I had often heard about the magic of eastern Anatolia, but I had never imagined that it was so beautiful like this
My trip from Ankara to Erzurum started first (read my Erzurum trip here)
After staying for a night in Erzurum, we headed to Kars by car, the road is about two hours.
The first stop we made in Kars was Sarıkamış, a small city with a great history, in which the famous Sarıkamış incident in which many Turkish soldiers were martyred due to the cold weather
In Sarıkamış, there is a ski center that is one of the best ski centers in Turkey. The city is quiet and covered in snow, and there are monuments everywhere to remind visitors and residents of the history of this region
In Sarıkamış Ski Center we spent about five hours skiing, doing snow activities and riding the cable car
The place is very beautiful and in my opinion one of the most beautiful ski centers in Turkey
Then we headed to the city, passing through the cemetery of Sarikamish, and entered the village, which contains a few houses sunken in the snow, and then the famous mosque of the village.
Then we headed to Kars city center
Our hotel was in the city center, after check-in and rest, we went to dinner and the Caucasian evening
Honestly, the Caucasian evening was one of the most enjoyable nights of my trip
I enjoyed watching traditional dance, also we watch Kars evening show where a fire is set (because of the cold weather there) and traditional city music and songs are played
On the second day, after breakfast, we went to one of the most famous and most beautiful destinations in Kars, Cildir Lake
Visiting this lake has been on my list of places that I would like to visit for a while. This lake is famous for its freezing in most seasons of the year and it is located on the Turkish borders with Armenia and Georgia
The road took about 45 minutes and there was a snow storm (it is preferable to rent a car with a driver from the city because driving is difficult there)
We got to the place and everything was covered with snow.. even the frozen lake was covered with a layer of snow
We took a horse-drawn carriage tour and then had lunch. It was the famous lake fish SARIBALIK, which means yellow fish because of its yellow color.
The fish is delicious and different from all the fish of Turkey
Caucasian evening
Cildir Lake
Then we headed to ANI Castle. This castle dates back to the Byzantine and Seljuk period and is located near the Turkish-Armenian border
It was one of the most beautiful historical places I have visited
The great wall of the castle, the calm that pervades the place, the snows that cover the gray mountains, the scattered remains of the ruins, the three churches, the mosque
Everything there had a special charm
We wandered around for about three hours and the place was so charming that I forgot to take a lot of pictures
On the last day of my trip to Kars, we toured the city center. What attracts most interest there is the Russian architecture, as the city was occupied by the Russians for a long time.
We visited the Caucasus War Museum and cheese factories (Kars is famous for making cheese) and in the evening we went to the train station to start a new journey
To read it here
ANI Castle
Mosque, ANI Castle
