Cycling the 360°

Georgia and Armenia video

Arpi — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:00:06 +0000

We hope you’ll enjoy it!

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Turkey-video

Arpi — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:00:48 +0000

So that you can all get lost in the time-space continuum – as far as our trip is concerned – here is a little musical slide show from Turkey. It is rather far back in time, and in space, but during the vodka drinking session in Irkestam I felt like putting this video together.

In Takestan with the family Sajjad

Arpi — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:00:53 +0000

We met a motorcyclist, who was wearing a mask. He gave us some grapes.
We became very good friends with Sajjad, he got out his geography book and we showed him the way we had covered already and the way we were planning to cover.
I covered a page in Sajjad’s exercise book with drawings and writing for him to keep as a memory.

Later the other members of the family arrived.
We learned that unlike all other parts of the world the thumbs up sign has a very rude meaning.

When we said good-bye to Sajjad we made him promise to go on learning English, attend school diligently and persistently and go on with his studies at university just like his brothers. And of course if he happens to come to Hungary at any time in his life, he ahould by all means visit us.
Mohammat accompanied us for the first 40 km dressed as a cyclist from top to toe, as far as the next town, Quazvin.
Zita was very happy with a big mug of capuccino, Pafriz and I ate even an icecream.

Leaving Quazvin we reached the motorway.

Mianeh, Nik Pay, Zanjan, Emidabad – in Iranian villages

Arpi — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:00:14 +0000

After Mianeh we rolled down into the bottom of the valley, then crossed two tunnels.
We saw an old stone bridge over the river bed with a collapsed middle.
There were unplastered clay houses with flat roofs by the road.
We arrived at a large open area, the other side of which was bordered by multicoloured stripy hills.
The different coloured rocks formed horizontal strata on the hills.
We stopped for lunch at one of the many roadside rest places.
On top of this we started a slight, but more than 100km long, uphill stretch.

After lunch we turned SE, which put us straight into the wind. On top of this we started a slight, but more than 100km long, uphill stretch. We are struggling with the wind and the uphill.
After the rest we put our shoulders into it for a last time, then at a place called Nik Pay turned down into the village.
Mehmet’s living room was a longish, appr. 30 square meters large room, covered in its entirety with carpets.
There was a gas lamp on the wall.
We ate dinner in the middle of the living room, they put down a cloth, and put a large dish of rice with sultanas and roast meat on it.
Lacking a mutual language, we said our thanks for our food with a „Merci”. They smiled, put their hands on their hearts and nodded. This probably meant „With pleasure, you’re welcome”.
We travelled on towards Zanjan, we decided to turn into the town and have a look.
We stopped at a roundabout in the centre of Zanjan.
We had a kebab in a little shop.
After lunch we got an invite by Mustafa for tea.
The girls of the family have also turned up.
The trucks have travelled in convoy.
We spent hours cycling uphill at 12-15km/hour, into the wind, surrounded by traffic.
We stopped at a roadside rest place.
We ate a kebab with rice.

The heat melted the asphalt under our bycicle tyres.
We saw a „shepherd” herding his cattle on a motorbike.

To the right behind us the Sun disappeared.
Almost at the same moment the Moon rose in front of us on the left.
Zita and Akram’s mother.
Girls and women.

From Tabriz to Mianeh

Arpi — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:00:56 +0000

Leaving Tabriz, an incredible number of cars were coming [towards us].
We saw ice vendors along the road.
Later we traveled on a second rate road upward to 2120m.
From here we hurled downward for a short while and coasted to a lakeshore.
At a suitable spot we set up our tent and spent the night there.
In the morning animals went by us; a small boy about 10 years old, was their shephard.
Unfortunately we saw a ditch filled with plastic trash.
We met Wim van den Stok, who is cycling from Australia back o his home, the Netherlands.
When we stopped to have lunch in the early afternoon, a motorcycle band gathered around us at the restaurant located in the middle of the village. They were a happy bunch and were glad to see us.
We ate kebab.
They invited us for tea, and we met a lot of merry children and adults.
Here was the 4000 km elevation sign written also in farsi (Persian writing).
They escorted us to the main road with their motorcross bikes.
The valley where we were traveling remained beautiful.
We were wondering how was it that everything was green around us, but the slopes and mountainsides were dry and bare. Soon we realized that they were irrigating from wells.
Late in the afternoon we reached 4000 kms. Of course we celebrated, and Zita wound her black shawl around her just like a chador.

