Cappadocia Redux

In October when my brother came to visit me we took several side trips out of Istanbul: Ephesus (of course) and Cappadocia. I was happy to make a return to Cappadocia especially knowing how much my brother, creative genius behind the photography at Igknight, would (and did) love it.
 

Immediately when we arrived at Emily's Cave House, I knew we were going to have a good trip. The weather in Göreme is iffy in October and the weather reports were promising rain, rain, and more rain. And wind which was even worse because high winds means no balloon flights. We'd booked (through Emily's Cave) a flight for Saturday morning but they were concerned flights would be cancelled because of the weather. After sitting us down with tea they spent a half hour calling various balloon companies trying to find one that had spaces open for a Sunday flight. Which only goes to show that you need to book these things early regardless of tourism season or not.

Since we arrived too late on Friday to do a tour, my brother and I set off on our own to do some exploring. To get to some of the less frequented valleys you need a car but there are still more than enough places to go that are within walking distance. We started in Rose Valley which can be accessed from Museum Road. From the air it's one of the more boring valleys but from the ground there are some pretty interesting cave houses. Some of which are still lived in. There's perhaps nothing odder than seeing one of these ancient cave houses with a satellite attached to it.

During our explorations we spotted something off in the distance that at first seemed like another cave house. But a zoom lens proved that this was a cave house like no other we'd seen. Someone either tiled or carved the natural rock to look like tiles resulting in what could only be described ... as a Hobbit hole. New Zealand, meet your Turkish counterpart.

The next morning we were glad that, with our hotel's help, we'd cancelled our Saturday balloon flights and booked a flight for Sunday as the morning weather did indeed keep all flights grounded. After a marvelous breakfast at Emily's we headed off on a day tour with Bridge of the World travel agency. I'd done the Green tour on my last trip but was happy to do it again as our guide for this, Yucel, was amazing. I would definitely recommend this company if you want to do a tour (they offer a variety) and if you do try to get Yucel. I don't think he stopped talking for 80% of the tour giving us information about the sites, local history, culture, agriculture...I learned a lot.

Revisiting the Selime Monastery

The Cathedral at Selime Monastery

The following morning was a huge debacle. We were told our pick up for the balloon flight would be at 5:00 AM so I set my little Nokia phone alarm for 4:30. When it went off my brother somewhat grumpily complained that he thought I said 4:30. Yes I said 4:30 and showed him my phone and he then showed me his which said 3:30. After 10 minutes of Googling we learned that while the rest of Europe had implemented its Autumn time change during the evening, Turkey elected to push its back two weeks. So we got up and got ready and waited for a pick up. And waited, and waited. I had the number of the balloon company so I called and was all, what the hell dudes? Because everyone these days lives and dies by their smart phones, all of which automatically changed time, everything was an hour late.

While that I suppose is forgivable, the company's general lack of organization and customer service was not. After we finally got picked up we were taken to a Korean restaurant (not kidding) where everyone was checked in. That process took probably another hour. We were supposed to be in a balloon with I think maybe 20 people max? They shoved 26 in ours. I complained to several staff members but was just shrugged at, told that no we weren't late we were supposed to not see the sunrise (despite that being the point of a 5AM pickup), etc etc. Avoid Cihangiroglu Balloons. Avoid avoid avoid.

At least we got off the ground that morning so I'm thankful that my brother got to do this. And we still had the Red tour to do so the day wasn't over yet!

Beauty Is Pain

For a year and a half now I've been searching for the perfect next tattoo. I wanted something that was Turkish but that was still me. I've played with some tulip designs I found on ceramics that while tulips, also looked a little like a feather. Nothing worked. Then, on the Blue Cruise tour in July, I saw it. The perfect design. On a bloody bookmark of all things.

Thanks Alison!

Having finally found the design I decided to do it as a birthday present to myself. I knew it was going to be pricey but to me price wasn't the most important issue...language was. I was not about to trust my middling Turkish to ink and needle. So started looking for tattoo artists; which was really easy in the end since I just walked three doors up the hill from my apartment. Between his art and his excellent English I was pretty well sold on Shape Tattoo...but his decor was the final deciding factor.

Dude has a Michigan license plate on his wall!!

Sherlock bites harder than this.

 

Taking it like pro!

