Back to Cappadocia

As you can imagine Lent is a time not really celebrated here in Turkey, but I am a sucker for any time I get to make new goals and start fresh, so I am using these next 40 days to hopefully create some habits. Among my goals are writing more often in my journal, studying more Turkish, and blogging more consistently. Wish me luck.

I am finally and somewhat sadly back to my normal routine after a few weeks of travels. I returned to Adana after my trip to Ankara and Antalya but I was home for only a few days before I left for Ankara, again. The idea of getting back on the huge, cramped, smoking-bus-driver bus was not extremely appealing but I'd travel much worse in order to see Turkey. The purpose of our trip, me and the other NSLI and YES students, was to say goodbye to three of our group who are now home from their six-month programs. In what was a group of eight their loss is felt. We said a tear felt goodbye to them on Friday night and were then rushed off to a four day camp in Cappadocia.

I must have said this before, but Cappadocia is possibly the coolest place on the planet. Jammed inside this tiny region are underground cities used as far back as 400bc, homes carved into the soft Tufa rock, and natural rock formations that seem so unrealistic they were named fairy chimneys because such wondrous works could only have been made by fairies. And they do seem somewhat magical.

Unfortunately we spent two of our three days in camps talking about everything from our family issues to the reason Turks have a strange fear of wet hair. Though it is helpful to talk about the things we don't like or are having trouble with, I was anxious to get out and explore. The last day was our chance and we saw A LOT! We explored a different underground city than the one I had visited before, and it was a treat. We entered through and unimpressive mound in a hill into an intricate system of tunnels and rooms. At first glance a room may appear to sleep only a few people but with further inspection there are low walls and tunnels which lead to more space and as you continue through there seems to be an endless amount of different directions to turn. There are holes in the ground which our guide explained were for storing jars and small pools that were used for making wine or storing dish water (the underground cities had no septic system.) It is truly amazing, especially considering that they were built for thousands of people.

We also visited the Open-Air-Museum; a place that as I was walking through I realized my family had visited almost six years ago. Cut out of the soft rocks are monasteries side by side each with it’s own fantastic church. It is famous for frescoes that still maintain their original color. Though it was inhabited in mainly the 10th,11th, and 12th centuries as you enter the dark, cool caves and squint at luminescent artwork it feels far more recent. Some were better preserved then others but all of them have the distinct smell of damp cave and unfathomable history.