mmm-yoso!!!

Istanbul: Bosphorus Ferry Tour, Balik Ekmek, Yeni Camii, and Hotel Djem

After a fairly hectic couple of days in Cappadocia we caught our flight back to Istanbul. We'd be staying one night then heading onward to Athens and Crete. By this time we had the metro and tram system pretty much down pat and made it to Sulthanmet Park and got out and made our way to the Hotel Djem, which is located across the park and the Hippodrome on the opposite side from our previous hotel. We enjoyed this hotel so much that we decided to make it our base for the rest of our time in Istanbul. Walking out into the street, you can see the back of the Blue Mosque rising into the air....there's something so exotic and exciting about Istanbul.

When we arrived the first thing the manager did was offer us tea while he checked on our reservation. The moment he found our reservation he told us to have some breakfast....and typical of Turkey, it was quite a spread.

There was a little guy who worked the breakfast buffet who was constantly in motion....he seemed to always be on a mission of sorts. Watching him work kept us entertained during our breakfasts.

We loved the gentleman who managed the place...when he found out we'd be leaving early the next morning, before breakfast service, he asked, well more like told us that we'd need something to eat...so they would have something ready for us if we wanted. We told him yogurt and some fruit would be perfectly fine....you gotta love Turkey!

While the Missus was freshening up, I asked the young man about cruises on the Bosphorus.......and really appreciated his honest advice. "You just arrived today and are perhaps a bit tired. Personally, I would just take one of the more inexpensive two hour cruises, the all day ones are a bit long......and after a while, all the buildings will start looking the same. You will stop enjoying it." We took his advice...... He would be our best source during our stays in Istanbul.

We caught the tram down to Eminonu as it started to drizzle and looked over a couple of the cruises near the Galata Bridge which I posted on before.

As we boarded it started raining a bit harder.....it was also fairly cold. The chestnut dude was doing great business though!

Here's what the regular ferryboats look like.

It turned out that two hours was just about the right amount of time for us. Here are some of the sights.

Üsküdar the Asian side of Istanbul.

The beautiful Ortaköy Mosque.

The gentleman at the hotel was right....by the time we hit Rumeli Hisari we had peaked and had our fill......though the cruise really highlighted how little we saw of Istanbul during our trip.

There was one thing that kept us form getting bored though....it was this lovely couple.....

Both were middle-aged. Neither sported wedding rings. The gentleman sported a very serious and conservative suit. The woman wore...well, I mostly remember her for the pointy tipped shoes like we saw in the souvenir shops. Both acted like teenagers in love. As the woman walked to the back of the cabin the gentleman trailed her filming her every move. In fact, he filmed just about every move she took. Once, I thought she had her fill and walked out of the cabin....but no, she was just stepping outside so she could do poses right out the window.....yep, you guessed it, just so the guy could film it! It almost seemed like something out of a comedy. It kept our attention for most of the return trip......it was sweet, cute, hilarious, and just plain bizarre all at the same time.

All along the area around the Galata Bridge are boats selling Balik Ekmek, the famous fish sandwich.

The boats have grills installed on them which already gets your attention, but many have eye-catching...well, almost gaudy design and ornamentation. Some of the hawkers even dress up in what I can only guess is Ottoman style garb...all the while yelling out "BAAaaaa-Liiiik". There's an area where several of the boats gather that have a fairly nice looking dining area set-up.

I walked on over and really didn't like the smell of the fish so I passed.

However, as we got off our boat, I noticed this little boat doing some serious business.

So I decided to try one....you can't beat the price, 2.5 TRY, about $1.25! This being Turkey, the sandwich had quite a bit of bread.

I made a mistake when I first got my sandwich; I had a taste of just the fish, undoubtedly mackerel,which tasted just plain fishy and off. Ick. However, when nestled in the bread, the pungency of the onions helped to cut the fishiness and oil. It tasted much better, but I didn't enjoy the aftertaste...it was not among my favorites from this trip. In fact, I'd take "fish curd" and even "fish poo" (fish preserved in it's own intestinal scrapings) that I had in Laos over this any day of the week.

As we walked to the underground crosswalk I saw the infamous mussel vendor. But after my Balik Ekmek I decided to pass.....

Whenever you're near the Galata Bridge, you can't help but notice the wonderful looking mosque across the street, next to the Spice Market.

The name of the mosque is Yeni Camii, "New Mosque", though it ain't that new being built in the 17th century.

In fact, the Spice Market was built as part of the mosque complex to create revenue for the mosque.

We had heard that the Mosque is quite beautiful and though we passed by several times it was suaully around one of the calls to prayer. We wanted to be respectful and not intrude...so perhaps next time.

There are women selling bird seed to feed the thousands of pigeons that flock around the mosque.

 On one afternoon, we saw these men performing Wudu the sacred wash before prayers.

We walked back to our warm and dry room at the Hotel Djem, in need of a shower.....

 And perhaps a nap.......

Man, did we love this hotel.......

Cappadocia - Goreme: Nostalji Restaurant

We'd had a pretty busy day hiking (more like getting lost) in the valleys around the town of Goreme. For our last evening, I thought we'd have a nice dinner. I asked the ever helpful Mustapha and he recommended a restaurant just up the street (hill) called Nostalji. They had only been open for a  couple of months at the time, but Mustapha told us the food is pretty traditional for the area. So we headed up the hill past a couple of streets, about the equivalent of a block here in the US. Of course if you passed this on your way to dinner it might get your attention here in San Diego.

The really nice gentleman stopped, smiled, and waved at us. Remember this four legged fellow, you'll see him again later in the post.

Walking up the street we thought we had missed the place until we saw the sign posted on one of the walls.

There was no one around as we walked into the courtyard past the oven.....

