Walk Across Turkey: A Big Problem

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

Walk Across Turkey: East of Aydın

Just a few minutes after saying goodbye to Enes, I met some truckers eating breakfast by the side of the road. They invited me...

Walk Across Turkey: Bozkurt to Çardak

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Breaking Free From Eğirdir

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Healing My Feet

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

Walk Across Turkey: Naughty Boys and Circumcision

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

Walk Across Turkey: Köşk

I reached the town of Köşk (population 9,900) early on Tuesday, 4 September. It was only 10:45 a.m. I had planned to spend the...

Walk Across Turkey: Where am I?

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

Walk Across Turkey: Greater Middle East Project

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....

Walk Across Turkey: Menderes River Valley

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Three Girls and A Wedding

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,...

Walk Across Turkey: Back to Horsunlu

The next morning, I woke up knowing that I was going to have to do whatever it took to work my foot back into...

Walk Across Turkey: Fatih and Feridun

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

Walk Across Turkey: Rolling into Denizli

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,...

Walk Across Turkey: Peace

Wednesday, 26 September The next morning, about forty-five minutes into that day’s walk, I pulled off at a gas station for a morning break. I...

Walk Across Turkey: Charly’s Pansiyon

30 September through 7 October at Charly's Pansiyon I stayed at the pension for over a week, sleeping by the lake, taking showers with hot...

Walk Across Turkey: Horsunlu

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Kuşadası

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Sarıköy

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...

Walk Across Turkey: Hobo Skills

On the morning of my seventh day on the road, I walked out of Nazilli and stopped at a tea garden near the village...

Walk Across Turkey: Havutçulu

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

Walk Across Turkey: The Wedding

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

Walk Across Turkey: The Asian Ghost

Friday, 12 October The next day I woke up early, packed up my stuff, and took a look around the room. Eight hours ago I...

Walk Across Turkey: Bozan

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...