Hey everyone,
This is a continuation of my last post about my trip to Selcuk and Efes; I left off after the Efes Museum, so I'll pick up right there. Leaving the Efes Museum, Le Xuan and I started off down the road to Efes. The Temple of Artemis was on the way, so of course we stopped there. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, originally bigger than the Parthenon. Of course, there's not that much left now; we saw a single pillar, and myriad stone pieces lying around. The site of the temple was actually fairly marshy: there were a couple small ponds dotting the field, and when I looked into them, I could see pillar segments lining the bottom of them. The site was gorgeous, and full of geese, who apparently were pretty used to visitors, but not used to being spoiled by visitors: they waded right through the small crowd of visitors, honking indignantly.
From the Temple of Artemis, we continued on down the road for a couple kilometers to the turnoff for Efes. There was a tree-shaded pedestrian walkway alongside the road, which according to Lonely Planet was planted/planned by Dr. Sabri Yayla; we were very, very grateful to Dr. Yayla, as the weather was hotter than fresh lava, and sticky to boot. We made it to Efes, checking out some sporadic ruins just outside the gates bought our tickets, and entered behind a German tour group and before a Chinese tour group. Efes was, in a word, incredible. We walked down the ruins-lined path (apparently, it's called "Harbor Street"), stopped and chatted with some Turkish schoolkids, who played the "Where is Le Xuan from" game and lost, but who were pretty impressed that we spoke Turkish, and the first thing we saw was the Great Theatre. It was pretty great. We arrived just behind the aforementioned German tour group, just in time to hear their guide belt out a snippet of an opera tune to demonstrate the acoustics of the theatre, then had the whole 25000-seat theatre to ourselves for a bit before the Chinese tourists came in. From there, we ambled down the Sacred Way, another ruins-lined street, stopping to check out what looked uncannily like the ongoing excavation of a tomb, before arriving at the Library of Celsus. The Library of Celsus is definitely in contention for my favorite ruin in Turkey. It was incredibly beautiful, and so unbelievably detailed. It was built in 114 by Consul Tiberius Julius Aquila, and held 12,000 scrolls. The facade was pretty darn imposing: it had 4 statues of the Virtues (Arete Ennoia, Episteme, and Sophia) in niches behind the front pillars. One was headless, one was pretty whole but being restored, and the other two were almost completely whole. Their niches were very intricately carved, as well as the facade stretching above them. On the whole, the Library of Celsus was an impressive sight.
We left the Library of Celsus and ambled along to see some Roman communal toilets; they were mostly restored, but they had the distinction of being the most sit down toilets I've seen in Turkey, which I'm sure you all wanted to know. From there, we continued down another ruins-lined walk, the Curetes Way, which had much better ruins lining it than the prior two Ways: there were busts, statue fragment, and even whole statues, still on their pedestals. We saw the Temple of Hadrian, but didn't stop, as at that point the area looked like Disney World without the rides: hordes of tourists sallying forth; instead, Le Xuan and I passed the Fountain of Trojan, some shop ruins, and the Gate of Hercules, and continued on to Upper Efes, which was strangely almost empty of tourists. At the Efes Museum, there was a huuuuuge altar facade on display from the temple dedicated to Emperor Domitian; that temple was the first thing we saw in the upper part of Efes. It was preet cool seeing something in a museum, then seeing the spot it came from, and piecing together what it must've originally looked like; I don't think I've had that opportunity before.
At that point, we'd reached the other end of Efes, so we exited and rested our aching feet while pondering what to do next. We considered going to Meryemana, the house where Mary (yes, the Mary, Jesus' mother) lived her later years and passed away, but it was over 7 kilometers away, and the taxi fare we were quoted was too high to bargain to a decent level. I did do a little shopping, and was able to argue down the price of a belly dance scarf (sooo not traditional, and sooo touristy, but fun nonetheless) over half price, which was still overvalued, but a decent bargaining effort on my part. We then struck off towards the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, which apparently is the Turkish version of Rip Van Winkle: During the 3rd century, 7 Christians fled Efes and hid out in a cave about 3/4 kilometers away. Unfortunately for them, Emperor Decius had them followed, and their trackers sealed off the cave. Flash forward 200 years, and an earthquake broke the wall sealing the cave, and woke the sleepers, who walked back into town looking for food and found that everyone they knew was dead; the sleepers concluded they'd undergone a resurrection of some sort, and when they eventually died, they were buried in the same cave. They had a cult following for a while. The grotto itself was very pretty, but we arrived as it was closing, so although we were able to climb around the grotto, and to peek in and see the remains of the 7 Sleepers' tombs.