There was a whole lot of construction going on up above. We found out later that they were building a hotel and restaurant above. It's probably complete and opened by now....

A few moments later a gentleman walked out the door, grinning from ear to ear, welcoming us to Nostalji. He asked us into the kitchen where we could check out what was being made for dinner. In the kitchen, three women spanning two generations were hard at work making boregi. They were very warm, gracious, and really made us feel welcome.

They happy showed us what they were making....after this, how could we not eat here?

The dining area was through a set of doors in what was obviously an old residence. It was charming, though a bit dark and crowded. But that was no problem. This was when I opened my big mouth....looking at the patio I mentioned to the man, "you have such a nice view here and such a big patio, when the weather is good you should have tables out there." He turned, laughed and said, "you want to eat out there...no problem...." I protested, we didn't want these folks working so hard, but before I could complain too much a table was set up for us on the patio. It was pretty amazing......

Since it was early, there was no one in the restaurant....we had the whole place to ourselves, impromptu al fresco dining and all! The view was quite nice.....

With the sounds of children playing below......

We started getting the feeling that this was going to be one of those really memorable meals.

Nostalji specializes in set meals, sort of in a prix fixe manner and testi kebab - pottery kebab. But since we hadn't ordered it ahead of time the oven would stay cool for now.

Instead we went with one multi-course meal to share supplemented with a couple of other dishes.

The Missus started with a glass of the house made wine......

Which tasted like it had been made in someones home! Still, we were having such a great time it didn't matter. I had some ayran, which was light and frothy, not overly salty, and perhaps the nest I had on the entire trip.

We took in the our surroundings and really enjoyed the scenery and in a couple of minutes our meze arrived in pretty little bowls.

Green peppers in olive oil.

The Missus loved the dolmalar, stuffed grape leaves which I thought were a bit too thickly wrapped.

I loved the acili ezme, a bit spicy, a hint of sweetness, with a nice smoky background.

I thought the haydari, the yogurt dip was delicious, nice and tangy......

Of course, this is Turkey and you will get an entire loaf or two of bread with your meal!

Which was quite good.

After watching the women in the kitchen making these, how could we not order some of the cheese filled boregi?

 This was wonderful. I'd expected it to be similar to a cheese pie wrapped in filo, but this was surprising. The outside was crisp and light, while there was a thin layer of yeasty "bread". I expected a simple white cheese like Beyaz Peynir, but this was more of an aged yellow cheese with plenty of character. It was, simply put, delici-yoso!!!

The Missus also ordered some dolmalar of the stuffed pepper variety.

And of course there was the inevitable coban salatasi, shepherd's salad.

The meal also came with a soup. On this day it was yogurt soup. I wasn't quite sure if I really liked this....hot, runny, yogurt. Amazingly, the Missus, who usually wouldn't want something sour, milky, warm, and runny, loved this. She is full of surprises.

The white beans had been cooked in a clay pot in the oven and was all the world better for it.

And the main course, the kofte was pretty darn good as well.

The meal ended (or so we thought) with some fairly decent baklava.

And of course Turkish tea.......

Our check arrived and was placed under this covered plate.

When we opened it.......

It was a plate of Turkish Delight. We're not big fans of lokum, but these were quite good, maybe our favorites of the trip. It was a very nice touch.

By the time I paid our check, which if I recall was very reasonable, we were in a hurry to head back to the hotel. The sun was setting and I wanted to watch it go down on the hotel's terrace.

On the way back we ran into the guy who rode the horse past us earlier. He smiled and pointed at the doorway of what looked like a flat on the ground floor of a building.

I peeked in....and discovered it was a stable for his horse.....

Aaahh...Cappadocia, "Land of beautiful horses......"

We scrambled past the fowl.....

And made it back to the Arch Palace with minutes to spare. I walked up to the terrace, ordered an Efes and settled in to watch the sunset. The Missus, who didn't quite understand my obsession with watching the sunset on our last evening in Goreme, inspired by the lokum, decided to head down to town to check out some of the shops.

Meanwhile, I just enjoyed my beer and watched the sun slowly set on Goreme.

With the call to prayer going off, the shadow of the minaret of the mosque, and fairy chimney's in the background, this just seemed so exotic.....

As the lights of the main square slowly came on one by one, the Missus returned with some Turkish treats.........

Most of which reinforced my belief that I still hadn;t acquired a taste for them.

We hit the sack early. I had scheduled an early flight to Istanbul before I realized that it's a two hour drive from Goreme to Kayseri, we'd have to get up at three in the morning and leave before four....note to self...next time fly into Nevsehir....

I've come to the realization that our trip to Cappadocia would not have been half a wonderful if not for the owner of the Arch Palace hotel, Mustapha. Part travel agent, tour guide, concierge, and what not, I was amazed watching him work the room during breakfast, taking time with each table, calling for tours, making dinner arrangements, drawing out maps that were several times better than what you could buy in any of the stores. He was constantly shuttling his clients off to various valleys and seemed to know everyone in the town. The Arch Palace might not be a four star accommodation, but we sure got five star service.

We had done a lot in Cappadocia, from a early morning balloon ride to visiting an underground city, scrambling up to a monastary dug into a hillside to hiking through valleys rich in history. It made me realize what a very lucky guy I am......very lucky....

Thanks for reading!

Cappadocia: The Valleys

*** Not much food in this one, so you may want to just drop by tomorrow.....

After two rather damp days, the sun rose on a dry morning in Cappadocia. The Missus had wanted one day to explore some of the valleys in the area. I really wasn't looking forward to this day as the Missus is known for taking me on some major "death marches". Once she gets on a roll....look out. During breakfast, Mustapha planned out a hike for us...it sounded easy enough, a walk to Pigeon Valley which we saw from the scenic area the day before. There was some supposed Roman trail in the valley, which looked paved from up above. The valley leads from the outskirts of the town we where we were staying, Goreme to Uchisar. We made our way down the hill passing a few of our furry neighbors along the way.

