Turkey Part 2

Days 5-7: Cappadocia
Leaving Istanbul, we caught a very early flight to Kayseri, which is the closest city to the region known as Cappadocia. If you ever go to Turkey, you simply must take the time to go here. It's like nothing you've ever seen. Created by a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago, the landscape looks like little phallic blobs of rocks sploosomed out of a tube (kind of like when I try frosting a cake). And if that isn't reason enough to visit, Byzantine monks moved in and cut churches and homes into the rocks, which means you can have a hiking adventure while enjoying mosaics and frescoes. 

People used to live in the caves in Cappadocia until as recently as the 60s. The photo below was taken from a little village on a hillside that finally moved down to the valley after an earthquake in 1967 (I think). Nowadays, the Turks don't live in the caves, but they make a serious profit off the tourists who want a cave experience. We were a little too poor this trip to stay in a cave hotel, but our hostel more than made up for it. I would have stayed there a week just to stay at Kose Pension longer. Not only was it almost ridiculously cheap, but the rooms were spotless and well decorated-there are lovely murals scattered throughout the hostel-the food is delicious, and the roof-top dorm room is one of the coolest places I've ever slept. I highly highly recommend it. 

Our first day in Cappadocia was a little crazy, starting with the shuttle not arriving at the airport to take us the 45 minutes to Goreme, where we were sleeping. We got lucky and caught a ride with a guy who claimed to also be a tour guide...so we were suckered into paying a little more than we should have for a tour of the towns throughout Cappadocia (it's really difficult to get around Capp on public transportation, making either a guide or car/scooter rental almost imperative). His English was actually almost non-existent and it turned out that he didn't really know (or couldn't communicate) much of anything about the places we visited, which made him really irritating. Good thing we had Lonely Planet to help us out. I was really grumpy with the whole situation the longer we were stuck with him. Thankfully Zillah got rid of him while I was in the bathroom at the Goreme Open-Air Museum (thanks about it!). We nicknamed him "the Blemish" or better yet, "the Putrescence." But, as M reminded me, we would never have met Mehmet without the driving services of The Blemish. Mehmet is a local who lives in the town pictured above (I think). He owns a gift shop, hotel, restaurant, half the town, etc. When he saw us traipsing around on some old cave dwellings above his shop, he ran up the hill and offered to show us around, since, naturally, he grew up playing around those cliffs and caves. He was great and we were all delighted to have met him. 

From our day with the Blemsh, pictured below from left: a "castle" in Uchisar; the Hair Museum in Avanos with over 16,000 dusty, cobweb infested samples of women's hair. Definitely creepy, but Zillah and I both added our own locks to the nastiness; a detail from one of the many little churches in one of the caves...I can't recall which one; the exterior of one of the churches in the Goreme Open Air Museum.

The second full day we spent on an official tour of the area, which seemed a little pricey (90 TL but no better deals were to be found since the tour groups standardize their prices each new season), but was actually well worth it since it included transportation, entry fees, a knowledgeable tour guide, and a huge lunch. And we met a lovely retired Australian couple, a seriously extroverted American who told us his life story (complete with details I wouldn't tell some of my friends) within 3 hours, and an Italian family with an adorable 3-year-old.  We went to the underground city in Derinkuyu (too dark for my level of photo skills), which was at times a bit claustrophobic and unnerving as it was up to 100 meters below ground- all that rock pressing down on you- but really interesting to see how and where people lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Underground. They even had a baptistery! Then we headed to Ilhara Valley for a hike and lunch. The best part of the valley was all the little churches nestled up in the cliffs. After lunch, more cave cities, this time aboveground.

Day 7: Konya
I was loathe to leave Cappadocia, but we had other places to see, so we hopped on a bus and made our way south to Konya, known for little aside from Rumi (a famous Persian poet) and his Whirling Dervishes. Being the wrong time of year, we weren't able to see a dervish, but we did see Rumi's tomb, some beautiful Korans, and a case holding some of the Prophet Mohammed's beard hairs (I forgot to mention that at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, we saw Moses' staff. Yes, the very one, so they say). It's a fairly sacred spot for many Muslims, so it was no surprise that we were surrounded by throngs of tourists mingled with Muslim pilgrims during the hour or so we had there. Pictured below: the Mevlana Museum (Rumi's shrine). The teal tower is right above where Rumi is buried. Please also note the Turk pants mentioned in my previous post. We wore them particularly because we knew that Konya was a pretty conservative place and our pants were long and shapeless versus tight jeans or shorts. But after being stared at incessantly and noting that none of the girls our age were wearing such attire (jeans and t-shirts for them), I started to wonder if our pants were too touristy? Then I saw the old ladies and came to the conclusion that maybe only tourists and old Turkish ladies wear our loose gypsy pants. Ah well. 

And then we were back on a bus and off to Antalya to sleep for the night and hopefully let Phin recover a bit from whatever it was that was making her ankles and feet swell up like balloons.


Day 7/8: Antalya
By the time we got to our hostel in Antalya, Phin was definitely not feeling well. After we dragged a confession out of her (she didn't complain at all), we teased her into submission, made her put up her feet, and decided it was time for a rest day. The only problem was that Antalya wasn't really our ideal place for a rest. Although a nice enough city, it's more of a resort town for the Europeans (and therefore on a resort type of budget) with a few things we wanted to see, but nothing major. So early in the morning, M, Zillah and I trekked out on the town for a peep at Hadrian's Gate and the Old Roman Harbor and then we were off again, this time on a minibus called a "Dolmus" to rest in the teeny beach town of Patara.