Picture Update

Being that it is extremely quicker and easier for me to keep my pictures up to date than my actual blogs (which can take a surprising amount of time), I have made my phone pictures public so those of you without Facebook can be updated more frequently. The website to locate them is https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A2JtdOXmJKxuw0. I will continue to have pictures on the blog, but this site will have more pictures and is updated more frequently. If you have an iPhone, send me a personal email and I can add you to the photo stream which is even easier than the link above.

Turkey Part 3 - A Hike to Remember

During the week of my fingers needing to heal, Tenzin and I got the brilliant idea to hike Geyik Sivrisi, the mountain about five or six miles through the woods from camp (distance depending how lost you would get navigating the goat trails and bushwhacking). We gathered all the information we could from camp veterans and a book, I downloaded an aerial view of the area onto my phone through a GPS program, and we packed our bags for an early Saturday morning start. we set our alarms for 5am, I cooked breakfast, we finished our packing, and we set on our way at about 6am. We each had a pack that contained sleeping bag, three liters of water each, food, a climbing rope to rappel down in case that was safer than hiking if it was steep, slings for the rappels, and our harnesses. After doing a bit of bushwhacking and navigating through an extremely small village, we arrived near the base of the mountain in about three or four hours. We filled our bellies with sandwiches and started the trek up the mountain.



Geyik Sivrisi



I will spare you the details, but we prematurely cut up the mountain and ended up being glad we brought that rope along because some more vertical climbing was required. We arrived at the top of the approximately 600 meter climb around 3pm. We signed the summit log book (which ironically had a last entry about a week before from a climber Tenzin met in Germany) and began to collect firewood for the night before having dinner. We were in the clouds most of the night so the air was humid and wet and the trees overhead were dripping large water drops on my sleeping bag and forehead periodically through the night (maybe as a reminder to keep the fire going for warmth). I slept with a pile of wood right next to me and the fire about three feet away, making for optimal lazy fire maintenance without having to remove myself from the sleeping bag.

Hiking up.

We made it to the top:)

View from the top.

We woke up to clear skies and a phenomenal view, all excited for our seemingly easy hike and rappel ahead of us. My option would have been the way we were originally intended to come up. Tenzin's preference was rappelling down at a steeper section due to the potential for a quicker descent and less risk of slipping if we scrambled down since the rock was rather damp from the night in the clouds. So as to expedite this story and not concern you all as the reader (specifically my family), I will simplify the remainder of the descent. Tenzin is a more experienced climber than me, so I trusted his instinct and we proceeded down the mountain via rappelling (although that would have been the second time during our adventure that trusting my instinct might have been the potentially safer, less exciting answer). About a quarter of the way down, clouds started to roll in, allowing for a couple gorgeous pictures above the cloud line. It wasn't so gorgeous however once we reached the clouds and had about 15 meters of visibility the remainder of the way to the ground. In fact, it was quite erie. We finally managed to make it to the bottom after about five hours, finished off the rest of our food, and set off for the hike back to Josito. It turned out to be a very successful and fun first summit for me since I ironically (living in the dessert) have really only hiked big canyons, going down first, and hadn't really attacked any mountains before. Everyone was excited to see us at camp that evening, including Toby (one of the owners) since Tenzin was due to work in a couple of hours. Everyone had questions and wanted to hear about our adventure, and Tenzin has since been referencing it as "our mountain". The next day was a rest day for the both of us and climbing recommenced the following day.



The descent.



Poor visibility!

On a side note, maybe for my own sake of documentation of friends met at camp and in the event that they come up in later posts, I have made good friends with two additional German girls, Aneka and Julia who are working at camp for a month, as well as Johannes from Denmark. There is also Nasim who has been at Josito now for almost four years working and climbing. And until next time, in words of Nasim...stay high and be dangerous. 😉 Kisses and hugs to all!

