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Goreme and Cappadocia

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Goreme and Cappadocia

After a day of air travel from Antalya to Istanbul and then back into the center of Turkey (no flights from Antalya to Goreme), we were still wobbled leg from the week on the Mediterranean. Of course, we were tan and happy too. So, no complaints!

We arrived into town after dark. And checked into our splurge at the Kelebek Special Cave Hotel in Goreme…Room #1 Selmalik cave room with a corner fireplace, huge modern bathroom (after a week with a “sandbox” and marina showers–we loved this bathroom!), lovely textiles (fresh-smelling sheets, towels, rugs, blankets) and a GIANT key (no kidding, the key to our room was about 7-8 inches long and heavy). This hotel was delightful. It was a combination of hotel, hostel, restaurant, lounge, tour guide operator and we loved every minute of our time there. Gorgeous grounds, well kept and brilliantly friendly folks working there.

Once again, moments after checking in…Bryan goes looking for info on the Cubs.  “ARE WE MISSING A CUBS WORLD SERIES?!?!” He comes back about to burst to read the newspaper he’s found. A small article near the back is accompanied by a picture of a man reaching for a ball…the man has on headphones…well you know. This is the guy who got ran out of Wrigley, and out of Chicago for interfering with a catch a Cubs player attempted to make. The Cubs had lost the game, the series, and were now out of the running for the World Series. It was a bittersweet night for Bryan to know that they’d gotten so far, and then to learn it didn’t happen…all within the span of about 10 seconds.

Goreme
Goreme
Cappadocia
Cappadocia

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful and strange landscape. Browns, tans, whites, blacks, beige–every imaginable shade of light brown and grey stone.  And those fairy chimneys, amid cave homes and the Turkish rural life. Roosters crowed as the muezzins called. It was fall harvest in the country.

Cappadocia door
Cappadocia door
Rural Turkey doorway
Rural Turkey doorway

We ventured out–fresh washed laundry swaying in the breeze from roof tops, camels (did you know camels can live to be 60-70 years old??? They have “Cover Girl” lashes and engaging eyes by the way), donkeys carrying piles of sticks larger than they are, carpets for sale, dogs walking with purpose down the streets and just an overall busy buzz to the little rustic town.

We walked the mile or so to the Goreme Open Air Museum.

This is a landscape caused by volcanic eruptions and erosion…and filled with churches carved deep into the chimneys in caves. Many are filled with elaborately painted frescos. Christianity flourished here, as did the trade route. Christians often carved out and hid in the caves, hills, and underground cities. We spent the day walking around visiting the small caves and admiring the carvings and paintings. Some of the paintings had had the eyes of the portrayed biblical characters gouged out. I remembered reading that over the years, some eyes had been removed, supposedly by the Muslims who find iconic images offensive. The Dark Church was indeed so dark that the frescos were so much more colorful having never been faded by the sun. The colors were spectacular, ochres, reds, blues, egg yellows.

Frescos carved inside a cave
Frescos carved inside a cave
Cappadocia
Cappadocia

It felt so good to be walking and active again too. We worked up an appetite and stopped at a little cafe for chicken kabobs and rice in front of one of those beautiful old stone fireplaces. Chai to warm up, and always, from somewhere the clicking of the backgammon or the tesbih in practiced hands. I later bought some lace from a lady named Fatima and her husband Hamdi Akbas. They offered me grapes and tea and we talked for a long while about the U.S., Turkey, the landscape, the needlepoint, the weather, Chicago, Nashville, Istanbul…lovely people. Many of the townspeople we spoke with said again and again with a smiling nod to the sky, “Winter comes.”

Walking back up the hill, I saw a little lady calling “hello hello hello” from her baby-powder blue door. She motioned for me to come in…”chai?” and waved her arm at a basket of scarves. I went in, Bryan went on to the room. She made lots of small talk of which I understood none. And came back from the corner with a tray of scarves. She removed the one I was wearing around my neck and begin winding one of hers around my head in the traditional fashion. She stepped back, smiled and said “Turkish”–producing a small, cracked piece of a mirror from her skirts and beaming at me as I looked at my Turkish self. Soon her friend Fatma joined us, bringing grapes with big seeds. They were wanting 10,000,000 for a scarf. About $7. But I’d bought three on the boat and didn’t need another–or particularly like the ones I saw here. I politely took leave, only to be led away by Fatma to her house across the way. Her blue door was open, yet the opening was covered by a lace curtain. She motioned for me to watch her remove her shoes. I did the same. She again tried to sell scarves or a shot of the “panorama” from her veranda. It was spectacular there. But I was much more intrigued by the family life going on. TV blaring, blankets over the divans, a teenage girl smiled at me as we passed through the kitchen–she was cooking dinner. The steam and the smell of food while the TV prattles on the background reminded me of dinner at my grandmother’s or really, or dinner prep time just about anywhere really.  It was cozy.

