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”.
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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 3 October ’04, Sunday. Yesterday we finally got the oil changed… I don’t know why, but it like pulling teeth on my part to get it done. Now I can put my mind on something else. We followed the oil change with another day in Edirne sightseeing. This is really the first day we have taken just for this. We visited 2 of the largest Mosques in town and 2 of the old market areas as well. Then down the street a little, and we have in front of us some Byzantine and Roman ruins. In one spot of the excavations, we even saw 2 human bones sticking out of the dirt. Nothing can be dug out until there is positive identification put to each little artifact. They strain every shovel of dirt twice before discarding it to the side. We then went to find lunch as time had gotten away from us. As we were walking the streets, and looking for that right place to eat, Louise just had to find a potty place. Yesterday she had found this one location, so that is were we headed this time as well. As she walked out, she noticed these Moslem ladies sitting around a circle, on the ground. They were rolling out, filling, and baking flat bread. The fillings were either cheese, potato, or meat. It smelled so good, and they were such good sales people, we just had to try one…then three… They were fantastic. My favorite was the meat, and for Louise, it was potato. This pretty much filled our day, and we had to go and find another campground. We were not happy with our last one so we checked out. As we pulled into the gates of this new one, were met immediately by this pretty young lady. She didn’t have a lot of confidence in her English, so she called for her mother. Both were very charming and made our choice of locations very easy. They lent us a book Coffee Table book on Edirne, and gave us a visitors comment book to fill out when we left as well. We were told to park anywhere (we were the only one there). We had only just settled in and we had visitors…2 roosters and 4 hens. They were very curious birds, but definitely not timid of us. As we woke this morning, we were surprised that the roosters had been so quiet so late in the morning. We had gone into the showers and as I came back to the van, there was a nice fresh loaf of French bread waiting for us…compliments of the campground. Now, that was a first. We finished dressing, got the breakfast ready, and as we started to eat, the whole flock of chickens decided to join us. Another first…. What a campground !!! There was no doubt, this was one of the best, and number one for hospitality. Now to check out and head again to Istanbul. We were looking again for a different location from the last one. After a couple of U-Turns, around a business district, and a detour or two, we arrived. It is much better than the last here in Istanbul. Tomorrow morning, we take a suitcase, grab a cab and go to the airport to meet Bonnie and Doug, and leave “Bumble Bee” on her own for 12 or more days. This will seem strange…. The 4 of us will be checking into a pension here in Istanbul for a few days and then travel in a rented car down the western coast line of Turkey for a week or more. Say a little prayer for Bumble Bee’s safety as well as ours. Tomorrow…the airport and then the pension “Angel’s Home Hotel” 1 October ’04, Friday. October 1st and we are still here and enjoying it even more… Today we finished washing. We washed just about everything that was made of cloth or synthetic fibers. It was exhausting but, we just feel soooo good having got it all done. Another goal for the day was to get the oil changed, so we headed in to town to get that done and see it we could get any up-loading done at the internet café. As it was, we did get all the text up-loaded and a few pictures, but the oil change still has to be done. It was just about 5 when we got back to the campground, so we had to start dinner and get all the dried laundry put away before dark. Night time is definitely coming earlier. I took a picture of our candle-lit dinner tonight. This afternoon we went to the grocery store for tonight’s dinner. We decided on a bift steak dinner. After the young lady took our selection out and weighed it, she then proceeded to pound the heck out of it. We were impressed, because we thought we were going to have to do it when we got back to the camper. On our first bite, we thought we probably should have beat it again…it was a little tough… Oh well, the flavor was sure good anyway. For lunch, we stopped by a little sidewalk café. I had these little barbequed lamb meatballs, and Louise had this white broth soup that had some stringy and chewy meat of some kind in it…she didn’t finish it and I can’t imagine why not…. When we got back to the campground from town, we found we were the only one here again. The “Water Truck” had left for Istanbul. It was kind of nice being here all alone….for a while anyway…2 campers (1 VW van) pulled in just at dark. They are both from The Netherlands also. Those from Holland, do travel…. 30 September ’04, Thursday. One of us is celebrating their birthday, and it isn’t me…. Happy Birthday to you…. Louise is now .. I would tell you but, I would have to wash dishes for the rest of my life, and that just isn’t going to happen. Who would have guessed that we would be celebrating her birthday in Turkey or anywhere else but good ole Seattle when we celebrated it last year. What a change our lives have taken. You might think that we would be doing something exciting or challenging or….but no, we just pulled up stakes from Istanbul for a few days, and went back north to re-visit Edirne. Edirne is were we camped our first night in Turkey on the lot of the gas station northeast of town. We left Istanbul because we wanted a change of scenery and a fresh water shower. We must be nuts to travel backward over 200km to have a fresh water shower. As you know, Bonnie and Doug are arriving in Istanbul on Monday, and we just wanted to stay away until they arrived to save some of the “surprise of Istanbul” for us as well. In celebrating Louise’s birthday, we washed clothes and then barbequed chicken, baked potatoes, and some very good dark beer for our celebration dinner. Oh yes, we ate by candle lite as well. Just as we were starting the