Its not until you get a birds' Eye view that you realise just how big some of these cities are....Nothing had really prepared me for "Modern Turkey"
Or for the ancient, desert of Cappadocia
A mind boggling trip in a shuttle bus, full of Europeans, amazed by the scenery around them. Gasps at the mountains, the "Fairy Chimneys" and the rugged landscape. Little did we know how much more we were going to see
.
Couple by couple we dropped people off at extraordinary cave hotels.....We passed through the throbbing tourist town of Goreme, dropping the final passengers into the heaving mass, leaving just the two of us to travel further into the desert to the Hezen Cave hotel. We had no idea what to expect. Finally we pulled into a narrow car park overlooking the Castle... Not the traditional European type but the Cavernous, honeycomb of defensive caves that we got to know so well.
We were tired after our flight and long journey through the desert, and totally unprepared for the warm reception that we got. Cold drinks, çay, cheeses, bread, fruit all appeared from nowhere. Mehmet, was a wealth of information and within ten minutes had us all organised with a private taxi for the day ahead. "Phew! Take me to my cave" I thought.
And so he did...A cave we had been prepared for. This Cave we were totally unprepared for..
A suite of three rooms ....
... and two bathrooms!
Our neighbours though were living a very different lifestyle. I wonder why hotels think we need three rooms and two bathrooms? Must admit though after the dusty ride a bit of luxury didn't go amiss.
First morning, we stepped out into the heat and dust to explore the village of Ortahisar.
A world apart from the crowds of Istanbul. Life had suddenly slowed to a more leisurely pace. But everywhere we looked, people were working, renovating buildings, sweeping, cleaning and of course trying to sell us carpets.
On the first night Mehmet had described the different trips we could take by private taxi..... After a walk around the village we were ready to do some exploring but NOT six hours of exploring, so we negotiated the trip we wanted to do. The "Orange Route" we decided - First stop Zelve Valley Aktepe - to see the 'Fairy Chimneys' or as Lonely Planet describes them, the best 'Penises in Cappadocia'
And pretty impressive they were too!
We climbed to the top... only to find...
A wedding...
It must have been the wedding season in Turkey because we saw the most lavish weddings happening everywhere from the Blue Mosque to the Pinnacles of the desert.
Spurred us on to our next spot...
Turkey has constantly surprised us... nothing is quite what we expected it to be and so it was with Göreme Museum.
The valley has some of the best painted cave churches. Medieval monks (1000-1200 AD) carved out the caves from the soft rock and then decorated them with Byzantine style frescoes.
Most of the frescoes have been damaged — by wind, water, weather, earthquake, and shepherd boys who sought refuge in the caves and used the faces of the figures as targets for pebble attacks, having been taught that images were sinful.
The views from the caves was spectacular...
Cannot believe how many of these cave dwellings and churches there are!
No comments:
Post a Comment