My Father's Sense of Direction

I'm in Ankara visiting Louise and Steve. They're from Atlanta' Louise is on a Fulbright for 9 mos. Now I'll tell you about my holiday adventures.
Kurban Bayram is a 4 day holiday- celebrating the sacrifice of Ismail. Because this year is Mon-Thurs- the whole country is pretty much taking off for 9 days!
I flew on Friday south to Kirsehir. The Turks beat the Israelis- they were taking their luggage from the overhead bins before the plane landed. Turkish Airlines is in better financial state than Delta- they serve great sandwiches on a 55 min. flight.
Had no idea where to go from the airport- so I just said Urgup- my destination and people tell me to follow them. Turns out there's an airport bus to Neveshir' the closest town. Then another person takes over my care from there- a nice young man who knew English walked me for many blocks to my bus stop.
Neveshir bombards me with new sights and smells. The woman are wearing baggy flowered pants and scarves edged with lace. Lots of new breads. Urgrup is a nice small town, my hotel was a 15 min. walk from the center. Pretty nice hotel thanks to a travel agent who works with Emory, but it caters to tour groups with their own buses.
Took off for the open air museum in Goreme. The entire region of Cappadocia is an UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a magical landscape formed by volcanoes. The ash and mud created the region's raw material- tuff. This soft stone, formed by compressed volcanic ash, has been worked on ever since by processes of erosion to form valleys and fairy chimney rock formations. Of course I thought it looked like a Disney set. What is amazing is that Christians fleeing the Romans lived in caves in this area. The Open Air Museum is a concentrated area of these cones where caves were carved out and the Christians created many churches. There are amazing frescos- some with dark reds still visible. Unfortunately many have been vandalized- lots of graffiti.
I then walked to Goreme and checked out the different hiking options listed in my guide book. Sort of felt confused and a little disoriented. The rather obnoxious tour guides didn't add to my sense of joy being in this much touted magical space. But little did I know what lay ahead...

Saturday hitched a ride back to Goreme with the hot air balloon company. He dropped me right at the trailhead to walk to Uchisar. Guidebook said it was a straight shot and the cafe owner just lifted his arm and pointed straight. Supposedly walk was 1 1/2 hrs. Saw one sign. Of course I came to junctions - chose one path until it ended in a locked gate. Retraced my steps and then took the other fork. Did this 3 times. Thought how Joe could have found the path through the valley, but I had no such luck. So after about an hour retraced my steps back to Goreme, determined to take the bus to Uchisar. As I was waiting for the bus, my ears are always tuned to hearing another language. I asked this couple if they spoke English and EUREKA - I hit the jackpot! Thanks to the fact that I inherited my father's sense of direction and not my mother's- I could not find my way to Uchisar, so I was fortunate to meet Becky and Scott- Canadians biking across the world!!! Not using airplanes. From them I learned about couchsurfing.com and warmshowers.org- a wonderful way to meet adventurous people.

They were heading to Derinkuyu, the underground city. The guy at the hotel on a tour said you couldn't go alone, you would get lost. The guidebook did not say you needed a tour, but with my sense of direction, I thought it best not to go alone (David- are you happy?!) So I asked if I could join them. We had a great time, I immediately felt very comfortable with them, the conversation flowed easily about our Turkish experiences and about their travels.

In Derinkuyu there was a great outdoor market- hard to break away from the many photo ops. The day is short- dark at 4:30, so we headed to the underground city.

Some of these underground settlements accomodated 30,000 people- a total of 40 settlements have been discovered. These date back to Hittite times, most recently used by Christian communities. 7 floors have been excavated, we could visit 5. Lots of tunnels and staircases. Luckily not too many tour groups so we didn't have to wait too much for groups to ascend before we descended. Just empty rooms to see- Scott and Becky wanted to explore every nook and crany- they had head lamps so we could see a lot.

Next took bus to Uchisar to climb the rock/castle, riddled with caves and tunnels which once housed the entire village. The guidebook says the caves are abandoned, but satellite dishes are perched in strategic positions! It's mesmerizing where people live. Some are in the caves, some use the rock as one wall of their abode and build out. I could clearly see the path through the valley that I was suppose to enjoy in the morning- Scott was really wanting to walk back in the dark, luckily Becky wasn't too enthusiastic about that idea.

Uchisar is frequented by French tourists so we went in search of a French restaurant. My luck- Becky shares one of my passions- checking out luxury hotels. We had a tour of Cappadocia Caves Hotel- standard room starts at 300 euro. Gorgeous rooms cascading down the hills. The spa has a snow and salt rooms. The restaurant features a sushi bar, so guess who pays the bills!

Buses stop about 5 pm. Scott wanted to walk the 6 km in the dark to Goreme. Luckily he agreed for 10 min. to try to hitch a ride. I had been having very good luck with hitching, so my luck held and we caught a ride. We had a delightful dinner with Cappadocia wine. Then they brought me to my junction and we tried again for a ride. They were going to call their hotel manager to arrange a ride for me, but I was confident I could find and ride....little did I know what awaited...

As they stood to the side, a car stopped and the yound man said he's bring me to the main road where I could catch a bus every 20 min. At first I hestitated, then jumped in. Halil is a tour guide in French. So I did my best to remember my H.S. French. When we got the the junction he said, "If you have time, you can come to my parents for dinner and then I will bring you to your hotel." Little did he know my entire night was free!

Halil lives in Ortahisar- a small village near Urgup- also has a fortress-like 86 metre high rock that once housed the entire village. His mother was in traditional dress- baggy flowered pants and headscarf. They quickly set the coffee table for dinner. The mother bakes the thick pita bread in an outdoor oven. We feasted on soup, salad, veggies and bread. Halil is a university graduate and a licensed tour guide in the region. There is no work during the five winter months. He plans to take a Spanish course to expand his tour options. Dinner was brief. Then the father put on his coat and left, probably heading to the local tea/backgammon joint.

Halil brought me to Urgup to check out options to get to the Ilhara valley to the west. He called his friend who runs tours - I could have just paid for the transportation, but they were headed to the underground city. Then as he drove me to the hotel, he kept giving me more options. (David should have been there to warn him- I have a hard time with too many options because I like to explore all of them before I decide.) During dinner he mentioned that they would be sacrificing their cow for Bayram tomorrow and I was invited. Of course that is what I really wanted so see so the plan was I'd come to his house and then he would drive me to the valley and I'd pay for gas.