Cappadocia skinny..

I promised the full scoop and nothing but the scoop on the Cappadocia tour awhile back, so I thought I should finally get around to posting it. It started late Thursday night/Friday morning, 21st/22nd of July, with the seven hour (I think) bus ride to Ankara. We arrived in the morning and after waiting for a few more delegations from Eskişehir and Izmir to come, we head off to check in to the dormitories. In the afternoon we visited the Ataturk mausoleum and museum. Afterward, we went to the museum of Anatolian civilization and walked up to the Ankara castle. That evening we had the "official opening" of the tour at a cafe, where we ate dinner and had lots of tasty wine. Then it was off to another place outside the city where there was bbq and global village. Then, to everyone's disappointment, we had to get on the bus back to the dormitories to rest up for the jam-packed weekend ahead of us.

Early Saturday morning we hopped on the bus to Cappadocia, stopping at the ginormous salt lake on the way. Once there we headed directly to the Derinkuyu underground city, which was really quite nice as it was quite cool 8 levels underground. Then we had to check in to our hotel superquick in order to make it out to the point where we were going to watch the sunset from, again complimented with wine. After that amazing view, there was dinner at a very famous restaurant called Yaşar Baba Cave. It was really fantastic, because all throughout dinner there were various dancers from all regions of Turkey. Also there was rakı and wine. At one point the whole restaurant formed a conga line, dancing out to the courtyard where there was the biggest bonfire I have ever seen. The heat eminating from it was almost unbearable, and it seemed like you had to dance around just to keep moving so one side of you wouldn't be cooked to a tender crisp. One of my favorite moments of the evening is when Serap, who had been enjoying the wine a little too much, was trying to throw away a paper towel in the bathroom in one of those garbage cans where you press on the pedal and the lid opens; but, she was stepping on the complete opposite side of the can! I had to be like, "Serap, honey, uhhh," and point her in the right direction. After the aiesec tour group danced its heart out, we were the only ones left in the restaurant at the end of the night, we headed back to the hotel, only everyone was so wired that we couldn't sleep, and it just so happened there were several bottles of wine waiting to be tapped...

You would think things would wind down a little on Sunday, it being the last day, but you'd be wrong. Sunday was when we saw all the above ground stuff. We went to valleys, Zelve a christian church and village, and an open-air museum called Göreme where we saw homes, churches, yada yada yada. In one of the places there was a painting of a figure with a beard and a plant in front of it. Lee jokingly said it was him because of the fig leaf picture he took at the Anatolian museum. Only five minutes later the tour guide told us the story about this figure that was once a woman, then grew a beard to look more like a man (I forget exactly why). So now we're all a little unsure about the orientation of Lee. Anyway, then it was off to Avanos to see pottery made and hand-decorated. It was really quite interesting, and the potters still used kickwheels. Are you tired yet? Too bad! We're not finished! Then to the rug/carpet art gallery, museum, store place. And finally, one last stop to a wine store with, of course, free wine samples. Did I mention this region is famous for its wine? Outside of the place, there was a really cute stray puppy that I got to play with for a little while. It was following me all around, and I was running with it. It was really nice to pretend I had a pet for ten minutes.

After that amazing weekend, we still had the three or four (or was it five) hour ride back to Ankara, then the long haul ride back to Bursa. Sheesh. We arrived in Bursa Monday morning at about half past eight, I think. At that point I was a little out of sorts.