Thanksgiving Break in Turkey - Part II: Escape to Cappadocia

Day 1 in Cappadocia:

We pulled into a parking lot in what we assumed was the right place, and just as confused as before, showed people our tickets.  We got sent to a minibus.  It took us somewhere, and we unloaded and went to a tourism office.  The guy there gave us a map, circled our hotel, and the Flintstones Cave Bar he recommended we visit later, and called us a ride to our hotel in Goreme, the Local Cave Hotel.  Because it was still just 8:30 our room wasn’t available for check in so we left our stuff in the lobby, changed in a bathroom, and waited for our tour group to pick us up.  We ate breakfast there too, not sure it was for us, but they didn’t stop us. 


Our tour van picked us up, we met some others we would be spending our day with, and hit the road.  The landscape in this place is jaw dropping.  An entire city, literally carved out of the rock.  Our guide Fahti led us through Devrent Valley, to see the fairy chimneys.  Fairy chimneys are formed from the settled volcanic dust, formed into tower, and then topped by harder rock that settled.  Over time, the lower rock has been shaped by the wind, leaving pyramids with caps.  You have to see it to understand, just check out the pix.   He showed us cave churches, houses, castles, the unbelievable city formed by stone.  Just awe inspiring.  We had a nice lunch, included in the package, at a cave restaurant.  Three courses including soup, pottery kebab, and dessert options, of which I chose more rice pudding.  In the afternoon we toured the Goreme Open Air Museum, which is a reserve of more rock formations and houses, and saw some beautifully painted church caves.  More lookouts, more stops, and a visit to a pottery shop where we learned how to make pottery the traditional Turkish way, then spend way too much time trying not to spend money in the endless ceramic shop. Hallie won a prize for guessing what the man was forming on the wheel, and Jaks got to make something herself.  Unfortunately she didn’t get to keep it. 

We were dropped back at our cave hotel, and this time were able to check in.  Our bags were still in the lobby, exactly how we had left them.  They unlocked our rooms, and despite the fact that we had asked specifically for 1 room for all of us (to save money, and avoid splitting up) and him telling us it wasn’t possible, the first door opened to reveal 2 twin beds and 1 double bed.  We looked around, saw the other room, and just decided to all stay in one.  Bummer he made us pay for 2 even though we specifically tried to avoid it.  We claimed beds, Jaks and I ended up in the double, and promptly all fell asleep for a good 2 hours.  Guess we needed it.  We woke up, showered, and got dressed for dinner.  We walked through the town of Goreme, looking for some cheap local eats in the tourist town.  It was the off season, and extremely dead.  A ghost town.  Except for the restaurant owners who, as in Istanbul, harassed us with deals and offers as we passed their restaurant.  We finally gave in to one of them and had a nice Turkish meal.  Jaks and I shared Turkish ravioli with yoghurt sauce and a meatball dish, and Ellen and Hallie shared a chicken something and pottery roasted veggies.  Yumm and yumm again.  The ravioli were tiny and triangular.  And delicious.  I have eaten more meat this week than in the entire past year. 

After the restaurant, we decided we had to take the man’s advice and check out the Flintstones Cave Bar.  How could we not?  It was super cute, with a fire place and little tables, across from a stone bar.  We ordered a bottle of local wine to share and a nargila, and the man we soon recognized as the guy who suggested the bar to us, joined us at the table.  Our first thought was that he came to see if we had taken his advice and to join us.  Ick.  Then he told us our nargila was on the house.  Uh oh.  We found out pretty quickly through conversation then that he owned the place.  Oh, thanks for the suggestion.  He very quickly fell in love with Ellen as well.  This would become an interesting night.  We played a game of shesh besh,, me against Ellen (who had never played) and the owner (who was really good).  Awww, just like Israel.  Soon, A little guy, probably 20 something, hopped up and started dancing.  Like Michael Jackson.  The soundtrack of this bar was mostly oldies American music, with an eclectic mix of modern English pop.  Jaks joined him before to long, and next thing we knew the 4 of us, and everyone else at the bar was up on their feet.  We started a mega dance party.  Because of the owner’s little crush, our glasses never seemed to get empty, and we drank at least 2 bottles and a few beers.  After several attempts to drag her outside, he finally gave up and sat all sad in the corner.  We felt bad, but its not like we asked him to get us drinking for free all night.  We met some Australian girls, a group of International students studying in Turkey, 1 American.  Turned into quite an adventure.  Needless to say, we were glad we napped that evening.  Before it got too late,  we hit our very comfortable cave beds and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up, packed up, and went to the lobby for another breakfast spread.  Unlike the morning before when we had snuck meals from the buffet, this time they brought us pre made plates.  Just not the same.  And no eggs.  Oh well, we ate our fill and met our tour van again at 9.  They picked up our luggage and dropped it at the fancy hotel in Urgup (the other town) where we picked up more group members since it would be easier for us to get it there later.  Fahti and our adorable driver led us through another exciting adventure through the valleys and caves of Goreme and Urgup.  The morning started out with a 4k hike through Red Valley, White Valley and Rose Valley.  Named for the colors of the rock of course.  The Moroccan Man from our group kept wandering off, and quickly became the joke of us as well as the guide.  He kept popping up in random places.   We passed the time talking with a couple we met, around our age.  Holly from Australia, and Dan from New Zealand had met in Greece sailing.  They had since lived in England, 3 more years in Greece sailing, and were now working on week 3 of their “one week” trip to Turkey.  I would have loved to live their lives.  Here begins the adventure of the sunglasses.  Ellen had in her bag a pair of turquoise sunglasses she had borrowed from Justin.  They were falling apart, the turquoise color chipping off leaving paint specs on the wearer, and just kinda gross.  Jumping off of Holly’s idea, we decided it would become the new project of the trip to get pictures of as many people we met as we could wearing the glasses.  This included various group members, our guides, and basically everyone we could convince.  When lunch led us to eating at a long table in the hall of the Culture Museum, our sunglass adventure began to include manikins as we snuck into exhibits to snap a shot.  Awesome. 