barbeque, a large orange truck came into the campground. Up until then, we were the only one here. When we first saw this truck, we thought it was a water truck bringing in water for the campground. Then it did something strange for a “Water Truck”, it parked and a young couple got out and started to set up camp. As it turns out, this “Truck” is an Eastern German Officers Truck. It was all set up for the “Three Officers” to live in. Live is meant to live better than those less fortunate to be “Officers”. Now these two are travelers, Jasper and Monique Hendrick, will be on the road up to 3 years before their trip ends. They are from The Netherlands (Holland), and purchased this truck there. Some of their destinations are India, Iran, Pakistan and extensively in Turkey. In the picture of “Bumble Bee” sitting next to their camper you can see the difference in traveling conditions. Inside they have a full sized bed, full kitchen, full bath with shower, generator, lift for their motorcycle, 250 gallons of fresh water and water purification system. That is just for starters…Happy Travels 29 September ’04, Wednesday. We tried to get off to the bus stop, before it got too hot, but 10:30 am just didn’t do it… It was already in the high 70 to low 80’s, and the humidity was about 90%….let’s put it this way, HOT !!! To get to our bus, we have to cross 2 off-ramps that don’t have sidewalks or crosswalks, cars traveling at HIGH SPEED, and then under 2 overpasses (one with a man and his “home” sleeping under the overpass) and then up onto the other side to find 2 more streets to cross that fit the same description. And then, thread your way through some high-rise condo’s to the next street. Finally, you are there to catch bus #81. 1 million lira each and you are on your way into Istanbul. This is an amazing “mega-city”… it never goes to sleep, and it never ages…it is still thousands of years old. The book says, “Straddling the Bosphorus with a skyline studded with domes and minarets, Istanbul is one of the world’s great romantic cities”…it really is true. As soon as you mix with the people, shops, markets, sounds, smells, and all, you find all of it quite intoxicating and romantic. The history tracks back to the earliest times with the Byzantium then Constantinople, the capitol of the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire…and on…even to day, you feel it as a part of their culture and heritage. One of our goals was to find an internet café…we did. We were able to catch up on some emails (answering and sending). It is always great to hear from everyone…thanks. We also heard from Donna, and we now have our insurance problem solved…THANK YOU !!! We also wanted to see the other side of the Bosphorus, so we caught another bus to across the bridge and take us up into the middle of that side of Istanbul. We had a good day just trying out our luck on the busses of Istanbul and reading our maps. Now the big question…How do we get back??? Once we got back to the location of the first bus we took this morning, things finally went sour. As it was, we ended up taking a taxi back…remember the bus…1 million lira each??? The taxi…10 million each… Well, we are back, and we had a good time…what else is important???
Tomorrow….not sure yet 28 September ’04, Tuesday. Up bright in early, both of us all cleaned, pottied, and fed. I decided to wash “Bumble Bee” with the pre-used water from our sink, while Louise finished up the interior chores. Our stay with Sadam and his crew was uneventful, but very nice. For them to take us in, was above and beyond and with the great meal last night…great!!! We only had 20 million lira left, so I put it into the gas tank. It didn’t fill it, but I thought it would get us to Istanbul ok. Our route was down the “toll road” for about 240 km, and there was supposed to be plenty of “Mega Gas/Restaurant” areas on the way. After about the first 100 km I had noticed that: 1st, there were no off ramps and 2nd, were there used to be the famous “Mega Gas/Restaurant” areas, was now tall weeds….they had all closed after 9/11… It is amazing how much 9/11 has affected Turkey’s tourism, and the closed gas stations is only a small part. Fortunately, we had plenty of gas to get to Istanbul, so we weren’t in any danger of running out on this “toll road”. The amount of traffic on this road was also interesting…hardly nothing. We traveled many miles without seeing another car or truck going in our direction. Although, the closer we got to Istanbul (24-28 million people), the more cars and trucks we encountered. The terrain was kind of like riding into Yakima…rolling hills with farm lands and then, dried brush areas (but, no Mt. Rainier). Finally, our turn off came up so we could find our campground. The closer to Istanbul, the more traffic. Finally, it was kind of like driving in an “All Grown-Up’s Bumper Car” ride. Fortunately, no one actually bumped any bumpers, but the ride was thrilling. Within another 45 minutes we were pulling into our new campground. Lou and I both could hardly wait to hook up and head off to the showers. We grabbed the first 2 showers we found (right next to each other), and turned the water on high….COLD WATER SHOWERS…what is it about the soap not “sudsing”? Can this be…SALT WATER SHOWERS ??? You know after you’ve tasted the water (and you don’t want to taste it, because the Mamara Sea is the most likely spot the salt water is coming from, and it is polluted..), that in fact it is salt water. Second, after you’ve dried off, you fill sticky all over. Not the best of showers we have had… Then it comes to another chore that we just have to complete…washing of our clothes… Well, we knew there would be challenges on this journey, now we have encountered a couple and we will have to work our way through them. Again, 9/11 has become an issue here in this campground. This used to be a highly sought after campground. Now they have a large swimming pool, and wonderful looking restaurant, and campground that have all gone to hell in a basket. The campground is barely open…everything else is closed and covered with weeds and dust. Pretty nasty. The tourist just isn’t coming as they used too, and it is hurting the tourist economy drastically. Enough politics…Tomorrow…let’s find an internet café (as they call them), and test out the bus system |
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