Vanadzor

The 3rd city of Armenia. The challenge was not to go to any capital in my trip. For now, I have been succeeding (except Ljubljana)! This is the list of the capitals I have NOT been:

Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Warsaw, Kiev, Bucharest, Sofia, Ankara, Tbilisi and Yerevan! I am quite proud of it ;-). Ok, you are right, I missed many museums and nice buildings, and also picturesque Mc Donalds or Virgin stores... That is sad... Maybe in another life!

Vanadzor is at 1400m high, Armenia is mostly high. Many similarities with Georgia. The police cars are the same, the food quite close, and the girl usually virgin before the wedding, too. But listen to that: they have special bars where the tables are separated by walls in order to get privacy. Indeed, because children live with their parents, they don't have any place where they can... do some stuff, even a kind kiss. Cute, isn't it?

I thank Dave, and Artyom and his grand mother for welcoming. And in between these guys, I spent long days washing my stuff and relaxing after my first real hiking session! My ankle was ok! :-)) I am on the mountains again!

Ma première vraie rando après Istanbul Event ! Voici Jacek, mon acolyte du moment et la forêt, y'avait pas de vue, que des arbres...

La dure vie d'une autostoppeuse dans un camion... Admirer les nuages au coucher du soleil ;-)

L'inspiration du poète Artyom devant son tout petit écran !

Georgia

Georgia is not a Muslim country anymore. Welcome to the christian Russian world again!

It sounds like I have already written that before: I don't speak a word of Russian, I am lost because the alphabet is different, but even different than the Cyrillic one. Crazy people who have their own alphabet! The only reliable language we can speak is the alcoholic one: vodka (much better than in France), chacha, wines too (worse than French ones, for sure). However, comparing to Ukraine, some people speak English Should I say American? Indeed, America is a clooooooooose friend of Georgia. Thanks to the money the country gets from where again?, the state succeeds to develop the country: water and electricity everywhere, anytime, education, nice and useful facilities, no police corruption anymore... 

Let's take the police example. The first funny thing is the police cars are directly imported from CSI: New York! Plus, there are more policemen in streets than chicken lolololol, joke for French budies. (Ouhhh, la blague est carrément mieux en version française) Malgré la forte ruralité des lieux, il y a plus de poulets en uniformes et de poulettes en bikini (surtout à Batumi les poulettes) que de vraies poules dans les rues de Géorgie ! And they do a great job. People like the police nowadays. When the police stopped you a few years ago, the only thing to do was to get a bank note in your hand, and shake hands with them for giving it. Now, the police is smart, polite and reliable. Policeman is a very respectful job.

And besides these great improvements, some Georgian men are rude. Foreign women are considered as hores and men behaviour can be gross. In this country, although hitchhiking is possible, I don't really feel safe.

I'd love to thank Michel, Nicolas and Georges, but I would have liked to add the great photos of the mountains... I've seen snowy mountains: around 5000m high  Ohhhhh! Please Michel, take 5min to send them to me!

Thanks Damon and Maia for hosting in Zugdidi

Petite balade dans la nature autour de Batumi avec des iraniens et une japonaise bien sympathiques : Abbas et Ahmad (petite pensée pour Shahram) et Mawi. Thanks guys for these shared nice times!

Je me suis fait couper les cheveux. Et j'ai pris la photo sous une lumière verte avec mon nouvel appareil photo ! Savoir s'émerveiller de choses simples :-)

Ordu

Ordu is a nice little city in the Black Sea Region. Yes it is in Turkey. I was still in Turkey. I like this country and its people. Turkish people are welcoming, warm, caring, funny, interesting, happy, joyful, and sooooo clean (!) With their beautiful country, there is nothing to envy Europe. Entering Europe would be a terrible mistake, according to me, of course. They would loose their culture, their autonomy for international decisions, their traditional ways of farming and producing (like the eastern Europe countries lost), their great role of being the gate between European and Asian cultures and lands, and many things that I am not aware of (yet!). The sad point is Turkey can be very powerful in a few years, and will probably follow exactly the same way than the western countries followed. We know, now, that is not the right one. 

Whatever, it was not easy to leave. "You may stay here for ever", some say! It was not the plan, however. For Ordu, the plan was to enjoy the Black Sea, the mountains around, talk about hazelnuts harvesting and give some rest to my gut. Thanks to Muhammed, I could go around without worrying about toilets! It was raining in the toilets too lololololol 2 days out of 3. I like it! not in the toilets. The good point about my intestin problems was that I kind of experimented the Ramazan (Turkish ramadan) before it ends.

Le dernier Pide & Ayran... snif... ça va me manquer

Là, on prend le funiculaire, parce qu'on est paresseux. Mais il pleut quand même ! Et après, c'est la vue de là-haut, avec brouillard en option

Alors là on était contents parce qu'on redescendait de la montagne à pied, ma cheville a tenu (tout juste) 500m de dénivelé

La Turquie avec les parents

Les 3/4 de la famille Baudrey de St Ismier se retrouvent en Turquie (le 1/4 restant, Brice, petite pensée pour toi qui était "boosté" par les antibios... à Bayonne). 

En tant que bons touristes français, nous nous devions d'aller en Cappadoce, l'édition 2012-2013 du guide du Routard sous le bras : chose faite ! Nous avons fait tous les restos du routard et dit bonjour à tous les français se trouvant sur le sol turc. Avis à ceux qui n'auraient pas encore fait ce bout de Turquie, l'open air museum de Göreme est un site chrétien. Dépaysement non assuré ! 

