One chilly morning in September 2012, the Finance team arrived at Istanbul Airport after a four-hour air travel from Dubai. We were all excited to see the beautiful city.  We stayed at Hotel Troya, which is located in Taksim-Beyoglu district, ‘a place that never sleeps’. This phrase was coined to reinstate its active nightlife.

Bosphorus Cruise

We started our 1^st day tour by taking the Bosphorus Cruise. We were excited to get a glimpse of both Europe and Asia. Bosphorus is also known as the Istanbul Strait, it  connects the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea (which is connected by the Dardanelles to the Aegean Sea, and thereby to the Mediterranean Sea). We took the ferry ride to the picturesque sights of:

1. Dolmabahce Palace- one of the Ottoman Empire’s most significant and grandiose structures.
2. Topkapi Palace- the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years.
3. Ciragan Palace- a former Ottoman palace, is now a five-star hotel of the Kempinski Hotels chain. 
4. Maiden’s Tower- also known as Leander’s Tower (Tower of Leandros) since the medieval Byzantine period, is a tower lying on a small islet located at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus.
5. Ortaköy- once literally known as “the village in the middle” and  is now considered as one of Istanbul’s coolest and most artsy neighborhoods, with trendy boutiques, atmospheric cafes and bistros, and crowds of young, sophisticated residents and visitors.
6. Üsküdar -once known as Scutari, is a largest district on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in metropolitan Istanbul.
7. Bosphorus Bridge- the bridge that connects Asia and Europe

8. Beylerbeyi Palace- a small Istanbul summer palace overlooking the Bosphorus from its Asian shore.

9. Mecidiye Mosque- is an Ottoman mosque.

10. Kuleli Naval Academy- Kuleli means “with towers,” and it was built in 1800 when Sultan Selim III sought to modernize the Ottoman armed forces. 
11. Arnavutköy- the seafront of this “Albanian Village” is lined with photogenic Ottoman seaside Mansions.
12. Rumeli Hisari- is a fortress built in order to control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait and prevent aid from the Black Sea to reach Constantinople during the Turkish siege of the city in 1453.
13. Sariyer-it is where the fish market and several seafood restaurants are located.
14. Fatih Bridge-also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge.

We also got to see the Queen Elizabeth luxury ship which according to our tour guide this only happens once a year.

On our way back we stopped by the Spice Bazaar to indulge in some Turkish delights. Then we went to Naturel leather shop and got to see the models walked on the runway with some of my colleagues who are chosen to be dressed up.

Turkey is known of its heritage sites. Our 2^nd day was earmarked for the heritage sites visits.

Hippodrome – an oval where the greatest monuments during Constantinople’s era are located.

Sultanahmet Mosque or known as Blue Mosque- a very popular tourist destination which its design is the culmination of two centuries of both Ottoman mosque and Byzantine church development.

Hagia Sophia- a former Orthodox church then converted as Catholic cathedral, later a mosque, and now a museum.

Topkapi Palace- a former royal residence which is now a major tourist attraction.

After our tour, we had a mouthwatering lunch in a nice seafood restaurant. Then we went to Grand Bazaar to buy some souvenirs.

In the evening we decided to walk along the busy street and we got to experience the lively street nightlife. We were entertained by the street performers.

On our 3^rd day, we arrived at Kayseri Airport after one and a half hours of travel from Istanbul. On our way to our hotel, our eyes were glued on the picturesque scenery of the valleys, rock formations and cave houses.  We arrived at Lalesaray Hotel and were fascinated to see the surreal landscape of the region. Lady luck was on our side because our hotel is perfectly located on the upper region of valley. We visited the Goreme Valley where there are various fairy chimney & unique rock formations.  We also visited the Goreme Open Air Museum, a UNESCO world heritage site, a compound of medieval painted cave churches carved out by Orthodox monks. Mehmet, our comic tour guide told us about the history of the region and shared some of his comic antics that made us laugh throughout our tour. Our desire to explore Cappadocia took us hiking through the valleys tirelessly. The place was like another wonderful planet. The experience was new and unique!

After a sumptuous lunch, we visited the Chez Galip Pottery, one of the town’s oldest pottery shops, handicrafts are meticulously crafted and decorated by local artisans. In the afternoon, after a long gratifying day around Cappadocia, we sat back and enjoyed the soothing and ever enigmatic Rose Valley sunset. In the evening, we were delighted to experience some local cuisine for our dinner. 

On our 4^th day, we woke up very early for our Hot Air Balloon tour. We were all excited First Timers.  There’s no better way to see the breathtaking beauty of the valleys than in a Hot Air Balloon. We didn’t mind the feeling of having ‘butterflies in our stomach’ because the view is undeniably fantastic. The only sounds one could hear were those of the camera shutters and the astounding ‘WOWs’! After our magical ride, we were rewarded with some refreshing champagne and memento certificates.

Our tour guide was excited to show us the LOVE Valley. We were all curious as to why it is called Love Valley, were we going to see the cliché HEART? However once you get there, your creative imagination works. It is definitely worth a peek!

We spent the last hours rejuvenating our senses in the Hamam, a Turkish bath. We enjoyed the full spa experience which included a face mask, dry sauna, hamam with kese (peeler) and köpüklu masaj (bubble massage), steam sauna, cool jacuzzi and body massage.

As a finale to our Cappadocia tour, we experienced the Turkish night in a cave restaurant. We got to see the colorful costumes and the graceful Swirling Dervishes and Belly Dance of the locals.

On our last day, we went back to Istanbul and decided to stop and shop at Grand Bazaar which all of us love to do.

To summarize our trip, the two perfect words would be AWESOME & AMAZING!

Now that I’ve crossed Turkey from west to east, it’s time to reflect on my experiences in the past two and half weeks. I arrived in Istanbul on a rainy sundaynight, without Turkish money on me, or any idea where to go. Fortunately I already found out that night that the Turkish people are very friendly and helpful. In search of an ATM, I went to the nearest place alive, a local hospital. There I ran into an extremely hospitable doctor who helped me out and arranged a ride with one of his friends to bring me all the way to the other side of town, where I would meet up with my couchsurf host. Urban hitchhiking is definitely possible, but what’s more, this already indicated how extremely hospitable and helpful the Turkish people are. In the two weeks that followed, this proved to be more even more so. Time and time again, I found rides very easily, and many times I even got offered tea or lunch along the way, making Turkey the best country I’ve ever hitchhiked in.

