Advertisement
Published: June 25th 2011
It was an early morning with a long bus ride to Cappadocia, and we all were feeling it. (All but Taylee, who was a smart cookie for going to bed early.) We all ate breakfast in silence for the most part, and then hopped on the bus. It was the first of 2 long bus rides for us, the second one being the ride from Cappadocia to Istanbul. We didn’t stop much on the way since we had to make good time; we did stop for lunch at one point but we all weren’t hungry so a few of us decided to go exploring in this cave that was right next to the restaurant. It was a very Turkish experience. The cave was almost entirely horizontal and had a giant pool at the end of it, it was very pretty. But the way the walkway was constructed had me fearing for my life the entire time we were in it.
It’s a cave. It’s damp in the cave. There is running water everywhere in the cave. So what do the Turks use for the walk ways? Wood! (note: probably cheap, but not smart) As you walked along the wooden boards they
bowed really badly when any weight was put on them since they had been saturated for so long. Every step you took could literally be your last one. At one point when we were going up some steep stairs I noticed that a support had broken that held one of the sides of the stairs up and instead of welding a new support (too timely) they stuck a log underneath it. Classic!
After exploring the cave we all got back in the bus and didn’t stop again until around 4:00 pm when we were all finally hungry for lunch. It turned out to be great because we stopped and had Etli Eckmek at this nice little restaurant in a very small town. It tasted a lot like the Armenian Lehmehjoon that I had had back in Pennsylvania, but it was shaped very differently. These guys had long boards on which they would stretch out dough and place the meat mixture on and then slide the long board into the long oven (this board was about 7 feet long I would say) then when it was done they would take it out and cut it into a few slices (to make
Brett posing in the Cave
Hopefully those rocks don't give way!it fit on the table . .barely) and then serve it to you on a nicer board. It was so delicious! And so incredibly cheap! I love small towns, great authentic food at great prices!
We finally made it to Cappadocia, we thought that Hasan was lost because at one point Faith rolled down the window and shouted something in Turkish that sounded to us like we are lost. It turns out that they just needed to find the post office. After our quick detour we found our hotel, there was a heated discussion (or friendly one, sometimes you can’t tell with the Turks) between Fatih, Hasan, and the hotel staff (it’s times like these where I wish I spoke the language so we knew what was going on because we all were just standing around the hotel lobby with our bags not having a clue if we had rooms here or not) it turns out that there wasn’t a room for Fatih or Hasan at the hotel and they would have to go elsewhere. Marcus and I felt so bad so we told Fatih that we would share a room and he could have Marcus’s; it took a little
convincing but in the end he agreed. Hasan didn’t mind going to the other hotel since he had the van anyways.
Once we were all settled in our rooms we went back out to the top of a hill from where we could see the sunset, Taylee, Bex, Dora, and I tried to spell FEZ (then with one person jumping at the end) in front of the sunset over the Cappadocia landscape. It was an epic fail and I believe Marcus and Brett have a great video of us trying to do it, but we had a good time! Fatih then called us over for wine and a toast since apparently my birthday wasn’t over yet! He had his cousin (a jeweler in Istanbul) send him a necklace for me and that is what he was picking up at the post office, it is a beautiful silver butterfly. I didn’t know what to say, he didn’t have to do that! It’s the birthday that keeps on going!
We then grabbed snacks from in town, I practiced more of my Turkish on the vendors and they loved it, one invited Marcus and I in for tea, but we had to go
since everyone was waiting at the bus for us to go back to the hotel. It was a very quiet night since we were still recovering from the long bus ride and the night before.
B
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 7; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Martha Tanner
non-member comment
Wonderful Blog
Barrett, I nearly called your mom last night to see if you were all right. I had not received your blog for awhile and I was beginning to get concerned. Marshall and I have loved following you on your dream trip. Everyone is so jealous! I was thrilled that Marcus was able to join you and share all the excitement. How your mother has been able to restrain herself and not fly over to see you is beyond me! Looking forward to seeing you when you return to the States. In the meanwhile, keep the blogs coming!! Stay safe and always remember how much you are loved, Aunt Martha