Cappadocia

Cappadocia is fascinating and the most unique place I've ever seen. The rest of the week in Cappadocia was like being in Never-never land (two never's = not Michael Jackson). There was lots of tea, baklava, pottery kebobs (a local fare that involves cooking a stew in clay pots that are broken in front of you and then served...delicious). There were BBQ's with the local cave men (they call themselves that- I promise) in their swinging bachelor pad caves. We went on some hikes- one through the Allarah Valley and another through the Rose Valley. The second hike included what the Turkish call rappelling, but what I call holding on to a rope as you walk down a cliff and pray (it occured to me several times during vacation that Turkish safety standards aren't the same as in the US). We went to the magic valley (pictured right... i'm "riding" a rock that looks like a camel... unfortunately my humungousness is obscuring the camel); There were rocks that looked like everything from smurf hats, to giant hands, to jaws' head coming out of the water. We went to the underground cities that were built as hide outs for Christians thousands of years ago and were only discovered in the 1960's. There are hundreds of them under the strange landscape and the one we visited was 10 stories- the lowest being 40 meters underground! As you can see from the photos the rock formations are incredibly varied. My favorite though and the thing I never tired of are the homes that people built into the "fairy chimnies".



Fairy Chimnies (people lived and some still live anywhere you see an opening in the rocks).

The Allarah Valley

Balloon Rides

Day 2 in Cappadocia we decided to get up at the crack of dawn and take a hot air balloon ride. After being blasted out of our cave dwelling by the 5:30 am call to prayer (yes, we were staying in a cave), we took a van to a field in the valley where 50 or more balloons were getting ready to take off.

Since we got the "most estrogen in one balloon" discount (aka the "pretty lady discount" according to Ahmet the owner of the company) we were only in the air for about 2 minutes before our pilot, Alp started showing off the his skills. We flew up so high that we could see for 100s of kilometers (this is the part where I stayed on the inside of the basket and tried not to pee my pants) and then down into the valleys. We were so close to the rocks sometimes that you could touch them. In this picture you can see the balloons touring in the valleys.

We were treated like precious cargo all morning. Alp even landed at one point and some guys from the company ran out from behind a rock and gave us all roses. All the other balloons were hovered around watching with envy because they didn't get flowers--however, they also were not travelling in a pack of women.

At the end of the ride (9:30 am) the champagne flowed quite freely and we blitzfully (whoops, I mean blissfully) headed back to our caves.

Scenes from Sultanahmet

The day before Kelly and I took an overnight bus to Cappadocia (details about the bus and Turkish truck stops in a later posting) we spent the day in Sultanahmet for the end of the Ramazan festival. Ramazan (Ramadan) ends in a three day bayram (holiday), much like Christmas.

Instead of hitting up the tourist sites we decided to head in lesser known directions. Because of our off the beaten path wanderings we came across some interesting scenes. The first of which is this fortune telling rabbit. For a lira you can this rabbit picks out a fortune (entirely in Turkish) from the board. Ours had something to do with happiness and friends... those were the only words we knew.

We walked for a few minutes out of the touristy area and ran across these kids playing in the street. They loved having their picture taken.

The picture on below is of a lady making chocolate gözleme in the Ramazan market. Similar to crepes, gözleme can be filled with lots of stuff, but who would want anything other than chocolate. On a sidenote, one of the best things about this country is that they love chocolate spread. Nutella is so popular that they have off-brands. Most grocery stores (even the tiny local ones) have a whole aisle of nutella-esque products.


After our foray into the side streets of Sultanahmet, we decided to do some chessy tourist stuff. This included getting our picture taken dressed as Sultans and Sultanas. Within three seconds of stepping into the stand the photographer was all over me. He had decided that I was his "wife" and that I would have to be The Sultana. Much to her surprise and dismay, Cristi found herself in a ratty beard and Kelly was dressed in the "handmaiden's" costume. After having the photo taken, we couldn't get rid of these guys (Turkish men are persistant) and Kelly took this fantastic photo of me and my Sultan walking off into the sunset together.