Van, No, It's Not Like The One You Owned In High School

Van, man is this place far out there, literally and figuratively. Far to the East, in Van I would estimate that we were within two hundred miles of Iran and Iraq. Yikes! It is also one of the more violent areas of the country due to the ongoing struggle between the Kurdish PPK and the Turkish government. As we approached Van we were stopped twice at check points and we lots of armored vechiles and soldiers in pillboxes waiting to shoot. That aside, Van is a beautiful city and we found the inhabitants to be very nice... and a little interesting. The people of Van love their white cats with two different colored eyes. Yes, that's right, I was a little stumped by this one too. I never even saw one of these cats, but I am assured they do exist. The main attraction for us in Van was of Van castle.

Over roughly the past 2500 years Van castle has stood as a fortress on the hill. Now unoccupied and largely unattended it is really a sight to see. The pictures do not do it justice. In the middle of a fairly flat plain a mass of rock juts up into the sky with almost sheer cliffs. Atop this is Van Castle. Once you get to the top you can easily imagine why this spot was chosen for defense.

Also pictured is what looks like an island. It looks like and island because it is, but don't get too excited yet, that is not the coolest part. On the island is a monastary, I believe it is still functioning. There was a nice story about the monastary and young love. The daughter of a priest on the island fell in love with a boy from the mainland. The father, of course, disapproved of their courting. To circumvent this the young girl would wait until nightfall and then light a lamp so that her lover could come to the island and visit her. Her father, being no dummy, caught on to this and one night he waited until the lamp had been lit for short time and then he blew it out! Oh the horror! The young lover lost his course midway to the island and drowned! End of story. Lesson to be learned? I think so. If your swimming in to an island in the middle of the night, bring a life-ring. Or wear some water wings or something like that.