Ensuite, longue remontée vers la mer noire, avec ses noisetiers. Pleins pleins pleins pleins de noisetiers. Des noisetiers partout. Encore des noisetiers ? Ah ben, regarde, là aussi, ya un énorme champ de noisetiers ! Si si, ça aussi c'est des noisetiers. Il pleut, c'est mauvais pour la récolte des noisettes. :-S. Hé oui, le climat et la végétation sont complètement différents au nord de la Turquie. C'est vert, il pleut, petit brouillard chaque matin, ET il y a pleins de noisetiers je l'ai déjà dit ?

Bon, ça suffit d'être avec les parents ! Hors de question de les accompagner à Istanbul, ma cheville s'en souvient encore... Ceci dit, un grand merci à Maryse et Joël Baudrey pour ce petit bout de voyage fort sympathique !

Maman Baudrey dans une hutte de Pastoral Vadi, il fallait bien que les parents visitent THE ferme écologique de la Turquie et soutiennent un projet en or ! Hein Papa ;-)

Papa Baudrey et sa fille dans des ruines. Enfin des pierres quoi, qui ont servies à des trucs, ya vachement longtemps...

Et voilà la Rozenn toute en bleu, violent et marron sur la mer Noire. Non, il n'ont pas réussi à planter des noisetiers sur les quais

Antalya

Back to Turkey! Yes, back to traveling, that I am belonging to.

I know... I didn't want to... I cheated... I flew to France. However, I did it for some kinesitherapy sessions for my ankle, and for a very nice wedding: great souvenirs, Thanks Mrs Marie & Mr Johan Comparat! I wish you all the best.

What can I say about my French time? ... My friends are great, I really have great people around me (my family too :-)!). I like you guys sooooo much!

We are now in Antalya, hot weather, windy also a bit, humid my hair are curly curly curly!. And we do ... not do a lot! Spending 10 hours a day in the flat, cooling down, mostly. Showering, wet towel on head, watching stupid series, drinking ayran (mix between yoghurt and salty water), learning French or teaching French depends on one's level ;-), training ankle while waiting for it to heal. It's been taking long time, Ggggrrrrrr!

We really have to thank Selçuk Ünlü for lending us this lovely flat. We have nice time in a nice place. And also thank the neighbours who are not used to see tourists in this area and help us to feel at home: lending a ventilator, giving their wifi code... After 3 months in this country, appreciating Turkish people, it will be weird to leave it.

Let's do a Lemon Charlotte for thanking people, the freshest dessert I found, besides ice cream... No, I can't make an ice cream, it's too complicated to do!

Ce sera la seule photo de touriste du message. Antalya est un spot à touristes, soit, mais nous ne répondons pas exactement à cette catégorie !

Une table et un tapis turc

un grand couloir

Alors, oui, il est vrai que... seconde entorse à des règles qui étaient établies au préalable... après avoir un acheté un billet d'avion, j'ai aussi acheté un ordinateur portable, mais petit l'ordi... Non, je ne suis pas une addict... Enfin, là, il fait tellement chaud qu'il n'y a que ça à faire... Mais heu, je n'ai pas à me justifier !

un balcon pour lire la journée (comme je me la pète !)

Une balcon pour dormir la nuit

Tourist break

On s'est pris 5j dans un super petit hôtel http://www.tlosmountainlodge.com/ dans les terres profondes de Fethiye, dans une vallée bien mignonne. Je n'ai pas grand chose à dire mais je voulais vous montrer des photos sympas... Et on a internet ici, c'est trop cool alors on en profite un peu !

Sinon, pour les nouvelles moins fun, ma cheville va mettre un peu plus de temps que prévu avant d'être OP (opérationnelle pour les adeptes de l'anglais), alors je vais prendre mon mal en patience et laisser le temps aux bébés ligaments de devenir grands et forts.

In the bus. Any place is the right one for massage!

Rainy sunset

Shuffling the deck like that will lead to do it again! ;-)

Turkish wwoofing

Wonderful world!

See that http://www.pastoralvadi.com/index_eng.aspx

I needed rest after running through Europe. A new continent needs fresh legs! So I am making mine fresh in an ecological farm (Website above). And as a total diseable girl, I decided to work! So we looked at the Turkish wwoofing website, asked for a place to stay. Pastoral Vadi answered positively! Thanks Ahmed!!

WWOOFING: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. You work at the organic farm that hosts and feeds you. You don't get paid.

It’s been now a month we are working here (not really me!) and enjoying nature. Compared to other websites, the photos you can see are as nice as the reality. This place is heaven. And the staff is great, the atmospher is very nice: relax, easy going, fun (when they translate jokes in English!) And the people have pity for me. It is not always easy to work on one leg, so I work really less than expected (but fortunately Michael works a lot, real gentleman!). So I have the right to eat! And the food is sooo tasty and healthy.

But as you could see, Internet is not the best friend here. I could not really write very often…

Michael le cowboy intrépide, son fusil armé toujours en main

Petites huttes pour la sieste

Les champs : pas du travail pour moi pour l'instant !

Les coquelicots de mai autour des orangers

Le chemin au coeur de la foret vierge (pas si vıerge que ca, ya pleins d'eucalyptus !)