cappadocia

after a few days in istanbul, i decided it was time to see somewhere else in turkey...amanda showed me the way to the massive bus station in istanbul, from there it was easy to buy a ticket for an overnight bus...the destination on that ticket was nevsehir, which is a transport hub of cappadocia...cappadocia is the name of an area in middle turkey, it's just a tourist name...the actual name of the area is anatolia...from nevsehir there are connections to goreme, the tourist center of cappadocia...while i was waiting for one of those connections, one tour company applied massive pressure to get me to sign up for a tour, which was not appreciated...they didn't seem to understand when i said over and over again that i wouldn't be making any decisions about anything until i got to goreme...very annoying...

once i got to goreme (despite being a tourist center, there wasn't a single tout meeting the bus...it really is off season) i got to have fun again with figuring out which way to turn the map...why am i having so much trouble in this country? once i figured that out, i quickly chose a place to stay, and life was good...a nap, then a walk...i asked in several tour company offices what they had available, it seems every company in the town has the same tours available...they even colour code them the same...the prices were all the same as well...while in one of the offices i talked to some folks who had just spent a few days, and didn't do any of the tours...they just hiked around on their own, and enjoyed it quite a bit...instead of the two tours i was thinking about, i opted to sign up for one tour, and hike around on my own another day...
then i started walking, since i still had an afternoon to wander around...goreme is the tourist center of the area, it's a small town, there isn't much to see in town...during the roman and byzantine periods cappadocia became an area in which christians gathered...during times the christians were persecuted, they built underground churches and dwellings, enabling them to hide from the people chasing after them...these churches, cities, etc are one of the reasons people come to this area of turkey...the other reason is the amazing topography of the area...over the millenia there have been major seismic upheavals, and you can see the results almost anywhere you go...the rock in the area is really soft, so you can see what has happened over the years...locals call them fairy chimneys...some tourists see more of a phallic shape...most of the tours go to one or more valleys to see these chimneys...you are also taken to places with panoramic lookouts...beautiful...

on my way to the goreme open air museum, i met a family from michigan...(first joint on the middle finger)...as they live overseas now (riga, latvia) it was fun to share experiences, and the common theme of "go blue"...
goreme open air museum was originally an important monastic settlement in byzantine times...then it was a pilgrimmage sight...now you get to see an interesting cluster of houses, churches, chapels and such...all of them cut from the rock...some of the churches have amazing frescoes on the walls...some of them have much simpler painting...apparently this area has good weather for wine making, because a number of the houses had not only wine "cellars" but tublike spots for stomping the grapes...(some of the summer tours include wine tasting)...there was snow on the ground, and i slipped and slid many times, much to my own amusement, and that of others around me...i'll take this winter weather over summer weather any day though...walking around this museum during summer must be difficult, because there is very little shade cover...

after leaving the museum, i followed a footpath off the road, just to see where it would go...it took me by a few more cave dwellings (no longer lived in) and to the ridge overlooking one of the valleys i mentioned earlier...stunning...after climbing around and exploring a bit, i realized it was getting dark, and made my way back to town...dinner was kofte sis at a random cafe...
the next day my tour picked me up at 0930, it was a mostly sunny day, which made me very happy...mostly sunny, but very cold...the cup of tea i had while waiting in the hotel lobby didn't keep me warm for long...

the first stop on the tour was the goreme lookout...they took us up the road a bit, to a spot that overlooks the town, and a wide area around it...according to our guide, the name goreme actually means "no see"...basically it means that you don't see goreme until you're almost there...it's down in valley, you can't see it from far away...it was a lovely view, albeit with a biting wind...
our next stop was one of the many underground cities (i think there are over 100 in the area, not all of them have been excavated, nor are there plans to do so)...the city we visited was called derinkuyu, and at one point is thought to have housed 10,000 people...it was originally built to hide the persecuted people, but in later years people kept living there just because they could...according to our guide, people would still be living there if the government hadn't closed the cities and turned them into tourist sights starting in the 1960s...obviously the people didn't stay underground all the time, but a lot of life could easily be lived down there...derinkuyu was built on 7 levels, and only about 25% has been excavated...the architects and engineers of the place were smart and the whole city was well ventilated with ventilation shafts, and communication tunnels...we saw the stables (for smaller animals, not horses) and kitchens and family rooms and meeting halls and churches, etc...pretty impressive...even a school room...it was hard to imagine living down there without furniture, and even harder to imagine how everyone kept all the tunnels straight in their heads...without our guide i think everyone in our group would've gotten lost very quickly...some of the tunnels are for very short people, and not wide...in other words, if you have issues with claustrophobia, these underground cities probably aren't the place for you...

next we drove to lunch...it was not impressive...at all...
after lunch we kept going to the ihlara valley...it's a valley where the rock just opened up, and now there is a river flowing through the middle of high walls...carved into these walls are more homes, and churches...for this part of the tour we walked a couple kilometers through the valley, just enjoying the scenery...we also looked in one of the churches...this particular church had a couple frescoes i remember well...one of three cocks, in reference to the bible story about st peter, who denied jesus...apparently, this sort of painting isn't common...
after the valley we were driven to the (former) monastery at selime...it was also a fortress and caravanseri...there is a chapel, a cathedral, a kitchen, and other rooms all carved into the rock...AMAZING...from several "windows" you can look out over the area, it's gorgeous...as our guide mentioned, if this were in the states, you would never be able to climb up and see it...there are heaps of spots where you could easily fall and end up killing yourself...none of the rooms have anything other than natural lighting, i wonder what they used back in the day...i walked through a couple tunnels just to see what was at the other end, and only had my feet and hands to tell me what was ahead...sooooo dark...

after the monastery we stopped at one last lookout before driving back to goreme...beautiful, though we were all freezing, after having been comfortable in the van...that night i ended up having dinner with two of the guys from the tour group...terence, who works in television in south africa, and dong hee, a korean university student...we loved our four course meal!
my last day in goreme was the day i'd opted for self guided hiking in the area...and i'm sooo glad i did...i hiked all the way around one of the valleys...rose valley, or maybe it was red valley...STUNNING views...with the snow, of course i fell a few times, but that's part of the fun, right? not long after i started out, a dog joined me...i don't know why, or what her name really is, but i called her sweetie...she stayed with me the whole time...part of the trail went through holes carved by water in the rocks...i could see where the ceilings of some of these 'tunnels' had collapsed, i was a bit worried it would happen while i was going through...part of the trail was on a frozen creek...part of the trail went past cafes closed for the winter...the photos i took that day just don't do the area justice...AMAZING...

dinner was chicken sis...basically chicken kebabs, with rice, a pepper, a full basket of bread, and grilled tomatoes...dessert was chocolate pudding (another reason to love this country) and hot chocolate...i was a happy camper...
that night i hopped on another night bus...i love that turkey has a relatively well developed bus system...it's really convenient for folks like me who don't want to fly everywhere...