Only two nights after I had made it to Istanbul, I decided on a whim to go South East to the town of Gorame which is in the Capadocia region of Turkey.
Turkey officially sits on both the European Continent and the Asian one. In fact, the greater Istanbul is split by the two continents and for only a dollar, you can get a ferry across the Mediterranean channel to the Asian side. There is a famous place to eat in Istanbul where you get a fish sandwich served directly from a boat swaying back and fourth in the channel. The boat has been converted into a huge grill. You Pay $3 and get the sandwich which is a half loaf of French bread (wide loaf) Cilantro, Onions, and a Butterflied fish fillet that has been cooked to perfection just seconds ago. To add a little liquid to this sandwich, there are huge bottles of Lemon Juice and salt shakers. Apply liberally and you’ve got possibly the best sandwich ever.
There are lots of little gems in the town when you know what you are looking for. It is also easy to pay way too much for something similar. Baklava is also big in this area. A flaky desert pastry, dripping in liquid sugar and filled with bits of pistachio nuts. All of this was grand, but it was time to see more than just the famous city. I decided to jump on an overnight bus, last second, at the suggestion of Jonathan, my now traveling buddy. The bus bay was full of state of the art beasts. Getting out of the bay was terrifying, as they drove these 60 seater’s like they were mopeds. They cut in line and snaked about each other liberally.
On the bus, we met a very kind 40 something accountant named Akmed (Be prepared because the names only get better). We talked with him for ages about everything from the local history to the fact that many people in Turkey believed that Michael Jackson was a Muslim. He said that on of Michael’s songs had some Islamic connotations and that makes people believe that the king was Muslim.
One of the subjects that was a little tricky was when he asked us what religion we were. He was a very liberal guy, but when Jonathan brought out the Zoastrianism (the 5000 year old religion that Jewdao Christian faiths are based on.) (Yikes, I think I just offended everyone but the Hindus and the Buddhists with that last parenthetical sentence) It got a bit dicy. Johnathan quickly said, “But I am young and have a lot to think of before I decide. Akmed said “But many people don’t believe in religion, but believe in God, are you one of those?” This surprisingly liberal statement was part of why Turkey is so unique. They are a Muslim nation, but still drink quite a bit as an example to their complexity.
Here is Turkey summed up in an easy statement: “Turkey is blatantly complex.” It doesn’t take long to know that there is a ton under the surface to everyone here, and that you probably won’t figure them out anytime soon. The people here are all very beautiful, humble, and deep. You get frequent chances to talk for hours with them as they will invite you in for Chai (tea) without any ulterior motive. Chai is the proper name for tea, even though in America we would refer to a certain type of tea as chai tea, to them we would be saying “tea tea”. Their tea, by the way, is incredible.
Later in the bus we talked about America and Akmed’s fondness to Obama. He, as do everyone else in the world, was not a fan of Bush. As we spoke, a bow tied young man was walking up and down the isle of the overnight bus, serving us and everyone else with chai, water, and the occasional twinky.
Early that morning at 4:30 am, I woke up while the bus was still moving through the dessert. I saw something that made Turkey worth it. I saw something that I have never seen and never thought I would. I didn’t even think it was possible. As the twilight began, the sky was a pale white. It wasn’t partly white, it was completely white. In the foreground were clouds that didn’t catch any light due to the curvature of the hills and mountains. They were completely black. Close to road were hills that began by being black, but as the seconds rolled on, they became more and more white. In amazement, I thought my rods (or cones, not sure which one anymore) in my eyes had stopped working. Never did I think that it was even possible, let alone beautiful.
Within 30 minutes, the sun had peaked its face over the hills and the sky had ever so gently turned apricot. This was markedly not peach as I would grow to find that Capadocia had tons of apricot trees that wildly in both senses of the word. Capadocia is a high dessert that hundreds of years ago was used by the Christians as safe haven. There are thousands of cone shaped caves that poke out of the land here that the Christians cleverly chizzled into their homes. It is now a huge tourist attraction for both foreigners and Turkish.
When we checked into our hostel, we ended up getting into a 3-4 hour conversation with the owner of the hostel. He was a little less fond of America and thought that Obamma was no different than Bush. He told us that he could see that Obamma was lieing during the elections. He was, on the other hand, very interested in our third travel buddy (who tagged along by inviting herself from the hostel in Istanbul) who was an winy, worried, and negatively attitude-ed Austrian girl. We joked with the hostel owner saying that we would sell her for 3 camels. He didn’t think it was funny at all. He was very interested in this proposition. Even though she was carrying around an extra 100-150 pounds, he was very attracted to her.
Though he was not rude or touchy, he was very aggressive charming in his intent. I can understand why they don’t let women traveling alone on the night buses sit in the back of the bus. This culture is very segregated for the women at times, but from what I have seen, it seems to be for their benefit.
The next day, we rented mountain bikes and went cruising around the greater Capadocia area. By cruising, I mean either barely getting up steep hills, or bombing down them at a rate of speed so fast that my 21st or 24th gear on my bike was still not enough to get any sort of traction while peddling.
We went to an open air museum that was a waste of money seeing as we went to a random cave that proved to be much better and completely deserted. There was a man at the second cave that was there to charge the 2 lira (66 cents) to get in. Inside of the cave we found many rooms that were guarded with giant rolling stones that were designed to be implemented in case of an attack. These were something straight out of Indiana Jones. They must have weighed 4-6 tones each.
We we got outside, we chatted with the man who guarded this cave. His name was, yes, believe it or not, Borat. He was 47 and very kind, but with a tragic past. He has lost one wife and 3 children. He also recently received brain surgery in Istanbul, so he wears is hair like a toned down mow hawk to draw attention away from the huge hook shaped scar that covered the left side of his skull. He was very kind and gentle. As we offered him a cookie, he promptly ran off for a few minutes and came back with chai. This is the type of hospitality you will find in rural Turkey, even if it is a tourist spot.
As we eventually left, we were getting back on the road only to hear Borat whistling at as from across the canyon and giving us a huge wave of his arms. He was just saying goodbye one last time.
Later we wanted to do some off-roading on our brand new, shinny, full suspension, rented mountain bikes. We turned off of the road and headed for the dried up river bed. As we mad our way down the hill we saw a black horse. Promptly after that, 4 of the largest dogs I had ever seen came charging towards us, growling and barking in a deep boom. We figured that the beasts were too big and fast to out run and the terrain wouldn’t let us even turn around if we wanted to. We stopped and stood still.
In true doggy form, the beasts slowed and eventually sniffed us as we had gone silent and given them a poor thing to chase. They looked like a cross between a crème Lab and Grate Dane. Around their necks were the absolute most intimidating things. First a sheep skin to protect the dog and then what looked like an our turned bear trap to fend off another. These were the most evil dog colors I have ever teen. Jagged and rusty spikes that were 4 inches long each pointed outwards.
When we got to the bottom of the hill there were two local men that we chated with. It turns out that the dogs were their sheep herders, but I would have guessed bear herders by the looks of the callers. We got back on the road and saw some wild apricot trees, so we decided to pick a few. It if were a day later, they would be rotten, but today, they were perfectly ripened and heated by the summer sun.
We got back to the main town of Gorame after 6 grueling hours, but it was way more than worth the effort. Tomorrow we may take a bus to the underground cities that lie 60 miles away. Then after that, I will make my way down to Olympus, which is a town situated in the south on the Mediterranean.