From Istanbul, I first headed for Ankara, the country’s capital. My first ride that day dropped me off at a gas station a little bit outside Istanbul’s sprawling suburbs. And amazingly, within less than 1 minute, I found a second, straight ride into Ankara by simply asking the woman smoking in the car next to us. Sometimes, hitchhiking is that easy! What’s more, this woman was so friendly that she even insisted on buying me lunch twice, plus she made sure that I made it to Ankara’s city center and was able to catch the right bus to my hosts for that night. Finding a ride as easy as that didn’t occur to me at later moments, but waiting times within Turkey rarely exceded 15 minutes. Even at the desolated ways in Cappadocia, where there are barely more cars than those that are spitted out every few minutes by the small traffic light a few hunderd meters away, I found rides within a couple of minutes.

After exploring Ankara and attending a local Couchsurf meeting there, I had been heading southeast for the ancient rock caves of Cappadocia. As much as hitchhiking was fun, so much appalling was the wheather, that I packed my tent after two nights of constant cold and rain, and left this place that is mainly dominated by tourist from all over Europe and Asia.

My next deestination would be Kurdistan, in the southeastern corner of the country. From Cappadocia, I was hitchhiking in the direction of Diyarbakir, the restive region’s unofficial capital, when I got picked up by a very friendly and humorous man from Istanbul. He was indeed on his way to Diyarbakir, and he drove me all the way across the rough terrain of central Anatolia. We passed muddy and miserable villages and herds of sheep grazing the waste land in between the snow-capped mountains and the baren hills that give you the feeling of a lunar landscape. Along the way, I learned some Turkish, while in return I could teach him some English. And so we made it to the city of Malatya, where he would spend the night with his family at a small mountain village just off tthe motorway. Being invited to stay the night, I ended up in warm and cozy room at 1800 m altitude, eating endless amounts of the most delicious Turkish food, while drinking traditional raki with villagemen who already passed their 60′s. Hearing them sing some songs with a breaking old voice is a memory I won’t easily forget.

The next day, we went futher to Diyarbakir. I had finally made it to Turkish Kurdistan! Hitchhiking in Kurdistan is even more pleasent than in the west of Turkey. You can basically stick your thumb out wherever you want, and often the first car to pass will stop for you. In this way, I made it from village to village, hitching with businessmen, kebab deliverers, and truck driver across the mountainous terrain where just a few years ago the PKK was still fighting the Turkish army. Altough the situation is currently very peaceful, and the PKK recently announced a complete troop withdrawal, military bases and vehicles can still be found at virtually every mountain hill.

From these mountains, the road led further to Lake Van, a breathtaking lake surrounded by high mountain peaks on all sides. The city of Van has a very lively and pleasant atmosphere, so I decided to stay there for a day, and explore the age-old castle watching out over the lake and the city. From Van, I continued further up north, to Dogubayazit, the last town before the Iranian border, and famous for its stunning background of Mt. Ararat. From there, I wanted to make a little de-tour to Kars, the city that formed the background to Orhan Pamuk’s prize-winning novel Snow. However, when I wanted to go there, some snow as falling as well, and because the city is off my route to China, I decided to take the bus instead of hitchhiking. Hitchhiking there might have been possible, but it would simply have been much more difficult, as the city is very isolated behind the Trans-Caucasian mountain range. In Kars, I went to see the famous ruins of Ani, which lie directly above the border river with Armenia. That place formed the end of Turkey. I had made it all across the country, and now my time in this hitchhiker’s paradise was over. On wednesday, I hitched back to the Iranian border. A last gaze at the snowwhite peak of Mt. Ararat, and Turkey disappeared in the distance. I’m in the Islamic Republic of Iran now. An altogether different experience. Let’s find out whether this will be another paradise. Let’s hit the road once more.

Rise

Overlooking the Landscape

Balloons, Sunrise, Landscape

Shadow

Number one should actually just be go to Cappadocia full stop because it is unlike any place on earth (Google that shit). But once you get to Cappadocia this is a MUST DO!! Let me start this off by saying, I am pretty darn scared of heights and flying. And the idea of flying into the sky in something called a hot-air balloon (don’t sound too steady now does it?) was a little nervewracking for me but this was probably one of my most amazing travel/life experiences to date. It was something I never thought I would do/get the opportunity and I think if you go hot-air ballooning anywhere in the world, it has to be in Cappadocia. I am now ruined for all other hot-air balloon rides.

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia

Hot-air ballooning in Cappadocia

2. Swim off the rocks in Dubrovnik

This was actually recommended to me by another traveller so it must be good! After a hot day walking around the city wall this is exactly what one needs. It’s also a beautiful sight. The water is warm, the sea is clear blue and for thrill seekers there are rocks to jump off but that’s not my cup of tea! One of the best things to do after a great swim is go to Buza bar, a beautiful bar set on the rocks with a breathtaking view of the ocean. It may be a little hard to find but it is so worth it, follow the signs!

Swimming off the rocks in Dubrovnik

Having a drink at Buza Bar

3. Have a picnic by Eiffel Tower

I have a confession to make. The first time I went to Paris I didn’t get the hype. Maybe it was because of high expectations, maybe it was the weather; I don’t know, but I just didn’t get it. You can all breathe a sigh of relief because I have since changed my mind and this is what did it. Food can be a little expensive but the picnic is totally worth it. Go traditional to fit in – get some baguettes, (every Parisian you will see will be carrying at least two baguettes no matter where they are going) jambon (good old ham) and cheese and get a nutella crepe for dessert. Tres magnifique! Go in the late afternoon so you can see all the stages of lighting. I teared up at the beauty of it all (that’s twice in two posts now, how embarrassment).

Beautiful picnic spot

French picnic

Sunset Eiffel Tower

Twilight Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower at night

4. Touch Juliet’s breast in Verona

Wait! Let me explain! I’m a bit of a sucker for Romeo and Juliet and Verona is the famous setting for this brilliant work of Shakespeare. The city is full of landmarks from the famous play including Juliet’s house. Verona is for lovers and dotted all over the place are sweet rituals to ensure you are lucky in love, including putting your name and your partners name on a lock, locking it onto a bridge and throwing away the key to stay in love forever. My favourite ritual however is held at Juliet’s house. It is said that if you rub the statue of Juliet’s right breast, you will have luck in love. Here you can see other exciting things like Juliet’s famous balcony, and a wall covered in letters to Juliet; no not the terrible movie starring Amanda Seyfried, real letters! There is a small group of women residing in Verona who will receive letters written to Juliet asking about love, relationships and advice and respond if you please. Very cool if you ask me.

Juliet’s balcony

Touching Juliet’s right breast

Letters to Juliet

5. Freeze your tushie off at Banff

Canada is full of so much natural beauty its hard to know where to start, but Banff is a really cool place. It’s a cute little town with beautiful mountains and a lake and snow. Winter is a great time to go, especially for us Aussies who rarely see snow. But in summer the lake turns a beautiful blue which is quite a sight to see too. There are lots of fun things to see in Banff but I just went to marvel at the beauty so I have no further advice except dress warmly if you go in the winter.

