Ağrı

My goodness I love this city. The streets are wide, the people are all very social, and the city has a magical kind of old feel to it. Every now and again, a horse drawn cart passes by on the road. After walking the streets for 20 minutes slowly building a map of the city in my head, my thoughts were interrupted by a gentleman asking if I was a tourist. I responded in Turkish and he offered me a seat next to him in the dooryard of a tea cafe. He ordered us each a tea and we talked for a while. Turns out he owns the tea place. Every time one of his friends walked by, he would say something like "Look! this guy's an American!". Then he would attempt to speak some English and introduce me to his friend. After a while he asked what I wanted to do in Ağrı. I told him that I would like to see the mountain. He immediately waled me over to a bus that would take me there. An hour or so later, I was there.

Mt. Ararat.

Known to the Turks as Ağrı Dağı, the 5100 meter high dormant volcano dwarfs the surrounding peaks.

To tell you the truth, I am still there now. And I feel guilty as hell inside this internet café when I could be out in the sun having a nice time looking at the mountain and taking a few more pictures. Also it is getting to be time for lunch and I could use some pide.

Just a note before I go. This is as far east I will be going. The truth is that I really can't go any more to the east than this. This same mountain dominates the skyline of Yerevan, Armenia. From this point onward it will be a slow trek back to İstanbul.