I flew over a thousand kilometer leaving Istanbul to
see the mysterious Turkey's Far East
There is a little trace of Europe
to be found in this vast
distance swathe of land bordered by Syria,
Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Georgia
Turkey's Far east is foreign even to
many of its countrymen.
Good morning or in Turkish they say Günaydın
I am in Kars located in the far eastern part of Turkey
This is actually closer to the border of Georgia, Armenia and
Iran, than to Istanbul itself
It's interesting to arrive in this very eastern part of the country.
The majority of the people here are Kurdish
so, the local language sounds very different
to the Turkish language. I love these kind of cities where it's
small, it's certainly more intimate.
You're not so intimidated by the traffic or the vastness of the city.
It's fascinating isn't it when you visit a country and an area
that is closer to the border, usually you see a mixture of
those areas, so the border itself are
created by politicians and humans and so if we think
about it, they share a lot of similarities
initially they share a lot of like similar languages
I am standing sort of in front of the castle of Kars. Can you believe that
there is a castle in the middle of the city and it's still going strong
It was built in around 1100 so over 800 years ago
Very few people actually visit this part of the country
not only the tourists but also the locals
so it's not only foreign to the foreigners itself
or travelers, but also to the countrymen of Turkey.
Regardless of any kind of presumptions
that we usually have prior to traveling
and what I find is that we fear what we don't know
at times as we have arrived to the actual place it's not
actually that jarring or bad.
So behind me is also an Armenian
looks to be an Armenian church if I'm not mistaken
Say hi...
Hi... 'ana min' Afghanistan (I'm from Afghanistan)
Name?
Mohsin
Mohsin was asking if I'm a Turk
But I was saying 'Indonesia'
and Afghanistan
and even the dog is laying down because of the sun
very nice
'Mamnoon' (grateful)
the road to the castle
slightly steep.
It's incredible that this fortress or castle
is opened 24 hours and there is no entrance fee
Hello! You're back.
Awww, why are you whimpering? Let's go!
I don't have food... sorry
Wow... look at it
Oh it's chilly.
Wow this is incredible
A beautiful spot to see the panoramic view
of the Kars city but also a great appreciation towards the historic
building, because this is sort of I think if I'm
not mistaken, a mix of Armenian, Byzantium,
Turkish, as well as Mongolian and Russian
Crazy
Good morning, or they say 'Günaydın', right? In Turkish
Turkish, Günaydın
I am currently in the car with the hotel owner
that I'm currently staying at
This is Yusuf
so that I can go to Ani which is
quite a famous ruins in the eastern part of turkey
Aahhh look at the traffic!
These are cows!
So we are stopping over for fuel and I just find it fascinating to be in such
wide flat land like this and the altitude of this area is quite high
because it's about 1800m
So we have just arrived in Ani Ruins and Armenia's border is
just over there.
The entrance fee to Ani Ruins is 15 Liras or equals to two dollars
and if you're interested to do the thing that i'm doing,
you're able to do that by taxi, or in my case the hotel manager or the owner
and pay about 200 Lira.
It is incredible to see the vastness
of these ruins because it's widely spread out.
This side is Turkey and the other side is Armenia, and the ruins
are in the middle of this, and if we can imagine
the world without borders, we can easily travel back and forth.
Sadly Turkey and Armenia do not have official borders,
so you can't actually go to Armenia from Turkey.
Can you see the church behind me? It's incredible looking! It's an
Armenian architecture type of church
It was commissioned by a wealthy merchant. The church itself
is called the Church of St Gregory and was completed in 1215.
That's over 800 years and it's still going strong
and just right there is the border of Armenia
I couldn't help but think about the history of this now peaceful place while
wandering around these remarkable ruins.
Once the capital of medieval Armenia, this was the center of violent
massacres of the Armenian people at the hand of the Ottoman empire
In the early 20th century.
I am just so floored to be standing here
in this beautiful like no other remaining ruins and just
the solitude the silence and the time that allows you to...
be mesmerized...
At the same time feeling the cold the harsh winter and
the thin air.
Do you like exploring this part of the country where it's so close
to the border and the architecture meshes and the
influences meshes into one to the other there is an
overlapping culture between the Armenian and the Turkish
As the juncture settlement between Turkish,
Kurdish, Armenian, Georgian even Russian, the buildings in Kars comes in a great
variety. Within the city itself you see different faces as well,
and according to the census of 2011
there were over 73,000 population.
Many have been turned into I think like
governmental building, but many have also been abandoned.
The remaining buildings and structures that are still fully functioning.
I think Kars is also a major producer of dairy products, because I've seen so many
cheese, butter.
Every shop sells either honey, cheese... wow, I would guess that
the people who live in the outskirts of the city
would come here so often to buy stuff.
Let's get onto the bus
So it costs 250 liras.
Less than about 30 cents
We are back at the city center as you can see now it's the afternoon
time and people are out and about
Yellow taxis, which reminds me of Iran.
Smile is the universal language
and the thing with the mask, is that you can't really tell
whether you're smiling or not and you have to really smile with your eyes
in order for the other person to understand
that you are coming with a friendly attitude and gesture.
That's the the thing I feel I miss the most
the smiles between different people.
This is right at the heart and center of Kars town and winter
being that the day is shorter... oopsie...
Yeah, I think this is a museum but it's always been closed since the day I got here.
The sun is about to set, I just want to say thank you
so so much for watching this very special
episode of Kars city and the surrounding areas and my
my experiences traveling in the far East part of Turkey.
I hope that you like this kind of video make sure that you
subscribe, comment, like and uh yeah let me know
what you think, do you like this kind of video? Do you like this
exposure to the less-visited areas of the country from the perspective of a
female solo traveler?
Let me know what you think in the
comment section down below.
See you again next time in the next episode!
I can't wait! Bye!