We met Mohsen, who 20 years ago cycled to Hungary.
This is the cycle that Mohsen used in 1991 to start off to Europe. He went there to preach peace.
Nice family; it was a pleasure to meet them; thanks for everything!!

Arrival in Iran – Integration and making friends in Tabriz

Arpi — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 06:00:30 +0000

Even before getting over the border we got a little foretask of the boundless Iranian hospitality from Mahdy himself, who was returning from his fortnightly holiday.
On the border everybody had their photo taken with us and everybody gate us their telephone number so that we could give them a ring, should we have any problem. The bus journey lasted a couple of hours in Iran.
We arrived at Tabriz at night and found campsite by a policeman.
Our policeman woke us up in the morning, too, and then we got an invitation to tea.
We did not pay enough attention; we did not realize that our bank cards cannot be used in Iran. By the time I got out of the bank, Zita was surrounded by a crowd of about 30 people who all in inquired and wanted to help us.
A kind Iranian person gave us dinner: we got delicious scrambled eggs with lavas.
After lunch we popped round to buy clothes for Zita. We bought very thin, light trousers, a top also made of very light material and a headscarf.
In the Eligoli Park we stopped at a campsite, we got an enormous tent, where we could keep our bikes, too.
We had two beds, two chairs and a table, just that we needed.
There we changed oil in the Rohloff geards.
According to strict regulations.

Yerevan

Arpi — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:00:01 +0000

We thought Yerevan is a very good, easy to live in town, which we both liked a lot.
One defining feature of the town is transport. They have Metro (like in Budapest), trolleybuses and Marschutka.
The marschutka is a local speciality. These are old microbuses, which were adapted inside, so that more people would fit in. Every marschutka has a number, they travel along the route according to their line number, and you can hail them anywhere along this route. Getting off works the same way, you can tell the driver anywhere that you want to get off, give him the fare, a 100 Dram note (50 forints) and you can go. This is the technical part, this was probably not so exciting, but now come the people! :) At the back 3 complete strangers sit down on 2 seats! This is really serious, it happened to me too, it was a girl who squeezed me in next to her. And the luggage of those standing gets looked after by those sitting down.
This would be utterly impossible in Budapest, but here it works and it is a joy to behold.
Yerevan is a modern city, in downtown the streetscape is pristine.
The inner city has many parks, they are full of restaurants with outside places, where you can find perfectly good wifi – much to my delight.
The centre is perhaps formed by the Opera House and the surrounding sqaures and parks.

The downtown area is modern, you can find anything you want, food, drink, restaurants, pubs, markets, but quite a few fashion shops too. However, McDonald’s is banned! :D Apparently this gets the local youth rather annoyed, if only they knew how well off they are!
The outer suburbs are a bit more rundown, but they are still homely and livable in.

The townscape is dominated by the twin peaks of Mount Ararat. This is the holy mountain of the Armenian people, although nowadays it is in Turkey, but perfectly visible from Yerevan.
On the last night we were invited as guests in Yerevan, we visited Zita’s Armenian acquaintance, Lusine and her husband Laci.
We caught the bus from Yerevan to Tabriz in Iran, because otherwise we would have been unredeemably behind on our planned timescales. Unfortunately we had to stick to our schedule due to our visas and the approaching winter in Tadjik, Kirghiz, Chinese and Pakistani areas. Otherwise we would have literally frozen to our bikes.
After our departure we could admire the twin peaks of Mount Ararat in the first hour.

