Tomorrow....another day in paradise
14 October ’04, Thursday. Cereal with bananas, coffee, toast, and the presidential debates….what more could you want???? I decided, after just so much of the debates, that it was “pool time” for me. About an hours exposure, and a “hey, we want to go into the market…”, I got my towel and headed up. The village market is a “big deal” here in Yalikavak. One of the first things we did was to have one of those flat bread sandwiches. Mine was filled with a meat mixture, Louise had her potato with cheese, and Bon had hers with cheese…Doug ?, he had half of everyone’s. As it was, the market was a success, as we came back to the condo with a ton of fruit and veggies….all the good stuff. Then, over to the “cloth market”, about 2 blocks away, just to see if we could find some real values that we just couldn’t do without. I bought a large flashlight, but that was all we really bargained for. Now back home and “the men” will prepare tonight’s meal. Doug wýll do the cookýng and I wýll do the pretty stuff....flowers, candles, and you know.... It will be great.
Tomorrow....another day in paradise
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13 October ’04, Wednesday. For me it was “Hair Day”…I got a haircut this morning, actually a complete “Turkish” facial shave…. You might even say that after the artist finished, the top of my head and my face felt like a “new babies butt”. I’ve been lathered (and I mean “LATHERED” with thick, creamy lather), shaved with “The” razor twice, massaged deeply, from head to lower back, and splashed with “dang, that stings”, but smells good stuff. With Doug flashing away with the camera, and all the accolades from Lou and Bon, you would think I was a celib or something. We followed that up with a quick lunch and then a ride over to Bodrum. Now Yalikavak is a very small, quiet village, and Bodrum….well, from what we hear, it is a “hyper-resort”. We found it very well received by a ton of tourists, all wondering around the boardwalk, the bazaar, and the Castle of St Peters. The Castle of St Peters was built by the Knights Hospitaller in 1402. Then there was the boat harbour…all of us agreed, we have never seen so many large sailing vessels in one area, at one time, anywhere we’ve traveled. It was amazing. I couldn’t even guess as to how many there were, but their wasn’t one that wasn’t a beauty and under 50’ in length. Our walk through the bazaar wasn’t with out spending some money. Louise found a nice “knock-off” type of purse/backpack, and Doug, a leather jacket and 3 sweaters. I was looking for material for upholstering the van. I found the perfect “swatch”, so now I’ve got to find the 4 meters to do the job. A stop by the grocery store, off to dinner at our local Italian pizza palor, and then back here for a stage show at the resort. It turned out to be a “Ho-Hum” show…too bad. Tomorrow….unknown 12 October ’04, Tuesday. Prior to seeing Club Flipper, we all wondered just what kind of “palace” we would be checking into. As we pulled up to the gate, we started to find out. Then at the reception desk, we found we were in for a wonderful experience….it was looking way above expectations, in fact, outright beautiful. Our room is on the second floor and overlooks the main pool and the Bay of Yakasi. This bay comes off the South Aegean Sea. Sea temp is somewhere near “warm”, pool temp, somewhere near “cool”, sun temp, somewhere near “really nice !!!”. This morning we had breakfast on the veranda, and then, after setting up an appointment for a massage, we headed into the village of Yaklikavak. Yaklikavak is really a wonderful seaside village. We walked the main part of town in just a few minutes, but we will be spending more time to really explore all the little businesses that abound up and down the boardwalk. The beauty is everywhere, good little restaurants to eat your heart out, and wonderful pieces of art tied to the dock. The boardwalk has at least 8 different boats that want to take you out for the day….all the luxury and excitement you can stand. Today was barber day for Bon and Doug, and tomorrow will be my day. Doug’s experience was the “Turkish Shave”…we now call him “Baby Face Douglas”…he says it was “the best” shave he has ever had. Now, it’s lunch on the boardwalk (the sea food casserole was incredible), a little internet time, and then back to Flipper’s and our massage. Bonnie, Doug, and I are going for the full meal deal and Louise has opted for the facial only. Well, the outcome is this…what a disappointment for all of us…it was a bust ! You live and learn, and we learned to ask them to explain what it is we will be experiencing exactly…step by step. Tonight we are settled into the leather easy chairs and couch, and relaxing with a good book ( in my case here on the computer for a little while longer). Maybe a little popcorn will make everyone look up. Tomorrow…for me, ”The Shave” 10/11 October ’04, Sunday / Monday. Up at 5am and on our way to the Kapadokya Balloons office. “Up, Up, Up and Away, In Your Hot Air Balloon…” by 7am. It was a perfect morning, for a perfect trip through Cappadocia and view all the “Fairy Chimneys and Cave Homes”. Our flight went high, and it went low. We were so low that our basket would brush the bushes and fly through the tree branches. We