On the road again

Strange as it may seem -- and I know it does seem very strange to some -- there's something I really, really love about sitting at a makeshift roadside bus stop, eating crackers and watching the traffic go by. About showing up at some dusty otogar and having to figure out how to get where I want to go next. About bumping down tiny rural roads in a dolmuş, gazing out the window at everything and nothing. About waking up on an all-night bus ride to the blazing lights of a rest stop, surreally bustling with people eating, smoking, and shopping at 3 a.m.

I love it so much that where I end up almost doesn't matter. If it's a tucked-away backstreet where I can sit on a little rattan stool and eat cheesy pastries and drink tea, or a rural village strewn with 2,000-year-old ruins*, all the better.

* Like the lovely remains shown here of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis, capital of the ancient kingdom of the Lydians, the first people to mint coins.