As soon as we left the valley of the Ararat, the bus travelled amongst higher and higher mountains. Occasionally we could climb 1000m in a few minutes, which would have taken us a whole day by bike. The views were unbeliveable, although due to the speed and looking through windows it felt like we were looking at a movie screen.

Thank you Armenia!
I can only write about Armenia that it was absolutely fantastic, both the countryside and the people. We both enjoyed our days spent in Yerevan, and by the end we felt it was our town too. Should you ever travel in Armenia, we suggest you quickly learn those few words with which you can thank the people for their kindness.

Ejmiatsin és Zvartnots

Arpi — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 06:00:33 +0000

On one of our the last days in Yerevan, we finally managed to visit Ejmiatsin, the Armenian Vatican, the main sight, which we shouldn’t have missed out at all.
We found the church and we admired it from inside and outside.
There was a part for a museum in the church, too. One of the interesting sights – if not the most exciting one – was the tip of the lance, which had been used to thrust through the crucified Jesus to examine if he was dead or still alive.
Zvartnots is just a ruin, but it is really old.
According to the legend, this place could be associated with the name of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, he had a vision here, after which he decided to introduce the Armenians to Christianity, so in 301 Armenia became the first country that took Christianity as state religion.
We admired the beautiful capital.

A text engrossed our interest, which was written into a stone column behind the church. It’s origin is estimated about BC 600. Characters are 2600 year old quite clearly readable and even touchable now.

Rush in Yerevan for Árpi’s money

Arpi — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:00:57 +0000

One day in Yerevan I received an sms. My mother sent it telling me to go to someplace where there is Internet access and start reading my emails.
To access my money from the reálhozam, I needed an authorization from the Hungarian ambassador in Yerevan. At the post office they did not accept the blanket authorization we left at home before embarking on our trip. I do not know what this “reálhozam” is, but the money it provides is enough for us for weeks.
Our next job was to find Aunt Ica. We needed her because, if we remembered correctly, the Hungarian ambassador in Yerevan did not speak Hungarian!
When we visited Aunt Ica a few days before, Laci took us to her place. Of course we observed everything but did not pay attention to how we were getting there.
Aunt Ica lives in a high-rise building, way up there; we took pictures from her balcony. On the basis of one photo, we found her place. She of course knew the ambassador and called him immediately. He was able to see us after 4:00 p.m.
We took a picture of the recipe for ”paprikás krumpli” (paprika-based potato stew) found in Aunt Ica’s recipe book.
We visited the Armenian Genocide Monument.
In a park we found a memorial tree planted by [representatives] a district from Budapest.
The ambassador is also an agent for the Gedeon Richter Plc., a pharmaceutical company; as it turned out, we met him in a pharmacy.
Ours was an exciting, action-packed day; we were given a task to tackle and successfully finish in an unknown and strange city. But we also had Laci and Aunt Ica to help. We are very grateful to them.

Garni and Geghard

Arpi — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 06:00:41 +0000

We devoted one day to visit two churches east of Jerevan, Garni and Geghard. We didn’t know much about them, but all the maps marked them as great tourist attractions.
We took Marschutka, which is the vehicle of local public transport.
The small bus out of the town, along the beautiful, barren mountainside as far as the town Garni.
The church itself looks like the Parthenon in the Acropolis in Athens and it’s setting is fascinating.
It is on the edge of a steep valley and if you stand beside it you have beautiful views in all directions of the valley and the surrounding mountains.
The Marschutka does not run from Garni to Geghard, so we took a taxi.
Already as we turned into the steep, rocky valley we saw that the side where the cloister stands is unique.
The main church built opposite the rock face is relatively new.
The older churches are hollowed out from the rock, and they open from the main temple.
The symbol of Geghard is the lion in the company of an eagle.
There was another temple on a higher level, we could enter it only from the outside climbing up a small flight of stairs.

As we were going up these stairs, we heard the sound of a choir singing.
If you go to Jerevan, you must visit the Geghard Cloister, because it is enchanting.