flew on up to 1,000 meters, and could look out over the entire area, the castles, caves, the volcano, and on, and on, and on. The ride was so smooth you could not feel any movement at all unless you looked directly down and you could see that you were in a slow glide across the sky. As far as moving up and down, you again couldn’t feel it, but you could see it if you watched the ground. Of course you would see people watching you, and all would wave, and in some cases, you could even have a conversation with them. We were up for just over 2 hours and then it was time to land. We were all given instructions to landing for the “just in case” scenario, but our landing was so good, that we landed on the trailer that was to take the basket back to the office…pretty good landing, I would say. Nooowww, the table is set, and the glasses are filled, and we have a “Hot Air Balloon Landing Party” complete with the “Bubbly”. Unfortunately, all this had to come to an end and we had to get on our way across country to Bodrum. It will take 2 days to get there, with one planned stop on the way. Our overnight is in the lakeside town of Egirdir. We found a nice little restaurant on an island just at the end of town. We dined at waters edge, and found that we could also stay the night in their pension…all was good. Just before 8am we were on our way to our next stop, Pamukkale. Our drive yesterday and today will range from all-out flat for as far as you can see to mountain driving, were you have to get down into 2nd gear (and just make it). Also along the way to Bodrum, I had a couple of other surprises…80km is the speed limit…yep, I got it…$83 million worth, and one pass. Quite an experience to be stopped by the Turkish Police. The 1st one ($83 Mil), was quite cool, the 2nd (pass, my 2nd pass since being on our journey), was “We Love Americans !!!” (thinking, OK, here it comes, $$$$), were do you go??? Bodrum, Have a wonderful time….go, go, go….we did…quickly… Pamukkale, is the host to the ruins of Hierapolis. The once grand city of pagan, Roman, Jewish and early Christian. The imposing “Theatre” (seating over 12,000 spectators), tombs and the crystal-clear Travertine pools that terraces down the hill. The water flowing through it all, is nice and warm…a good stop, a great lunch and conversation with Mustafa, at his restaurant / pension. Now, another 2 hours plus and we will be in Bodrum. Our stay is at “ Club Flipper” in Yakasi (12 km outside of Bodrum). We arrived at sundown…just in time…Tomorrow….Catch up time and relax 9 October ’04, Saturday. After breakfast, we all jumped into “Bumble Bee” and went off to our 1st attraction….The Goreme Open Air Museum. This is a cluster of rock formations cutout for, Byzantine churches, chapels and monasteries. As we were just about to pay and enter, I was approached by a young Turkish man who identified himself as a “licensed guide’. I asked to see this “license” and how much did he want to guide all 4 of us through the museum. All of agreed this would be well worth the 15 million lira, so, Sinan was hired. His information and knowledge of this area was much more than any tour book would have provided. There were over 365 churches and a couple monasteries all dug-out here in these rock formation. They dated back to the 11th century. Unfortunately most of the caves have been “opened” because of the rock breaking away and exposing the interior. Putting that aside, the cave paintings, the lay-out, and the grave sites were all wonders themselves. A few of the paintings have been restored, and others vandalized. One thing of interest, was in the vandalizing of the paintings, the eyes, faces, and hands of all the subjects were scratched out. Our understanding of this, is the Muslim religion does not allow for any images, so scratching out the eyes erases the image. Those that were too high to reach, were left alone. We then “hired” Sinan to take us to see some of the “fairy chimneys” that we hadn’t seen yet. We soon found ourselves driving though a sandy, rutted lane, heading way off into the valley. Soon, Sinan stopped us in front of some of the most incredible “fairy chimneys” we had seen. What a great photo-op this was. Then, a ride across the plateau to a newly opened underground city. As you arrive, you wouldn’t know that there was any type of cave or caves below you, but upon entering a small tunnel you find yourself right in the middle of the “barn”. The first floor was set aside for the animals. There was feeding troughs, tie rings, and holes dug for cleaning. Then a smaller tunnel leads you down to the living areas. The cooking, wine making, sleeping, and dining areas were all tied together by additional and smaller yet tunnels. Some of these tunnels actually ended with a large round (wheel type) stone, that could be rolled into the tunnel passage to block any intruders that might find their way there. A couple of the tunnels would wind and twist while going down to the next floor and room. They were so small, while bent over, your back would be scrapping the top of the tunnel. While we didn’t feel real secure in being underground there, we all stepped forward. Another surprise came when we came back up, we found a tour bus unloading about 40 people to tour the same caves we were just leaving. