Day 29: Wait, what day is it?

Turkey tour, Day 3

(July 21)

Today we had breakfast up on the roof.  There is a little restaurant up there with both indoor and outdoor seating.  We filled our plates, then went outside.  It was too chilly though and we eventually went back inside to finish eating.  After breakfast, we met our tour guide and boarded the bus.  It turns out that they flipped our day #4 with our day #3, so today we have the Rose Valley and Underground City tour.  We didn’t figure this out until the tour was over, though!

First we went to see an Underground City in the Kizilicur valley in Cappadocia.  We only got to see one of the homes in the city, though.  It was for one family.  We had to climb up the hillside a bit, then enter through a doorway.  We descended into the kitchen, then next came the barn, a church, a living room, and a storage room.   The living room had a hidey-hole—a space carved out the a wheel that can be rolled in front of it to hide if they are attacked.  They also had a well and ventilation shaft.  I thought it was a lot of room and asked if the space was used communally by many families, but the guide said that the whole thing was for one family.  The entire village was connected by 10 kilometer tunnel to a nearby village.  The underground city was a place for the Cappedocians, who were Christian, to hide when the Ottomans. Mongols, and others invaded.  We also saw the ancient church of St. John the Baptist here.

kitchen

From one room to another

A niche to put a linseed oil lamp into

A space to hide

Storage room

well

Ventilation shaft

Hill city

Hill city

old church

We found another kitty

A cow in the village

Today’s commercial spot was a jewelry shop.  It has very pretty jewelry—top class.  They have a very pretty Turquoise that is native to the area and have discovered a gem that, when cut and polished, changes color dependin upon the light.  Nice jewelry, but I feel weird paying over $100 for a pair of earrings.

Across from the jewelry showroom is an area known as Pigeon Valley.  The locals use pigeon excrement and eggs in many things including making dyes and cement.  So they climp these hills and make little openings for pigeons to roost, then steal their eggs and collect their droppings. 

Pigeon valley

PIgeon homes

Turkish eyes at the souvenir stand

Pigeon homes

Souvenir shop

Joshua

Randy

The hills of this area of Cappadocia are made of tufa which is easily dug in.  Years ago, they made homes out of caves in the hills.  Many hotels (including ours) are cave hotels—built into hills in the same manner.  In fact, they let Joshua and I in to see them using a pick to carve out a new room in our hotel--very cool!  Today we went to visit some ancient hill settlements. 

Then we went for a 4 kilometer hike today called the Rose Valley Hike.  It was strenuous in parts, but the weather cooperated to make it a great day for a hike.  The temps were in the upper 70s with low humidity!  Beautiful scenery--a totally different view of Turkey than we've seen thus far.  

Some ancient designs in an old church in the hill that we came upon

The ancient church

Our guide picked fresh peaches for each of us--very juicy!

Grapes being grown for wine

Joshua

Another old church

Looking down upon the "Starbox" cafe that our guide promised us
that we'd find.  He makes juice for you or has bottled water.  The
fresh squeezed orange juice was delicious!

a gigantic bug we found!  It's body is the length of my pointer
finger, and has huge antennae!

In the bus back to the hotel, the guide laughingly asked if we wanted to go see a rug shop (seeing how exhausted all of us were!).  We went back to our hotel for a rest before heading out for dinner.  We asked for directions and easily found the city center.  We sat down at the first restaurant we saw, the Cappadocia Restaurant.  We were given menus, then the owner came and told us to come with him.  He took us to the kitchen area and showed us what each item on the menu was so that we knew what we were ordering.  Then when we got our food, he brought extra dishes as well!  Very nice experience.  Then we bought a few bottles of water for 1/3 of the price we paid at the tourist shop on the tour.  Back to our room to pack and sleep!