Kars and Ani; 12th September

12 September

Met Vitali at breakfast and took a photo together. The lady working the breakfast shift who was kind enough to take the photos and made us feel like we were in a photo shoot as she took various shots and different angles, taking time to concentrate on each press of the shutter.

We said goodbye to Vitali outside the hotel — he only has a month, and needed to head off with no time to visit Ani.

The hotel manager then offered to walk us and two other tourists to the bus station. I think the hotel is run by a family as the three staff I’ve mentioned each have their idiosyncrasies, but are sincerely helpful people.

After visiting Ani we walked around Kars. I’d actually started listening to the audiobook ‘Snow’ by Orphan Pamuk a few days ago, as it’s set in Kars, and on the long straight road in yesterday that is what I was listening to. It has a somber beginning as the main character visits Kars to investigate why young women are killing themselves.

In the book Kars is depicted as a bit of a backwater of Turkey, and gloomy, but I did not find that to be the case. As we walked past a shop selling nuts, fruit and cheese, the owner invited us in and offered us tea.

We bought a bag of walnuts (unshelled), raisins, dried mulberries for 230 Lira — reasonable IMO. When we mentioned we were staying at hotel Ani he said we must tell the owner we met him, Mustafa, and that we would get free breakfast as they were old friends.

When we told him breakfast was included, he said we would get free coffee instead! He wrote down his name on a piece of paper and a note, and insisted we give it to the hotel owner.

Ani:

Carpark entrance to Ani ruins. I wondered why there were so many campervans parked up. I checked iOverlander, and it was marked on there as a free place to camp. IMO this seems like quite a boring way to find campsites

Kars

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