The town was farly quiet at this time of the day.......

All the better to enjoy the fairy chimneys rising out of the ground.

I had to chuckle when we passed this hotel......

Yabba-Dabba-Doo!!!

At the end of the road, there really wasn't any real sign, just this on a light pole.

Unfortunately, there were two trails.....so we took the one to the left, which started by going through this tunnel.

And came out the other side.

We walked for a kilometer or two and couldn't find the road...... so we turned back and went down the trail to the right. We found the old roman road and headed into scenic Pigeon Valley.

It is called Pigeon Valley for all the pigeon houses built in the valley. Folks here used to harvest the guano to use as fertilizer.

We walked to the end of one side of the valley and found a rock wall. We walked out to the other trail and found the same. We could here the folks talking at the look-out above us, it almost felt like they were taunting us. But we just couldn't find a trail upwards to Uchisar. Un total, we walked back and forth thru the valley at least three times or more.

At this point, the Missus had built up a head of steam as we headed all the way to the hotel, where Mustapha could only laugh and tell the Missus that he'd drop us off at the beginning of Honey Valley. He was also driving these two really tough looking German women, one of whom snickered at me when I said we couldn't find the way out of Pigeon Valley, "Vvvhat! I come every year...and I have been there many times....never get lost!" No argument from me...she looked like she could body-slam me and make me submit with a figure-four leg lock. We were dropped of at the Goreme end of Honey Valley and our instructions were to hike to the Uchisar end, climb up the hillside ("be careful, it can be slippery") and catch a Dolmar (the local bus). These mini-buses are called Dolmars because of how they used to stuff people into them....just like stuffing a Dolma. Anyway we started off at the Goreme side which was just a dirt trail that led to other trails into the valley. They also call Honey Valley "Love Valley", but I haven't a clue why........do you?

Eventually, the trails split into several trails headed in every direction, which split into trails that seemed all headed in opposite directions. We passed folks going into the opposite direction and soon enough we saw no one. We decided to head toward the direction of where we thought Uchigar was scrambling through streams and stream beds, sometimes finding trails that would suddenly end.

We walked through pasture and caves looking for footprints and occasionally finding some. Near the end of the valley we could see the road and constrruction above us. We found a pretty steep trails and scrambled up and found ourselves at the Onyx factory we had stopped at yesterday. The view of the valley was very pretty........

From up here you could see all the trails zig-zagging in different directions below us.

As we headed out to the main road I could see Uchisar across the way. Unfortunately, the Missus was still fixated on not finding our way out of Pigeon Valley and headed off in the opposite direction. So it was goodbye bus ride back to Goreme.....

We made to scenic look-out and tried to figure out where the trail was up the mountainside.

I still couldn't figure it out and at this point I'd had enough of this hiking stuff for today. We still had the 5 kilometer walk back to Goreme.....at which point ourmy rescuer appeared, in the form of an old Renault sedan which smelled, quite wonderfully to me at the time, of cigarette smoke. The white car was driving down the road when it stopped then suddenly reversed twenty yards or so to where I was walking. The first thought in the Missus' mind was that this was some road-side mass murderer and we were his next victims, but this was Cappadocia, so of course it was a very mild mannered young man named Ahmed who pointed down the road and said; "Goreme?" What a nice guy....of course the Missus told me that I looked like I was going to drop dead by the roadside at any minute and that was what alarmed the young man into stopping. Whatever, I thought it a wonderful gesture...you gotta the folks in Turkey! When we arrived at the outskirts of town the young man stopped and starting pointing and asking me something in Turkish......after a second I realized that he was asking me where we wanted to be dropped off! People here were very nice indeed. I just motioned to the side of the road and we got out.

By this time, I was starting to get a bit hungry.....not super starving, but just in need of something to eat. We were right across the street from Nazar Borek where we had dinner the night before, so we thought, hey, why not?

This time we just simply shared a doner kebab.......

Which was really cheap at 2 TRY and ok. But it was house made Ayran that I really enjoyed. It was light, though not as frothy as other versions I've had, this simple drink of yogurt, salt, and water sure hit the spot. It was nice little break and we got to chat with the owner who we found out was a classmate of Mustapha, the owner of our hotel.

We also saw the same mutt as the night before patrolling his territory and searching for scraps.

All of this put me into a good mood.......which is when the Missus told me that She "wanted to see more valleys", sigh....... So we walked back to the Arch Palace, I took a shower, dried off, and we headed back in the direction of  Goreme Open Air Museum and Zemi Valley.

And to Zemi Valley. This was the valley the Missus wanted to check out during the deluge with the trail under a foot of water, I guess She was just determined to see the place. Actually, there wasn't much interesting other than one of the small churches in the valley.

The caretaker/ticket-taker/guide/etc of this place was a hoot. The church itself is only a single tiny room, but is quite pretty. The gentleman insisted on taking photos of us. He grabbed my camera and said, "no worry, me here 26 years, me professional already...." and proceeded to pose us at various locations around the church. Most of these churches don't allow photos, so he was sure to let us know that "you take many pictures here....no problem" as he let us in.

 As I mentioned before, the Ottomans believed in aniconism, thus most of the eyes on the frescos have been whited out.

The valley was nice, but I was pretty weary at this point......

We took a different trail on the way out and saw this beautiful sight.

Did you know that Cappadocia means "Land of Beautiful Horses"?

I thought this as a wonderful sight, a nice ending to our hiking the valleys.....but no....the Missus pointed across the street. There was still one more valley to see.