Banff

Banff

6. Go to Pompeii

Ever since studying the story of Pompeii in Ancient History when I was 17, I had longed to visit this crazy place. Now I’m not going to give you a history lesson so here are the basics. There was a city called Pompeii. A volcano named Vesuvius erupted all over it and covered it in lava and ash. The city was awesomely preserved because of this, including things like pots and vases and even human bodies! And now you can go look at this ancient preserved place! SO SO SO cool.

Pompeii

You can even see preserved humans in Pompeii!

Walk on roads that ancient people walked on!

7. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Live out your childhood dreams of being a wizard (at least for a day). This is a dream come true for any Harry Potter fan, and a truly immersive experience. Have lunch at the Three Broomsticks. Have a wand ‘choose you’ at Olivanders. Ride the (terrifying) Dueling Dragons. Walk through Hogwarts and see all the characters come to life. Drink a butterbeer. Wear a Gryffindor scarf (or Slytherin, whatever floats your boat).

Hogwarts

Hogsmead

Hogwarts Express

8. Feel like a child again at Quinta Da Regaleira, Sintra

Visiting Quinta Da Regaleria in Portugal gave me the same childish feelings of whimsy and wonder as I had in Barcelona (see pt. 1). It is made up of a palace and chapel, and an expansive park featuring lakes, hidden grottoes and tunnels, wells and fountains. Give yourself lots of time to lose yourself here and find all the secret doors, rooms and tunnels. Make sure to go to the palace’s study, but I’m not going to ruin the surprise for you

The Palace

The well

Grottoes

Stepping stones

At only three hours (at least if I’m driving) from Ankara, Cappadochia is the by far the most rewarding short trip from the capital.  So far I’ve seen it in late fall (http://libertinelog.com/2012/11/27/devil-towers-or-fairy-chimneys-a-weekend-in-cappadocia/) and spring – I’m so enamored of the place that now I’ll go back to see it in every season.  Luckily most visitors to Turkey make a trip there (if you have time, you usually choose between Cappadochia and Ephesus as your Anatolian destination, and if you’re lucky, you do both) so I think simply by escorting my guests during my tour here I’ll cover all the seasons.  Both Ephesus and Cappadochia are essentially piles of rocks, just created by different methods.  The great thing about Turkey is that the people are so warm and welcoming that even if you quickly bore of looking at Roman ruins or geological wonders, there will be some local diversions, like a guy selling dondurma (ice cream) with a show full of funny tricks, that revives your interest.

An Olmsted family from France came for a day in Ankara (all you really need to see the city) and a weekend in Cappadochia.  This was my first trip in Turkey with kids in tow and I think its a great place to bring them along.  Just in Cappadochia, the kids got to crawl all over a cave city, ride a camel, eat crazy ice cream, climb all over rocks, and stay in a cave hotel.  Turks are especially friendly to children and will usually give them a small gift, even if the adults in the group refuse to buy anything.  Sometimes their overt love of children can be overwhelming though.  While we were touring the Goreme Open Air Museum, some people would come up to the kids and pick them up without asking the child or parent’s permission – and I’m not just talking about the Turks here! All kinds of tourists went crazy over a two-year old, although I have to admit, he is pretty adorable.

Another warning: negotiate the price of a camel ride before the kid gets on – otherwise, you’ve got no real leverage in the bargaining.  The kids wanted to ride a camel, and voila, as we’re walking to the museum, there were perfectly-placed camels.  The camel-runners just reached out for the kids saying “Gel” (come) and put them up on the camel, threw a mom on one and some other kids on another, and then took them for a little circuit.  Of course, afterwards, they asked for 60 euros for the 15 minute experience!  We were able to change it to 60 TL, but it was still a racket.  The next day we saw the same kid asking 6 euro for a coke!

I’ve talked about the Goreme Open Air Museum before – it’s a monastery area full of churches with beautiful frescoes from the 10-14th centuries and one of the first UNESCO sites in Turkey.

This is the Dark Church, which you have to pay an extra 8 TL to enter, but the quality of the frescoes is amazing!

We also visited the Derinkuyu underground city, but I had camera issues again so no pictures.  It’s very similar to the Kaymakli Underground City that I wrote about in November, but Derinkuyu seems deeper with more offshoots that you can explore, depending on how long you’re comfortable walking nearly bent in half in order to see another cave room.

We stayed at the Vezir Cave Suites, where all the rooms are built into a cave or fairy chimney.  I cheaped out and had a ground level room, but my friends got a room in the chimney with great views of the rocks and the balloons in the morning.  The only problem with cave hotels is the lack of ventilation, which sometimes causes a sour/musty smell to develop.  I only noticed it in my bathroom, which was at the back of my room, but in the upstairs suite it was hard to miss.  There is a cluster of this type of hotels in Goreme, and if you climb all the way to the top, you can walk above the hotels and check out the city and an amazing sunset view.

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Food is good everywhere in Turkey, and Cappadochia is no exception.  The specialty of the area is a clay pot with a meat stew cooked inside, making for very flavorful and tender meats.  We got one chicken, beef, and lamb, and had no trouble getting them down.  It’s the first time I’ve been served the dish flaming (kind of like fajitas in USA).  As another flourish, they break the pot in front of you so you get the first whiff of your yummy meal!

Megan and I got up early to check out the sunrise balloons over the Rose Valley.  Once again I was amazed at how captivating the hot air balloons are.  Even in a beautiful setting with crazy rock formations, you just can’t stop looking at the balloons.  If you’re playing photographer, they become the focus of every picture!  Here are some of my shots:

so close!

These rocks look like penguins watching the balloon show

I caught this one glowing

we gave up counting

Finally, my favorite part of our weekend, besides the great company, of course, was a hike we did in the Red Valley.  Our hotel manager recommended it as doable with kids, and even though imagining returning up the steps while we descended was daunting, overall it was an easy hike.  If you enter the Red Valley Parking Area, we took the hike toward the Uzumlu Kilesesi (Grape Church), which is the first left as you enter the trailheads.  I definitely recommend spending some quality time hiking through the rocks, especially in spring when the weather is so beautiful.

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The Grape Church is down the trail a bit, right next to a small cafe in the middle of the rocks.  At first we thought we could only look through the gate, but then the family at the cafe offered us the key to see the frescoes.  Finding something so beautiful in the middle of the rocks inspired me to try all the trails in the region – who knows what amazing stuff is down there!  Future guests, bring your hiking shoes!

the ceiling of the Grape Church

I loved this wall.

