Journal Entry 63

January 11th, 2006

"Some Kind of Exit"

 

I left Tbilisi, Georgia, after a bit of time spent with (no surprise) welcoming locals (my friends Naniko and Tamara and their families). Two wonderful days with them. And I race onwards... World's best travel deal is the night train from Tbilisi to Batumi. Nice modern sleeper carriage, clean toilet, fresh linen, and (gasp) friendly attendants. 13 lari ($7).

Cross to Turkey. A dreary rainy day on the Black Sea, misty snow-capped mountains to the south. I hop a bus to Cappadoccia, crossing 2/3 of the country in a single uninspired bound. Spend a spell in Goreme (a village at the heart of the region), amid some strange landscape...take the Badlands of South Dakota, and carve away 90% of it. What's left is the landscape here, pointy otherworldy rock formations full of weird caves and ancient churches carved into the rock. I walk around exploring with a dalmation named Spotty, but frankly it was a bit lost on me. Not in the right place.

And if I needed confirmation that I cannot live in the Pacific Northwest, this was it. Cold rain, short days. I can't do it. I head for Ankara, home of my friend Mike (the same dude I stayed with in Yangon, Burma, 2.5 years ago). Warm home, Thai food, nothing particular to see or do. Heaven! Exactly what my tired-out self needed.

The only other thing worth adding is another of life's great lessons that I learned recently: jacket pockets are not good places to store persimmons. Ah! And I finally found a pale-green leather belt. I was looking for one in autumn of 2004, to match some shoes I bought in Groningen, Holland. My pants are a wreck; I ripped out a knee as I sat down to write this. Shoes not much better.

That's it. Mercifully short, huh?

Am I the only person who routinely confuses clouds with improbably-high mountain peaks?

'He felt refreshed and renewed; here was struggle again -- that meant he had found a way out.' (Dostoevsky)

 

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