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Published: April 16th 2008
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We are back in Istanbul now after a super long bus ride. We have done quite a bit in the last few days that we spent in the Cappadocia area, so I’ll try and sum it up here! Three days ago we drove from Pamukkale to the Cappadocia area. That was a long drive. With a few stops along the way it took over 12 hours. Our first main stop was in Konya to visit the site of Rumi’s tomb. Rumi was a very famous Sufi mystic of the 13th century. The whirling dervishes were started by Rumi and they are Sufi mystics as well. So Rumi was very important in the Islam, especially Sufi mystic, tradition. The tomb was gorgeous and very elaborate and there were many tombs around his of other Sufi mystics. We weren’t allowed to take pictures though. But that site was pretty cool. Another stop that we had along the way to Cappadocia was unplanned. Our bus was having problems, something with the oil filter, and it broke down. But it just happen to break down in a place where there was a caravan building of the 13th century. I’m actually glad that the bus broke
down because this building was really cool. There was a little building inside of it that we could climb up and there were many dark cave type things that had some really cool window openings in them. Also there was a little café near there that we spent about an hour at after that while our bus was getting fixed. So that was kinda fun just to sit down and play cards and enjoy ourselves at a little café because we have been on the move so much. So after the little bus incident, we kept driving to Cappadocia. We didn’t get to our hotel til after 9 and then we ate dinner and then we pretty much had to go to bed so we could get up to enjoy another day of seeing the sites. So two days ago we traveled around the Cappadocia area. We first went to the underground city of Kaymakli. That was really cool. It was a little claustrophobic though because the tunnels to get to the different rooms were very narrow and very low ceilings (some only about 3 feet and the pathway only about 2.5 feet wide). There were so many little rooms!
I was very glad we were with our guide, otherwise we could have very easily gotten lost. There were eight floors to this city; however, we were only able to get to five of them. But that was plenty. We were still very far underground. The first level was built by the Hittites and then in the 8th and 9th century the Christians built them deeper and used them to hide from Arab raids. And this city that we visited was not the only one. There are 36 others that have been excavated. And they are all huge with many miles of tunnels and rooms everywhere. So that was pretty incredible to learn. We also went to an area (I’m not sure what it was called) that had little churches carved out of the rocks. It was so cool. A lot of them were from the 6th or 7th century. And the frescoes on the walls could still (kinda) be seen. That was so cool. So we went to a couple of those and then we went to an area that had really interesting rock formations. Some of these had caves carved into them and some had churches. It was
really fun just to explore those and climb around. After all of this we went to a Turkish rug factory/store. We got to see weavers making the rugs. They were so good! Their fingers were going so fast, I couldn’t even follow what they were doing. Some of the big rugs take months and even a year for a woman to finish it working 40 hours a week. So they were obviously very expensive, so I didn’t get any. There were some that were small that I really liked, but they were all made out of silk, so they still cost over $1,000 even though they were only 1ft by 2ft. But it was still cool to see all the carpets and see how they made them even though I had no interest in buying one. They put something on for us that can’t be described as anything but a rug fashion show. They just kept bringing rugs out and showing them to us and laying them on the ground until there were at least 50 in front of us. And they also gave us some apple tea and local wine, so that was nice. Anyways, then we got back
to the hotel and ate dinner. The food here in Turkey is pretty American (maybe it’s just because we are eating at touristy places). But the hotels have all been buffets and there have just been a mix of salads, fresh veggies, and various meat and potatoes entrees. The desserts have been the best for sure. There are always various kinds of cakes and pudding and then some typical Turkish desserts. Like honey soaked cake and figs. Then, yesterday we explored more cave churches. First, the ones in Ilhara valley. The valley is 16km long, but we only walked a few of those. It follows a stream and there are cave churches all over. We walked for about an hour and went into five different churches ranging from being built in the 6th century to the 13th century. The icons in there were still in tact, for the most part. It was so incredible. The rock formations all around this area are so cool. It is nothing like any place else I have seen. And it so different from the western part of Turkey that we were in. The western area was mostly lush forests, it actually reminded me a
lot of Minnesota, only with a few more hills. Anyways, after Ilhara valley we went to another place that I’m not sure what it was called, but there were more cave churches there. And then we went to Goerme where the most famous cave churches are located. So pretty much the whole day was just climbing around rocks and seeing some pretty sweet churches that have been built into the walls. This morning we left Cappadocia area at 6:30am for Istanbul. En route, we stopped in Ankara to visit the museum. This museum had things from 8,000 BC which was awesome because we haven’t seen anything that old on this trip yet. But other than those things, the items in there were very similar. Lots of old pots and statues. But it was still really cool to see. We pretty much spent the whole day on the bus, as we didn’t arrive in Istanbul until 8pm tonight. Tomorrow we have another day of sight-seeing in Istanbul, so that should be a lot of fun. I can’t wait!
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