Of course, right across from the church was an old winery, also built into a rock chimney.  Here’s the view of the valley and a vineyard from the storage area:

We asked the travel agent at our prior hostel if shuttles would be easy to hop onto at the airport in Goreme.  He assured us that there were plenty to choose from.  I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that that isn’t the case.  We could have pre-booked a shuttle for 20TL (12$) but from my experiences in SE Asia, pre-booking usually means getting pre-screwed out of money when no one shows up.  So, we arrived to see already packed shuttles and taxis charging 200TL.  Since obviously we are cheap, we walked our asses to the city bus stop.  It wasn’t looking good, when we asked for directions, we were told that it would take 3 transfers (at least that was one of our interpretations of the lady’s explanation.)  While sitting at the bus stop, a taxi van stopped by and offered us a great deal of 60TL total for the 3 of us to get to town.  Couldn’t pass that one up.

We are staying in Goreme which is near Cappadocia.  If you haven’t heard of Cappadocia, you should google it.  When we arrived, it was the most surreal experience… it feels like you’ve walked onto another planet.  The rock formations, which are called Fairy Chimneys (because only a fairy could have made them) are mind boggling and beautiful.  The hostels and hotels are generally made in, or to look like, a cave.  Ours was half cave and half stone construction.

Our hostel host was a very strange dude.  It’s impossible to describe but he’s a very small 20 something year old who speaks the tiniest bit of English and wears extremely tight sweaters.  His entire family seems to leave in the lobby of the hostel and none but him know any English at all.  I have a feeling he’s not allowed to leave the vicinity and must leave a very lonely life, peculiar little man.

So, he ushered us to our room but it only had one bed.  We had booked a room with two beds because we have been sharing up to this point and although we don’t mind, if it’s available, of course we’d prefer our own space.  When we mentioned this, he said no problem and brought us to a different room.  This room was huge and beautiful but unfortunately dank as fuck.  My bag was in there for 10 minutes before it started to feel wet to the touch.  The clean towels left on the bed were already moist.  Then, the real disaster struck.  The Wi-Fi didn’t reach to our room.  We had to saddle the door frame, half outside, to get a faint signal… and with that faint signal, we immediately looked at flights leaving Cappadocia as soon as possible.

After sneaking back into the first room and realizing that the wi-fi reaches that far, we told our creepy attendant that wi-fi was more important than sleeping arrangements and we again moved rooms.  Feeling better about life and with the sun shining in the sky, we walked down our incredibly steep hill into town to explore.  That hill inspired us to consider renting a scooter or ATV but our cheapness caused us to rent bicycles instead.  Sunglasses on, it was just us and the open road, our bike gang officially formed, dubbed “The Gruesome Goremes” by C, it’s pretty accurate in describing our cutthroat demeanor, dontcha think?

Riding around town, I realized that this is more like “Geriatric Gerome.”  I think the average visitor age is 70 years old and it’s practically a ghost town.  You feel a bit like a pioneer in a village here.  Food and tea cooked on iron wood burning stoves and laundry hanging on the roof tops.

We found the grocery store, always one of our first stops when getting to a new town, and stocked up on the usual necessities (brownies.)  When we came out, we noticed an extremely ominous looking cloud and did the only logical thing, ride straight towards it.  I felt like I was in an episode of storm chasers, only we stopped chasing when the hill got too steep.  We went to grab a bike lock from the rental place, intending to do more exploring, when the rain started coming down in sheets.  One of the employees at the bike shop (herein known as Oz) invited us in for some tea to wait out the storm.  We sat in a tiny shop packed full of Turkish employees watching a 15” tube tv playing Turkey’s Funniest Home Videos and the equivalent of Much Music, learning the words to some very catchy pop songs.  Fast forward two glasses of tea, two hours of Turkish TV and one of the biggest thunder and lightning storm I’ve ever witnessed.  The clouds cleared and we were free.

While in Oz, the owner, Adem, suggested we go to Cappadocian Cuisine for dinner, his mother’s restaurant.  Best.Decision.Ever.  I think we met every single person in Adem’s family including his aunts, his mother, his father and all of his seemingly 30 cousins.  They are the nicest and most hospitable people in Cappadocia!  At dinner, we had a “pottery kebab.”  This is a mixture of vegetables and chicken or beef, baked inside terra-cotta pottery.  You then break it open to reveal the most delicious concoction I’ve ever tasted.

We started the day wanting to leave and ended the day happy as clams, loving the city.  We finally ate great Turkish food, saw sun (if only for an hour or two) and had the strangest experience of our trip thus far.

S.

I definitely agree with Mr. Henry Miller on the subject of postcards. Since young, I have always enjoyed receiving snail mails and despite modern technologies that deliver convenience and speed, receiving a letter or postcard the conventional way never fails to brighten my day.

This evening, I was pleasantly surprised and touched to receive a postcard from an old friend whom I know for more than 10 years. We used to exchange letters when we were still schooling but has since grown apart. Nonetheless, this postcard was made especially special because he remembers my love for receiving the mail and how i used to request for a postcard instead of souvenir.

Dear Mimi,

Is it a coincidence that you chose Cappadocia? When I was 21 years old, I lead my first tour group to Turkey and my fave destination during that 10 days tour is Cappadocia. I was awed by the fairy chimneys, bewildered by the presence of whirling dervishes and impressed with the burly attendants who catered to my clients during a traditional Turkish Bath! Cappadocia also marked my first sighting of snow (in my entire life!) and it happened on the eve of Christmas. I was exhilarated and lonely at the same time. Thank you for remembering me and allowing me to recall special memories.

This is a beautiful postcard with simple words that sang to me. Thank you, my dearest old friend.

Mother Warrior /
thrusts white-hot spears underground:  /
dragon trapped in lair. //

Cave of the Crystals in the Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico.  Wikipedia.

←◊→

Worshiping legion /
raises multitude of arms, /
pleads with distant sun. //

Wikipedia: “Icy Penitents by Moonlight”, Atacama Desert, Chile.  Read more at European Southern Observatory.

←◊→

Desert remembers /
days of swamps and cypresses: /
saffron ghosts remain. //

The Pinnacles, Western Australia, Wikipedia. It is thought that these formations are the ancient casts of tree roots.

←◊→

I almost wrote about the Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia, Turkey, but decided against it.

Fairy Chimneys, Wikipedia.

←◊→

Happy St George’s Day everyone!

I hope you all had that wonderful feast we’re all supposed to have but I just wanted to write about how how ‘english’ and ‘proud to be english’ everyone seems to be today.

In contrary to what everyone seems to think; that St George represents fair play, respect, tolerance, diplomacy and good ol’ English values. Deep deep down, way past the fascist ways of the BNP, EDL and David Cameron: St George is originally of black-African descent and we owe him the respect of calling him by his correct name: George of Lydda.

