Livin' like a troglodyte
Istanbul (continued)
On April 23rd, our fourth day in Istanbul, we headed to the Grand Bazaar. This old marketplace is a bustling maze of shops where negotiation is the name of the game. You could find practically anything here -- clothing, shoes, tea, coffee, Turkish sweets, tea sets, board games, and on and on.
Our goal, aside from simply experiencing this famous site, was to get ourselves a nice backgammon set. So, as we headed in, we discussed some strategies. 1) Start and 10 Turkish lira and don't go higher than 20. 2) Don't act too interested and be ready to walk away. 3) Look at other items in the shop before checking out what we actually want. 4) One of us should try to dissuade the other from buying to try to bring the price down.
The first stall we stopped at wanted 40 lira for a set. We said too much, and he offered 30. Still too much we said, and started to walk away. As we rounded the corner he yelled 10. We should have accepted then, but didn't particularly like the set he was bargaining for so we decided to look more figuring others would go down to 10. We wandered more through the shopping labyrinth stopping here and there to try to bargain for other backgammon sets. At every shop we were greeted with "special deals" because we were "the first customer" or simply because we were their "friend." Unfortunately we never managed to find another set for 10 lira, but we got a pretty good price on a set we like a lot --funnily enough it was back at the same shop where we started.
Our last day in Istanbul was another gorgeous day. We didn't try to cram in more sites, and just spent our time reading in a park and walking through the city's wonderful streets. That night we boarded a night bus heading to Cappadocia, about a 12 hour ride. Buses in Turkey are really nice. They have extra leg room and even serve tea and a snack. We slept on and off through the long ride, and got to the Cappadocia region around 7 a.m.
Cappadocia
The landscape is incredible here and totally bizarre. It consists of soft volcanic rock that has been eroded over time into huge stone mushroom like shapes (or melting ice cream shapes), weaving hills, deep valleys, and striking cliffs. To further add to the strange landscape, much of the rock was carved into complex ancient cave dwellings and cave churches (many of the homes have been modernized and are still used today). While the land looks rocky and barren it is actually quite fertile, and there are many farms, orchards, and vineyards in the area.
Our hotel, Elif Star Caves, is in a small town called Goreme and the rooms are actually carved caves in the cliffside. It is probably the nicest hotel we've stayed in (aside from our luxury night at the Mumbai Marriott). The room is quaint, and truly unique. It is, as we said, carved from the soft volcanic rock and has a number of cubbies on the wall where you can place small candles. We have an amazing view of the valley from our window, and the large en suite bathroom and hot shower seems luxurious compared to many places we have stayed. Also, the owner (Jacky) is a chef and does fantastic breakfasts which are included, and she made dinner for us one night which was delicious!
This is our fourth day here so far, and we have seen some interesting sights and done some fantastic hikes. On our first day here we visited the Goreme Open Air Museum. The walk there took us through a very strange landscape, appropriately called Love Valley, reminiscent of, um -- well you'll see in the pictures. The museum itself is a series of rock cut Byzantine churches, chapels, and monasteries. Some have well preserved frescoes in them.
On our second day in Cappadocia we headed to the "underground city" in Derinkuyu, about a 45 minute bus ride from Goreme. There are actually 36 underground cities that have been identified, and there may be more. According to our Lonely Planet (where lots of the information below comes from!), archaeologists date parts of the cities back 4000 years and they were certainly occupied by the 7th Century BC. As our guide explains, during times of peace people lived and farmed above ground, but when invaders threatened they would retreat to the underground space where they could stay for up to 6 months at a time. Derinkuyu goes 7 stories down into the earth, and is a maze of caves, stairs, narrow passageways, and "windows" from one cave to another. Large rolling stone doors could also be found, which often had holes in the middle for attacking an enemy. Holes in the ceiling were places where hot oil could be poured on an intruder. The occasional ancient storage jugs can be seen, which held oil, wine, and water, and there were a couple of ancient wells that we spotted. It is quite an adventure to crawl through some of the small hallways and down the narrow stairwells.
That afternoon we headed to another town in Cappadocia called Urgup. The center of Urgup town is more posh than Goreme, and frankly we didn't find it to have nearly as much charm. However, there is a part of Urgup outside the center called the "old city" which are abandoned cave dwellings that can easily be explored. Since its not actually a tourist spot, we had the whole hillside to ourselves to hike around and peek inside the various abandoned caves. After our exploration of the old city we hiked further up the hill to a local winery where we got to taste a few samples and bought a bottle to have at dinner.
Our third day in Cappadocia took us on a long hike in Pigeon Valley, a path that leads from Goreme to the nearby town of Ushisar. It was a challenging hike of steep (yet small) hills winding through the rocky landscape. It was truly one of the most beautiful walks we have ever done. It took us close to two hours to reach Ushisar, which is known for its large "castle" -- actually a large volcanic rock outcrop filled with tunnels and windows and sitting atop a hill so that it is seen for miles around.
After exploring the town and having a delicious lunch of pide (a Turkish pizza-like dish), we headed back to Goreme. When we first set out on our hike back we were on the wrong path. However, the correct trail was obscured by the huge rock outcrops. After about 15 minutes of a lovely detour we met some people that pointed us in the right direction. We had to go almost all the way back to Ushisar to loop around the cliffs and set ourselves on the right path through the Pigeon Valley. The signs here aren't great, so a wrong turn can take you on a very long hike the wrong way!
This morning we did a nice, but much easier walk through Zemi Valley. We wandered along the path of a stream and spotted some really pretty birds and a turtle. The sky started to get overcast so we headed back to town. The rain has still held off, but perhaps we'll see some stormy weather later today. We have one more day in Goreme and then we head to Izmir for one night, Bodrum for one night, and then hopefully we'll catch a ferry to the Greek Islands. Also, the Internet connection has been too slow for us to add photo captions, but we hope to do that in the next couple of days.