From there, we walked the 4ish kilometers back to Selcuk, and took an ice cream/orange juice break at a cafe, where we were immediately surrounded by schoolkids from Izmir on a field trip, who played the "Where is Le Xuan from" game (of course...) and lost; I'm pretty sure they came up with every single remotely Asian nation other than Vietnam. After that, we walked through downtown Selcuk; the whole town was turned out for the evening bazaar, which was fascinating; we saw quite a few gypsies, which was a first for me. We headed over to the otogar, where the touts assumed we were tourists (which we...kind of were, I guess, but I feel like somewhat of a hybrid tourist, since I'm a legal resident of Turkey for the time being) and quoted us inflated prices for a bus to Ankara from Selcuk; we ignored that and hopped
a bus to Izmir, where we got tickets to Ankara and were on our way back home, 24 hours after we'd embarked upon our marathon day trip. 'Twas a great time, but I was very glad to get back to ODTU, grab a hot shower, and crawl into bed.
I've kept busy since my trip to Selcuk and Efes: I just finished my finals today, I'm packing this weekend, and I'm getting ready to return back to the States on Monday. I also found time to take a trip to Trabzon, and along the Black Sea coast to Bat'umi, in Georgia. I didn't get to spend nearly as much time in Georgia as I'd've liked, as I had to return to Ankara for my second set of finals, but I had a great time nonetheless and a trip writeup and photos will
be forthcoming.
'Til then, take care,
and hope y'all are doing well,
-R
Friday, May 26, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
well, it's obvious I'm a student...
...because I'm travelling like one! Last Saturday, Le Xuan and I went on the day trip of all day trips, to Selcuk and Efes (or, as you probably know it, Ephesus). We caught a bus to ASTI (the bus station in Ankara) to get tickets for the overnight bus to Izmir. On the local bus to ASTI, we ran into 2 exchange students on their way to a triathlon, 2 more on their way to the Black Sea coast, and the entire ODTU debate team on their way to Izmir for a tournament. Everyone was getting their last-minute, end-of-semester travel in. The debate team found us cheap tickets (native speakers can negotiate better discounts), and we were off.
We got in to Izmir at 8ish, give or take half an hour. From the bus windows, it looked like a nice city; the bus station was 6 kilometers from downtown, though, so we didn't "see" Izmir. As we got off the Ankara-Izmir bus, this guy asked us if we needed help (foreigners stand out in Turkey, and between my whiter-shade-of-pale and Le Xuan's Vietnamese heritage, we practically screamed "Yabanci"); he said he'd get us to the right bus to Selcuk, but he had no clue where it was and led us to the wrong level of the bus terminal. I had that part of Lonely Planet memorized, and got us back on track, on the bus, and off to Selcuk. After an hour on the minibus, we arrived in Selcuk, brushed off several touts, and figured out our bearings by finding the museum, information center, and the road to Efes. As we were more than a little groaty after the overnight bus, we decided that the first order of the day would be a visit to the hamam. It was amazingly refreshing; it was interesting, because I've been to 2 different Ankara hamams, which have a primarily local clientele, and this one was very definitely geared for tourists. The hamam itself was coed, the staff was mainly male, and everyone kept their towels on (probably because the hamam was mixed...). Also, the staff spoke fluent English. I think I like the local hamams a bit better; the Hamam Ladies are half the experience, and it's so fun dealing with the language barrier. Anyhow, the hamam was exactly what we needed, and we left there fully awake, refreshed, clean, and ready to see the town.