Turkey Part 2 - Adventures in Climbing

Josito Camp is located between the small towns of Çakirlar and Geyikbayiri, outside of Antalya. The staff is composed of some Turkish workers and a lot of foreign "volunteer" workers/climbers that work every other day in exchange for free food and accommodation while they are there. Not to oversimplify or stereotype the typical climber, but they tend to be the "work to live" type as opposed to those that "live to work". And yes, I would go ahead and say that I fit the work to live stereotype quite well 😉. With that said, there are always new faces coming through camp, and it is a splendid atmosphere to meet fellow, like-minded travelers and climbers who I presume I will see quite a few of again in the future...be it in their countries or mine.

Every Sunday near Çakirlar there is a market, comprised mostly of fresh fruit and vegetables although also including some random "knock-off" clothing and trinket booths as well. I was with two Germans and a Canadian and we walked the approximate four miles downhill to buy our groceries for the next week or two. I purchased lots of fruit and vegetables, rice, pasta, cheese, and eggs, probably leading to what would be some of the healthiest eating I've done in ages (but don't worry, I make up for it by the sheer quantities I always manage to consume). Now, don't freak out by what I'm about to say, but the norm to get to and from town and camp is to hitchhike. Don't worry though, we're typically always in groups of two and the small town folk around there are about as harmless as they come...and to be quite honest, it's usually other climbers from one of the camps that picks you up anyhow. That was the case this time as well. One climber who rented a car (a Swiss guy that I had a beer with the night before) had first picked up Leah from camp, then another older guy from camp, followed by me and the other girl who I was with. We all arrived back at camp safely.

That afternoon when talking with the other American at camp (Edward from Chattanooga), he asked if I wanted to go to another town about two hours away called Olympos for climbing. Olympos is a touristy beach town during the summer, known for its treehouse style accommodations. I am of course always up for an adventure, so I said "why not?!". The next morning, we packed our climbing gear and his highlining equipment (which I will explain later) and we hit the road. When we arrived, we found Kadir's Treehouses which cost us all of 20 Lira (about $11) and covered our dorm rooms, all you can eat breakfast, and dinner. We climbed the first day when we arrived and made our plan of attack for Edward's highline the next day. The best way I can explain highlining would be a higher version of slacklining which is when you walk across about an inch wide sling that is similar to walking a tightrope in the circus. I'm uncertain of the exact correlation or origin, but this is commonly a pass time for climbers in the evenings when they aren't climbing (it does help with some core stability as well as balance and in turn the stabilizing muscles in the ankles and legs). Being that I have no experience with slacklining, highlining was not on my agenda either but I was there for moral support, to help setup everything, and as the photographer for Edward. I'm not sure of the exact measurements, but I would guess his highline was about 40 meters long and approximately 35 meters over the ground. He used anchors from climbing routes between two walls to set it up with back up protection as well in the case of an anchor failing. To do this, it required me climbing one of the routes and hanging out at the top for a while to help with setup on my end. I rappelled down afterwards and hurried over to his end to help do final tightening of the line so that he could walk across it. Don't worry though, you use a ring around the line which is attached to another sling and your harness for safety, although it turned out he walked the entire thing both directions clean on his first try. This might not sound overly exciting, but I can only imagine the adrenalin he must have had, and when you see the pictures, you will understand what I mean. All in all, the entire process from setting it up to taking it down took about three or four hours after which we headed to another climbing sector to get in a couple routes before dark. The next morning we gorged our faces so as not to have to spend money on lunch, and headed out to climb. Around noon we heard our names being called from the road and none other than four of our other climbing friends from Josito, Jens, Christian, Christopher, and Roger, showed up which lead to Edward and me staying an additional two days and not returning to Josito until Friday.

On a more historical and touristic note, Olympos is home to an ancient village dating back to around 100AD. It's quite fascinating to imagine that these buildings still stand nearly 2000 years later, albeit somewhat in ruins. The pictures will show you to what extent below.