We walked down a dusty dirt trail, past Goreme Camping, a sort of RV-camp site, where you could pitch a tent, but restrooms and I heard there's even kitchen facilities and a pool are provided. We took a right past the Royal Balloon landing area and took in the view of Rose Valley.

Though all the ATVs zooming around the valley really distracted one from the beauty of the place.

By this point I was "vallied out" and gladly the Missus decided that it was time for a nap.....which was the best idea She had all day!

Thanks for reading......

Cappadocia - Goreme: Selime Cathedral and dinner at Nazar Borek

The final stop on the "Green Tour" was Selime Cathedral and Monastary which is dug into the hillside outside the town of Selime.

 The location up a slippery (there's no stairs) hillside protected and probably helped preserve the ascetic lifestyle of the monks.

Most of what I've read says that the monastery was carved out of the hillside...more like a mountainside by monks in the 13th century. Though I've also been told that Christian Monks escaping from Roman rule first settled here in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

With all the diverse rock formations, I'm thinking Cappadocia must be a Geologists dream. The "Fairy Chimneys" give the terrain an otherworldly look. In fact, this was one of the area's scouted as the home of the Sand People in Star Wars. One look around you and you can easily see why.

As I mentioned, there are no stairs, you basically scramble up slippery paths up the side of the mountain...this is Turkey, there's no OSHA, handicapped access, or any of that. Many of the paths seemed to have been made by running water leaving tiny round mable like stones which sometimes make the going interesting. I also wondered how folks made it up here at night!

This kept several of the people on the tour grounded. I'm not a big fan of heights, but I wasn't going to miss this....even the ambulance I saw in the parking lot (I'm told it's always there "just in case") and the lack of railings or the prospect of the sheer drop wasn't keeping me form this one. To my surprise, I saw an elderly gentleman who used a walker at the top! Of course, going up is much easier than going down....

I was vastly rewarded for making my way up. The chambers, many of them blackened by smoke and soot had a strange and haunting quality to them.

The cathedral itself has a strangely haunting appearance.

You can easily make out the columns and some of the ornate artwork. You lose perspective and don't quite remember that you're in a cave until you turn around....

Looking closely you see the remnants of the frescoes and artwork......

All of the frescos and paintings that still remain have either the eyes whited out or the faces removed. The Ottomans, in accordance with the laws of Islam of the day practiced aniconism, which prohibits the depiction of the human form. So when the Ottomans took over......

All of the passages between the rooms had me regressing to childhood as I was having a great time exploring......

Of course, eventually we did have to make it down back to terra firma where I learned the answer to an age old question:

Why did the cow cross the road?

Well, to avoid the paparazzi, of course. Kinda corny I know, but this kinda tells you how far out in the country we were.....

Overall, the Green Tour was a very nice way to spend a day......you went from the depths of an underground city, to a walk along a gorge, to climbing up to a centuries old monastery carved into a mountain. And the ever changing topography was fascinating as well.....

We arrived back at our hotel pretty worn out and not in the mood for anything long and drawn out for dinner. In fact, just wanted something small and light. Mustapha suggested Nazar Borek Cafe and gave us instructions on how to walk there. Goreme is pretty small so it's kinda hard to get lost around the square, up in the hills perhaps, but not around the square. In fact, we saw at least eight of the people who were on the tour with us while we had dinner. The restaurant was packed when we arrived and the owner, a classmate of Mustapha's was very apologetic. But things had cleared up over the day, so dining al fresco suited us fine. The Missus decided to start with a glass of the loca wine, which she enjoyed.

As the name states, this place specializes in the stuffed pastries called Borek, of which there seemed to innumerable variations in Turkey.

The Missus actually went with a Gozleme......

She went with the Patatesli Gozleme which is filled with potato, onion, and mint which cost 5 Turkish Lira, less than $2.50 US at the time of our visit.

Remember the really lousy Gozleme was had in Istanbul? This was hundreds of times better and really quite filling.

I got the real winner of the meal when I decided on getting on of the Cigara Boregi.

I got the most expensive version, the lamb at 10 TRY (a bit less than five bucks US). As the name implies, this is a cigar shaped filled pastry and when it arrived it looked just like, say, lumpia.....

It doesn;t look like much, but the light, filo like pastry was very crisp and the lamb was well spiced, but still nice and gamey. It was quite rich and three of these filled me up.

We really enjoyed our evening here. We struck up a conversation with a young man who "works" (a very broad definition - his brother was actually working real hard. He just sat down and chatted) here during te evenings. During the day he is one of the ice cream vendors at Goreme Outdoor Museum. We asked him to do his call for ice cream and he shouted out; "Iiiii....SCREAM....Iiiii....Scream!" When we explained why we found that so humorous, he cracked up. We also found out a bit about life in the area and about him. He was a former soldier in the Turkish military who had seen quite a bit of action around the Syrian border and in other areas. He seemed to be glad to be home and we were happy to have him as company during our dinner.

We also watched the self appointed sidewalk "security guard" as he made his rounds......

He checked out everything in his area...if he didn't like you he'd start yapping. Quite a character!

We drowsily made our way back to the Arch Palace Hotel. The Missus was going to a take a loooong hot shower in the best shower she had on the trip, so I made my way to the terrace and had an Efes Beer even though my previous experience with it was terrible. And heck if it wasn't half decent. I dunno, maybe because this was the bottle version, or maybe because this was Cappadocia, land of fairy chimneys, underground cities, and monasteries carved into the hillsides.

Or maybe it was the view....cause that wasn't so bad either!

Thanks for reading!