We started at the Roman Aqueduct remains, which are home to many large stork nests, and spent time watching the storks. We walked along past the citadel, which was closed because of structural instability, and past what turned out to be the Basilica to the Isa Bey Camii, which was built by the Emir of Aydin in 1375. It was gorgeous, but my favorite part was the palm trees and other greenery in the courtyard. The minaret was different, as it was flat on top to accomodate a stork's nest (Selcuk is a stork-breeding hotspot). We ran into our first tour group of the day at Isa Bey, they were German. From the mosque, we walked back up a cobblestoned hill to the Basilica of Saint John. Truthfully, it was more the Ruins of the Basilica of Saint John: the entire place was leveled over the course of several earthquakes and myriad building materials looters, and excavations are ongoing today. It still looks pretty nice, and they have a surprising amount of it rebuilt, including a fresco or two. The Basilica was built in the 6th century over the tomb of Saint John, the apostle and Gospel-writer; if it stood whole today, it would be the 7th largest in the world. The Basilica had beautiful views of the city and the countryside, all so green. There were tons of tourists, though: a big school group from Izmir, and a group of Turkish police trainees who immediately glommed on to us to practice their English.
After touring the Basilica, we stopped by a restaurant for some pide. We ate outside, as it was probably 75, and beautifully sunny. The pide was great, except our table was under a tree, and (those of you who know certain relevant stories from my past will find this fitting and highly amusing) as we were talking, a bird "decorated" my last two slices of pide. It was a hoot trying to explain it to the waiter, and once he understood, he was really apologetic. I found it more ruefully humorous than anything. After that, we browsed through the horribly-overpriced souvenir stalls, laughing over the male fertility statues and made our way over to the Efes Museum.
The Efes Museum was incredible: there were soooo many busts, statues, and other fragments of Roman life from the ruins at Efes. We saw a lot of depictions of gods and goddesses, most remarkably Artemis: her statues featured rows of breasts/testicles across her chest, and a gorgeous headdress. The carving was more intricate than I would've imagined was possible, and beautifully detailed. The museum also had an exhibit on the gladiators of Efes; it was truly fascinating. I didn't get any photos of this section, but I should have, because it was so interesting. They had examples of gladiator weapons, and I'd never imagined gladiators bearing weapons like those: there were daggers, which were pretty normal, but there were also handled weapons with three and four iron points sticking out, and another called "the scissors." When I saw that label, I looked and looked at the examples, but saw absolutely nothing resembling a pair of scissors. "The scissors" are actually a metal cup-looking thing that fits over your hand, with a nasty-looking 2-pronged barb at the end. There apparently was a carefully delineated protocol for gladiator fights: a gladiator was trained with a certain weapon or weapon combination, and the weapon types were carefully matched against each other, so that a pointy-thing gladiator wouldn't fight a scissors gladiator, but might fight a dagger gladiator. The exhibit also featured excavated skeletons of gladiators; you could definitely tell what they died of! I think 4 evenly spaced puncture holes in the skull would put a damper on anyone, and you know a weapon had a lot of strength behind it when it's still stuck in the skeleton. It was, all in all, an utterly fascinating exhibit; the displays on gladiator culture were exceedingly well done, and they even had tombstone translations, so you could read how long a lot of the Efes gladiators lasted. Looking at the directional signs in the museum, the gladiator exhibit might have been the Kids' Exhibit, but I thought it was excellent.
