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Published: June 10th 2011
Lacey and I matched up our off days this week and took off on our first big adventure. Almost as soon as we decided we were coming to Turkey, we found out about a place called Cappadocia. Ever since then we've been determined to go. Because of our schedules we knew we wouldn't have a lot of time but wanted to make it work before the kids are out of school next week and our schedules are full.
We left our houses at 8:30pm Wednesday after working. We took a city bus to the area where we would get on the shuttle to get to the real bus. Lots of transportation! We waited and the shuttle was about 15 minutes later than we were told it would be but it finally came and we drove about 20 minutes to a major bus departure area.
Throughout this story of our trip I will include the random Turkish men happenings. The first one happened on the first shuttle. The guy behind Lacey and across from me was being kind by helping Lacey with her armrest and decided to strike up conversation. He knew about 10 words in English so we didn't
get very far. He said, in Turkish, something about English teacher and Turkish teacher, and it could have been innocent enough but neither of us were dying for his contact info. Lacey and I have developed a good system of saying we'll take their numbers, rather than give ours, and "we'll call you." ha ha! The first time it happened I just said, "I don't have a phone," and looked at Lacey! Yes, I'm a good sister. Anyway, this guy wrote down his phone and email address and gave it to me, and kept asking for mine while I kept motioning typing on a keyboard. Yes, I'll write you...
Ha ha On with our day...we wait at this bus stop for a bit and then board our Mercedes Benz bus to Cappadocia. We were told it would be 8-10 hours. It was supposed to leave at 10:15, and didn't until about 10:30. It took over 10 hours, but I'm getting ahead of myself. As soon as I sat down on the bus (not the first shuttle) I instantly felt at home, excited and confident. I love the adrenaline that is associated with traveling and the unfamiliar. It took me
Mt. Erciyes
Drove past this beautiful mountainback to Korea...sitting on a bus that I was pretty certain was heading to the right place but I had no idea how I got to there or what I would do when I got there. I absolutely love figuring things out, and I think that's a large part of traveling. Basically, I think I want to be a tour guide. A tour guide of extreme adventure trips. That would be incredible. Anyway, I felt excited, anxious, and good about the whole thing even though there were many uncertainties. I haven't been in this mode since arriving in Istanbul. Maybe Korea wore me out but I'm usually planning, exploring, and going. I got off to a slow start here but am possibly coming around.
The bus was long and full of restless sleep. It would stop at rest stops for 30 minutes. All the men would smoke and drink tea. These rest areas were nearly identical to the ones in Korea, which are significantly different from rest stops at home. The obvious difference between the Korean and Turkish ones is the men haggling you to buy things the whole time. It's 2am, I'm exhausted, please just shut up and
let me go to the bathroom. One guy shoved tea into Lacey and I's hands, which is free at a lot of places here, and after we sat down to drink some, came and told us to pay for it. We both said no way and gave him back his tea. He said ok, and told us to drink it. We never wanted it in the first place. Paying for the toilet gets old really fast. Especially when the toilet is a squatter without toilet paper. I think the majority of my money this trip went to using the toilet. The pushy old women who disregard lines seem to be right on par with the women in Korea.
Another thing I noticed was that it was almost all men on our bus. There were a few families and women with children but it seemed all of the single travelers were men. Did I mention the fact that there was no toilet on the bus? Bethany deVries successfully survived over 20 hours on a bus without a toilet. Yes, I'm quite proud of myself, and I think Lacey and Jake are as well. Just wanted to make note of that.
We arrived at the main bus terminal in Nevsehir at 8:45am, which is where we were supposed to get a free shuttle to Goreme, our final destination. Before my feet even touched the ground, a guy standing by the bus asked where we were going and began walking with us, promising he had the shuttle that would take us to Goreme. You think I would have learned a lesson about this in Bangkok but I was fooled again. He took us to sit down, saying we would leave in 10 minutes, and began showing us his tour brochure, explaining why we needed to take his tour, since we only had one day in the city. It didn't sound like a bad option but it wasn't what we had in mind. I was really looking forward to walking around, eating where we wanted to eat and doing whatever looked interesting to us. His tour covered a lot and enticed me for a minute but I decided to be daring and stick with our original plan, which was no plan.
So you probably guessed it. He was not the shuttle guy, and we missed our free shuttle to the city.
He was grabbing anyone he could and offering them tours for 70 lira. We asked the bus people for our shuttle and they said we missed it and then quickly headed over to our tour guide friend and yelled at him. I'm sure we weren't the first victims. We finally made it to Goreme though, via the tour guide man, who needed to pick up other customers in the city. He told us to take the tour next time. Sure thing.
The view was incredible. It really is like no place I have ever seen. You're just amazed when you look around. I hope the pictures can show a little bit of how fascinating this place is. As soon as we got off the shuttle we found a motorcycle shop and rented a scooter. I was shocked by how cheap it was and couldn't imagine seeing the city any other way. Sitting in a van driving from place to place on a schedule with other tourists and eating crappy food did not sound fun. I am SO glad Sister and I decided against that. The scooter was PERFECT! We could go and do anything we wanted, anything that looked
cool. We got to cool off from the sun while we drove really fast. Not to mention that it's always so fun to be driving in another country. It was awesome. I want to go back ASAP.
Random Turkish men story number two. Lacey and I were walking past some touristy shops where the usual men are repeating, "Where are you from, excuse me miss?" again and again until you want to scream. One of them says "I have a gift for you," and lures Lacey into his shop. Ha ha He wasn't lying though and gave her a cute evil eye key chain for free. Then he decorates her with a hat and skirt and has her pose for a picture. He was really nice and when I told him we didn't have money to buy anything he was offended. He said, "Excuse me, I didn't tell you to buy anything." He just wanted us to take pictures and have fun and he wasn't creepy and annoying. He gives Lacey his card and number and we tell him we'll be back in a month. (Turkish men have turned us into liars! 😊 So that was number 2.
I think I'm going to split these posts up. 1) Because I'm tired. 2) Because it's getting too long and nobody likes to read posts that are too long. 3) There are too many pictures
Speaking of pictures, I finally got my first album of Istanbul pics up on FB. Much more than on the blog so Jeanne, if you're interested 😊
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Amanda
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SOOOOO Jealous!
I'm SOOOOO jealous right now!!! But if, scratch that, when I go to Cappadocia I'm going take a hot air balloon ride, even if they are ridiculously expensive! Oh and I so want to be an adventure tour guide as well! Possible partnership forming???? Enjoy your little kiddos! I can't wait to start my new adventures, July 13 can't come soon enough!