Since the situation is pretty tense, things can change from day to day here. For the moment, it is forbidden by the authorities to do some trekking, as they are afraid you might get kidnapped. This rules out Mount Ararat and Nemrut Dagi near Tatvan (not the one with the statues).

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There are direct buses from Trabzon to Artvin. The trip takes 4 hours 30 minutes. The bus will stop at the bus terminal down in the valley, but if you want to go to Artvin, stay in the bus as it will bring you up the hill to the center of artvin or else take a shuttle from the buscompany (to avoid taking a taxi).

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The trip to Kars goes through Zeytenlik - Demirkent - Aksar - Göle - Ardahan and takes in theory 7 hours, for us it was 9 hours.

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We took a bus to Igdir which took 4 hours. There you could either take a bus or a dolmus to Dogubayazit. We had to wait 4 hours for the bus, so we decided on the dolmus. However, this was very slow, especially in the mountains.

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There's either a direct bus to Van (leaving in the morning), or a bus to Agri in the afternoon where you have to change buses. We took the last option, and arrived in Agri around 4 pm. Unfortunately, all the connecting buses to Van were full, so we had to spend the night there. You might think "Waw, typical Eastern Turkish town, no tourists, that's my idea of adventure". Well, don't count on adventure. Accomodation there is very basic. I slept in a dormitory with Turkish men. I had to go to the toilet every 2 hours, either to vomit or to get rid of my diarrheal stools, not my best memory of my trip there. We were also woken up in the middle of the night by

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This is a very lively city. We stayed one and a half day, but that was too long I think. The city walls are quite nice, but apart from that, there's nothing much to attract a tourist.

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Getting to Nemrut Dagi We took the bus from Diyarbakir to Kahta. This takes about 3 hours. Options to visit Nemrut Dagi You will be offered a minibus tour. I would advise to leave in late afternoon to see sunset and spend the night there. There's either a dormitory at the base of the mountain, or there's a more luxurious hotel a couple of kilometres before the mountain. We stayed at the dormitory. Make sure you have a good sleeping bag here because it's freezing cold. Next morning you can get up to see sunrise.

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Coming from Eastern Turkey, the Mediterranean Coast might come as a shock. Prices will be in Deutsch Marks and as a consequence everything can be much more expensive.

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From Cappadocia you need to get a bus to Kayseri. Our plan was to take a nightbus from Kayseri to Antakya. Unfortunately, our bus left Kayseri pretty early (around 7 pm and their was no later bus). They told us we would arrive in Antakya at 5am, and I thought there would be an early bus leaving for Aleppo around 6 am, so that would be OK. Unfortunately, the bus drove much faster so we arrived at 2.30 am in the morning, and that wasn't such a good experience in a city you don't know, where there's almost no lighting in the street.

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From Kahta, take a bus to Mersin. This will take you about 8 hours, so you will arrive in the evening and will probaably have to spend the night there. From Mersin, there are regular buses along the coast to the West.

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