We saw more churches and houses, and then explored an underground city.  Tourists were only allowed to explore 4 floors.  That’s okay though, that’s more cave village than I’ve seen before.  We crawled through tunnels and passageways, saw stone doors as we entered wineries, stables, living rooms, etc all carved in the underground stone.  I could live there!  Well, except for the cold and fact that it was underground and stone.  There were even chimneys for fresh air and ventilation.  Too cool.  We got a few sunglass shots in various cave crevasses, then returned to the surface.  We stopped for some more free time at a few more lookout points as we worked our way back. 

The last stop of the day was the Onyx factory.  Again, a cheap plea to get us tourists to spend money, but we just watched the demo and then tried on the biggest and most expensive rings and bracelets they had.  Holly kept making Dan uncomfortable talking about them being too small.  Love these guys.  From there Fahti and our driver, who we now knew was named Numan, started the rounds of drop offs.  Since we had a few hours to kill before our night bus back, and no hotel, we asked nicely if they could drop us in the city of Urgup at the Turkish Bath.  Ellen had been talking about getting one since day one in Istanbul, so we decided this was our chance.  The bath, or Hamam, was not quite what they had described in the books.  We asked if they accepted women, since we had heard there were separate sections in most hamams, and they said yes.  They gave us keys to changing rooms and handed us red plaid cloths to put on and green croc like sandles.  The first time my passport had left my body since we arrived in Turkey, we locked them and all of our belongings into the rooms and strapped the keys to our wrists.  Wearing our new garments, and matching the men up front, they lead us in.  We found ourselves in a big hot room, with several smaller rooms off of it.  They took us to one side, and asked us to rinse off in the shower.  We did.  Then they showed us the sauna and told us to get comfortable.  We all awkwardly sat down in there together, not quite sure what to do, and decided that we might as well get the real hamam experience and dropped the towels to our waists.  It was just us after all.  And then through the window of the sauna we saw another couple walk in.  A couple we recognized, from our tour group.  We gathered our cloths back up, and all awkwardly greeted each other.  Hmm, maybe that’s why this one was so cheap, its coed.  They laid down on the stone block, steaming, waiting for us to finish.  When we had had our fill, we traded places, relaxing on the warm stone, waiting for someone to tell us what was next.  The hamam man, not large hamam woman as we had expected, came to take the first 2 for the massage.  Ellen and I stood up and followed them into a different section where they laid us down on more stone tables.  I started at the washing station, Ellen at the soapy massage.  Again, didn’t know this was a group project.  My guy began scrubbing me with an abrasive cloth to remove dead skin.  It was disgusting to see what came off of my body.  I guess I needed this.  He washed me, washed my hair with bar soap, and rinsed me with little bowls.  Weird.  Then Ellen and I switched and I began my soapy bubble bath massage.  This guy was good.  He cracked my back so hard, I giggled.  Seriously though, after sleeping on a bus, I needed nothing more.  In heaven, Ellen and I were sent back to the hot stone room while Jaks and Hallie got their treatment.  We laid there blissfully until they returned, then went to cool off and get our towels.  I have never felt so clean.  We dried off, went back to our rooms to change back, and received our nice free glasses of apple tea.  The amount of free glasses of apple tea we have received on this trip cannot even be counted.  I love Turks.  We dried our hair, bundled back up for the cold, paid our 20 lira, and ventured back outside, refreshed. 

We walked around Urgup, found a doner kebab place to get  food, and then walked back to the Cappadocia Palace Hotel where our luggage was being held.  Again, we walked in and it was sitting there piles up just how we had left it.  Numan, our driver, and some other guys we had met along the way were waiting for us.  We changed in the bathroom and drank, yes, more free tea.  They made more jokes about marrying us, which we started to realize may not have been a joke.  We were a perfect Harem of 4 after all.  They all got excited when we asked to become facebook friends.  I seriously gained a whole crew throughout the week. 