George never came her to slay dragons or save princesses and he was born in Cappadocia – now known as Turkey. He was persecuted  and he then died at the hands of Roman Emperor Diocletian on the 23rd of April.

George had been re-written throughout history and that history has been made to suit the government and give the English something to celebrate. It’s incredibly selfish and scary to think about what else could be hidden from us.

Sorry if I have brought a depressing end to your day!

xxx

What are differences between balloon companies in Cappadocia? – Why some companies are very expensive and others are cheap? – Which balloon company is the best in Cappadocia?
Here are frequently asked questions about Cappadocia Balloons and answers »

• Differences between balloon companies

  There are currently 24 hot air balloon companies in Cappadocia, some of them are having a great reputation from our clients and that is why they are listed here, and some other companies not!

  Some hot air balloon companies in Cappadocia have very experienced pilots and some other companies not!

  Some hot air balloon companies have a staff that they are doing their best to cheer you up with their top quality service, but some other companies are having lack of hospitality!

  Some hot air balloon companies are renewing their all equipments yearly but some other hot air balloon companies are using second hand equipment!

  Some hot air balloon companies have pilots who can speak more than 2 foreigner languages and these pilots know the region as their palm – talkative and mostly with sense of humor (in this case, our favorite hot air balloon pilot is CARLOS from Sultan Balloons), but some other balloon companies in cappadocia have a pilot goes up and down with an huge silence!

  You will wake up around 4-5 am and you will have to wait 30-40 minutes before the take off, some companies are so thoughtful and they have a warm place for their clients to sit and have some snacks, but some other companies are having endless excuses-excuses.

• Booking through our agency

  You pay less. Because we have a quota from all companies listed here with an special agreement(it is similar to chartered air flights), so we can provide the best service with the best price for our clients!

  We recommend at least 2 months early bookings to save more! Because our prices are updated weekly depending on bookings!

  You guarante your balloon flight that it will end up with a big smile, because our eyes are on the balloon companies all the time for our clients.

  You will get the fastest confirmation for your booking in TURKEY(e-mail responses are in 20 minutes!!!)

• Inclusion

  All our balloon tours listed here are including:

  • *Transfer from your hotel,
  • *Morning snacks,
  • *CHAMPAGNE toast after the flight,
  • *Full insurance,
  • *Flight certification,
  • *Tax,vat.

• Payment

  We accept all credit cards for online booking.

• Cancellations

  If your flight has been cancelled due to bad weather conditions, you can use your flight for the next day, if it is not possible, %100 money refund.

• Cancellation Penalties

  *Cancellation 20 days before the flight 0%

  *Cancellation 15 days before the flight 10%

  *Cancellation 48 hours before the flight 40%

…or long since abandoned…

…its former occupants leave their mark.

All over the world, these are the true thrones of the people.

They provide company…

…entertainment…

…a sense of belonging…

…a place to rest…

…to reflect…

…to escape the worries of the workaday world…

…or not.

Oh, the stories they have heard…

The sights they have seen…

Those benches have been warmed by the flesh and blood of people who have loved…

…and sometimes lost. Who’s to say?

But the next time you see one, sit and rest a spell.  As you take the bench, and watch the world go by, don’t judge too harshly.

Listen to the stories it has to tell.  They won’t be so very different from your own.

All words and images copyright 2013 Naomi Baltuck.

Click here for more interpretations of the Weekly Travel Theme: Benches.

The establishment of the themes in the Byzantine Empire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Byzantine theme in central and southeastern Anatolia, probably from the reign of Constans II (641-68), at first a military zone but later in charge of civil matters as well, so the equivalent of a province.

During the second quarter of the 7th century the Byzantine Empire was in retreat.   In the east the outpouring of Arabs, inspired by the new religion of Islam, drove Byzantium from Egypt and Syria.   The Army of the East (anatole in Greek) lost much of its territory, though it held on to Isauria and Cilicia in southeastern Anatolia.   Many of its soldiers were resettled in central Anatolia.   The territory held by its soldiers became the Anatolic Theme, one of the four original themes in the Empire.   Its first headquarters, in the northwest, was Amorion or Amorium, now a ruin about thirty miles from Sivrihisar, itself southwest of Ankara.

The easternmost lands – in Cilicia – were soon lost,   The flanks of the theme, vulnerable to attack through the Taurus Mountains, were protected by the divisions of Cappodocia and Seleucia, which became known as cleisurae (mountain passes), c.840.   The inland Cappodocia, which faced the pass known as the Cilician Gates, was soon raised to the status of a theme;  the coastal Seleucia some ninety years later.   These changes left Anatolikon occupying central Anatolia.   It was truly central in that its rivers drained to the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean.

Several of the great families of the Empire emerged from this key frontier region of Anatolikon and Cappodocia.

Last night I was sitting on the couch with my dad and he flicked over to a movie that was on called Vicky Cristina Barcelona. On a sidenote, the main actor (Javier Bardem) was bugging me the whole movie because he looked so much like another actor that I couldn’t remember and I kept thinking of Gerard Butler but it wasn’t him. Turns out it’s another guy from P.S. I Love You. They look so similar, see?

Javier Bardem on the left, Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the right.
Both totally gorgeous.

Back to the point: this movie is obviously set in Barcelona (see film title), as well as some beautiful little towns outside it like Avilés and Oviedo, and it reminded me why I wanted to live in a different part of the world. To see incredible beauty, different to what we have in Australia. To surround myself in history, and culture, and languages that I don’t understand (but will endeavour to learn). To be the carefree woman riding a bicycle down a dusty road to have vino and cheese and bread for lunch with someone I just met (like in so many European movies!).

So I thought about it and came up with the 10 places/adventures that I most want to experience while I am over there. Not all of them are the stuff that romantic movies are made of, but they will be part of my journey nonetheless!

In a list from 10 up to numero uno:

10. Visit EuroDisney.
Mainly because I have never been to a Disney park, and there is nothing like rediscovering your childhood! It’s located in France (about 35 minutes from Paris by train) and since there are a couple of other things I want to do in Paris while I’m there (and can get £69 return tickets by train from London), why not?

EuroDisney – one of millions of castles around Europe, but this one has real princesses!

9. Sleep in a castle. Preferably haunted.
Firstly, sleeping in a 14th century castle, pretty cool right? Add in a four poster bed, a murdered ghost and a nice breakfast the next morning and you’ve got a pretty amazing experience right there!

This is Ackergill Tower in Scotland. It boasts several murders in a family feud, and is haunted by the beautiful Helen Gunn who was abducted by the other feuding family and either jumped or fell from the tower, trying to escape.