Well, it's past 3AM here, so I'll try to cover the Temple of Artemis and Efes itself tomorrow. In the interim, here're my photos from my trip:
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040008&l=e5875&id=911357
and
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040294&l=5360d&id=911357
I'm in my downtime between exams at the moment: I had 2 today, so I'm at 3 down, 2 to go. I'll probably go travelling this weekend, to the Black Sea coast and maybe to Georgia. Now is definitely the time to travel: the lira is at 2/3 of a dollar, versus the 3/4 of a dollar it's hovered around all semester...guess who's going shopping :-P
Hope you all are doing well,
-R
We got in to Izmir at 8ish, give or take half an hour. From the bus windows, it looked like a nice city; the bus station was 6 kilometers from downtown, though, so we didn't "see" Izmir. As we got off the Ankara-Izmir bus, this guy asked us if we needed help (foreigners stand out in Turkey, and between my whiter-shade-of-pale and Le Xuan's Vietnamese heritage, we practically screamed "Yabanci"); he said he'd get us to the right bus to Selcuk, but he had no clue where it was and led us to the wrong level of the bus terminal. I had that part of Lonely Planet memorized, and got us back on track, on the bus, and off to Selcuk. After an hour on the minibus, we arrived in Selcuk, brushed off several touts, and figured out our bearings by finding the museum, information center, and the road to Efes. As we were more than a little groaty after the overnight bus, we decided that the first order of the day would be a visit to the hamam. It was amazingly refreshing; it was interesting, because I've been to 2 different Ankara hamams, which have a primarily local clientele, and this one was very definitely geared for tourists. The hamam itself was coed, the staff was mainly male, and everyone kept their towels on (probably because the hamam was mixed...). Also, the staff spoke fluent English. I think I like the local hamams a bit better; the Hamam Ladies are half the experience, and it's so fun dealing with the language barrier. Anyhow, the hamam was exactly what we needed, and we left there fully awake, refreshed, clean, and ready to see the town.
We started at the Roman Aqueduct remains, which are home to many large stork nests, and spent time watching the storks. We walked along past the citadel, which was closed because of structural instability, and past what turned out to be the Basilica to the Isa Bey Camii, which was built by the Emir of Aydin in 1375. It was gorgeous, but my favorite part was the palm trees and other greenery in the courtyard. The minaret was different, as it was flat on top to accomodate a stork's nest (Selcuk is a stork-breeding hotspot). We ran into our first tour group of the day at Isa Bey, they were German. From the mosque, we walked back up a cobblestoned hill to the Basilica of Saint John. Truthfully, it was more the Ruins of the Basilica of Saint John: the entire place was leveled over the course of several earthquakes and myriad building materials looters, and excavations are ongoing today. It still looks pretty nice, and they have a surprising amount of it rebuilt, including a fresco or two. The Basilica was built in the 6th century over the tomb of Saint John, the apostle and Gospel-writer; if it stood whole today, it would be the 7th largest in the world. The Basilica had beautiful views of the city and the countryside, all so green. There were tons of tourists, though: a big school group from Izmir, and a group of Turkish police trainees who immediately glommed on to us to practice their English.
After touring the Basilica, we stopped by a restaurant for some pide. We ate outside, as it was probably 75, and beautifully sunny. The pide was great, except our table was under a tree, and (those of you who know certain relevant stories from my past will find this fitting and highly amusing) as we were talking, a bird "decorated" my last two slices of pide. It was a hoot trying to explain it to the waiter, and once he understood, he was really apologetic. I found it more ruefully humorous than anything. After that, we browsed through the horribly-overpriced souvenir stalls, laughing over the male fertility statues and made our way over to the Efes Museum.
The Efes Museum was incredible: there were soooo many busts, statues, and other fragments of Roman life from the ruins at Efes. We saw a lot of depictions of gods and goddesses, most remarkably Artemis: her statues featured rows of breasts/testicles across her chest, and a gorgeous headdress. The carving was more intricate than I would've imagined was possible, and beautifully detailed. The museum also had an exhibit on the gladiators of Efes; it was truly fascinating. I didn't get any photos of this section, but I should have, because it was so interesting. They had examples of gladiator weapons, and I'd never imagined gladiators bearing weapons like those: there were daggers, which were pretty normal, but there were also handled weapons with three and four iron points sticking out, and another called "the scissors." When I saw that label, I looked and looked at the examples, but saw absolutely nothing resembling a pair of scissors. "The scissors" are actually a metal cup-looking thing that fits over your hand, with a nasty-looking 2-pronged barb at the end. There apparently was a carefully delineated protocol for gladiator fights: a gladiator was trained with a certain weapon or weapon combination, and the weapon types were carefully matched against each other, so that a pointy-thing gladiator wouldn't fight a scissors gladiator, but might fight a dagger gladiator. The exhibit also featured excavated skeletons of gladiators; you could definitely tell what they died of! I think 4 evenly spaced puncture holes in the skull would put a damper on anyone, and you know a weapon had a lot of strength behind it when it's still stuck in the skeleton. It was, all in all, an utterly fascinating exhibit; the displays on gladiator culture were exceedingly well done, and they even had tombstone translations, so you could read how long a lot of the Efes gladiators lasted. Looking at the directional signs in the museum, the gladiator exhibit might have been the Kids' Exhibit, but I thought it was excellent.
