Monday, September 14 Kars
Another kidney killing, body bashing, bone bending
drive on roads under construction. I hate to keep complaining but this
takes all the fun out of it. Of course being under the weather makes
matters worse. Omer and Mehmet did manage to find and stop at some good
places for pho
tos of sheep. I was most grateful. Later I
became annoyed when, after lunch, I was reaching for a second cigarette and Omer
said that we would stop at a petrol station because they needed to use the
washroom. I took that to mean that they were in somewhat dire need so we
would stop at the first suitable location. After we passed numerous
stations and had travelled for a half hour and fifty kms I said, "I thought
you had to go to the washroom". He just shrugged. You can
believe I told him what I thought! Later he was disappointed because I
didn't want to photograph or go into a building. Have told him many times
that I have little or no interest in such things.
Trouble finding a place for lunch again but the place
we finally found, just a little hole in the wall, turned out to be good. I
had an excellent split pea soup and actually managed to eat the whole thing
(minus the bread). That was the extent of
my food for the day. I am beginning to feel like an accidental Muslim
fasting.... not really because I continue to smoke and drink copious amounts of
water.
We went close to the Iranian border to observe the
second largest metor crater in the world - second only to one in Alaska.
Not much to see really. What was mind boggling was the line up of trucks
waiting to enter Iran. The line went oon for as far as the eye could see,
miles and miles. Some of them will likely be in that line for a couple of
days.
Later we neared the border with Armenia from which we
could see Mt. Aarat which, according to the bible, is where Noah's ark
landed. It has never been found leading one to wonder if....
Vert little on the agenda tomorrow so perhaps I will
be to convince him to sit somewhere for some people watching - passed an
excellent opportunity again yesterday.