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Published: June 25th 2011
We got up and ate breakfast (yogurt, finally!!!) and were ready to go exploring around Cappadocia. Dora said at breakfast that she got up early and was amazing by how many hot air balloons there were in the sky! She was so impressed by it that she is going up in one the next morning. I asked what time they were going out so that I would get up the next morning to see them since she talked about it so fondly.
We were soon all together and on the bus to go to the underground cities that the Cappadocians dug out of the soft rock. (We all have asked a dumb question at one time or another, and Dora took the day’s prize for asking if the Cappadocians dug the underground cities, this was just after Fatih had explained that the Cappadocians had dug them. We all joked with her the rest of the day that fairies had dug them). On our way around we all had a good time being the last one through the tunnels as you could take pictures of everyone’s “best side” and they crawled through. (note: The Cappadocians were small people!) We saw what
Marcus's serious croutching skills
He was so fast I almost didn't get this picture!was once a kitchen, food storage, wine making, some exits out of the tunnel, and the doors that they used to close up the tunnels. The big round doors had a hole in the middle and that was so if anyone tried to open the door (which it could only be opened from the inside) the Cappadocians would stick their spears through the hole and try and jab at anyone who went near it.
There were officially 7 levels to the underground city, but we only were able to see 4 of them. The Cappadocians were a smart bunch, and never built one room directly under or over another since it would make the walls too weak and they might fall through. (Maybe they learned the hard way…?) So instead the rooms are built like a checkerboard.
After playing around in the underground cities we went to a pottery tour where we got to see expert pottery makers perfecting their craft and I even got to try my hand at making a bowl. I put on the coolest pants ever and I did a pretty good job making the bowl (I say this only because it actually looked
like a bowl!). We got to explore the shops and Marcus bought one of the wine pourer pottery pieces for friends back home who wanted a very unique piece to display from Turkey. All of their things were gorgeous and if I had more money and a way to get it home I think I would have bought a few pieces.
From there we went to explore the old abandoned rock houses. We had a great time acting like prairie dogs and exploring all of the rooms and cut outs in the rocks. If these rock houses were in the US it just wouldn’t be as cool. The Turks are very lax on safety standards and it is wonderful that none of the places are roped off, if you can get to it then go for it!
When we were already to go we couldn’t find Marcus, we called and called for him and we couldn’t find him. There were so many places he could have gotten off to we didn’t know where to look. Luckily he finally showed back up (a good 15 minutes later), he had found a few places that were hard to get to
Not too shabby!
I have a calling! and was exploring (who could blame him, we could have spent at least an hour here). Then it was then off to lunch along a river. In order to get to it we went on a nice walk where Marcus and I learned that Turkish men can jump! Fatih was showing off his jumping skills (he is shorter than I am and can jump about twice as high me). The river walk was gorgeous and we stopped along the way to have Elma cay (which Marcus put sugar in his before we could tell him not too, its already very sweet!) but he in enjoyed it all the same, which is what really matters. There were a lot of natural poppy flowers and it was so pretty to see them peppering the landscape. Along the way we passed a few farms where the women were (in the words of Borat) “strong on plow”! These women were working hard churning the soil and doing the manual labor on the farm and the men were sitting around drinking cay! Strong women!
We made it to the lunch spot where Hasan was waiting for us and we had our own little lounge hut
on the river! You literally had to cross these little bridges to get to our lounge. (such character!) At one point I saw a shoe floating along in the river and I pointed it out, and it turned out to be Hasans shoe! Oh no! (I guess there are downsides to river lounges) So Fatih took off at a run to catch it further down on the river, meanwhile the restaurant staff was on some of the bridges downstream trying to catch it as well. The first few attempts to catch it failed but finally one of the guys caught it before the current carried it down the river too far. (Great success!)
Marcus and I had fresh fish for lunch (they serve it to you head and all!) so it was a bit of a chore eating everything and getting around the bones, but it was delicious!
After lunch we just laid around on the lounges living the life of a king; while I was relaxing Faith snuck up and dripped water on my head. He messed with the wrong girl as I like to get revenge 10 fold! I splashed so much water on him before he
could get away that it looked like he had bladder problems, haha! (He said he was going to get me back later when we were at the Turkish night but luckily he forgot).
After lunch we went and saw imagination valley, where naturally formed rocks look like familiar shapes. We saw a camel, a fish, a hand, and the virgin Mary. It was interesting to see all of the different shapes all in one spot! Then it was off for a quick tour of the fairy chimneys; impressive natural formations known to that area of Turkey.
We got back to the hotel for a little rest then to get dressed up since we were going out to the Turkish Night, for all the food you can eat, alcohol you can drink, and excellent entertainment. We had wonderful appetizers and all the bread you could ever want! Then came the traditional Turkish music and dancing which was phenomenal. Faith taught us a different way to drink Raki (you saw from my time spent with my Dad in Istanbul how much I loooove Raki . .not!) first you take a drink of Raki, then a sip of water, then a slice
of their white cheese, then a bite of watermelon, and it is amazing! In my book it’s the only way to drink Raki! It was a great night as the dancers welcomed us to the dance floor to partake in Turkish dancing and we all had a blast!
We decided to keep the party going by stopping off at the local shop and buying some beers. We took them back to our hotel room and hung out in Taylee and Bretts room. Now all of the rooms are on only one side of the hall and all of our groups’ rooms were booked right next to each other. Taylee and Bretts room was the middle room of the 5 rooms booked for us, so that meant there were two empty rooms on either side of us. (Just had to clear that up before I told my story) So we were talking (not being loud in any way, but we weren’t whispering either) when we got a knock on the door. Brett gets up and answers it and we are met by the crankiest old English guy ever! He is so extremely rude that he just starts yelling at us
saying if we don’t quiet down that he is going to get his friends and they are going to come beat us with their walking sticks! (You should have seen this guy’s face he was serious!) He then raised his walking stick like he was going javelin it into the room and spear someone! He then proceeded to tell us that the drinking laws in Turkey are so strict and if we were caught drinking we would be thrown in jail (this guy was so full of BS!). Fatih took immediate offense and runs to the door calling out to the guy as he walked back to his hotel room (6 doors down at the very end of the hall) asking the guy if he knew that he was a Turk and did think he knew the laws better than a Turk did. (go Fatih!) then Brett goes out in the hall and calls out “aren’t you English?! Your culture has the biggest drinking problem of them all!” (Go Brett!) We really didn’t want any trouble so we decided we were better off sitting down by the pool and chatting, but before we left Brett took all of our empty
bottles and lined them up in front of McGrumpy’s door so that when he woke up in the morning he would have a nice reminder of how rude he was. If he had just come to us and asked nicely we would have been apologetic and moved outside, but to try and spear us with your walking stick, now that is a little much!
We finished off our night down by the pool chatting and carrying on, I didn’t want to be up too late since I wanted to wake up early to watch the hot air balloons up in the sky, which Dora said it would be around 5:30 am. I hope my alarm wakes me up!
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Mom
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Blessed Marcus
I laughed and laughed and laughed when I saw the picture with the blessed Marcus comment. Do you remember once while traveling when we lived there we stopped at a restaurant that had a concert pool full of live fish. We pointed out the fish we wanted to eat and the guy netted them and cooked them. They were trout and served with the heads on. Every fish I ever ate in Turkey had its head on it when it came to the table. Love you tons, Mom