Well, it's past 3AM here, so I'll try to cover the Temple of Artemis and Efes itself tomorrow. In the interim, here're my photos from my trip:
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040008&l=e5875&id=911357
and
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040294&l=5360d&id=911357
I'm in my downtime between exams at the moment: I had 2 today, so I'm at 3 down, 2 to go. I'll probably go travelling this weekend, to the Black Sea coast and maybe to Georgia. Now is definitely the time to travel: the lira is at 2/3 of a dollar, versus the 3/4 of a dollar it's hovered around all semester...guess who's going shopping :-P
Hope you all are doing well,
-R
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Cappadocia
Hey everyone,
Things are getting slightly more hectic around here; it's the last week of classes, and finals are next week and the week after. I still have no clue when exactly my finals are, but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out. I do know that most of my finals will be the 16-18, except for 1 that's on the 26th. If my cards fall just right, I might be able to fit a trip in the middle there. I'll keep my fingers crossed...
Last weekend, I headed to the region of Cappadocia, the land of fairy chimneys. It was, in a word, amazing. I travelled solo, for the first time ever, and had a really great time. On Friday, I hied to ASTI and caught a bus to Goreme; it was 15 lira, which wasn't too bad. I got to Nevsehir, the regional jumping-off point for Cappadocia, at 5, and was supposed to transfer to a minibus to Goreme, but as I was the only one heading to Goreme, they brought me there in a car, and dropped me off at the doorstep of the pension that I thought I'd stay at. I checked on the price of a single, and was unpleasantly surprised to find out that although Lonely Planet said they had singles, they didn't actually; I was shown a 5-person room, and told that they'd charge me 25 lira for it. Naturally, I didn't want to pay 25 lira, even for the opportunity to sleep in 5 beds, so I hightailed it off to Shoestring Pensyon, which I'd read good things about online, where they showed me a three-bed room and offered it to me for 20 lira. I figured I could do better, so I asked about a dorm room, which I got, for 10 lira, breakfast included. It was just 6, 6:30ish by then, so I strolled around downtown Goreme, stopped for cookies and hot cocoa at the most amazing pastry shop in Cappadocia, and bought some postcards. After wandering around the whole center area of town a few times more, I stopped at a restaurant for some excellent pide, and provided loads of entertainment to the little girl at the table next to me, who was fascinated with my appearance (I don't know if it was the fair skin, the short hair, the reddish hair, the short sleeves, or all of the above), before heading back to the pensyon, chatting with some friendly Australians, and heading to bed. The dorm was pretty cool: it was built into a fairy chimney, as a cave, so it felt half like a room and half like a fanciful playhouse.
In the morning, I got up before 8 (I know, this is really unlike me), because I had to be checked out by 9. After having the best menemen I've had in Turkey (and that's saying something), I headed out to explore Cappadocia. First up was the Goreme Open-Air Museum, a site with Byzantine monastic retreats and cave churches galore. It's really popular with tour groups (I saw mora Americans there than I've seen since arriving in Turkey...), so at first I kept getting stuck behind clusters of tourists and guides. I did eventually find a pace that allowed me to see everything between groups, and ended up with most of the tombs, chapels, and churches to myself, which was nice. Everything was incredibly gorgeous; many of the frescoes had been damaged or scratched, but they still retained magnificient colours and details (links to pictures and in-depth descriptions are posted below). The churches and rooms themselves were amazing: all carved out of the rocks, with furniture and storage carved into the rooms themselves. The scenery was gorgeous, as well, with valleys full of delicate fairy chimneys rising out of the trees. I saw the Chapel of St. Basil, the Chapel of St. Barbara, the Chapel of St. Catherine, the Apple Church, the Church of St. Onuphrius, and the Sandals Church, along with some unnamed tombs and small chapels. After finishing up at the Goreme Open-Air Museum, I strolled through some of the shops outside, and then... I rode a camel! It was really, really cool, and I was so excited: I've always wanted to ride a camel (or an elephant, but the camel came along first...), and I passed this guy offering camel rides through the fairy chimneys. It was one of the highlights of my trip. After that excitement, I wandered back to Goreme Village, passing a sign for the UFO Museum (see? tourist traps aren't just in America!), and booked my ticket back to Ankara for 6 that evening.
