Turkey was absolutely a country that I will never forget. We had the privilege to do a pilgrimage of Paul’s journey through Turkey. I can testify about how God protected us and blessed us during this time.
To start with we went to Cappadocia.
Now if you want to experience a beautiful dawn you should go there. We sat on the rocky mountain while watching the sun rise. As the sun rose about 150 hot air balloons rose into the air. What a sight to see.. I just kept on thinking that my Father and God painted this picture. Amazing! I enjoyed our climb in the tunnels and the underground churches in the fairy chimneys. I actually do not know if we were allowed, but oh well, Arno and I had to face a few fears and God pulled us through.
The next destination, Pamukkale! We had to do a "Turkey run" (hitch hike) from Ayas to Pamukkale. Is it ten kilometres, maybe fifty? Nope. 700km, literally! A group of 11 people is too much to travel together in this way so we divided into smaller groups. It was I, Quinton and Jade. Our group’s name was “WJQ Seeking Adventure”. We laughed every time that we tried to say our name.
Amped and excited, we went out into the streets on Friday morning. God quickly provided our first lift to Silifke. If you want to hitch hike in a city you firstly have to stand at a spot where people can pick you up and it would help if you are on the road that is going to the town where you want to be. A city is difficult to get out of so try to stay on the highway as far as possible. So hour and a half later we got a lift to Anamur. It’s a funny name, right? I can just say that it brought joy saying it. From there we got a lift in a (my very first) truck going to Antalya which was our final destination for the day. Slowly we drove while the driver blessed us with pistachio nuts, Redbull, water, tea, a meal and Pepsi. We tried to communicate but he could not really understand us. We slept next to the truck in our tents at the store rooms where the trucks download their load.
It was Saturday. It was a tough day in Antalya, hey? At about 11am we realised we do not want to stay in the same truck than the driver. Let’s just say he had another idea in his head. In the middle of this city we tried to get to Pamukkale. Nope, this was not fun. I can testify that God broke me that day. For five hours we tried to get a lift. As soon as we gave up and decided to have fun and make this experience worth it, we got a lift. A long story short: As we danced and made funny videos and enjoyed our time in the hot sun trying to hitch hike God brought our next lift who took us all the way to Pamukkale, a 300km drive. God blessed our team that night with a camping site that had a huge swimming pool with three kinds of super tubes.
A day spend at Tarsus.
Sleep next to a truck during hitch hike to Pammukale.
Pammukale.
We stayed a few days there near Hierapolis where Paul spoke to the people in Corinthians. We even swam in the heritage site’s pools. We almost had to pay a lot of money, but we have our Father’s favour. It was kind of fun to do something illegal J. In our defense I just want to say that we did not know we were allowed to climb there.
Ons manne in Efese.
After Pamukkale we had to hitch hike to Kusadasi. Was I excited? Sort off… I had the thought that God will bless us. And He did. We reached our destination first out of the whole team. From there we had the opportunity to visit Ephesus. I enjoy seeing the places that was so important that Paul wrote to them.
Kusadasi