We got a ride to another strange parking lot, where we boarded a bus.  Our tickets were close to the back, but not quite as bad as last time.  There were tons of people gathered for what we discovered was a send off party to the army.  He was probably the only kid to leave this tiny town, and everyone was there to say goodbye.  The kid and some others boarded the bus, and as everyone cried and waved we pulled away.  The bus seemed really empty and I was excited again to move up and spread out.  We stopped at the bus station to pick up more people, and once everyone was settled we spread out a bit.  After about 40 minutes of driving, the bus stopped in another small town, and we looked out the window not just to see tons of people waiting, but men and women loading our bus with giant sacks of potatoes.  What?  They were angry there was too much luggage and were all crowding around shoving at the sacks, loading the carrier. Apparently we were on the food transport to Istanbul.  I have to move back to my original seat next to Hallie as a small child was placed next to me and the mother yelled at me in Turkish.  The older daughter, looking so excited to use her English, saw my confusion and said “Seat.  Me.”  I moved, all four of us in a row, and we curled up as comfortable as we could on the bus and tried to sleep the night through.  We stopped again at the pay to pee in a hole place, and got to Istanbul in the morning.

When we got off the bus, we were expecting to see someone from our travel place with a van, as we had been informed.  After exploring and not seeing anyone, we got in a shuttle to Sultanahmet, the center of town, with another couple who were even more lost than we were.  Thankful it was actually free, we arrived back in town, and went to the travel agency to leave our bags, as they had also told us we could.  No one there.  So, we went back to Alkan’s shop around the corner.  He wasn’t there, but we told the guy there the situation, and he called our friend.  Waking him up as we later learned, Alkan gave us permission to use the basement as storage again.  Since nothing was opened yet, we went to Starbucks across the street to change and get a hot drink.  Like any good American tourist.  As if by perfect chance, what other American tourist do we see with the same plan?  Will, our San Francisco friend from the tram a few days back.  He had also just come in on an overnight bus, and had a few friends with him he’d met along the way.  We discovered he was on the same flight as us back to Tel Aviv, so we decided to spend the day together.  We waited a bit, but he had to go fight with the agent who booked his tour and try to get some money back for things he didn’t receive.  After things weren’t going his way, we exchanged numbers and left him behind to go to the Bazaars. 

We got directions to the Grand Bazaar to do some last day shopping.  This place is a giant, covered, street market, with stands and stores selling jewelry, lamps, scarves, souvenirs up the wazoo, basically anything you could imagine.  I tried to avoid spending money, and did pretty well.  Ellen bought lots of jewelry,  and Jaks and Hallie got some things as well.  I just enjoyed the bargaining.  Someone offered to “change my life” if I entered their shop.  No thank you.  One guy offered me a deal because it was his birthday.  I wonder if he says that every day.  Will called us and asked where the shop was so he could leave his stuff there and meet us.  When he finally found us in the Bazaar, he informed us he had met Alkan and gotten a full breakfast spread.  Maybe we should have waited for him!  Will showed up with  the crazy Mohawk man from the shop, who proposed marriage, then pointed us out the path to the Spice Bazaar.  Now a team of 5, we trekked for more shops and more bargaining.  This Bazaar had spices, teas, and tons of Turkish delight.  We again sampled as much as we could, and bought from the cheap one to take home.  Will decided he would send us on a mission.  He wanted a half kilo of instant apple tea, and a half kilo of natural.  For 15 lira.  We decided to divide and conquer.  Most places would give us a full kilo of instant for that, but not the combo he wanted for less than 20.  Hallie finally got an offer of 16.  We all rushed over, and Will said he would take the deal if they threw in the teacup set for 25.  They said 30.  He said 25.  They said 27.  He gave them 25 and they reluctantly handed over the bag.  Well done.  Well done. 

Souvenirs in tow, we made our way to a food stop.  Jaks, Hallie, and Will wanted fish sandwiches again from the boat.  Ellen and I got chickpea/rice/chicken on the street on the way.  We of course stopped for more mussels.  I should mention that our count for the whole trip, between the 4 of us, had now reached 59.  At 50 cents each though, I was okay with the 10 or so I had eaten over the 6 days.  We boogied back to Alkan’s to gather our stuff, a little later than we had planned.  He said he would call his taxi friend for us.  Another helpful friend of Alkan’s.  I love our fated meeting.  We ran into Will’s friend at the airport, mailed our postcards, and got settled at the gate.  At this point we decide Will would come back with us and sleep on our couch, and that some of us would show him around Jerusalem the next day.  Unfortunately I had to go to work.  Our gate changed a few times,  the plane was an hour delayed, but despite expected travel hitches flying into Israel from a country they don’t like, we made it home safe and sound by 8:30ish.  

Overall, the trip was an incredible experience.  Fate, luck, and a ton of friends along the way really made for an awesome time.  With most of the people we met, we avoided telling them we had come from Israel, due to the political unease.  We had gotten caught up in extensive lies at one point, but it made us feel better so it was ok.  Spent a lot of money, but saw some incredible things, ate great food, and really got a taste of the culture and language.  Couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend my break. 

Now, its back to work, and the Cultural Delegation for Israeli Theatre and Music coming quickly next week.  Can’t wait to tell you all about it.  As they say in Turkey “bye bye!”  I’m serious.  That’s what they say.  See you next time!