Upon arriving back in Josito, I more or less had torn up my fingertips from climbing for nine days in a row which would require a day or two off. I took a rest day Saturday and hiked to the ruins near Josito and on Sunday headed back into the market with a New Zealand guy I met named Tenzin who had just started to work at camp. We walked the downhill portion to town and hitchhiked back uphill, again being picked up by two climbers from Germany who were staying at Josito. I climbed minimally during the week with tape on my fingers so they could finish healing and in the meantime learned to slackline (don't worry, it's the low one that is only a couple of feet off of the ground). One of the girls at camp, Julia, bet me that I couldn't learn to do it in one day (it generally takes some time to get used to). Of course I am always up for a challenge! Unfortunately though as the day came to an end, it wasn't looking good for me. She obviously didn't think two days was sufficient either, so she extended the bet to day two. That was a mistake. I nailed it twice on my second day! Being that I am kind, Roger and I hitchhiked into town that day to buy beer (cheaper than at Josito) and I offered her one as a loss for day one and accepted one in return for my success on day two. Back to the hitchhike though, this was the one and only time on the trip that we were picked up by locals for the 7km ride to town. It was a quiet, painless trip to the store. At the store a taxi driver was translating prices for me from the clerk and asked if we were from Josito. I said yes and he offered us a free ride back. He was quite talkative and had just finished a shift at the airport and was headed back home up in the mountains. We stopped and picked up his uncle too along the way, and Roger and I learned about the driver's four kids, one doctor in Chicago, an engineer, and two teachers. He also pulled out pictures of his grandkids. And yes, this was all in about a ten minute drive. He was quite the proud father and grandfather and it was a fun little ride back up the hill.

Ruins at Olympos

Olympos Ruins

Kadir's Treehouses

Edward's highline.

Climbing in Olympos

Olympos Sunset

Olympos Beach

Turkey Part 1

Upon landing in Istanbul, Turkey, I had to go through customs and obtain my Visa. Apparently the Visa office only accepts US$ or Euros€ and not the Turkish form of money (the Lira) which I found interesting. I had Hungarian Forints on me and Romania Leu but no dollars or euros, so they sent me to the ATM to unnecessarily remove either of these cash forms regardless of the fact that outside of the customs office I needed Lira. Being that you don't question anyone from customs, I politely went to the ATM and withdrew Euros since the chance of them being useful at some point on my trip was more likely than any US dollars. After paying, customs didn't ask one question, and I continued to my boarding gate for the connecting flight to Antalya.

I forgot to mention one thing earlier. Being that I bought my flight on a Saturday while in Brasov, arrived in Bucharest on Sunday to explore, and flew out of Romania on Monday around noon, I hadn't had time to book a place to stay in Antalya. I had glanced online an had a vague idea though. On Sunday while in Bucharest, I did remember that Jarrod'a friend lived in Istanbul. I messaged Jarrod and got his name so that I could see about visiting his friend, Can (pronounced John), in Istanbul. I sent Can a message on Facebook, asking if he would be around Istanbul any weekends and if he could show me around. His reply was something along the lines of...I have bad news, I moved to Antalya two months ago so won't be in Istanbul, but if you make it here then let me know. Little did Can know, this was great news! I let him know I was flying into Antalya the next day. He said alright, well then you can just stay with me and I can show you a little of town when I get off of work. I was stoked about the great news. When I arrived in Antalya, I took a long adventure on the bus, first going extremely out of the way by mistake. I asked a local how to get to "Terracity" which is where Can lives. He spoke to someone at the bus station and walked me to the bus I needed to take back into town. Since I had to take Euros out at the airport instead of Lira, I had no money for the bus ride. It was about the equivalent of $1. The gentleman helping me insisted that I take the money from him to get the bus. So far, the Turkish people were presenting to be very friendly. After meeting up with Can, we went for a traditional Turkish dinner and met his friend for a drink before calling it a night.

View of the coast on the East side of Antalya.

Gateway to the old town Antalya

On Tuesday Can had to work but he offered for me to use his washer to do my laundry. I am not sure I have ever been so excited to do laundry! The last time I had a chance was before leaving Austria, and I was running low on clean underwear which is never a good thing! After hanging everything on the drying rack, I set off to walk to the old city of Antalya along the ocean which is met by gorgeous cliffs. I found an area to scramble down the rocks where there were also some fisherman, and I enjoyed an amazing view of the ocean and the mountains across the bay. After some exploring, I continued my journey into town. The old city consists of narrow roads and extremely old buildings filled with shops and restaurants. I walked by a younger gentleman sitting in front of a rug shop, clearly bored. He asked how I was doing and then where I was from. Since I had about six hours to kill before Can got off of work, and the Turkish people seemed so friendly, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a quick chat with him. After a couple minutes, I said good-bye. He offered me tea inside the shop. I politely declined. He insisted, saying he needed to practice his English. I decided since I was on no time schedule, I could sit down inside the shop for five or ten minutes and talk to him and his father who owned the shop. They were really kind and told me a couple places to visit in Turkey, and then the son sent me in the direction of the boat docks a couple of blocks away.