8. Hang out in Paris.
Last time I was in Paris I was only there for a few days, and I missed out on so much! I want to explore the Louvre again, visit the Musée d’Orsay, chill out in Montmartre, see Versailles, admire Notre Dame from the inside, and stroll once more through the midnight fruit & veg markets in the Latin Quarter.

The beautiful Latin Quarter in Paris, tends to be filled with students and bohemian types.

7. Rock out with the Beatles in Liverpool.
Yes, I am a massive Beatles fan, and yes, I will be doing the Beatles tour in Liverpool. They take you on a Magical Mystery Tour to Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields the Beatles homes and places they hung out at, met at and performed! There is even ‘A Day In The Life’ all day tour that I might splurge out on! Then I truly will know whether or not I Am The Walrus.

The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool, England.

6. Soak in the Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik.
I first heard about Reykjavik because of an amazing Icelandic band called Sigur Rós. After watching their own documentary Heima, a showcase of their music and their stunning country, I immediately wanted to go there. I then heard that they have a rockin’ mayor Jón Gnarr, leader of the Best Party (satirical political party devoted to making life more fun) who is happy to appear in drag at their Pride parade! Really, he deserves his own post. Please look him up. Anyway, the Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa which is fed by the water output from the nearby geothermal power plant which provides electricity. Relaxing and environmental!

The Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa, with Svartsengi Power Station in the background.

5. Visit Torchwood Headquarters in Cardiff.
Is anybody else out there a massive Doctor Who fan? I also love the spinoff series Torchwood, which has its headquarters in Cardiff, Wales. I want to stand on the right square near the fountain at Roald Dahl Plass and imagine that I too will suddenly be camouflaged by a perception filter and take the lift down into The Hub. I am a sci-fi nerd, yes. Also, the rest of Wales looks lovely.

BAD WOLF. Watch Doctor Who if you don’t understand me.

4. Ride in a Hot Air Balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey.
I just can’t think of a better place to ever go Hot Air Ballooning. Firstly, you get to overlook the amazing ‘fairy chimneys’ where people carved houses and lived in the rocks. Secondly, the sight of so many hot air balloons in pretty colours in the air at once is just gorgeous too! Thirdly, the rest of Turkey is incredibly rich in history and landscape, and I really can’t wait to organise a trip there.

Can you think of anything better to do? Really?

3. Visit a Greek Island. Perhaps two or three even.
I know that it’s stereotyped and typical and everybody does it. But there has to be a reason why! I have seen so many movies and books and photos of the Greek Islands and I just can’t wait to plan a trip. I want to maybe do a boat that goes around a few of them, but I also want to hunker down in one place for a few weeks, drinking ouzo and eating dolmades every night and soaking up the culture. I can even imagine myself sun baking and getting a nice golden tan! Well. Maybe that’s a bit extreme.

A friend of mine stayed here in Mykonos for a few weeks last year, and said it was absolutely not a cliche but a must-do!

2. Live in an Italian Villa for a month or two.
I don’t necessarily have a particular part of Italy in mind. It can be San Gimignano  in Florence, or Assissi (one of my favourite spots in the world so far), or Siena or Ravello in the Amalfi Coast. I don’t care, I just want to soak it up and live like a local. Find a beautiful Italian to have picnics with. Drink red wine at 11am. Write. Paint. Pick flowers while wearing a floppy hat. I want it all!

Where I will be so incredibly inspired with creativity that I will be positively glowing with it. Then a beautiful Italian will fall in love with me and I will write a best-selling book about it which will become another one of those movies you don’t watch for the plot but for the scenery.

And finally, numero uno!
1. Enrol in Hogwarts.

1. Have my breath taken away by the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
When I was looking for pictures, it took me about 15 minutes just to make myself stop looking at them. They are breathtaking, amazing, incredible and five dozen other descriptive words. The best places to see them in Europe are Greenland, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway. If the wonder and awe of the lights in the sky isn’t enough, there is usually specially-built luxury lodges near the best Aurora Borealis viewing spots, and other awesome activities like reindeer feeding (especially if you go to Finnish Lapland!), snowmobiling and husky sledding! I’ll be taking a couple of photography lessons though before I go to do this one.

A.ma.zing.

I’m sure that I will have many more adventures than just these ten, and I’m glad I did this exercise – it’s made me remember why I so desperately wanted to be on that side of the word in the first place.

Our eastern saint today is Isaac of Spoleto (d. 550), aka Isaac the Syrian, who should not be confused with the far famouser Isaac of Syria. Our Isaac emigrated from Syria to Spoleto, where he was given permission to remain in the church. There he prayed for two and a half days before being struck by one of the wardens, who called him a hypocrite. Immediately an evil spirit entered the warden. He cried for help, Isaac exorcised him, and before you could say “I’m not really a hypocrite I just like to pray,” people were lined up around the block seeking Isaac’s blessing, offering to build him a monastery, and so on. Overwhelmed, he headed out into the sticks to live as a hermit, with the usual results — disciples materialized, a lavra was formed, and he became a model abbot.

One evening, Isaac instructed his monks to leave their shovels in the garden, and put extra glop in the breakfast pot. While they slept, thieves snuck in to steal from the garden, but upon seeing the shovels they squealed with delight and worked all night digging. In the morning, Isaac thanked them for their work, fed them, and told them to come back any time and take whatever produce they needed. Heh. Another time, beggars dressed in rags begged for money for new clothes. Isaac sent a monk to a certain tree in the woods, and he came back with beautiful new clothing for the beggars. Which, of course, was the beggars’ own. Heh, heh. Yet another time, a man sent his servant with two baskets of meat (or beehives) for the monks, but he hid one and only brought one to the lavra. “Thank you,” Isaac said. “But let me warn you: some poisonous snakes have crawled into the other basket (or beehive). You could get bit.” He might well have added, “Here, take this shovel.” Gregory the Great, who wrote these things, said Isaac’s sense of humor ran toward “extreme joviality.”

Our western saint today is Sabas the Goth (334 – 372). When the Christians in his town were commanded to eat meat sacrificed to idols, some of their pagan relatives conspired to swap out the guilty meat with innocent meat, so the Christians could eat it with a clear conscience. “No true Christian would do such a thing!” Sabas said, wringing his hands and/or pointing his finger. He was so obnoxious they kicked him out of town, but soon everybody cooled down and he was welcomed back. A year later, the officials came around looking for Christians. The pagans were going to swear they’d all gone away, but Sabas made such a fuss about it, they said, “Just one.” The officials took one look at him and decided to go persecute somewhere else.