Cappadocia: Derinkuyu Underground City and the Ihlara Valley

When we arrived back at the hotel after our morning balloon ride, we were both surprised at how early it still was. While grabbing breakfast......the spread was typical of most all the places we stayed at in Turkey.

Except that this one had ezme, the spicy dip.....which I'm pretty sure probably surprised more than a few visitors.

All in all, breakfasts at the hotels in Turkey can be a pretty filling experience......

The subject of "what now" came up. We were here in Cappadocia and there was no way we'd be wasting the rest of the day. We'd planned on doing some hiking but things were still pretty wet due to the yesterdays deluge and it seemed like there would be a bit more rain on the way today. Of course, just like before, this was a job for Mustapha, the owner of the Arch Palace Hotel. We're not big on tours, but Mustapha suggested one of several tours that would take us to areas that aren't too easy to reach on foot. We'd still be doing some hiking, but we'd also be driven around and not have to worry about much. So we ended up at one of the tourist offices waiting to start the "Green Tour"......

The first stop was a scenic look-out spot over Goreme and Pigeon Valley.

Remember Pigeon Valley, it'll play a key role in a future post!

Anyway one of the reasons we don't do too well on tours is that other folks just drive us crazy. We've developed caricatures of generic characters typical of tours we'd take, for instance, in many cases there would be the demanding woman who would want things done her way. Her husband would typically be very quiet, probably henpecked into submission. Should she not get her way, she would initiate "plan B", that would be when the whining starts. On this tour there were the "testosterone boys", always bragging about this or that, trying to top each other. Showing off by running up and down hills, making as much noise as they could.....showing how "edgy" they were. So of course, while we were checking out the view, they decided to torment the "photo opportunity camel".

Being stuck in a van with three grown men acting like sixth graders thinking they were really cool was a bit trying at times. As were the two Japanese young ladies who kept flirting with the tour guide.....

Still, the stops were well worth the irritation. The second stop was at Derinkuyu Underground City. Comprised of eleven floors (some say more since much hasn't been excavated) going down 279 feet this is one of, if not the largest of the forty or so underground cities in the area. It is said that the city held at least 20,000 and by other estimates up to 50,000 people. The air shafts themselves go down over 180 feet.

 The story goes, that in 1963 someone was trying to extend their cave house when they went through a cave wall and discovered the passageway to the underground city. There have been relics found here that date back to the Byzantine era.

Many of the passages get smaller as you go down. That's the Missus on the right. She's five foot and weighs barely 100 pounds! The reason for these tapering passageways are simple....many of the folks moved down here for protection and safety. A large army couldn't rush down the passageway, they had to go single file and could be trapped and picked off. There are also large stone boulders that could be moved across the passage and locked into place.

The air shafts also provided water and there are a multitude of rooms which served as cellars, storage facilities, chapels, schools, and such.It's quite impressive if you're not claustrophobic....once you enter various rooms you can get quite confused so you'll need to be on the look-out for the arrows showing you the way up or down.

This was quite interesting......

The next stop was the Ihlara Valley, which is actually a 16 kilometer long gorge. We just did a short hike after walking down the 360 steps to trails which meander alongside the Melediz River which helped to form this gorge over the course of time.

At the bottom of the steps is Ağaçaltı Kilise (Church Under the Tree). The most stunning feature of this tiny cave church is the ceiling which features a fresco of The Ascension.

Notice that all the eyes have been "whited out".

It was a nice short hike in spite of the intermittent raindrops.....

It seems that every valley has its own distinct features which separates it from the others.....

The carrot at the end of the walk was lunch. Now having been on a few of these tours, I was prepared for some fairly terrible food. But the restaurant we stopped at in the valley called Belisirma was not bad. The food was actually Turkish, not some pseudo-westernized, dumbed down facsimile, and I got kinda worried when the Missus ordered the fish.....

The fish seemed very fresh and the Missus enjoyed it.

And I thought my lamb stew was decent, though I'm not a big fan of bulgur.

At least the flavors weren't dumbed down.

The soup on the other hand was insipid, but one out of three ain't bad. And of course this was Turkey so there just had to be a whopping amount of bread with every meal!

I was careful not to eat very much, we still had one more stop. And it turned out to be my favorite!

Stay tuned......

Cappadocia: Up, up, and away.......and one of the highlites of my trip.

Sorry....almost no food in this one.....

One of the things the Missus really wanted to do, was to go for a balloon ride in Cappadocia. So during my correspondence with Mustafa from the Arch Palace, whom I wrote about earlier, the possibility of a early morning balloon ride was brought up. After thinking a bit and doing some research I decided to book a ride on our first morning, that way should the weather be terrible and all rides cancelled we'd still be able to get a "make-up" the next day. Good thing too, since it rained like crazy the afternoon and night before our ride. After dealing with Mustafa, I now understand the term "fixer" when I hear it on travel shows....... My request was pretty simple:

"As for the balloon flights, we'd like one that is not so crowded and safe."

Mustafa booked our flight on Atmospher Balloons. We awoke at 4am in the morning and were driven to....well, I'm not sure where in the darkness of early morning where there was a huge crowd of people all having sweets and tea or coffee and waiting for their shuttles to come and pick them up.

 

 

When we arrived and checked in we were handed a card with out pilot's name on it. We waited for our group to be called. There seemed to be some pretty large groups, and we were among the last called.....a small group of a dozen people, just as Mustafa promised.

We arrived at a large open area as dawn cracked. There were balloons being prepared for take-off.

 

We met our pilot, by the name of Serkan......a very witty, funny, and more importantly very experienced pilot.

 

The basket was big enough so each person would have a clear view (if they desired) from the rim. I had a look at the impressive burners.....

 

Which looked even more impressive when they were on!