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t want any more than the four of us down there at one time, let alone have 40 or more pressing together in any of the rooms or tunnels. Tomorrow….Flying High !!!! 8 October ’04, Friday. We awoke to a heavy downpour of rain on our last morning in Istanbul. Driving in a town of over 20 million people, that doesn’t get that much heavy rain was a challenge. Traffic was a lot of the time at a complete standstill for minutes at a time. Water was over every curb, and cars and trucks were stalled everywhere. Finally, we reached the bridge that would carry us out of town and we were on our way. We were traveling into the center of the country, Ankara the capital, and then heading south to Cappadocia. This was going to be a day and a half of travel. We finally stopped just outside of Ankara in a town called Gobasi. Bon and Doug were to stay in a hotel and Louise and I in “Bumble Bee” and the hotel lot. After checking in, we jumped into the van and headed in to dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel….well, we tried…, we couldn’t get back across the street to go “back”. So, we headed out in the wrong direction for 23km before we were able to turn around and finally back to the hotel. Almost 50km round trip…(am I doing something wrong ???). Anyway, morning comes, we have a bite to eat at the hotel, and we are on our way. Around 10:45am I have to stop for gas, and while I am working with the young man giving us gas, a car with 4 young men comes in and comes over to the van. One of them (Erhan) is speaking very good English, and everyone is having a good conversation. Finally, Erhan says he is getting married today. After all of us giving him our congratulations, he invites us to his wedding…he says it will have, “lot’s of dancing, singing, eating, and drinking for THREE DAYS….AND WE ARE INVITED !!!! It turns out, that we were the first tourists that he has ever seen in his town, and he wants us to share his day with him. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t possible, so we said our good-bye’s and again congratulations. As we headed further into town, we found Ehran standing in the middle of the road waving us to pull into a parking spot. “At least have a cup of tea with me”… we said we would love to, so we got out thinking we would walk into the restaurant next door…wrong….he walked us down the street about 3 blocks to his families home, sat us down, introduced us to ALL his family, and then proceeded to feed us a wonderful meal….no was not in his vocabulary. There is more to this story, but you will have to ask us about it. It was a wonderful experience for all of us…Thanks to Ehran and his family. Now, back on the road to Cappadocia. Tomorrow…Cappadocia Friday 8 Oct. ‘04. Last night we arrived in the “Cappadocia” area. Cappadocia is an area and not a city, town, or village. It sits about 3 hours South of Ankara. It was even a vast province mentioned in the Bible. This is without a doubt, one of Turkey’s most visited tourist areas and I would say we got here just right. I guess a description that would fit would be, “a vast moonscape area”. In particular, the areas around Urgup and Goreme. It was all established by mineral laden volcanic soil, so it is a prime agricultural region. Fruit and wine grapes, wheat and raisins are most of the crops. What we were doing here was to visit the churches and chapels of Goreme, Zelve and the Open Air Museums in Soganli. Another high light of this journey, was to ride high on the Kapadokya Balloons. We hadn’t even found a room before we found Kapadokya Balloons and set up our ride (by the way, if you want to see just what we did, go to their web site at www.kapadokyaballons.com. This is just what we did about last November. We were hooked right then. Second in line, was to find a place to stay for 2 nights. Kallie, who with her husband, are the owners and the pilots of Kapadokya Balloons, suggested that we look into staying at a fairly new “Cave Hotel”…Elif Star Caves Pension (www.elifstar.com) . Of course, we quickly made our way over and met Jacky Mert and arranged for our accommodations. Later we had a chance to meet her daughter Elif (5 years old), and her husband Mustafa. This pension was really dugout of the volcanic rock formations that is found all over this area. The pension, was 4 stories high and had a large patio on the roof. Our room, was a nice sized bedroom, with built-ins dug out of the stone, and a good sized bathroom with shower. As you laid there in bed and looking at the ceiling, all of the pick marks and the un-even surface made a great picture. Oh yes, Jacky is a gourmet chef, and we ate well. After all this, we were looking for things to do, and Jacky gave us a thousand things that we could do tomorrow, so we retired early to make ourselves available for our first day’s adventure in “Kapadokya”. 7 October ’04, Thursday. Well, I don’t really know how it happened, but I lost a day…