With 5ish hours to kill, I decided to go to Zelve, the other Open-Air Museum in Cappadocia. I snagged a bus there, but it let me off at the access road to Zelve instead of at the site itself, so I walked 4 very hot kilometers to the Museum entrance. About halfway there, I walked through Pasabagi, a scenic viewing area with lots of touristy shops, which was a nice change of scenery; I finally got to Zelve, got my ticket, and walked in. Zelve was really interesting: it was a Byzantine monastic retreat center, like Goreme, but it was also a fully-inhabited cave village, up until the 1950s, when the rocks started falling down and the villagers were evcuated to non-cave dwellings about 2 kilometers away. I saw the ghost village first: it was really cool. The houses were in cliffsides, just carved in; if they wanted to expand, they just carved out another room or two. I also saw the village mosque, also cut into the rock; its minaret was designed differently than most of the minarets I've seen here. After wandering through the main valley of the villages, I hopped 1 valley over and saw some churches: one of the cave churches was fenced off, because it was in danger of falling apart and/or dislodging rocks onto visitors' heads, so I didn't see that one, but I did see the Grape Church and the Fish Church, which weren't quite as well kept-up as the Goreme churches, but which were pretty nonetheless. I had a small moment of panic when my camera batteries died after my first photo of the churches, but I was able to leave the museum, buy batteries at a souvenir stand, and go back in to get my photos. After that, I was pretty tuckered out from walking to Zelve and hiking through the valleys, so I had some of Turkey's famous ice cream (the ice cream man hoists the entire slab of ice cream up into the air on a hook, that's how sticky it is) and bought some more postcards before catching a bus back to Goreme village, where I took some photos of the village mosque and a horse before grabbing some more cookies at that wonderful pastry shop and heading to the bus station, where I headed back to Ankara.
It was kind of strange being in such a touristy area, because I don't feel that I'm strictly a tourist, per se (even though I'm there to do touristy things). I was really proud of myself, as I was able to communicate almost entirely in Turkish; although the Turks immediately pegged me as yabanci (a foreigner), some of the tourists heard me asking questions in Turkish and thought I was a Turk(!). The one slightly unpleasant thing about being in a tourist center was all the touts, calling out to me in English. If I didn't respond, they'd yell at me, and keep calling after me as I walked down the street. I figured that if they were calling out in English, they were either trying to sell me something or trying to get something (speaking from experience, here), so I pretended my native language was Spanish or Chinese, depending on my mood (good thing they didn't speak either, otherwise that wouldn't've worked well at all).
All in all, I had an excellent time in Cappadocia: saw beautiful churches and scenery, got horrendously sunburned, walked my feet off, and, of course, I Rode a Camel! It was a great couple of days, and it was nice to get out of Ankara. Due to bandwidth limits at Flickr (I did post some Diyarbakir photos there, finally), I have all my Cappadocia photos on Facebook for the time being, you can see them at:
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038078&l=5129e&id=911357
and
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038128&l=93f00&id=911357
This weekend, I'll be heading to Ephesus on a marathon day trip, which should be exhausting but incredible. Ephesus is the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean and is the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It's also home to the Library of Celsus. While I'm there, I'll also stop in Selcuk, to see the Basilica of St. John (the St. John of the Gospel-writing fame); I'm very excited!
