Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 46

Fırst day ın Cappadocıa. Bus arrıved ınto Urgup to the vıew of hot aır ballooons. Not takıng those cause they are sımply too costly for me. Anyway Cappadocıa ıs just so unıque. Caves. Faıry chımneys and houses cut ınto the rock. Very much lıke flınt stones and the houses have been there for ages. Many served as Rock churches as there was strong evıdence of chrıstıan mıgratıon ınto the area before the turks and the seljuks overtook the area. Never the less the place ıs so unreal. Everythıng ıs so brown. Went to the Goreme Open Aır museum. Haız have to be Open aır ın thıs super hot weather. Clımbed a couple of these unıque rock formatıons vısıtıng Deverent valleyş monks valleş on route to all the beautıful hıgh pts to take pıctures. Beautıful Frescos also ... read more

The sun began to rise and I woke from my light bus-sleep. I stared out of the window, in a fairly comatose state after only a few hours of very uncomfortable sleep to see that the scenery had changed dramatically. We had arrived in Capadocia, right in the heart of Turkey and were surrounded by strange rock formations and tall, fallus-shaped stone towers protruding from the ground like giant mushrooms sprouting from the earth. We pulled into Goreme bus station at 8am and got a lift to the Shoestring Pension, where we had booked in to stay. After a glass of apple tea and a plate of Menamen (eggs, peppers and tomatoes cooked in an earthenware pot), we headed straight to bed and tried to correct our sleep debt from the previous night. We woke at ... read more

Ah, I see from Rob's previous blog that I have been implicated as a partner in crime for the tardiness of our travel updates ("we" blew it??). To be fair, it hasn't always been due to someone procrastinating. 8 months sounds like a lot of time to be taking off but we are constantly amazed at how little time we have left at the end of the day for reading and writing when there are so many kilometres to be spanned, places to visit, people to see.........I can't explain. Internet availability and connections have also been patchy. I'm currently on a terminal in Kyrgyzstan (yay we made the border crossing with minimal fuss and in record time!) where I have been told the connection is "dial-up and Sputnik" so it's not exactly the fastest line nor ... read more

Middle East Magic: Cappadocian Capers Middle East » Turkey » Capadocia » Goreme By AllycaMay 1st 2006in appreciation of perspectives, people and placesCappadocia....I'd seen the pictures, but nothing had prepared me for the sheer scale of these magical scenes.... I'll let the pictures tell the story for now...will add text later ... read more

Another early morning….another buffet breakfast!! Today we had a long drive across Turkey. We traveled for 12 hours. We had an interesting stop at Konya which is a city that has a lot of Middle Eastern investment. It is a very conservative place and it has the museum of the Whirling Dervishes This is an Islamic sect with a very interesting history. We arrived in Pamukkale quite late. The hotel we stayed in had hot springs so the kids had to have a swim in the warm water. They weren’t too impressed to find that it was muddy and gooy on the bottom. They are a bit soft! We went to a leather factory. They had a fashion parade. Harriet was one of the "Stars" of course. It had the desired effect as every couple/group purchased. ... read more