Kurdish, Turkish, Georgian, Armenian people did flow together, all proud of their culture and roots, nobody interested in political motivated conflicts, all only interested in their own pleasant life and the life of family & friends. What is communicated as ‚big problems between cultural backgrounds of people‘ in the media does surely exist but no doubt that conflicts are not easy to find, not so widely spread and surely not that vital.

East of Turkey, very enjoyable and again dominated of great hospitality of all people that we met, all instantly ready to give and to share whatever they had… 
Best wishes from
Heike & Carsten

It is now some weeks ago that we entered Turkey (when I am precise I must say it is now 11 months ago :-0 … I must confess the blog writing could not become a priority since there is to much work @ business…).
Back to Turkey: Travelling in a caravan through Turkey is a great way to get closer to culture and people. Whenever Wischnewski (not we ;-)) is spotted, people come to welcome us. Usually this is accompanied by an invitation for a tea or lunch/ dinner. And often people just bring fruits, food or whatever they have available… Very friendly and honestly, real hospitality from real people with the friendliest intentions. That always felt very good, and we really became fans of Turkey! What we could not really imagine is traveling to Turkey for a ’standard touristic vacation‘ in a club or so, in a group, what you see often at the cost, those big hotels with big busses and big groups running around between the hotel buffet, the beach and bus-tours that transport them to the central sights of Turkey. That way you have only a little chance to get to know the ‚real Turkey’… Being able to travel ‚on the little roads, in the little villages, far away from standard-touristic activities“ is a BIG advantage! Thanks to Wischnewski 🙂
Best wishes from
Heike & Carsten