Turkey, Cappadocia
June 6. We fly to Cappadocia today. This is a region in central Turkey, not a particular city.
9:41 At Istanbul airport we take a group selfie before departing!
10:13 Istanbul airport is new and built to be a huge international hub, currently the worlds largest airport.
1:15 After arrival at Kayseri airport, we board our bus for Cappadocia.
1:27 Mount Erciyes is near Cappadocia. An inactive volcano 12,851 ft high.
2:08 We're approaching the Cappadocia region of Turkey.
3:07 We stop for a late lunch and fuel for the bus. We picked our meal from this menu.
3:12 We really enjoyed this pomegranate syrup that was served with our meal, so we bought a bottle of it to take home!
Cappadocia is an area where structures are built into the soft rock (tufa) which is made from volcanic ash.
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4:05 We visit the Goreme Open Air museum. A group shot in front of a structure called the Nunnery.
4:06 About the people who lived here.
4:15 A display of some of the scenes inside the Goreme churches.
4:21 A typical tufa structure.
4:24 Another group photo.
4:26 Phil and Emerson head into the Chapel of St. Barbara.
4:29 Information on the chapel of St. Barbara.
4:31 Inside the Chapel we see evidence of the erasure of some of the faces of the Christian icons by the later non-Christian inhabitants.
4:32 Stephen and Marilyn head in to explore another chapel.
4:53 In another structure we see a dining area including tables and seats that were built into the tufa.
4:57 Linda and Emerson
5:05 Roger and Melinda
5:09 Another view.
5:29 So many interesting formations.
5:19 An extra charge for entering this church. We only saw this a couple of times where the pricing is in Euro's but had to be paid in Turkish Lira. It's one way to not to have to change your sign all the time when your having 100% yearly inflation.
5:29 One of our last photos before leaving the Goreme Open Air Museum.
8:14 Dinner at our hotel.
8:52 After dinner we have a chance to try some Turkish coffee.
8:54 Strong. Served with a sugar cube which is now in the coffee.
June 7. Out the door at 3:45 AM for our hot air ballooning over Cappadocia!
Our balloon being inflated.
4:57 Shortly after takeoff. Everyone in our group signed up for this "optional" tour!
5:18 Our pilot and co-pilot.
5:20 Sunrise!
5:29 The sky is filled. The day before and the day after our flight the balloons were not able to take off due to bad weather conditions. We were lucky. It was a great ballon ride.
6:04 After our balloon sucessfully lands directly onto this trailer, Emerson and Phil demonstrate the fun part of climbing out of the basket!
6:23 We all get certificates of flight to take home with us. As Roger and Melinda review theirs, Rolla and Marilyn are all smiles at this wonderful experience!
Click on image to see more of our Cappadocia balloon flight.
9:16 After breakfast, we head out to visit Uchisar, another area in Cappadocia. At a rest stop, Emerson points out this funny sign.
9:17 Uchisar - place of the fairy chimneys
9:17 Just love the soft look of the tufa formations.
9:17 Group photo with birds doing a photo bomb!
9:46 So many fairy chimneys!
9:48 And more.
9:57 We meet this couple whose tufa chimney home has been given over to the government to be toured as a museum. The couple now pays rent to continue to reside there and they also run a gift shop on the premises.
10:00 Cozy dwelling.
10:00 Their kitchen.
10:02 The living room.
10:02 Another view.
Nurdan tells us about the living room.
10:02 A look out the living room window. (Linda thinks "I could live here!")
10:12 These boards were dragged over cereal grains to extract the seeds.
10:13 Nurdan explaining this ventilation cooking system.
10:14 Normal is overrated. (We love our feminist tour leader...she's a rarity in this partriarchal country!)
10:24 Another window view from this home.
10:25 Bedroom
10:26 Peek a boo Rolla!
10:26 More views from this museum/home.
10:32 Taking a brief break and enjoying a laugh!
10:37 The owner poses in his shop with this sculpture he carved. And then we bought it!
They have a nice courtyard.
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10:54 We enjoy some tea.
Nurdan answers a question.
11:11 A favorite photo of Linda's as we drive away from this area.
We visit a rug manufacturer. He has about 5000 weavers around the area who make the hand knoted rugs.
A weaver uses a knife to cut the strings. Click on image to see more about rug weaving. It's worth seeing.
Jason participates in a demonstration of the strength of silk.
We move to a large room where we're shown a varity of rugs for sale and given an interesting demonstration. While many of the rugs were beautiful, $20,000 price tags were way, way out of our budget! One interesting point made was the huge amounts of water needed to wash the silk. As this area continues to get more arid, this shop may we forced out of business.
Time to eat!
1:26 Lunchtime means deciding where to sit!
1:27 Several restaurants we visted on this Turkey trip had old timey radio or stereo equipment!
1:30 This relief artwork depicts the area we're about to visit next.
1:30 We dig into our meals!
Emerson takes a turn at breaking a crock.
3:07 After lunch, we visit Ozkonak, one of the underground cities.
3:07 This key relates to photo above.
3:11 A cross section drawing of the village showing its many layers.
