During a brief layover at the Gaziantep bus station today I stopped in to buy a bag of Doritos and a candy bar. The guy behind the counter recognized me. “Have you made it to Van?” he asked. “No,” I laughed, “not yet, it’ll be...
Mersin is one of my most important forward operating bases on the walk, and I have become a recognized regular at its bus station. Almost every time I pass through the station I stop for a bowl of soup at Palmiye Tantuni, making it, a bus station soup shack, my...
When I left Istanbul six months ago to begin the walk, Ufuk Demir was the last person I spoke to before leaving the city I knew for two thousand kilometers of unknowns. Today I left Istanbul again, this time a different person, but I saw Ufuk again at the bus station....
For the first couple days of my stay in Istanbul, I crashed at Hakan’s place. Hakan is one of the most patiently consistent followers of my walk across Turkey. He found out about the trip via the website Kickstarter.com back in September, shortly after I first...
On this trip I’ve spent the night in gasoline stations, bus maintenance yards, and public parks. I’ve camped by the side of the road and pitched my tent in muddy pear orchards after the farmers had gone home for the day. This week I get to add an Ottoman...
