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Published: October 7th 2008
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Right now I’m listening to some Sufjan Stevens music, whose lyrics mainly talk about different parts of the Midwest. So, I’m feeling a little nostalgic and homesick.
I’d like to describe my few days in Cappadocia, but it will be hard. I can’t adequately write how amazing and inspiring it was. We were in a small town in the region of Cappadocia. I went with Kate and with two friends who live one floor below us.
Aunt Dianne strongly suggested going on a hot air balloon ride while there, but since it was so expensive, I had to resist the temptation. I really hope to go back and do that someday, though, because I’m sure it’s incredibly beautiful from up high.
We took a small shuttle bus from near our apartment early in the morning on Tuesday to the main tourism bus station. Then, we had a 10-hour bus ride to Cappadocia. We hadn’t bought our return tickets yet, which was nice - we ended up staying one more day than we had originally planned for, and I’m so glad we did.
The night we arrived, we went and checked into our $13/night youth hostel (great deal
for what we got), and hung out in the comfortable lounge and talked to people from New Zealand and Israel. The Israeli guys all live in Istanbul, so we might see them again.
The next day, we had breakfast that the hostel provided - they even have a menu with stuff to choose from, and we were served at our tables. It was really, really great - I can’t think of anywhere else that costs $13 a night that is so comfortable and that includes such great breakfasts. Anyway, so then we saw our Israeli friends again, our New Zealand friends, and talked to them for awhile. After that, we spent the whole day exploring caves, climbing rocks, eating grapes off of vines, being astonished by the old frescos in the caves, etc. At the end of the day, Nicole and Zach went back, and Kate and I walked around a little more, and finally made our way back to the hostel. We then hung out in the lounge some more with our Israeli friends, and met a cool Dutch journalist, and talked to the hostel workers, all really nice people. Kate and I decided it would be worth
it to take a 9-hour-long tour the next day. I’m so, so glad we did that.
So, the next morning, after breakfast, Kate and I got on the bus for the day-long tour. We had an awesome tour guide - totally wacky and off the wall and just overall really, really cool. She will always be my favorite tour guide ever. She is from Cappadocia, and so that was cool. We saw an underground city (7 storeys down), cool caves and old churches. We also had a great lunch included in the tour. There were lots of bees, though, so one of the people we met used his cell phone and put on this “bee repellent” noise that he had downloaded off the internet… SO weird. It actually made the bees go away for a little while.
During the tour, Kate and I met some people who I intend to stay friends with - such great people. There was a guy from Georgia (the country, not the state), and a guy from the Basque country, and a Spanish couple. We spent the evening together after the tour. The next day, we met up with those same people and
hiked around for a little while. Then, I got a phone call from Nicole, telling me that we could rent mopeds for $5 an hour. I couldn’t resist, of course, so I left and went back to the hostel, and Nicole, Zach and I rented mopeds for two hours. It was one of the highlights of my life, riding on the motorbikes through such incredible scenery. I’ll never forget that.
That night, we had dinner with our Georgian and Spanish friends (the Basque guy had left by then.) Sometime during the evening, Kate and I met a guy who is a hot air balloon pilot, and he invited us to have breakfast and watch him set up the balloon the next morning at 5:30. So, we planned to do that. Then, we went back to the hostel, and Kate and I stayed up in the hostel for awhile, talking to a guy from France. The three of us went outside and sat in a gazebo and talked until at least 4 am. The French guy went to bed, but Kate and I brought our blankets out into the gazebo and thought that if we slept in the gazebo, we’d
be more likely to wake up in time for our breakfast with the balloon man. However, we overslept (despite the early call to prayer from the nearby mosque AND despite the intense sunshine), so that was disappointing. But, it was cool sleeping in the gazebo, so I’m glad we did that. The gazebo had cushions all along the side, so it was very comfortable. The hostel workers had seen that we did that, and they were pretty amused.
We got on our bus to Ankara that morning, and luckily, when we got to Ankara, we found tickets available to Istanbul. We hadn’t been able to get a ticket to Istanbul before, since they were supposedly all booked. So, we decided we’d have to stay in Ankara if needbe. But, we got lucky and got our Istanbul tickets and left about half an hour after we got there.
Now, we’re back in Istanbul and enjoying the last day of our break.
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Aunt Dianne
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Wow!
I have been waiting to hear about your trip to Cappadocia and see the photos. I am so happy you went! What a trip! On page two, on the photos entitled "on a hike," what are those little things carved into the rock?