Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
When traveling on a budget, it is hard to resist anything 'Free' or 'Unlimited'. My bag full of McDonalds mayonnaise sachets, hotel soaps and toothpicks is a testament to this. This may explain why, despite being completely exhausted after such a jam packed, exhilirating, incredible 24 hours in Cappadocia, we dragged ourselves to an optional dinner and show that second night.
Or it could be the travel induced alcoholism.
All I know is, when Tarik casually mentioned that the night would include unlimited alcohol, it was no longer an optional dinner. It was mandatory.
So the fun in Cappadocia continued with a delicious dinner in a large, cave style theatre, a wonderful showcase of traditional dances and amazing acrobatics, a very talented belly dancer and her very happy volunteer back up dancer (our Saudi Arabian tour buddy Abu), and one or three glasses of vodka with a dash of juice. Once the show was finished, they put YMCA on repeat and we disco danced the night away. Oddly enough there were a few sore heads the following morning.
Yesterday we had spent hours climbing through the fairy chimneys and rock formations in beautiful Cappadoccia, and this morning we delved deeper, literally, into one of the regions 36 underground cities.
Throughout our travels we have spent a fair bit of time exploring some interesting underground spaces, from the catacombes in Rome to the dungeons of Blarney Castle. But the underground city of Kaymakli, the largest of the Cappadocia region, takes the cake. Simply amazing. Not one for the claustrophobic, the city is a winding maze of hundreds of tunnels and rooms, eight (EIGHT!) floors deep. Archaeologists have estimated that up to 3,500 people may have resided in the city.
Ten percent of Kaymakli has been excavated sufficiently to allow us access, but even so we found ourselves nose to bum, hunched to the point of crawling through long, tiny, dark tunnels. Each one brought us to yet another huge maze of rooms - old stables, cellars, churches, burial places and living rooms, all of which are spiralled out around a huge ventilation shaft that drops a scary 80m. The ventilation system and architecture are incredibly complex and sophisticated, allowing many of the passages and rooms to still be used today. The temperature in the caves is constant year round at about 17 degrees, so it's ideal for use by the locals as cellars and storage areas.
The city was excavated as early as the Hittite times (i.e 18th century BC!) and was a defence system, occupied only during dangerous periods of attack or invasion - the tunnels were a perfect hiding place particularly when pitch black, and were equipped with several heavy stone doors designed to only be opened from the inside once closed. Even now some of the lighting is limited, and I think how horrible it would be down here, hiding in the dark. At about that point, Mark is in a room ahead of me and reaches through a small hole in the tunnel to grab my arm briefly, giving me a mild heart attack and him an earful when I emerge.
We eventually crawled back up into the light, and climbed into the bus for our day long trip to Konya. When Tarik told us he would stop at some showrooms for some carpet, pottery and leather demonstrations, I inwardly groaned. I had flashbacks to Bangkok, where the tuk tuk drivers drop you over and over again at suit shops, pleading that you go in 'just for a while' and pretend to be interested, so that they can get their fuel voucher from the store owner. After enduring many hard sells and awkward suit shop revisits, we started negotiating a slightly higher price for a direct trip.
"20 baht"
"No suit shops please"
..."oh yes ok"
"and no jewellery shops either please. No shops"
..."oh.......ok then 100 baht"
"80?"... (Four weeks in Thailand made us very stingy, haggling over 50 cents)
So I trudged into the carpet factory with my best eye contact avoiding skills ready...and was pleasantly surprised. We sat on the floor and watched the ladies hand weaving beautiful carpets of wool or silk as the process was explained to us. After watching their quick and nimble fingers and being told that each carpet takes months to weave, I now have a new appreciation for the skill involved and the prices warranted. We were also shown how the silk cocoons are soaked in warm water and then spun, and were allowed to touch the super fine but surprisingly strong threads.
We then sat in the showroom sipping beers and wine as the enigmatic owner gave a brilliant sales pitch and explained the different qualities and characteristics of all the carpets, as his assistants made a show of throwing carpets through the air (flying carpets!) and unfurling them with a flourish. While they weren't at all pushy, I found myself lusting after a beautiful burgandy carpet with silver tassles, for "only 1000 euro Mark, that's reasonable!" We walked out empty handed but well educated.
The Cappadocia region is well known for pottery, and luckily there were some more affordable pieces in the studio that we visited. Again we were given a tour and demonstration and watched the artists paint intricate designs with steady hands. We sat in a small room to watch the master potter whip up a teapot with expert skill and good humour in less than 5 minutes. There was a hilariously awkward moment as he worked the squelching clay into an elongated shape. As we sniggered immaturely, he just grinned and exclaimed "I have the technique". Then he picked Lani out of the group to show us her clay wrangling technique on a traditional foot spun potter's wheel.
As they dimmed the lights and played unchained melody, Lani must have gotten distracted looking for Patrick Swayze and the clay went haywire, spinning out of control and splattering the front row. It may not have been as sensual as that Ghost scene, but eventually she produced a vase to much applause, and then we stepped through to the showroom.
The first room was full of the 'masterpieces', completely hand-painted, one off originals with price tags ranging from 100 euro up to 10,000 euro. We admired them then skidaddled to the novice room, simpler pieces produced more in bulk and often by trainees - but beautiful still. We picked out a couple of bright plates and a beautiful turquoise jar, and rung up about 50 euro.
Our last stop was a leather factory, where we were treated to a catwalk show and more apple tea, before looking at some hideously expensive but seemingly good quality jackets and imitation prada/gucci/louis vuitton leather bags. A few people picked up some cheaper last season jackets, but Mark and I steered clear of this one.
Then it was onto Konya for just one short night, and unfortunately I didn't explore enough to tell you anything more about this town other than that it is quite conservative so we needed to cover up, and it had the cheapest kebabs in the country at about 1euro.
Love love loved incredible, breathtaking Cappadocia and would recommend it in a heartbeat.
- comments