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Published: April 14th 2011
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After the surprise that was Mount Nemrut and the evening drinking by propane lamp light we had to get up at 6am for a ten hour buss ride to Cappadocia our last major stop on the Cairo to Istanbul tour. The bus ride itself took us by some amazing scenery, I found it very interesting that almost everyone on the bus was pointing out different things. For example Terry, Helen, and Fred had great discussions about the farming equipment they saw and the different methods of farming along the highway because Terry and Helen live on a farm in Australia and Fred seems to have experience with a little bit of everything except computers. I couldn't help but notice how some of the hills mountains in the region reminded me of driving in the Yukon and Northern BC.
After the ten hour bus ride I expected we would do nothing the rest of the day but Gem suggested we check out the underground city. The underground city was just that a city built underground that had approximately 8 different floors and could house thousands of people. One of the most fascinating thing about the underground city was the defenses they
had setup including massive stone doors with wholes for pikes and archers, choke points through the city that would make it almost suicide to push through with enough numbers to overtake the highly defensible positions. They also had the important things covered with two wineries and churches on different floors diversified food storage and well thought out ventilation that meant even if they lost half the city and couldn't get out for food, wine or air they still had the essentials covered. A lot of people believe that Christianity wouldn't be the same it is today if it were not for the underground cities as they used the cities to practice Christianity and avoid persecution when the religion was outlawed. After the tour of the underground city we were all pretty tired and after a hot shower, we went and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant for one of our last full dinners as a group.
Cappadocia
Once again I have fallen behind in my blog I am writing this entry in a text editor just t get my thoughts down as our full in Cappadocia was a very busy day. We started the day off
Winery
One of the two wineries we saw in the city around 7am for a walk along one of the ridges over looking the city and even though we thought we got a good look at the city last night the views along the ridge took my breath away. There are thousands of man made caves dug into the rock faces, pigeon holes scattered across large cliffs designed to collect droppings that people would use as fertilizer a thousand of years ago. After the walking tour we went on a whirl wind bus ride taking in lot of the major attractions in a 4 hour period.. We stopped at a few scenic view points, marveled at the naturally shaped rocks that looked like a piece of male anatomy, and stopped at a pottery factory store for a demonstration on pottery making and a chance to gawk at some amazing pieces of art. They even let one of us give it a try and since it was Terry's birthday we sent him up to try and make a vase, he almost had a halfway decent looking bowl before the clay collapsed. Somewhere in the middle of the tour we stopped for the best donair I have ever had it was fantastic. By
Stone Door
They would wheel this massive stone rock over the door, and use weapons through the hole to prevent anyone from hacking through the door. the time we finished the tour it was about 3 and after a ten minute break Tash, Amy, Fred, Gem and I were off to ride through the amazing site of Cappadocia on some ATVs. Even though it started ringing during the ride and we didn't get to catch the sunset everyone had a blast riding the ATVs through the mud and I'm pretty sure Tash is now hooked on quadding. To end this long and amazing day and to celebrate Terry's birthday we decided to go to an event called Turkish dance night. Turkish dance night was exactly like it sounds an evening with free Turkish drinks, a small amount of Turkish appetizers and some fun performances of Turkish dancing. They also seems very keen on getting the girls in our group involved but that is probably because they were the only girls at the even under the age of 40. Gem surprised us with a birthday cake for Terry in the middle of the evening and I was pulled up on stage to compete for Tash near the end of the evening.
I bet if I wrote this entry closer to it actually happening the entry would
City
What an amazing city be a lot longer and a lot more details but even if I can't remember all the details it was one of the better days on the trip I can not say best because so many were the best day while they were happening.
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