travel fever

I wrote this in October 2008, describing my dream to go to Dogubeyazit.

Three years later I went, in September 2011! I will tell you about that shortly, for now, please dream along with me reading that old blog post of mine when visiting Ishak Pasha Sarayi was still a far away dream, and a wallpaper photo on my desktop....

   Wed, October 1, 2008 - 9:48 AM

In German there is a word, "Fernweh", which can be translated as the longing to be far away...This is my affliction. Being back from Turkey I have done nothing but dream of my next trip... On this 4th trip I achieved one part of my agenda- doing plenty of dancing to my heart's content, and nobody stopping me. Being safe. Feeling at home. In fact, being mistaken for a Turk, which is more than I bargained for! Speaking enough Turkish to get aound and communicating with people who speak no English at all.
And now... here comes the next part of my dream-
I still want to go to Dogubeyazit. That place has never left my mind. Way out in Eastern Anatolia, next to Mount Ararat, on the border to Armenia, it is close to Ishak Pasha Sarayi, an ancient Oriental palace. Apparently, the only other Ottoman palace left over beside Topkapi. But this one is a mix of Ottoman, Selcuk, Georgian, Armenian and Persian architecture. And it is Kurdish. Today I watched a number of youtube videos showing it, and they all had these simple but powerful, passionate but wistful Kurdish songs. Melodies that Aynur has sung and others too, full of longing...
I keep thinking, I saw this palace in the Gurdjieff movie "Meetings with remarkable men", as the site of the Sufi dances. And when I read up on it, yes, Gurdjieff indeed was born in the city of Kars (the home of the exotic, black eyed Kurd I described in my blog on Bodrum) which is quite close to Dogubeyazit. but it says, the movie was made in Afghanistan... which is where the Kurds originally came from, it seems.
It is also the place where supposivley Noah's ark stranded and near Dogubeyazit is "Noah's ark national park".
Anyway, already almost two years ago my computer had a wallpaper of Ishak Pasha palace... and I keep dreaming.
I found a tour leading up to it, with a guide, offered on the internet, and it says, you can get there on a bus from Istanbul, in 22 hours, and cross the landscape of spectacular Turkish mountains... which is just what I would love to do. Rather than miss all this and fly out there by plane. I want the feeling of travelling, of drifting, of being out on an adventure, of satisfying the gypsy urges in my blood...
Now that I speak some Turkish and have lost my fear of traveling alone, maybe all I need to do is learn how to neatly tie a headscarf, just in case. I already got all the vaccinations for Kurdistan two years ago, Hepatitis A and B and tetanus and diphteria and typhoid, and then we only got as far as Antalya and the Turks begged me not to go any further East because "nobody goes to those places". But I still want to...

Wed, October 1, 2008 - 9:48 AM