Not much is new on campus; ODTU had Springfest last weekend, which is rather like an enormous street fair with concerts. They had tons of earring vendors, so of course I picked up some earrings; I also tried an ice cream dish that was served in a honeydew half, it was quite good. The Seniors are getting antsy: every once in a while, a caravan of little cars teeming with graduation-robe-bedecked Seniors will come careening around the perimeter road of campus, honking and screaking as much as they can; this's been going on for about a week now, and graduation isn't til June, so I suppose it'll continue for a while. It freaked me out the first time one came around a corner, honking madly, but I'm getting used to it.
Well, that's about all that's new here,
hope you all are doing well,
-R
Things are getting slightly more hectic around here; it's the last week of classes, and finals are next week and the week after. I still have no clue when exactly my finals are, but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out. I do know that most of my finals will be the 16-18, except for 1 that's on the 26th. If my cards fall just right, I might be able to fit a trip in the middle there. I'll keep my fingers crossed...
Last weekend, I headed to the region of Cappadocia, the land of fairy chimneys. It was, in a word, amazing. I travelled solo, for the first time ever, and had a really great time. On Friday, I hied to ASTI and caught a bus to Goreme; it was 15 lira, which wasn't too bad. I got to Nevsehir, the regional jumping-off point for Cappadocia, at 5, and was supposed to transfer to a minibus to Goreme, but as I was the only one heading to Goreme, they brought me there in a car, and dropped me off at the doorstep of the pension that I thought I'd stay at. I checked on the price of a single, and was unpleasantly surprised to find out that although Lonely Planet said they had singles, they didn't actually; I was shown a 5-person room, and told that they'd charge me 25 lira for it. Naturally, I didn't want to pay 25 lira, even for the opportunity to sleep in 5 beds, so I hightailed it off to Shoestring Pensyon, which I'd read good things about online, where they showed me a three-bed room and offered it to me for 20 lira. I figured I could do better, so I asked about a dorm room, which I got, for 10 lira, breakfast included. It was just 6, 6:30ish by then, so I strolled around downtown Goreme, stopped for cookies and hot cocoa at the most amazing pastry shop in Cappadocia, and bought some postcards. After wandering around the whole center area of town a few times more, I stopped at a restaurant for some excellent pide, and provided loads of entertainment to the little girl at the table next to me, who was fascinated with my appearance (I don't know if it was the fair skin, the short hair, the reddish hair, the short sleeves, or all of the above), before heading back to the pensyon, chatting with some friendly Australians, and heading to bed. The dorm was pretty cool: it was built into a fairy chimney, as a cave, so it felt half like a room and half like a fanciful playhouse.
In the morning, I got up before 8 (I know, this is really unlike me), because I had to be checked out by 9. After having the best menemen I've had in Turkey (and that's saying something), I headed out to explore Cappadocia. First up was the Goreme Open-Air Museum, a site with Byzantine monastic retreats and cave churches galore. It's really popular with tour groups (I saw mora Americans there than I've seen since arriving in Turkey...), so at first I kept getting stuck behind clusters of tourists and guides. I did eventually find a pace that allowed me to see everything between groups, and ended up with most of the tombs, chapels, and churches to myself, which was nice. Everything was incredibly gorgeous; many of the frescoes had been damaged or scratched, but they still retained magnificient colours and details (links to pictures and in-depth descriptions are posted below). The churches and rooms themselves were amazing: all carved out of the rocks, with furniture and storage carved into the rooms themselves. The scenery was gorgeous, as well, with valleys full of delicate fairy chimneys rising out of the trees. I saw the Chapel of St. Basil, the Chapel of St. Barbara, the Chapel of St. Catherine, the Apple Church, the Church of St. Onuphrius, and the Sandals Church, along with some unnamed tombs and small chapels. After finishing up at the Goreme Open-Air Museum, I strolled through some of the shops outside, and then... I rode a camel! It was really, really cool, and I was so excited: I've always wanted to ride a camel (or an elephant, but the camel came along first...), and I passed this guy offering camel rides through the fairy chimneys. It was one of the highlights of my trip. After that excitement, I wandered back to Goreme Village, passing a sign for the UFO Museum (see? tourist traps aren't just in America!), and booked my ticket back to Ankara for 6 that evening.