 

You can't help wonder, "man, what if this thing catches on fire"...... but of course, the skirt/scoop which directs air into the balloon are fire resistant. But still, you can't help but wonder.....

Initially, you're part of a huge "flock" of balloons rising from fields all around the area. (Click to enlarge any photo.)

 

The sky is full of balloons, a pretty dramatic sign in itself.......

 

But eventually, everyone kinda goes their own way.......

 

 

Until it's just pretty your balloon and the amazingly diverse terrain of Cappadocia.......

 

Serkan took us very close to several ridges and low enough to brush treetops, only to slowly drift back up.

 

I'm not a big fan of heights, but I loved this....you actually felt like you were floating on air. We noticed that several of the other balloons had pretty much landed at an hour rght on the dot, but Serkan told us, "don't worry, we'll go longer....you have spent a lot of money on this, and you may never have a chance to do this again...so we'll keep on going."

 

 

Of course, eventually we'd have to land......this is where the real fun began. Apparently, there was a problem with Serkan's crew getting to us. Roads had been washed out in the previous day's rain storms. At that point, Serkan pointed to a couple of us and said, "ok, today you'll be my crew....." If you though he was joking, he wasn't. We found a flat spot and Serkan brought the balloon down. It landed so gently, like your head hitting your pillow. Serkan handed me a rope and told me to get on out and pull the balloon down......the men got out and we pulled like heck. The Missus got some great photos.

 

 

Once the balloon was on the grass, Serkan jumped out and joined us, teaching us how to flatten the balloon.

 

A couple of minutes later, one of Serkan's crew joined us. We were told that we needed to hike out..... which is what we did, over pastures, trying to walk on high and dry ground....

 
We eventually passed the reason crews couldn't get to us......one of the crew's trucks had flipped over, blocking the access road.

 
We made our way to the small town and jumped into a minivan back to our hotels.....

 

We were supposed to have had a champagne toast at the end of our flight, but of course since the crews couldn't make it to us that was cancelled. But I wasn't disappointed at all.....hey, I got the chance to help land a hot air balloon! I don't know why, but I really got a kick out of that. It was one of the highlites of my trip. I have a neat story to tell about the time I helped to land a hot air balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey..........

Cappadocia - Goreme: Goreme Open Air Museum and Dibek Restaurant

The flight from Izmir to the large (1.2 million) city of Kayseri seemed to happen in a blink of an eye. The hour and a half ride from Kayseri to Goreme felt a lot longer, though the views were sometimes quite stunning. Goreme, a town of about 2,500 resides in Cappadocia an area renowned for "fairy chimneys, underground cities, and it's moon like terrain. The unique landscape was reason enough for us to include the area in our itinerary....who can resist the pull of fairy chimneys?

I chose the Arch Palace Hotel for our stay in the area.

 

No, it's not four star or even three star, nor located in a fairy chimney. The rooms were large and priced right at 50 Euros per night...no lift, but the best shower we encountered during our trip.

 
The main reason I booked our stay at the Arch Palace was the reputation of the owner, Mustafa Yelkalan. He is just about everything you'd ever want in an owner of this type of hotel. All the great reviews and recommendations you read online are correct, Mustafa makes wonderful recommendations and is a one man tour guide, concierge, you name it. More on that later......

When we arrived, Mustapaha met us on the terrace of the hotel, looking at the view of Goreme really gave you could not help but feel that you were in an exotic locale.

 

 
After getting squared away, Mustapha suggested that we head off to Goreme Open Air Museum, also known as Goreme National Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site. Mustapha told us that we should do it this afternoon since there was some major rain headed our way.... it was already pretty darn cold, temps in the fourties, so we could imagine what freezing rain would be like.

We headed off in the direction of Goreme Open Air Museum oohing and aaahing at the sites along the way.....

 

It was already getting pretty windy and chilly..... but that really didn't deter us. We headed through the gauntlet of tourist shops and hawkers in the parking lot...... the one that really made us laugh were the folks selling Turkish Ice Cream, dondurma. They screamed out what they were hawking at the top of their lungs in English....... but instead of "Ice Cream", they all seemed to inject a pause after the "I", and it sounded like "I SCREeeemmmmm, Iiii SCREeeeeemmmmm", the ironic absurdity of it all still makes the Missus and I crack up.

Goreme National Park is a monastic settlement carved into the eroded rock formations. This large complex of churches, chapels, refectories, and a convent is dotted with frescoes, many quite well preserved.

 

Our favorite was the Elmali (Apple) Church..... photos aren't allowed in most indoor areas, so you'll have to take my word on how beautiful and for me, quite haunting the whole experience was.

There is some climbing to be done here......

 

Many of the areas are lit only by natural light.... like the eating area within the refectory.

 

So when groups of tourists enter the place becomes almost pitch dark.

The sky was quickly turning dark and it started to drizzle, so we decided to hike down and head back to the hotel.

 

Of course the sky unloaded on us......

Then in a moment of what can only be called temporary insanity, he Missus stopped on at the sign for Zemi Valley and said, "let's check this out"! The trail was a river of water, it was raining cats and dogs, heck, it was raining lions and pitbulls..... After a couple of minutes, I convinced the Missus that we still had a couple of days left, and perhaps we would enjoy it a bit more if we didn't have to worry about swimming for our lives!

Returning to Arch Palace, I was ever so thankful for the wonderful hot shower. We dried off, rested for a couple off hours....night falls quite suddenly in Cappadocia, and we headed off to dinner. Getting dinner was one of those situation where Mustafa proved his worth. I told Mustafa that I really wanted to try a "real" Testi Kebab. A Testi Kebab is a stew, not a kebab, that is sealed in a pottery jar and cooked over an open fire. According to Mustafa, there are only a couple of places that do justice to the testi kebab. Earlier in the day he wrote down a list of five places.... I recognized the name of one of them; Dibek Restaurant. Mustafa immediately got on the phone and ordered a testi kebab for us for dinner.......an advance reservation is needed to get one of these at Dibek.