The next year, Sabas was staying with a priest named Sansala. The officials raided the house, bound Sansala, and dragged him out of the narrative. Sabas, naked, was bound and dragged through the briars, and also whipped and whapped. When day came, he pointed out that despite his rough treatment, he had no wounds or marks. (We are not told he said, “Nyah.”) His captors tied him to a makeshift rack. When they stopped for the night, a peasant woman untied him, and he helped her fix breakfast for everybody (hopefully with at least an apron on). The officials were told to kill him, but as they dragged him off, one of them said, “Nobody’s going to know if we let him go.” “Whoa, what are you saying?” Sabas said. “I’m all set to wear the martyr’s crown and you’re getting cold feet? Get on with it.” So they tossed him in the river and held him under with a log until they were sure he was good and dead. His body was found by local Christians and shipped to Cappadocia, along with the story you just read.

The trip to Ankara was smooth – although the bus did pick me up 20 minutes late which made me question its existence for a while – and I made it pretty smoothly from the bus station at the edge of town to the train station at the center (via metro), got my ticket and left my luggage and then went off to find the Museum of Anatolian Civilization which I’d read was well worth seeing. In fact it was, despite having three of five exhibit halls closed. Most of the collection on display were stone wall decorations from the neo-Hitite period (about 700 BC) showing animals, soldiers and hieroglyphic writing in greater or lesser states of being eroded flat. The age of the stuff was amazing and the style was not entirely familiar to me from either my baseline museum experience or my recent travels so it was a very satisfying afternoon.

After collecting snack food and staples at a covered market I headed back to the train station for my amazingly luxurious (for me) sleeper car trip to Izmir. The infinitely useful Seat61.com (a great train travel website – check it out) led me to believe there were two night trains to Izmir and one of them had sharable couchette compartments but in fact when I got to the station there was only the one with a) seats or b) private rooms. Since I didn’t want to change my plan and I knew I wouldn’t sleep sitting up I decided to spring for the room. I only wish I had someone to share it with because it really is quite the amazing little setup. I sat on one of the two seats with my feet up on the little shelving unit for a while After a few hours I decided I wanted to experiment so I pulled down the lower bed over the seats. The experience of lying stretched out with my head on two large good pillows and my feet pointed at a 3′ by 6′ window all my own with the rolling Anatolian hills passing by beyond them was quite delightful. I woke up rested and happy and three hours from Izmir with plenty of time to enjoy the morning journey and take more pictures.  Here are some:

The Nevsehir (nearest town to Goreme) bus station. Proving once again that you CAN NOT design natural shapes with an aggregation of straight lines in AutoCAD. Don’t try.

i enjoyed the contrast of foreground, small bus station, middle, ancient cave dwelling and back, modern building.

The colorful bus rest stop. I was sad there was no fruit stand.

And this was the hair flattening machine in the bathroom. Note, there were neither tampons nor condoms for sale but there was THIS.

The three headed sphinks statue outside the Ankara train station.

Ankara (in the rain unfortunately) The more developed area.

The less developed area. Some of the only single dwelling units I’ve seen – and they’re all informally built.

More informal construction merging into the urban fabric.

At the archaeological museum. This is what passes for accessible design in turkey.

Hittite hieroglyphs

The carving was typefied by these very wide eyes.

The building was a set of beautiful arched covered market areas …

… which were renovated sometime in the 50′s obviously. The museum was charmingly dated.

This lion look s like a polar bear to me.

The covered market.

Where I got four oranges, a pomegranate, a loaf of bread, five carrots and something I’ve forgotten for seven lira – about four bucks.

And if I’d wanted I could have gotten a chicken too.

This is what I mean about no suburbs: City, then countryside.

City.

City.

Country side.

The tracks being repaired.

My delightful cabin.

Misty morning.

This starts to seem more Mediterranean.

Janitorial service in Turkey is BYO equipment.

And again, high rise buildings in the middle of a field. Are there even any roads to these places. There is certainly no city grid.

And … Izmir.

Sitting on the sofa in that hotel room was like being a condemned man in his cell, waiting for the summons to die at dawn.The balloon company’s representative would soon come to take us to the launch site. It was 4.30 a.m.

It was important to start so early because the winds are gentler and more predictable at that time of day.

At the appointed hour, 5.15, a hand rapped quietly on the door. We departed in a minibus that still smelt of the showroom. Somehow that gave me a sense of confidence as we rattled off into the unknown.

A lot of people were doing balloon rides that day, and we all congregated in a hotel for a free buffet breakfast. ‘Free’ in this sense meant ‘free for all’. As we were one of the last to arrive, almost all the breakfast things had already been ripped to pieces like free wildebeest carcasses on a hyena package tour. In any case, I could only manage a cup of black tea, lost in my thoughts.

Would I panic? Would I lose my nerve? Although not afraid of heights or a sufferer from vertigo, I would never go to the edge of a cliff, nor look down over a ravine. Wasn’t a balloon ride far more dangerous than that?

“Keep calm,” I told myself. “It doesn’t matter how high the balloon goes up. You feel safe at twenty meters above the ground, but that drop would kill you. From the point of view of survival, it makes no difference if you’re twenty or six hundred meters up in the air. You just have to forget your worries and enjoy the ride.”

Eventually, the operation began. We left in our allotted groups for the launch site. With no sense of irony, the minibus passed the town cemetery along the way. One of the graves was open, and we all joked that you could reserve it as part of your flight.

I was wondering what I would do if the balloon were to come down. I imagined myself waiting in the basket until the last possible moment and then leaping out to break my fall, performing a series of Matrix-style horizontal rolls. Later I learned that everyone else had been having similar fantasies.

On arrival, we saw the balloons, slumped like vast odalisques on the ground. They were being inflated one by one, and we watched as the team scurried around, pulling ropes, adjusting valves and shouting orders.

It still wasn’t clear to me how you got into the balloon. Was there a sort of door on hinges ? No: you clamber over the side using square footholds that have been built into the basket. I was one of the first ones on board which meant my head was right next to the pilot, and the jet of flame roared worryingly close to my ear.

Once the dozen of us collapsed into the basket, the pilot gave us a safety talk. At one point, he cryptically pointed at Maria and I asking “is this your friend?” Puzzled, I said “yes”. The pilot needed to know this to teach the landing procedure. You squat down in the basket with knees bent whilst grasping a pair of handholds. Your ‘friend’ then does the same whilst sitting in your lap. As we were pressed together, I thought “Well, if we weren’t’ friends at the beginning, we certainly are now.”

Safety briefing over, our ride was about to begin.

It was nothing like I expected. I had expected to be very aware that there was nothing beneath my feet but a whicker frame. Actually, it feels completely solid underfoot. The balloon also moves in a graceful way. It sort of hovers over the ground, and feels more like travelling in a silent elevator than a plane or a car. There is no shaking at all. After a while, you’re barely aware of your precarious position up in the sky.

