Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque began a conversation with God from their minarets as we crossed its great square where Istanbul and Constantinople coexist in perfect harmony.. Behind us we had left the Topkapi Palace and a little further behind the waters of the Bosphorus wrapped in a choreography of birds and ships lost in the fog.. I think it was the year 1453, but a man selling some gelatin and icing sugar pastries on Yeniceriler Street insisted that it was February 2014. The Mediterranean winter languished releasing the last slaps of cold.
In Istanbul we stayed three nights thinking that we would arrange our visas for Sudan. Great times were those when we believed that our only problem was to cross a country on our route to the south of the south. Borders and land routes in this corner of the world are problems of paperwork and mistrust, of openings and closings and of ships that no one knows if they leave, arrive or disappear. The thing is that at the Sudanese Consulate they told us that they would not issue us a visa and while we waited for that "No" we dedicated ourselves to visiting this immense city where we had already been a few years before..
couples were forced to lie to each other and swear that what they have is eternal
We stayed in a nice little hotel, Megara Palace, attached to everything there is to see and from whose terrace-restaurant with a rooftop fireplace couples were forced to lie to each other and swear that what they do is eternal.
So we decided to put on the tourist fatigues that the environment required and allow ourselves to be fooled in the numerous restaurants where they speak 60 languages, walk through the Grand Bazaar and its surrounding shops where even purchase receipts are forged, Dine on the Galata Bridge where fishermen cast their hooks into the Bosphorus in search of foreigners, rest in cafes where they give you a cup, six cakes and three bills and pay for shows in which they dance and you expand your belly. We were happy tourists, like you are whenever you leave the house, but with a license.
Then, From Istanbul we took with us the image of that old woman who, behind a barred window on the sloping street that led to our hotel, asked Vítor, at any time that passed, a cigarette with eagerness. He always gave it to her and she would wait for him to pass by again to ask for another. There were no schedules until one afternoon when she got lost or left and we even missed her hand coming out from behind the glass..
He always gave it to her and she would wait for him to pass by again to ask for another
After Istanbul we undertook the very complicated search for a boat that would take us to Egypt. Our first stop was Izmir or Izmir in Turkish. A city of almost four million inhabitants where trendy restaurants were crowded, the cocktail bars, stores with everything and for everyone. Modern, fun, shameless. If you close your eyes you could say that that city was Mallorca or the Algarve. There we had dinner at a restaurant where the owner dedicated himself to singing songs at the top of his voice to his customers.. So, without knowing that someone owed him a round.
Smyrna, as has happened to us throughout this country that we have traveled from west to east, dismantles any image one has of Türkiye or at least that I had. Traveling is knowing and this is a modern country, open and thriving in its large cities, where Islam is just an option; and a more religious but hardworking and advanced people in their rural areas. The whole field is planted, even in its most remote corners, and the greenhouses bloom all along the coast by the thousands. There is no poverty, you see the union of two very different worlds, the western and eastern, that still tolerate each other with reluctance but without looking at each other, It gives the feeling. Sometimes you pass through cities that seem divided into two truths.
Hierapolis became a resort city for the powerful men of the powerful Roman Empire
After Izmir we went to Pamukkale, Which means “cotton castle” in Turkish. Pamukkale is awesome. We left the car and the three of us began to walk through the remains of the city of Hierapolis, a Hellenistic city that Eumenes II ordered to be built, king of pergamon, in the year 180 a. C. An earthquake ended all the Greek-influenced work 200 years later and it was rebuilt as an immense Roman city. Hierapolis became a resort town for the powerful men of the powerful Roman and then Byzantine empire. An earthquake almost completely destroyed it. 1354.
But, the remains of the city, with its immense necropolis that still preserves a good part of the tombs and its spectacular theater, They are a reflection of that Rome that hangs from somewhere in our invisible memory. Then, our steps went towards a white waterfall full of pools, that all that city had a meaning there, the nearby Pamukkale hot springs.
And the hot springs are a story, another lie from this trip, an impossible, an absolute beauty. The so-called white castle has 2700 meters in length and 600 height. The various earthquakes have created a flow of hot springs there, especially contains chalk, that falls down a marble mineral mountain that has dried over the centuries and has chiseled this enormous white bathtub full of terraces. When you arrive you take off your shoes and begin to descend through its pools, with your feet stepping on hot water and air solidified in strange shapes held by stalactites. We spent two hours there and two lives would have passed. In few places have I seen a wonderful natural work and a wonderful human work so together.
The hot springs are a story, another lie from this trip, an impossible, an absolute beauty
From Pamukkale we descended to Antalya, another modern and vibrant coastal city where there is a port crowned by an old castle that forms another postcard in which sailboats for tourists and charming cafes stand out.. They didn't know anything about our boat there either and they told us to go down to Analya.
And in Analya we found another great city again, in which new constructions and large hotels crowd the entire coast, like I haven't seen anywhere on the planet, and again in their beautiful port they told us that there was no ferry there, let others go down 200 km. And in each meeting you leave a lot of energy because no one speaks English and those who do speak it you understand that they give you hearsay indications., that no one really knows what they are saying, that nobody really understands you.
But we decided to go down to Tasucu, where at night we found a guy at the port who told me about another guy and he pointed me to a transportation office. I walked in and asked a guy who spoke six words of English and 100 In turkish. Writing on a sheet of paper, it seemed that he understood that we wanted to go to Cyprus and from there to Egypt.. He sold us three tickets on a ferry that left two days later where we could put the car and after eight hours of navigation reach the Greek-Turkish island. Then, By signs, He answered that in Cyprus there is a ship to Egypt, but frankly I think that even then I knew that I didn't know what I was saying even though Vítor insisted that I did..
Nothing was waiting for us in Cyprus, there is no ship to Egypt
But you try to believe when you have nothing better to hold on to, so on Sunday we returned from Mersin town to Tasucu, We arrived at the port and found the deputy director who spoke perfect English and who confirmed that in Cyprus nothing expected us, that there is no ship for Egypt.
The world came crashing down on us. There were words, but there was silence. There seemed to be no way out of this maze.. But we want to move forward, follow, We are going to show that we can get there and then we start talking about going through Iraq, for Syria, of becoming comets... And then we decided to get into the car and continue on our way... He who stumbles and does not fall takes two steps forward and we, After the, we just need to put our wheels in Africa, there, on the other side of the sea.
