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Last I wrote, I was sitting with our new friends in Istanbul. After we left we took a walk around the Blue Mosque, but didn't go inside, as we were not dressed properly. We found a street full of auto parts stores, and were very tempted to get a multi-tone horn for the car. They love them here. As we were walking back towards our car, Cem, our rug dealer friend, pulled us into his family's store at the corner of the bazaar. We met his cousin Ishmail, and then he sat us down for a lesson on rugs. It was basically his sales spiel, but he was only giving it to us because we were genuinely interested in learning about the rugs; he knew that we weren't going to be buying any.

It was fascinating learning about the different rugs, and how and why some have greater value than others. He showed us a new rug that is used with chemical dyes, and the colors looked faded, yet when he pulled out a rug over 100 years old, the colors were vibrant, and there were infinite numbers of different shades of each color, as the dying process using plant dyes created different hues in the fibers. He told us how village rugs are more unique because of how a woman's emotions go into it, and how these could take years to make, and were often to pay for her own dowrie. A commercial rug could take as long as 5 months to make, and the ones that come from the cities have more uniform patterns. He said in order to buy a rug, it should speak to you immediately, and be an "optical symphony." It was really quite fascinating, and we got great footage from the shop. We said our goodbyes and headed on down the road to get out of Istanbul and cross over into Asia.

The traffic was insane, as usual, and I passed the time making faces with the googly-eyes that Andrew had been playing with the day before. It really is a lot of fun, and the reactions are priceless. We drove on into the night, and at one point were on a mountain in the clouds with only a few feet of visibility in front of the car. We pressed on into close to 3, then parked our car at a petrol station and had a lovely sleep in the car. When we awoke we discovered English friends from the previous day had also chosen that exact station for their sleep, and so we pressed on up to the Black Sea coast in Samsun with them. They took their van to a Diahatsu dealer for their radiator troubles, and many Turks gathered around the car for about 5 minutes, revving the engine over and over, then got bored and went off to look at some of the other cars. We left our friends there and pressed on up the coast.

We stopped at a small restaurant for a delicious meal just off the highway. The owner handrolled out all the dough, and cooked it in a wood stove, and it was filled with meat, cheese, and onions. Absolutly wonderfly. The man spoke no English at all, but he sat at our table and we tried to communicate with our english/turkish book for nearly two hours. He was all smiles, and his food was wonderful. We rolled into Trabzon that night looking for the only hostel in town. We pulled off on a road, and instantly somebody stopped to ask if we were lost. We gave him the address we needed, and he said his name was Ali, and to follow him. We found the hostel, but it is closed when the students are gone, but we said we didn't mind sleeping in the car, so he took us over to his brother's trucking company where the truckers leave their vehicles, and said we could sleep there. He said there was a 24 hour petrol station a block away, and that we could probably shower, so he led us up there and talked to the guys inside. Next thing we know he opens up a back room with prayer rugs on the floor, and says that we can sleep inside the prayer room for the night. When we went to sleep there was one set of prayer beads on the floor, but when we woke up there were two, so we aren't sure if somebody came into pray while we slept.

We started walking towards town that morning to find internet, and Ali's friend from the night before pulled over in front of us and asked if we wanted to eat...well, gestured really. We hopped in his car, and he took us to a little truck stop that I would have had no idea was a restaurant. We had a feast of bread, eggs, sausage, cheeses, and olives, and ate with all the truckers from the shipping company. We didn't have to pay for any of it. I love how wonderful the Turkish people are. No matter where we meet them, they go out of their way to make us guests.

We decided to press on into Georgia that evening, and we passed miles of stopped truckers trying to get past customs, but we got right to the border. Other ralliers had been through recently, and we didn't have too many troubles. The Georgia border was full of beurocracy that made no sense to me, but Andrew had to get out of the car and go through the pedestrian line, and i had to go through the car line. Three different people had to look in my passport and different points before I could go through, and one lady was not pleased at all when I laughed after she said, "there is no room for my stamp." He said, "ha. ha. ha." I couldn't help it; I had just watched her pass 8 empty boxes.

We drove into Georgia, and on the highways we had to go through a cow-slalom many teams, as they just cross the road when they like. Once again, there are very few rules for driving. We finally got our first taste of rain on the trip, and we decided to stop driving before it got too late, because the country is beautiful, and we didn't want to miss it. We stopped at a large petrol station, and were going to ask if we could sleep in our cars, but then realized there was a hotel sign on the building. He said 20 dollars for a room, and we figured at least we have a bed. We started drinking with the attendant in the parking lot, and then a man got pulled over by the police in front of us, and staggered out of his car. He was enormous, with a huge gut, and the cops pulled his car into the station and told him to sleep it off. He pulled out of a bottle of "Georgian Viagra", which was a bathtub honey-vodka that makes you go blind. When we were cheersing, he said, "I LOVE GEORGIA, I LOVE AMERICA, I LOVE FREEEEDOM!!!!" We got drunk in the parking lot and danced, and then the attendant called down the women in the hotel, and we realized we had pulled into a whorehouse. He pulled the girls over, and was saying something to them, and the one named Sofia was blushing when she came up to me. I didn't know whores blushed. The man kept pulling Andrew and I aside and trying to get us to sleep with them, but we weren't having it.

We finally went to bed, but then at 6 am the man woke us up saying, "the sun is up, you leave now." So much for a good night's sleep. The bathroom was disgusting, and the smell from the toilet filled the whole hallway. When we went in there, we saw a birdsnest sitting on the window sill, and there were two baby birds twitching on the floor. It was quite horrifying. We left, and pressed on through some gorgeous mountains. Once again I was weaving around cows in the middle of the main highway, and after a couple hours, I pulled over to the side of the road for a nap. We awoke when some other ralliers pulled up next to us, and we decided to follow them to Tblisi. Tblisi is a beautiful city, and everybody is incredibly friendly. After all my experiences, I've decided that CNN can never be trusted about international affairs, and that all the fear that Americans have about foreign countries is completely unfounded. We met up with 5 other rally teams and spent the evening swapping stories and sharing beers. We are headed onto Azerbaijan today, and there is apparently a rally camp around the customs station in Baku where everybody is waiting for a ferry. We only have a 3 day visa, so let's hope we don't wait too long. We are heading into no-man's land, so we'll see when we can update again. Stay tuned.

---Team Flatlanders---