Walk Across Turkey

Tuesday, 23 October on the way to Sarıköy After four days at the hotel in Beyşehir, I was eager to get moving again. I felt...

On Friday morning, my fourth morning in Horsunlu this time around, I woke up and got ready to begin another day of working my...

Friday, 21 September I began my second full day in Çardak using the hotel’s slow internet connection to upload photos to my blog. Toward the...

Saturday, 22 September In the morning, early, before anyone was stirring in Çardak, I walked out to the main road and began that day’s walk...

Back at the mosque, I pulled my sleeping bag and tent out of my pack, feeling like an imposter, marveling as I set up...

It was fig harvest season in the valley, and there was rack after rack of figs drying by the side of the road. Early...

Toward the end of the day, I approached the village of Bahtiyar. It was about a few miles off the main road and up...

It took me about an hour of walking to reach Erbeyli. In most of the towns I had passed, the mosque was within 200-500...

Friday, 7 September I stopped that day at Horsunlu, a small village at the eastern edge of the Menderes River valley. The river valley at that...

The next morning I pulled on my pack and walked out of the lobby of the Thermal Springs hotel. I started to cross the...

The next day, Saturday, Metin and I took a car to his village for the wedding. Our first stop was in another village to...

Once I got my tent set up in the park, the feeling of panic I had felt back in the hotel 36 hours earlier...

Sunday, 23 September The next day I walked into the town of Dinar feeling lonely, uncomfortable, and out of place. I knew I needed some...

Saturday, 8 September About 3 hours out of Horsunlu, I started the climb out of the Menderes River valley. The predictable pattern of the farm...

In this better frame of mind, I continued walking through Denizli. My gait was slowed by the pain in my foot, and by mid-afternoon,...

Thursday, 20 September The next morning when I woke up, I went back out onto the square and found Eren and Özgür at the büfe....

Monday and Tuesday, 8 and 9 October I enjoyed the pension at Eğirdir so much that several days when my week’s vacation was finished, I...

When I arrived at the docks Joy Anna was already there, playing fetch with a mangy stray dog while she waited to join me...

Thursday, 30 August - Kuşadası At 10:30 a.m., at the walk’s starting point in Kuşadası, I stepped off an overnight bus from İstanbul. The other...

Wednesday, 19 September When I woke up the next morning my right foot was hurting something fierce, the anxiety was back, and I still wanted...

Friday, 14 September The next morning I woke up, broke camp, and walked over to the station’s café for a breakfast of menemen (scrambled eggs,...

Tuesday, 18 September Tuesday morning I awoke with a start to my cell phone alarm. I panicked. Oh my god, I am still at this...

It was lunchtime when I arrived in Nazilli, population about 120,000. I walked up to the first restaurant I saw and ordered a lunch...

I wake with a start. Where am I? Through the parting fog of sleep I remember that I am in İstanbul. A hot sun...