Rug shop in Antalya





Antalya Port



I was staying one more night at Can's and then heading to the countryside to a place called Jo.Si.To Camp which "houses" lots of rock climbers near tons of climbing areas. Can allowed me to leave some things I didn't need at his house before setting out to rock climb and camp on Wednesday. It was quite the adventure (of course) arriving to the climbing camp. First I took bus KL94 to the main bus station (Otogar). At Otogar, I asked the information desk about bus 521A that Can had looked up online and said should take me towards Geyikbayiri which was a few kilometers further than Jo.Si.To. The lady at the information desk said to walk a couple blocks to a smaller bus area where bus 521A would leave from. I found the spot surprisingly well, with an hour to kill before the bus departed at 4pm according to online when Can looked. At this small station, no one spoke English well, and there is no way I can pronounce Geyikbayiri, so I had written down the town name and the bus number. I was told the bus going all the way out to this village wouldn't be leaving until 5:15pm so I found some food nearby and sat down in the grass nearby to read. The gentleman that helped me at the bus station where I needed to leave from offered me tea from the Taxi stand across the street and a picnic table to sit on. He then proceeded to fend off the taxi drivers for me (including his brother) who love trying to convince you that you need to take a taxi to wherever you are going. One taxi driver even guessed where I was going (I'm sure the backpack gave it away!) and showed me a picture of the Jo.Si.To camp entrance sign. I showed him the paper I had that said bus 521A to Geyikbayiri. He tried to tell me I was going to have to walk 5km to arrive at the camp unless he took me in a taxi. I really had no clue if this was true, but 5km wasn't a big deal either way, and especially not for the price difference it would have been. When the bus finally arrived at about 5:20pm, I jumped on and headed for the countryside. It ended up costing 5 Lira which is less than $3. Getting closer to the camp, I asked the bus driver if he could stop at the road leading into Jo.Si.To and he seemed clueless. I was thinking great, as it was starting to get dark out. The locals on the bus overheard me though and motioned for me to sit back down and hand gestured while speaking Turkish that they would tell the bus driver when to stop. Sure enough, he pulled over right at the entrance and the locals pointed me down the road towards camp. It was about a quarter mile walk in as it grew darker, but I was all smiles as I could see silhouettes of rock and mountains around me.

I checked in and proceeded to find two trees where I could set up my camping hammock I had been traveling with. I was pretty excited to use it for the first time. The campgrounds and cabins at Jo.Si.To are complete with a restaurant/bar that is open from 8am until 11pm for the climbers to relax and meet new people. Another building has gas stoves and cookware for anyone to use, as well as showers and toilets. On Thursday morning, I found a Canadian to climb with who was also traveling alone. After a good first day back at climbing, we walked to a restaurant not far away and bought some fresh trout from the kitchen. I bought two whole trout, about a foot long, setting me back about $2.25...not too shabby. I arrived back at camp and cooked them quite proudly, being that it was my first time to cook whole fish. I checked the weather for rain since I didn't have a tarp to throw over my hammock. It appeared that it was possibly going to start raining around 6-8am the next day. I decided to risk it and went to sleep around midnight only to be so rudely awoken at 4am by rain drops on my forehead. They were light so I wasn't concerned. Thirty minutes later though I wasn't so lucky and they began to pick up. I decided I should pack up my hammock and bags so they didn't get soaked and throw them in the camping kitchen area. I move myself and sleeping bag to the swing on the covered porch of the restaurant. You might be asking yourself what I was going to do next. Well, I figured I could sleep, but at this point I of course wasn't so tired. I decided to take the opportunity between 5am and 7am to catch up on my blog entries which brings me to the present moment at which time I will bid you adieu until further entries (and hopefully better nights of dry sleep).