The bus left Asti at 11:00 and immediately after pulling out of the station, an attendant, much like a flight attendant, gave us all a splash of hand sanitizer. Then he wandered down the isle with a large bottle of water, and poured glasses for those interested. About 15 minutes later he handed out small packaged cakes, followed by cay or coffee, then Pepsi or Fanta orange. In the seat backs were monitors showing the cartoon network, two US movies, and a hand full of Turkish programs-all in Turkish! There was an MTV Turkish music station to listen to.
One channel was a camera above the driver's head showing to road since the seat back were too high to see over!
Our attendant sitting and visiting with the driver
About half way we stopped for a bathroom break in Serefli Kochiser, next to their giant Salt Lake. After the break, more hand sanitizer, water, cay/coffee, and soda.
We arrived in Goreme at about 3:30. Our school does a trip for new folks every fall to Cappadocia and stay in Goreme at, and I kid you not, the Flintstone Hotel. So, that's where we stayed, but no sign of Fred, Barnie, Thelma or Pebbles. There were however three different workers named Memhet!
Notice the carved out and uneven ceiling. Three walls were the same. There was a big Jacuzzi tub and nice shower in the bathroom, but the entire place was dark! The lights were about 7 watts each.
After unpacking we walked about 4 blocks to the shop and cafe area of town. We wandered around town, took pictures, played scrabble (Peggy won) in a bar and had local Cappadocian wine, and eventually ended at Dibeck Inn and had an incredible meal.
We sat on cushions on the floor and the owner served our meal. Peggy's came in this sealed clay pot which he had to tap with a hammer to open. This was probably the best meal we had since getting here.
When we arrived we booked a tour with one of the Memhets, for Friday. A small bus picked us up at 9:30, after another Memhet cooked us fried eggs and French toast at the hotel's restaurant. We first stopped at an overlook seeing the Pigeon Valley. The rain that had started at about 8:00, was now sleety snow and wind. As we traveled up in elevation, the snow ended up about 6 inches deep, and very wet and slushy. Take heart, this in no way changed how the driver attacked the curves and valleys. He even passed a small car on a hill, forcing it to pull off as a bus was coming and we had to cut off the car to get back in our lane. In our tour group there were a couple of Korean ladies, an Indonesian couple, a girl from Malaysia, and a couple from Brazil. Our guide did a good job of talking about Christianity and his religion, as a Muslim. "Being a Muslim, it is a sin even to kill an animal, so real Muslims don't kill other people." We liked him.
Our tour guide, Onu (Jonah)
We first stopped in Derinkuyu and its underground city. The Christians, who once inhabited this land, were not very well accepted by the various conquering factions, so they often had to hide in underground cities and caves to survive. We were told that the caves had pretty low ceilings and tight spaces. I started down the first set of steps and decided that 30 minutes in a crouched, tight position was not for me, so Peggy went on alone. In the caves they had meeting rooms, a water well, school areas, as well as sleeping quarters, and even a place for their animals. Peggy counted 105 steps below the surface, so it's down there. They had fresh air tunneled in and "doors" where they could defend themselves from enemies it they ventured down to encounter the locals.
They could shoot arrows or poke spears through the "door's" peep hole
Thankfully the snow stopped and it melted quickly. We then were taken to the Ihlara Valley where we walked along the Melendiz River for about 3 kilometers and saw hundreds of cave dwellings. Throughout the entire 14 kilometer valley they estimate there were about 4000 dwellings and 8000 residents, along with over 100 churches. All caves had small roosting caves/holes for the local pigeons right next to the people caves. The pigeons provided droppings for fertilizer for crops, the eggs were eaten and used for sealing frescoes in churches, and they killed them for their meat.
Notice the smaller dots or pigeon roosts
There were numerous cave churches along our short route, and we visited St. Daniel's Church or Church under the Tree. It was a small cave with two small side areas and the main celebrating area and alter. Maybe 75 people could crowd in at a time, more if all stood. At the entrance was an interior dome with the ascension painted on it. These being at least a 1000+ years old, it is remarkable that the color and quality is still clearly visible.
The fresco on the ceiling shows Christ's ascension into heaven, assisted by angels.
We had lunch along the river and then continued to the Selime Cathedral (Selime Katedrali) which was once a monastery and built into numerous "fairy dome" rock formations. In the various caves there were cooking areas, a school room, gathering spaces, sleeping areas, prayer rooms, and of course, the main cathedral. They believe the frescoes in the cathedral go back to the 8th century. Wow, and we think buildings in Salida built in 1885 are old!
The school room, with individual bedrooms above
More frescoes in the cave cathedral. The amount of rock that had to be moved to create these large spaces is amazing, given the very basic tools available.
Pigeon Canyon
After the Cathedral, we traveled back to Pigeon Canyon, now without the snow, and stopped at at a jewelry shop before making it back to Goreme. Dinner this night was again excellent, with a wonderful red pepper paste made with olive oil, peppers, and walnuts as an appetizer. Beef for me and chicken for Peggy at the Seten restaurant. We stopped at a small place for baklava and pistachio ice cream and listened to a Turkish singer before heading back to the cave.
A lit cone in the foreground, where Christians dug caves and lived, and the minaret at a mosque in the background in Goreme.
We did a couple more day trips this past week that I'll post later. Back to work tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment