Ralf climbing. We don't like to climb after Ralf, because he's about 6'3" and has a monster long reach. He skips about every other hold.
Left side of the canyon called "Ballıkayalar" (Rocks with Honey), and one of the walls where we climbed.
Ralf and the friendly water truck driver that gave us a lift for a few kilometers to the entrance of the park.
Walking towards a mosque after our half an hour bus ride to Asia, hour on the commuter train to Gebze, and two very confused dolmus rides later. 
Alex (US) telling Ralf (Germany) how he throttled a moose with his bare hands.... or something like that. This weekend, Ralf, Alex and I went out to go rock climbing in a Canyon that's only a few kilometers away from Istanbul, or about an hour in the car if you're driving. It took us three hours to get out there - we had to take the bus from Rumeli Hisar to Kadıköy (Asian side) then from there walk to the trains, and take a train all the way to the end of the line town of Gebze. In Gebze, we had nice conversations with many unhelpful but enthusiastic Turkish men and figured out how to take two dolmuses that dropped us of on the freeway 3 K from the park. We walked for about 5 minutes when the driver of a very large water tank truck picked us up so we squashed with our packs into his cab.
Climbing was awesome, there were loads of Turks but everyone got along and was helping each other out and giving advice and eating a lot (always - it's Turkey). The weather was sunny for the first time in a while, and as they say in travel logs, spirits were running high.
After climbing for a while, Alex and I decided we should probably get some homework done at some point this weekend ( I spend all of Saturday playing ultimate frisbee and eating ice cream in Taksim with some friends from Bulgaria) so we began our journey back. We caught a ride in the van of some Jandarma guys (jandarma: militia). Alex actually went up and asked them for a ride, I have more trouble walking up to men holding automatic weapons...
They dropped us off at a random bus station telling us the bus would be faster to Istanbul. We finally got on a mini-bus, completely confused about what was actually going on. We ended up on the side of the freeway in Asian Istanbul, took another bus to the end of the Metro, took the Metro one stop, got off... and walked home. Well, grabbed something to eat, then walked the half hour home. Climbing here I guess is more in the traveling adventure than anything else.
Climbing was awesome, there were loads of Turks but everyone got along and was helping each other out and giving advice and eating a lot (always - it's Turkey). The weather was sunny for the first time in a while, and as they say in travel logs, spirits were running high.
After climbing for a while, Alex and I decided we should probably get some homework done at some point this weekend ( I spend all of Saturday playing ultimate frisbee and eating ice cream in Taksim with some friends from Bulgaria) so we began our journey back. We caught a ride in the van of some Jandarma guys (jandarma: militia). Alex actually went up and asked them for a ride, I have more trouble walking up to men holding automatic weapons...
They dropped us off at a random bus station telling us the bus would be faster to Istanbul. We finally got on a mini-bus, completely confused about what was actually going on. We ended up on the side of the freeway in Asian Istanbul, took another bus to the end of the Metro, took the Metro one stop, got off... and walked home. Well, grabbed something to eat, then walked the half hour home. Climbing here I guess is more in the traveling adventure than anything else.
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