Wednesday, we took the morning and walked up the street to one of the bazaars and then spent the rest of the morning in a couple of museums. The museums we visited were really very good. They contained stone carvings and other smaller artifacts from as early as 500 BC. As I ran my hand over one of the stone carvings, my thoughts went to “who was it that touched and carved this stone that “I” am now touching ??? I wont go into a lot of detail now, but to tell you the makers of the temples, stone figures, and smaller artifacts, were all incredible artists, architects, and engineers. Leaving the museums, we went looking for lunch and then Doug and I headed out to pick up “Bumble Bee”. Thinking I know everything about getting around in Istanbul, now that I’ve been here a total of 4 days, we grabbed a cab and I said “just go that way until I tell you to stop…”. Well, after riding for ever and watching the “meter” going off the screen with $$, Doug tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “are you sure we are going the right way????” “Yep”… it wasn’t long and I knew that I was hopelessly lost, so I motioned to the cab driver to “make a U-Turn”…not an easy task, but with a turn off of one street and into a little village, going to, God knows were, we finally ended up heading the opposite direction. Finally after a while, I recognized something, so I halted the cab, and the two of us jumped out underneath a freeway overpass. You must know, Doug is now wondering why in the heck he “volunteered” to come with me… Anyway, I just wanted to get my bearings again with out the pressure of that “meter” clicking. When the next cab came by I hailed it as well and we were finally on our way to “Bumble Bee”. Now, when we pulled out of the driveway and started towards Istanbul and the ladies, I just knew we would have no problem getting back to Angel’s….dang, “what is that bridge?, we don’t cross any bridges…we’ve got to get all the way over to the right and get off…” Well, we got off in time and made it back to Angel’s and the ladies, but we were a little later than we had told them we would be. Oh well, …Tomorrow….leaving Istanbul and all of us heading to Cappadocia 6 October ’04, Tuesday. Our accommodations at Angel’s are really great and we have Doug to thank for that.... After getting up and having a shower, we met on the roof terrace for breakfast. The view from the terrace is overlooking the Sea of Marmara, the Blue Mosque, and the Aya St. Sofia Mosque. Our host has made us feel very comfortable and has even given us a program of tours and things to see and do while we are here. This morning we decided to take a cab and head over to The Topkapi Palace grounds and the famous Harem Quarters. The women of the Harem had to be foreigners, as Islam generally forbade enslaving Muslims, Christians, or Jews. It seems that Sultan Murat III, had 112 children with the help of his Harem. Upon entering the Harem, the girls would be schooled in Islam, Turkish culture, language, the arts of make-up, dress, comportment, music, reading and writing, and dancing, whew isn't that enough?. Touring the Harem, was just short of amazing. There were over 300 rooms that were built into a hillside on 6 levels. Unfortunately we were able to see but a small quantity of these. We decided to take it a little easy today, as we have over 2 weeks to go, and we all want to make it without burnout. We found another cab and went back to the pension before heading out to another great dinner. While walking up one of the streets, Doug ran into a couple that were here from Seattle. With a little conversation with Doug, all 6 of us decided to enjoy a great Turkish dinner together. Tomorrow….More of Istanbul 4 October ’04, Monday. We have a busy day ahead, so we were up early this morning. Last night we both pulled down our small suitcases and re-packed into one. At just after 9am we were shutting the door to “Bumble Bee” and heading across the overpass on foot to find a cab to the airport. Bonnie and Doug are to arrive at 10:20 this morning, and after meeting with them, we will head off to our pension. Upon arriving at the airport our cab driver let us out at the entrance…it just seems to follow us…the wrong entrance. So we had to lug our suitcase and other bags up and over, down and around, and finally after a little haggling we made it to the “International Arrival” area. Going to the board that shows all the flights coming in, we were “surprised ???” to say the least, that their flight wasn’t shown. Now what is this all about? There was an information desk close by, so I went over to find out just what the problem was. No problem, it is just that the flight doesn’t arrive until 2:20…. Well now, here we are, all dressed for the party and no were to go…. So we settled in for a little quite time at the airport. Time did go by pretty fast, so it wasn’t long before we saw them walk through the security gates looking great. It is great to have them join us. After a few minutes of catching up we grabbed a cab and headed off to our pension…”Angel’s Home Hotel”. Not having been there before, although we had seen the web page, we were happy to see that all the information that we had prior was just as it is in reality. Our host is very helpful and our room is extremely nice. We are located in a location that is close to more than half of all the places we want to visit, so we will be able to walk instead of cabbing. You might guess, but the first thing we did was walk through one of the bazaars and then find a place for a nice quiet dinner. Tomorrow….Enjoying Istanbul |
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