quick note her…..lil’s tummy hurt a little today so we skipped the underground city over concerns about the quality of restrooms eight stories underground in a one thousand year old city and instead drove on through aksaray, konya and beyeshir in he hyundai we just acqired. destination; ergidir. a smallish town on an impossibly beautiful and peaceful lake. no internet so sending from my phone, so pics later. i am wandering around the village in the AM as lillis takes a morning nap due to some apparently particularly impressive snoring last night….poor lillis.
Posted in Travel, Uswith Comments Off on turkey day 3, goreme to egidir
phew. 2 days in the books in turkey. we had a big day today…..lillis’ synopsis over dinner. we had a turkish breakfast, we drank turkish coffee, we saw an awesome monestary with some old frescos, we hiked a long way, we sat in the shade and had tea, we got massages (and i fell asleep during my massage), we had a romantic stroll, and we ate dinner.
i think she summed it up pretty well. i’ll only add that it was amazing to see the monasteries and cave homes that these people worked, worshiped in that long ago. particularly, seeing caves with remaining frescoes from 1,000 years ago was pretty impressive. the landscape was truly surreal, and we saw 4 hours of it over some pretty vigorous hiking up and down a canyon. one of us got a little tired and grumpy right at the very end of that (and so we hitchhiked with some passing locals so we didn’t have to hike the last mile back to the hotel) but otherwise we had a great day.
i was able to leverage some of the birthday money from my parents and lillis’ parents and supplement that with a little of the clothing budget in order to purchase the most expensive piece of luggage i will ever buy. i love it. i took it’s picture in front of the ancient monastery in goreme. it’s from saddleback….i highly recommend the bags and the company.
i’ll spare you another fairy chimneys picture and instead throw one in from our hike after we finished up at the goreme open air museum.
at the hamam after, they scrubbed off about 2 lbs of dust and then we got massages before heading to dinner at a la turca. darned good eats.
Posted in Travel, Uswith Comments Off on turkey (and cappadocia) day 2
it took a while, what with a couple of more delays and all, and then a 1+ hour drive from kayseri to goreme; but after 24 hours of transportation, we’re here – and ready to stretch our legs. lil is standing in the archway that leads into our hotel. goreme (and cappadocia) is the land of the fairy chimenys……eroded formation created from the “tuff” that built up amazingly high from hundreds of years of volcanic eruptions. early christians hid out in this area as the tuff (which is anything but) proved to be so condusive to hollowing out homes in caves (and underground). our hotel is actually built into a cave as well.
here’s a view of a couple of the “chimney” rooms.
and this is the view from the patio of our restaurant.
yes, it’s common knowledge that these are rather suggestive natural features. irrespective of that, it’s an amazing place. peaceful and beautiful.
anyway, we had a wonderful dinner and hung out in the hammock it the garden for a while. lillis got to hear the eery “call to prayer” for the first time today and was excited about that….i look forward to hearing it again in the morning around 5:30 AM. sigh. anyway, we’re safe, sound and ready to walk around. later.
Posted in Travel, Uswith Comments Off on cappadocia at last!