With 5ish hours to kill, I decided to go to Zelve, the other Open-Air Museum in Cappadocia. I snagged a bus there, but it let me off at the access road to Zelve instead of at the site itself, so I walked 4 very hot kilometers to the Museum entrance. About halfway there, I walked through Pasabagi, a scenic viewing area with lots of touristy shops, which was a nice change of scenery; I finally got to Zelve, got my ticket, and walked in. Zelve was really interesting: it was a Byzantine monastic retreat center, like Goreme, but it was also a fully-inhabited cave village, up until the 1950s, when the rocks started falling down and the villagers were evcuated to non-cave dwellings about 2 kilometers away. I saw the ghost village first: it was really cool. The houses were in cliffsides, just carved in; if they wanted to expand, they just carved out another room or two. I also saw the village mosque, also cut into the rock; its minaret was designed differently than most of the minarets I've seen here. After wandering through the main valley of the villages, I hopped 1 valley over and saw some churches: one of the cave churches was fenced off, because it was in danger of falling apart and/or dislodging rocks onto visitors' heads, so I didn't see that one, but I did see the Grape Church and the Fish Church, which weren't quite as well kept-up as the Goreme churches, but which were pretty nonetheless. I had a small moment of panic when my camera batteries died after my first photo of the churches, but I was able to leave the museum, buy batteries at a souvenir stand, and go back in to get my photos. After that, I was pretty tuckered out from walking to Zelve and hiking through the valleys, so I had some of Turkey's famous ice cream (the ice cream man hoists the entire slab of ice cream up into the air on a hook, that's how sticky it is) and bought some more postcards before catching a bus back to Goreme village, where I took some photos of the village mosque and a horse before grabbing some more cookies at that wonderful pastry shop and heading to the bus station, where I headed back to Ankara.
It was kind of strange being in such a touristy area, because I don't feel that I'm strictly a tourist, per se (even though I'm there to do touristy things). I was really proud of myself, as I was able to communicate almost entirely in Turkish; although the Turks immediately pegged me as yabanci (a foreigner), some of the tourists heard me asking questions in Turkish and thought I was a Turk(!). The one slightly unpleasant thing about being in a tourist center was all the touts, calling out to me in English. If I didn't respond, they'd yell at me, and keep calling after me as I walked down the street. I figured that if they were calling out in English, they were either trying to sell me something or trying to get something (speaking from experience, here), so I pretended my native language was Spanish or Chinese, depending on my mood (good thing they didn't speak either, otherwise that wouldn't've worked well at all).
All in all, I had an excellent time in Cappadocia: saw beautiful churches and scenery, got horrendously sunburned, walked my feet off, and, of course, I Rode a Camel! It was a great couple of days, and it was nice to get out of Ankara. Due to bandwidth limits at Flickr (I did post some Diyarbakir photos there, finally), I have all my Cappadocia photos on Facebook for the time being, you can see them at:
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038078&l=5129e&id=911357
and
http://bu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038128&l=93f00&id=911357
This weekend, I'll be heading to Ephesus on a marathon day trip, which should be exhausting but incredible. Ephesus is the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean and is the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. It's also home to the Library of Celsus. While I'm there, I'll also stop in Selcuk, to see the Basilica of St. John (the St. John of the Gospel-writing fame); I'm very excited!
Not much is new on campus; ODTU had Springfest last weekend, which is rather like an enormous street fair with concerts. They had tons of earring vendors, so of course I picked up some earrings; I also tried an ice cream dish that was served in a honeydew half, it was quite good. The Seniors are getting antsy: every once in a while, a caravan of little cars teeming with graduation-robe-bedecked Seniors will come careening around the perimeter road of campus, honking and screaking as much as they can; this's been going on for about a week now, and graduation isn't til June, so I suppose it'll continue for a while. It freaked me out the first time one came around a corner, honking madly, but I'm getting used to it.
Well, that's about all that's new here,
hope you all are doing well,
-R
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