The steppes of Eastern Turkey

The grassland of Eastern Turkey goes on for miles and miles. They are a beautiful shade of blue, mauve, yellow, pink and every color in between. It was such a delightful sight just gazing out of the taxi. The herders are out there with their herds. How lucky to be one of those animals. Ella Maillart in her book 'Forbidden journey' mentioned a time when their pack animals were chomping on colorful sweet hay. These are colorful and fragrant hay that these animals are chomping on. I've never seen anything like this in my life.

The village, a close up

 Turkeys are roaming in the yard.

 Man drying sheeps' wool in the yard.

Right next to the church ruin is the village. There was no one around except this old man who came over the fence to chat with our taxi driver. I gave him some change and took his picture. Then he brought over his grandson. The lady of the house came out too, to work on drying some vegetables. The yard was full of turkeys, geese, ducks and chicken. It was like old MacDonald's farm.

Oguzlu

The guidebook mentioned 2 churches in the middle of the grassland which are in ruins. We managed to visit one of them at Oguzlu. The roof is completely gone. The only thing remaining are the walls. It was a beautiful drive out to see it, just gorgeous, passing through some of the most lush of grassland and the most colorful patches of wild flowers. Our taxi driver probably thought we were nuts to pay so much to come and see church ruins. I wish I could teach the whole world to value such ancient treasures, it doesn't matter if we didn't believe in the same religion. I'm reminded of the gigantic Buddha carvings that were blown out of existence in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

On our way to Cilder

It is a beautiful lake but the drive there and around it seemed to go on forever. Our taxi driver was happy, he was being paid to see the lake which he was so proud of. We had already spent a few hours at Ani but agreed to be taken to the lake not knowing the drive was so long. It wasn't far but he just drove on and on around the huge lake and I thought to myself 'we're not going all the way round the lake, I hope'. Finally we told him to turn around and head back to Kars. If you are going to Kars to visit Ani, there's no need to go to the lake. You don't miss anything. I could see a lot more churches like we did in Cappadocia. We couldn't get enough while we were in Cappadocia last year. There are churches still all around Kars but they are scattered all over and to see them would take up a lot of time. It was different in Cappadocia, they were fairly close to each other. Here at the lake, there were lush and green grasslands where the livestock grazed. Every now and then we passed yurts because the herders live on the grassland in summer with their herds. Once in a while we passed families picnicking at the lake. It was a beautiful drive but way too long.