It's been three years since my last tattoo. That one I got in DC one sunny November day I played hooky from work. I did not like that job and the pain of getting a tattoo was preferable to being in the office. I remember how much that one hurt though. The ubiquitous "they" say some of the most painful places to get tattooed are the spine (my last one) and the inside of the arm (this new one). Between the remembered pain and the double anticipation of it for this one-this would be my very first multiple sitting tattoo-I was a ball excitement and nerves.

Outlining

Filling in

Half-way done!

There were certainly a few wince-worthy moments. We took a few short breaks but in about 90 minutes we were done with the first half! Unfortunately those few painful moments will be multiplied for the next sitting because he only just started on the inside of my arm. I'm not really looking forward to the next appointment!

A week later I went back for my second sitting. This time sans photographer sadly and my selfie taking ability isn't awesome. I had a shameful moment during which I wished for one of those ridiculous selfie sticks.

And yeah, the inside of the arm really is a painful spot. For the first few minutes, until my arm dulled a little to the pain, I could actually feel my skin trying to shrink away from the needle. This sitting seemed to go a lot faster than the first one did so that was a blessing. However between the yoga breathing and being so tired I truly almost fell asleep on the table a few times I am happy to say that the pain wasn't really all that bad. Actually it hurts more now. Burns like fire actually.

Almost finished!

During this last week the first half graduated from fiery pain to intense itching, which is actually almost worse than the pain. Now though I'm half insane itching and half burning pain. My nerves are super confused. I also have to go through those first few days of bleeding ink again. The bleeding and flaking of ink always creeps me out a little.

Really hard to get a selfie of this.

 

 

I went out a few hours later for dinner with E&M and felt (and must have looked) like a pretentious model. I had to walk with my left hand on my hip so I could hold my inner arm away from body! And then of course, after dinner, I fell. Because, well, me. So the walk home I was walking (limping) like a spastic, reject, pretentious model! Now my leg hurts more than my arm does. Which only proves that the magic of evil eyes (nazar boncuğu) doesn't actually work. For one thing, blue-eyed people are supposed to be naturally immune from the evil eye; for another, I now have 52 (FIFTY-TWO) evil eyes tattooed on my arm. And I still fell. On the tram tracks no less.

Evil eye magic disillusionment aside, if you're in Istanbul and thinking of getting a tattoo I highly recommend Shape Tattoo on Yeni Carsi! If I'm still in Istanbul when I'm ready for my next tattoo I'll definitely go back there; and since we're neighbors and all I'll probably drop in from time to time to share a neighborly coffee!

Blue Cruise - Another Check on My Turkey Bucket List

Blue Cruises are one of the things to do in Turkey in the summer. I don't particularly like the sun or swimming...but I do love boats so I've been curious about doing one of these for a few years. Then as luck would have it, a group of friends decided to arrange a trip and invited E&M and me to join!

Blue cruises are usually from four to seven days long and generally, I think, depart from Fetihye or Bodrum. We did a four day cruise over Fourth of July weekend out of Fetihye so E&M and I got up stupidly early in the morning on the Thursday to catch our flight to Dalaman (the nearest airport to Fetihye). There we joined my other friends and caught a 10TL bus to Fetihye (and then a taxi from the otogar to the liman) where we boarded the ship that would be our home from the next few days: the Seaborn Legend.

We hung out on deck while the crew stocked the ship and got us ready to put out to sea-the Mediterranean to be specific. Apparently while we at the dock something other than supplies was also introduced to the ship. After dinner our first night out we were all relaxing and suddenly a cat, terrified out of it's poor, little mind scampers across the deck, sees us and freezes, then runs and hides as fast as possible. We were all as startled as the cat. We asked the captain if he happened to have a cat on board as a pet (no, he didn't) and then in that case what should we do about it. This is why I love Turkish people. He looked at us a little bit like we were slow in the brain and very matter of factly said "We feed it." I could hear the 'duh' he wanted to tack onto the end.*

Where we hung out during the day and slept at night.

The food was amazing.

Once we were underway it took a little while to get our sea legs! There are no shoes allowed below deck but mostly we didn't think there was a need for shoes period so we ditched them as soon as we got on board. I loved, loved it when the boat was moving. We never "sailed" the sails never went up and we just used the motor the entire time but it's understandable. When you're in motion for less than an hour at a time and dropping anchor twice a day putting up and taking down sails is a lot of extra work. Still, the breeze and the salt water spray were exhilarating sails or no sails.

