When the thunder strikes you on the mountain high (May 2023)

I really love thunderstorms. The nice, exciting atmosphere, the rain, the dynamics of the wind…

But being inside of one just between the summits of the Karasay and the Eznevit at 3500 meters altitude was a very different experience.

When I started the ascent, the weather looked good and after some kilometers of walking on nearly flat ground the real ascent started. It was basically just going up, up, up the steep slope.

When I was about 200 meters away from the top, the thunderstorm rapidly arose and I was standing on the very steep, snow covered slope in my snow shoes and thought about what direction would be better. Up or down? No cover in any direction. So I decided to go up between the two summits to have at least a less steep place when the thunderstorm would hit me.

I found a tiny spot, sat down, wrapped myself in my emergency blanket to have some protection from the wind, hail, snow and whatever there is to come and looked in the direction of the approaching thunderstorm.

I saw big lightning hitting the rocks of the mountain in front of me and it looked so impressive. But after just a couple of minutes the view drastically deteriorated and everything went white and the storm was tugging and pushing my blanket.

But sitting in the blanket felt ok to me. The lightning did not close in on me which made me feel pretty safe. But still I had some interesting thoughts. For example, I thought if there is something I should do before I may die in this thunderstorm. I guess I was very far away from dying up there but still this thought occurred to me but I did not find anything and just continued sitting.

The whole time I had this song from East 17 on my mind: “When the thunder calls you, from the mountain’s high, it’s time to spread your wings and fly”.

After the thunderstorm had passed, I just ran/ slided down the slope and felt totally pumped.

Back in Turkey in the amazing Aladaglar National Park (May 2023)

I made it back to the mainland! But had only about three weeks to pass Turkey and reach Georgia because of the way the Turkish border control did calculate my visa days (see the last post).

I had kept in touch with Cindy and she had recommended that I visit the Aladaglar National Park and said the mountains there were amazing. And she was absolutely right!

Cyprus was super nice but to see again some real mountains was just mind-blowing. I loved it and the paid campsite in the national park had a super nice location.

I met July and Philip from Germany. They just traveled the Arabian peninsula in the camper van and were about to go east to Georgia. The same direction I was about to take. They told me that they would like to climb a mountain about 5000 meters high. Maybe in Turkey or maybe in Georgia. I never went up that far and loved the idea.

Calculating visa and customs days for Turkey: how to stay longer than 90 out of 180 days in Turkey (May 2023)

The calculation of visa and customs days in Turkey is one of the most confusing topics I’ve come across so far.

These Infos are based on my personal experiences with my German passport and my in Germany registered car and what I’ve heard directly from other travelers in December 2022 up to May 2023.

I guess what makes it so confusing is this sentence from the official Turkish website about visas on Turkey: “The length of stay provided by visa or visa exemption cannot exceed 90 days within each 180 days.” (source).

From my experience this is absolutely right BUT the complexity begins when you want to stay more days after the 180 days of your initial stay have passed.

Travelers think they can calculate like the following example: You enter Turkey and the 180 days period starts. Within these 180 days you can leave and re-enter Turkey without problems. Every day you spend inside counts towards the 90 days you are allowed to stay within the 180 days timespan. So far, so good.

But now the complexity starts: One may think that when the 180 days are over another 180 days period will start and you get another 90 days in this period but that’s not the case. The Turkish border controls calculate your visa and customs days like this:

When you re-enter Turkey after your first 180 days timespan, the officials take the amount of days that you had left from your initial 90 days and add up the amount of days that have passed since your initial 180 timespan had ended. The result is the amount of days you are allowed to stay in the next 180 days timespan that starts with you entering Turkey.

One example:

  • You enter Turkey and use 80 days of the 90 days you are allowed in the timespan of 180 days.
  • You leave Turkey after these 80 days and enter the northern part of Cyprus or another country because you think it’s a nice way to get more visa days in Turkey.
  • After your initial 180 days timespan for Turkey has passed for 20 days you re-enter Turkey. So it’s been 200 days since you first had entered Turkey.
  • The amount of days you are allowed to stay in Turkey within the upcoming 180 days is: 10 days (you had left from your initial 180 days timespan) + 20 days (which you started “gathering” after your first 180 days timespan had ended).

And this “gathering of days” nobody would expect. But from my own experience and what I’ve heard from others, it’s what the officials at the border are doing.

The penalties for staying longer than allowed seem to vary a lot: One friend paid around 400€ for overdoing ten days. Another paid 30€ for overdoing 30 days.