Later that evening, we’d take a nighttime stroll. Dogs barking, people talking behind doors/windows, a teapot steaming sitting in a window sill, TVs, an old stooped man walking up the hill, more men sitting in a yellow-lighted cafe–smoking, drinking chai, and once again, the sound of the tiny dice being thrown into a corners of the backgammon boards and the slapping down of pieces, and the tea glasses clinking back to saucers with spoons jangling. The sounds of Turkey 🙂

We ate, sock-footed, at Goreme restaurant. On the floor with pillows and a giant brass table tray between us. Filling meal of lots of goodies and a bottle of wine for about 33,500,000 TL (~$25). You borrowed sandals (size 7 only) to visit the loo. We were met at the door when leaving with the lemon-rose water hand splash.

Bryan and Carol at Goreme Restaurant
Bryan and Carol at Goreme Restaurant

The next day, we took a tour around the area and to the Underground City with some folks from our hotel. Sarap was our guide. That day, we went deep down, five stories into the earth, saw wishing trees (with white cloth tied all over), field fires as farmers and wives in scarves, baggy pants and long shirts harvested potatoes along the roads. I saw a man pitch forking hay way over his head into a wagon–the sun behind him putting him in silhouette and the dust from the hay rising up around him.  It turned into one of those “photos” I never took, but etched in my mind.

We walked 387 steps down into Ilhara Valley. There was a smell of fall in the air. Sarap told us many stories…when a girl is born, they plant a poplar. When she marries, they cut it down to sell for wood to pay for the wedding. We saw lots of poplars and a van loaded with them too. Drink the water in Goreme and you can’t leave. If you get to Nevishere Castle, legend says you stay for six years.  She was good fun and a great guide. And we had a great group of folks to spend the day with–two Taiwanese, four Japanese, two Israelis and us. We made arrangements for mopeding with the Taiwan couple (Cheng Chin Hua and Lee Aching) the next day…after our sunrise hot air balloon ride.

The knock at our door the next morning was around 5:30 a.m. We rode to the site in the pitch black early morning. And there on it’s side was the balloon getting trussed up. A table was set up for coffee/chai and a bundt cake. We used the flashlight to prep our coffee. Again–thousands of stars above and a crescent moon, and the increasingly vivid outline of the strange rock formations against the dark blue dawning sky.  Nine Germans arrived. The blow torch sound got loud as the air in the balloon heated and within 5-10 minutes the balloon stood up. We climbed in the basket, were unhooked and floated up…up over the weird landscape of Goreme in the fresh dawn light. We saw other balloons in preparation for take off, or up in the air with us.

Minarets and hot air balloons
Minaret and hot air balloon
Balloon over Cappadocia
Balloon over Cappadocia
From the balloon
From the balloon
Bryan and Carol in the hot air balloon over Cappadocia
Bryan and Carol in the hot air balloon over Cappadocia

Dogs barked at us from below. For almost two hours, the pilot took us down into the nooks and valleys of the area and then up again just in time before snagging the basket on a cliff. We saw minarets in the distance over sleeping towns. We landed in a field, soft bounce, no drag. Then the champagne toast and marigolds…and a flight certificate 🙂 The pilot himself drove us back. He’s been doing this for 20 years and loves it. Who wouldn’t?!?

Turkey: Balloon Below
Turkey: Balloon Below
After the landing
After the landing
Balloon champagne and marigolds
Balloon champagne and marigolds

We later rented mopeds with Lee and Cheng Chin and headed back out into the countryside that we’d seen from the air this morning. Leaves falling from poplars, cyprus waving in the breeze, hills. It was a splendid drive around small villages. We saw people harvesting squash for the seeds only, ornamental old homes, willow trees weeping, chickens in the streets. “Merhaba,” we say. People smile and return the greeting. Cows, kids in school uniforms. A man by a wagon of sticks and wood asked me “Nerede? Japan?” I barely caught it…but quickly answered “Taiwan and Chicago”. He nodded and smiled at all four of us. We spent a long time on those bikes putzing around the area taking pictures.

On a moped thru Cappadocia
On a moped thru Cappadocia
The moped posse
The moped posse
Cheng Chin Hua and Carol
Cheng Chin Hua and Carol
Rock Formations - Cappadocia
Rock Formations – Cappadocia
The Camel - Cappadocia
The Camel – Cappadocia
Harvesting Squash seeds under willows
Harvesting Squash seeds under willows

Back at the hotel, we took long candle-lit baths to get all the grit off. Then we enjoyed wine and tales of travel with the Taiwanese and Israelis. Tomorrow, we would leave for Istanbul and a few days later the return to Chicago.

#12 Door - Cappadocia
#12 Door – Cappadocia
Tooling around Cappadocia
Tooling around Cappadocia