Later that evening we headed down the hill, dodging raindrops to the location of Dibek. You get a feeling that the restaurant actually envelops you as you enter, and the mild mustiness belies the age of the building, which is 475 years old. This floor of the building used to be stables and a wine storage area.....

 

We walked down the passageway to the front desk and eventually someone took notice of us.

 

The serious looking gentleman walked over and asked, "did you call...did you make reservations?" I started by saying "no....." and never got to "but", before I was told, "sorry, we are full.....we are full every night this week, maybe you write your name down and we can call and let you know if we have space." At this point I mentioned, "Mustapaha (who happened to be his cousin), called and reserved a testi kebab for us." Ah, instantly the clouds parted and the sun began to shine through. "Ah, Mustapha, lamb test kebab, right? Follow me this way....." We were lead past all the crowds to an area in the rear of the restaurant and to a sunken dining area.

 

The food started arriving soon after....starting with the standards, Coban Salatsi (Shephard's Salad), et al.....

 

 

 

Then a very friendly older gentleman arrived at the table carrying at ceramic container. He placed it on the table, left and brought back a plate with pickled cabbage and rice on it.

 

Holding the container firmly with one hand, he gave the pottery a good whack while turning around in a circle. Eventually, the top gave way.... we could literally smell the wonderful fragrances as he poured the stew onto a plate.

There was quite a large portion of the stew in that container, and it was very tasty.

 

 A wonderful, almost smokey flavor had permeated everything in the piece of pottery. The lamb was still fairly chewy, but very tasty...you knew you were eating lamb. The vegetables literally melted in your mouth. This was one of the more memorable dishes we had during our trip.

I'm glad we took the time to make sure we ordered this; the rest of the dishes at Dibek were average at best....most of it sorely lacking in salt.

 

 

That testi kebab made up for any other shortcomings the meal may have had...... we could not stop dipping the bread (and since this was Turkey, there was a lot of it!) in that wonderful sauce! We left satisfied and ready to hit the sack.

Tomorrow was going to be a busy day!

 

Selcuk: Isa Bey Mosque and dinner from Ejder

After grabbing more than our share of food form the Saturday Market in Selcuk we had a well earned nap. Waking later in the afternoon, we headed down the hill to Isa Bey Camii (Mosque) built around 1375, it is one of he few remaining Anatolian Beylik structures.

 

The Mosque was almost completely destroyed by earthquakes, but after serious refurbishing reopened in 1975. As it is a functioning mosque we approached it respectfully....

I walked up the steep and worn stairs and took a few photos of the courtyard.

 

 

 

Soon enough the call to prayer began, and we decided to leave the mosque to the faithful....... plus, I was getting hungry.

We walked up then back down the hill to the center of town, which is a pedestrian only area.....

 

Lest you think this a tourist only area, you'd be wrong....this is literally the center of town, and this was where all the older men hung out, drinking tea and coffee, playing backgammon, reading the paper, talking politics and what not........

 

 

After looking around a bit, we decided on a restaurant called Ejder. The owner was very friendly and when the Missus requested a selection of mezes, was happy to oblige.

Seating in the public dining area across the restaurant we were soon joined by some very eager guests.

 

Can you see the remnants of the aqueduct in the background?

I went with, what else, the Adana Kebab (12 TRY - $9):

 

The kebab was very moist.... in fact almost all the kebabs we had in Turkey was way more tender and moist than most of what we get here in the states. This one was slightly gamey but not very spicy. The rice was too wet for my tastes. The grilled peppers were wonderful.....the char brought out some sweetness and some were a very sneaky hot.

 

The Missus's selection of mezes were pretty good, especially the red pepper dolomar (stuffed pepper).

 

 The ezme was too watery and mild in flavor, I liked the beets, but the missus thought they were too sour.

 

 

 

Overall, this was a satisfying meal, the food was far from bland and put me in a good mood. The very friendly owner who came over to check on us several times also made for a pleasant meal. I even gave the cats some of my adana kebab..... I was a bit worried that the spices would be bad for them, but they seemed to love it!

We returned to the hotel full and happy, and had a wonderful night of sleep. We woke early the next morning and headed down the street past the parked tractors......

 

And caught our train to the airport in Izmir. Of course, no one in Turkey can even think of going a morning without simit (sesame bread), thus the vendor who got the train at one stop walking thru the cars selling bread, then got off a couple of towns later.

 

Selcuk and the surroundings sure had charm......

 

But it was time to move on to our next stop......

 

Stay tuned....

Thanks for reading!

Selcuk: Lunch from the Saturday Market

We returned from Ephesus hot and tired. A quick shower revived us and we decided to grab some lunch. We'd heard that there's a large market held behind the bus station.... and this being Selcuk, nothing is very far away. We decided to do some "self-catering" and check out the market. We were both quite surprised at the size of the market.... starting from the household goods sold on the streets approaching the market.....

 
To what seemed like acres of cheese, olive, and fruit stands.........

 

We'd noticed children dressed up in all sorts of costumes.... after asking around we were told it was Children's Day.

 

You not only had piles of fruit and vegetables to keep your attention.......

 

 

 

 

But had to heed what was above you as well........

 

 

The somewhat elaborate make-up of various booths made me think about the amount of work it took to set-up, then take apart these booths every Saturday.

 

We'd covered maybe a third of the place before stopping and deciding to start getting stuff for lunch, otherwise we'd be walking around all day. Of course, this was when all the sampling started. Every olive and cheese stand we stopped at gave us samples....we could have filled up just by mooching! We ended up getting three types of cheese, including a really tasty Cecil/Tel Peyniri, basically string cheese.