3:17 A bit cooler underground.
3:18 Nurdan tells us about this room.
3:19 Roberta and Jason in front of the underground winery.
3:28 Big stones like this one were rolled to block entrances if dwellers were attacked. There was a small opening above the entrance where defenders could attack invaders trying to move the stone.
3:30 Some of the passages were pretty narrow. Emerson's tendency for claustrophobia keeps him from following Linda!
3:31 However, Rolla and Marilyn are considering it.
3:36 Drinking buddies Jason and Emerson doing a simulated tasting in the winery.
3:53 Our visit in Ozkonak continues, but now above ground. Emerson and Phil check out the fact that the modern town is built atop the caves.
3:54 More of Ozkonak above ground.
4:02 We come across fat-tailed sheep grazing.
4:19 View as we drive back to our hotel.
5pm Storm rolling in.
7:08 Before heading to dinner we check out some interesting formations such as Camel Rock
7:08 More interesting formations.
7:28 We walk by Cavusin Castle on our way to our restaurant.
7:29 Interesting clouds that evening!
8:41 We finished dining here at Seyyah Han Restaurant.
June 8. Still at the Yusuf Yigitoglu Hotel, Nevsehir.
8:59 am The front of our hotel
8:59 Right next to our hotel is an area used as a backdrop in a popular TV show in Turkey.
9:17 We visit a farmer's market in the town of Urgup.
9:33 Beautiful tomatoes!
9:33 It's always interesting to see the variety of foods.
Nurdan tells us more.
Lots of feta cheese.
6/8 9:26 Linda tries some honey.
9:32 Strands of dried ochra.
9:33 Dried ochra up close!
9:54 Emerson, Pat, Phil and Jason.
On the road to our next stop.
11:39 We do our "day in the life" experience with a farmer and his family. Nurdan is here with the mother of the farmer.
11:38 Here enjoying appetizers - Chris, Stephen, Pat and Melinda.
Our group with farmer/owner.
11:48 Nurdan and farmer discussing his small orchid of fruit trees.
12:02 Our group with farmer.
12:04 Farmer points out the black plums.
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12:36 After exploring their farm and orchard we help prepare the meal.
We each took a turn at stuffing the dough. The lady of the household had prepared the mix ahead of time and would reach over and help us in the preparation.
The man of the household then places each of our preparations on this hot metal pan for cooking.
12:57 We get to enjoy our meal in a lovely outdoor setting.
1:00pm Group photo with host family and our delicious meal. The tree limbs were bent into a beautiful overhead covering.
1:44 The farmer, his wife and mother on the right and daughter, granddaughter on the left.
1:50 Family shot with our group as we leave.
1:56 On the road back to hotel.
1:59 Lots of solar panels in Turkey.
2:30 Ceramic shop we visited on our way back to our hotel for the evening. We bought several items there and luckily they made it back to Texas in one piece! See below.
The framed tile piece is now hanging above our stovetop and the 4 bowls and spoon rest are below it.
4:15 Some of our group took about a one hour hike up the hill behind our hotel.
4:18 Nice views.
4:34 Nurdan and Roberta coming down from the peak of the hike.
4:35 We saw some "petroglyphs" along our hike.
4:38 That's Jason and Nurdan way up there.
4:50 Back at our hotel after our walk.
4:50 This is our hotel's outdoor dining area where enjoyed our breakfasts.
4:50 The formal dining room.
5:26 Time to enjoy another amazing dinner!
Hot.
5:53 We are given our next day's itinerary.
6:12 We head out by bus to our evening's next learning/discovery/entertainment...
6:20 ...Saruhan Kervansaray -The Whirling Dervish Monastery - located in what had been an old trade route stop.
6:21 We step through the big doors into a courtyard,where,we are told that centuries before traders would bring their camels and trade goods in at night.
The Dervish dates back 700 years and is a part of Sufism. It is a whirling prayer ceremony, an act of ecstatic devotion. The crossed hands at the start of the ceremony represent the number one, testifying God's unity. When whirling the right hand is raised and directed to the sky, representing his readiness to receive God's beneficence. The left arm is down and turned toward the earth, representing his willingness to convey God's spiritual gift to those witnessing the Sema.
During the actual ceremony we were not allowed to take pictures. In this demonstration filmed after the ritual ceremony, you see that both arms are up (in actual unfilmed ceremony the right was raised up and the left was down).
7:19
7:26 Sufi shop.
7:26 Group photo.
8:42 Back at our hotel, we enjoy refreshments and each other's company as we wind down the evening. Our waiter from earlier was still around and was quietly attentive to us.
June 9.
6:31 Before checking out we take a last look at our hotel room which is built into the tuffa rock. They originally had us in a different room which had a lot of tufa sand falling on everything including the bedspread!
6:32 Our new room included this living room as well as a sunken tub...we apparently had the bridal suite!
6:38 A view from our balcony.
Another view.
6:35am Looking down before we head out we spy Rolla and Marilyn. Our group had all the rooms around this courtyard. The patio below never got used by the group. Linda had visions of us all group partying there one evening but timing and weather didn't permit it.