Strange as it may seem -- and I know it does seem very strange to some -- there's something I really, really love about sitting at a makeshift roadside bus stop, eating 
crackers and watching the traffic go by. About showing up at some dusty otogar and having to figure out how to get where I want to go next. About bumping down tiny rural roads in a dolmuş, gazing out the window at everything and nothing. About waking up on an all-night bus ride to the blazing lights of a rest stop, surreally bustling with people eating, smoking, and shopping at 3 a.m.
I love it so much that where I end up almost doesn't matter. If it's a tucked-away backstreet where I can sit on a little rattan stool and eat cheesy pastries and drink tea, or a rural village strewn with 2,000-year-old ruins*, all the better.
* Like the lovely remains shown here of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis, capital of the ancient kingdom of the Lydians, the first people to mint coins.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
On the road again
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2 comments:
THIS is why we live in Turkey!
I was thinking exactly the same... and wondering why I don't do this more often.
But I've also realized since living here that you can get stuck in a rut anywhere -- just because you live somewhere "exotic" and "exciting" doesn't mean your life will be unless you make it that way. I like to think the same principle would hold true when/if I decide to move back to the States or somewhere else altogether.
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