 

Most of the places would try to sell us a kilo and we'd have to tell them that we just wanted a "little bit". So they'd give us the smallest amount that would work for them. In the case of olives..... well, we'd be eating the olives for a couple of days. One of the cheese stands told us "no pay, this is my gift to you!" Which was very nice and typical of the folks in Turkey. I ended up insisting on giving him a couple of Lira.....

We purchased a loaf of bread from this little shop......

 

Man that was a pretty big loaf; we'd also be eating that for a couple of days as well!

We'd decided to head across the street to the park and have our lunch. Along the way we noticed that outside one of the shops there were a group of women working hard making lavas and selling various items. The Missus immediately headed to the shop watching and wandering around, to the amusement of the women.

 

This seemed to possibly be the equivalent of a bake sale perhaps? Of course, you'd never get anything like this at your typical bake sale here in the US.

 

 

And the kicker was that the park had tea service! A young man walked from a nearby kiosk taking orders for tea. A few minutes later you'd have a nice cup of tea for .5 TRY, about 30 cents.

We enjoyed the sunshine and had a little picnic of sorts.... it was a wonderful end to a great day. And of course there was a nap afterwards to top things off.

 

Selcuk: Ephesus

We got up early on our Saturday in Selcuk, though both the Missus and I had enjoyed our time in Selcuk, we were here for one main reason; to visit Ephesus. We had an early breakfast, as with most of these places, breakfast is provided free. In comparison to other places this was just ok. Everything had been plated out ahead of time.

 

All the usual suspects were in attendance, the cheese, butter, tomato, cucumber, olives, honey....

 

And of course, bread...... lots of bread....

 

The best thing about the breakfast was the tea. Hotel Bella made a nice, fairly strong cup of Turkish Tea.....full bodied with a hint of Bergamot.

Breakfast did us good, in spite of the fact that the hotel provided free drop off and pick-up from Ephesus, we'd be walking the 5-6 kilometers to Ephesus.

We arrived at the upper entrance in a little over an hour, just after opening, and just before all the tour buses from the cruise ships ported at Kusadasi arrived. By not heading to the main gates, we'd be able to check out some of the major attractions before they too crowded. We also decided to spend a few more lira and do the audio tour, which turned out to be really informative.

 

It is believed that the city of Ephesus was founded somewhere around 10th century BC. Located at the crossing of major trade routes and being a major harbor town, Ephesus was once the second largest city in the Roman Empire, with a population estimated at 250,000.

Upon entering we walked down a short side path to the Church of Mary (above photo). Rebuilt and altered several times it is thought to have been built over and earlier Basilica.

 

Walking past the ruins of the gymnasium......

 

One sees the first of several amazing structures at Ephesus. The Great Theatre.

 

Dramatically located on the slopes of Panayir Hill, the theatre seated 25,000 and the seating is designed for maximum acoustics and view.

 

 

The theatre was also the scene of a well known biblical event. For three years the Apostle Paul lived in Ephesus, preaching the gospel. According to the book of Acts, Paul must have been  pretty successful, as the silversmiths who made their living selling idols of Artemis (Diana) had started losing business and started a riot against Paul and the spreading of Christianity. You can read it here.

Stepping out of the theatre, I got a good look at Harbour Street, At 500 meters long and 11 meters wide, this was once the grandest street in Ephesus.... and probably still is.

 

Walking to the end of the restored area of the street, the obvious question you'd ask yourself is, "where's the harbor?"

 

Ephesus had become a power because of location. Besides being at the crossroads of trade, it was also located at the mouth of the Kayster River, right where it met the Aegean. In the end, it wasn't Christianity nor the Ottoman Empire that doomed Ephesus, it was the unconquerable build up of silt. Today, the last harbour of Ephesus sits over 6 miles from the river.

The beautiful marble paved "Sacred Way" goes South from the theatre. There are spots where you can see the sewer and water systems that lay beneath these streets. There are grooves in the marble which were created by carts and wagons......

Which probably made its way to the Agora which you can view from the street. This was probably the busiest street in Ephesus.

 

To the left of the Agora are the Gates of Augustus......

 

Which led to my favorite site, and possibly my favorite site on the entire trip (including the Parthenon), the Library of Celsus.

 

The Library of Celsus was built  by Julius Celsus Polemaeanus by his son Gaius Julius Aquila. The library was built with double walls to protect the 12,000 scrolls and book from heat and humdity. The four statues in the niches in the walls of the library represent wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and valor (Arete). That's Sophia to the right.

 

I had a bit of a difficult time tearing myself away from the Library of Celsus, but it was starting to get crowded.....

The street leading away from the library is called Curetes Way. Apparently it was a business and "high-rent" district of Ephesus.

 

Off one of the side trails along the road is what is one of the most popular sites in Ephesus.... the communal Roman Men's toilets. Yes, there were lines of folks waiting to check out the toilets. And most could not help but to "try them out for size." Says a lot about us, doesn't it?

 

You can see where the residents lived, walk past some wonderful monuments, and see the shopping areas on the street.

 

There are some beautiful mosaics alongside the street.

 

Along one of the side streets is the Temple of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Remember the huge head and arm from the Ephesus Museum? This is where it came from.

There was just so much to see, and I'm heaing into over 850 words right now, so let me just put up a few more photos, ok?

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, we had spent almost four hours at Ephesus. It was also pretty darn hot. When we exited the Missus asked audio tour booth folks if they could call the hotel (you gotta love Turkey) which they gladly did. About fifteen minutes later we were on our way back to the hotel.

I realize that there wasn't much food in this one, so thanks for reading!