“‘How do you control it?” I asked our pilot. “How do you move it from left to right, west to east?”

“I can’t!” He cheerfully replied. “There is no wheel on a balloon. We just go wherever the wind takes us.”

The best you can do is move the balloon up or down in order to catch the right wind movement. This then pushes you in the direction you’d like to go. It is a very inexact science. Some sixty-minute rides only cover a mile, whereas others traverse whole canyons.

Our day was perfect for flying. In the beginning, we drifted over the ground at a height of about thirty meters. I was disappointed as many other balloons were high above us, and I thought that we would not be doing the same. There was no need for alarm on that count. At one moment, our pilot said “go up” and we began an extraordinary ascent.

Soaring into the sky, we parted from the earth with a collective squeal/howl/gulp/whimper. Following the thermals, we drifted over the weird Rose Canyon where people had been living in cave villages for millennia. The valley was dry and sparse and we slipped along ravines and gullies, hovered over sheer cliffs, and almost touched the tops of the fairy chimneys that dot that lunar landscape.

The day before, many flights had been cancelled due to strong winds. As a result, on our day, hundreds of other balloons were in the sky, which sounds like it destroyed the effect. Actually, these added to the excitement as a whole dream-like world of coloured bubbles bobbed and weaved around us. Out in the distance, some balloons seemed to touch each other, although our pilot was never in danger of that. He could direct the balloon with incredible accuracy, so much so that we could wait, sitting in ring of rocks like an egg in an eggcup with tree branches almost scratching the bottom of the basket. Nothing came near his balloon.

Some people were nervous then, seeing how close we were to the treetops.

“Is this your first flight?” Our pilot asked one of them.

The passenger nodded.

“Mine too!” Our pilot grinned in reply.

I later realised that his friendly patter was a key part of the trip. It all helps to assuage the fears of travellers.

As one mark of his expertise, at the end, he landed our balloon exactly in position on the trailer. Interestingly, he never had to repeat his safety briefing. Everyone got into the landing position several hundred meters before we touched terra firma. It wasn’t clear whether this was because we feared for our lives or because people were keen to get close once again to their ‘friend’.

The balloon ride was expensive (€130 per person), but it did come with a glass of champagne to celebrate at the end, even though it was only 8 a.m.! It’s also worth remembering one thing. You don’t pay that money for them to take you up in the air. You pay it so they get you  back down to earth safely again.

Cappadocia contains several underground cities, largely used by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels.

Natural cone formations, made from volcanic eruptions smoothed over time by wind and rain, known as fairy chimneys, contain caves and labyrinths.

Cave Hotel in Cappadocia

Hot Air Balloon Ride over Cappadocia

Even in town the landscape is peppered with these amazing rock formations.

Well those and a whole lot of tourist infrastructure.

Some parts of it made me smile. “Coffeedocia?”

Others just seem sad. Its hardly a “ceremony” if it happens every night. The organized tour nature of the town was a total turn off for me.

But there was plenty to love.

I wandered around and tried to get as lost as possible in the small area, finding back alleys with interesting views of the rock.

Even the buildings not carved out of the rock take advantage of the soft local sandstone for carving purposes.

I was happy to see solar hot water collectors all over town.

I stumbled across this weaving demonstration in an empty courtyard. I assume its part of a show given to tour bus riders but I found it very beautiful

Especially the dying operation.

The second day I spent the morning walking to and around the Göreme Open Air Museum, a collection of Byzantine area rock cut churches and dwellings all protected under one organizational umbrella.  Again, my fellow tourists (and their associated buses, cafes and bricabrac were thick on the ground but I managed to steer pretty clear and the Museum was well worth a visit.  This area was once almost entirely Greek speaking but in 1923 Greece and Turkey agreed on a mutual population exchange in which they forcibly rounded up Greek speaking (and Greek Orthodox conforming) communities in Turkey and Turkish speaking Muslim communities in Greece were evicted from their homes and transferred to the opposite countries.  This was intended to strengthen the nation-state status of the two new countries, which may have worked, but it also displaced nearly a million people and must have been intensely traumatic.  I haven’t been able to figure out to what extent all these old rock cut churches were abandoned before that exchange but Cappadocia was certainly stripped of its Greek Orthodox culture from that point onward.

I poked down a few side roads on my way to the museum.

The view out through the tunneled openings is particularly compelling.

Then, of course, I found all the other tourists. Sigh. Its hard to complain about a group I’m a member of but I do wish less of my touring compatriots took Tour Buses everywhere they went.

Still the museum was fabulous. This is the 7 story “building” which housed a monastery, located at the entrance.

A tiny passageway leading to a beautiful rock-cut church. Note: this is the view framed without the other tourists.

And this is the same view with them included.

Dovecotes across the valley – the locals used to keep doves for their useful guano – fertilizer.

The interior of one of the homes – pretty unassuming without all of its former contents.

The interior of one (of many) churches. This is the older decoration style. In some of the other churches this was layered over with new plaster and detailed color frescoes.

In theory I wasn’t supposed to take photos in any of the churches but the guard for this one clearly didn’t care so I snapped a few. I wouldn’t have bought the postcards anyway.

In the frescoed churches this central dome is always filled with an icon of Christ Pantocreater.

I sat to take a rest on the outside of this tunnel window and found by accident that it had the most amazing resonant acoustics. Since there was no one around at that moment I hummed “All around my hat” to the empty space for old times’ sake.

A formerly enclosed space with a little more ventilation than intended. Sandstone can be too easy to carve sometimes.

This shows the more detailed color fresco style. This is also the largest of the rock-cut churches I visited.

After visiting the museum I filled two water bottles and went wandering around a couple of nearby valleys.  If it looks from these pictures like its a very hot dry and slightly barren landscape … it is.  (If it doesn’t look that way, there’s something wrong with my camera).  I took breaks out of the sun as often as I could in the shade-less country and occasionally wrapped the scarf that  I keep handy in Turkey for cultural reasons – entering mosques, being in conservative neighborhoods – around my face to keep out the blowing dust.  Although I never really broke a stroll all day I had to drink about three liters of water and came home at the end of the day smelling not so much of sweat as of salt.  I’m still re-hydrating.  Still it was lovely – particularly as the sun started to go down.  This is truly an amazing place.  I totally see what the fuss is about.

Hiking around on my own near the Rose valley.

I have a hard time imagining all these as occupied by people.

Two goats I startled out of their shady refuge. Sorry goats.

This looks like one of the Easter Island faces and I’m pretty sure that’s not an accident.

Pidgeon Valley (this walk) has a nubmber of tunnels – they look pretty natural but I figure they must have been widened to accommodate the road which runs through them.