Tea time on the ship!

In every cove we stopped there was swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, scrambling up rocks to jump off, and more. Cleopatra's Cove even had the ruins of a bath where she was reputed to take her famous milk baths and a rope swing which we rowdily employed.

At one stop there was a chance to go ashore and hike across the island to another cover where the boat would meet us. When we were preparing for this trip that sounded like a fantastic idea to me but when it came time to actually do it...nah. I stayed on the boat with a friend. We sat on the prow and enjoyed the ride to the next cove.

I wondered how you'd store four days of food to feed 12 people on the boat but it seems I needn't have worried because there are market boats! There was a bread boat from which we got possibly the best bread I've ever had in my life. She actually bakes the bread on the boat so it was fresh and warm every morning. There was a full-on market boat with produce, eggs, etc, and an ice cream boat.

Sunrise at Cleopatra's Cove

Sleeping topside was fantastic. Most of us slept up every night. The moon was so bright that we couldn't really see any stars the first few nights but when they came out they were beautiful. I didn't even mind the rising sun waking me up because that was gorgeous too! And of course the sunset was magical. We only got one because it was either hazy or we were in the wrong place to see it the other nights so the night we did get it we were all crowded in the front near the prow snapping away.

To top it all off I got the chance to fulfill my "when I grow up I want to be..." dream. Sort of anyway. I want to be a pirate. I'm still fairly serious about this. A wine connoisseur pirate. Our last night on ship I asked if I could take the wheel a bit-mostly I wanted to get pictures of me and Klockly (the bunny in my hand-that's a whole different story) sailing the boat. So I hammed for the camera a bit and made to turn the wheel back to the actual captain but he told me, no keep going.

So I did! I sailed that boat like a pro. Well...better than I drive car. Although really only because there weren't any other boats around to hit. I'd look at the captain every once in a while to make sure I was ok and he kept giving me thumbs up. Except for the one time he came up beside me, said I was doing well but...then pointed way over to my 10:00 and said that we were actually going over there. Oops.

Arrgg me hearties!!!

* Despite looking for the stowaway cat, which was dubbed Sailor Cat, and feeding throughout the trip we never did find the poor thing. The Seaborn Legend now has a mascot. If you want to sail on her and make friends with Sailor Cat get in touch with Ali at www.mybluecruise.com

Mount Nemrut

Mount Nemrut has been on my Turkey travel wishlist for years now and I finally got to go!

While many people combine Nemrut with a trip to Malatya or even Mardin, we only had a couple days and Turkey is really rather large-so not enough time to drive around and do more. As such we flew into the nearest airport (Adiyman) and rather than figure out ground transportation when we got there I booked an airport transfer with our hotel. I was so glad I did. This place is so remote. So. Very. Remote. We stayed at the Keravansaray (more on the hotel later) hotel just 8 kilometers away from Nemrut National Park...and aside from our hotel and one or two others there just wasn't anything there. To top it all off, apparently summer is low season for tourists here. We thought we'd be battling crowds of people since it's summer but apparently high season at Nemrut is only the months of April and September.

A lion guardian moved to stand by the alter

In order to get to the peak of Mount Nemrut for sunrise we had to get up at 3 AM. That's so painful. However I'm not sure I've ever seen a more beautiful 3 AM. The combination of the hour and lack of civilization meant that the sky was full of stars. I could have stared at them for hours. I don't think even in Michigan have I seen stars like that. 3 AM is also a little chilly. This is June so it wasn't really cold, not even on the peak, but I was glad that I brought a light jacket.

Commagene, Zeus, Apollo

Apollo and Heracles with eagle & lion guardians

Considered one of many 8th wonders of the world...Mount Nemrut is a 1st Century BC burial site created by Antiochos of Commagene (which I cannot help but see and think Native American tribe Comanche). The grave, or tumulus, rests on the mountain at an elevation of a little more than 7,000 feet and was created by piling fist sized rocks (left over from the creation of the statues).

I did a lot of book and online research about getting here and around and you basically have three choices: rent a car and do it yourself, rely on the super limited local public transportation/hitch hiking/book tours through your hotel. While the last option is probably the most expensive, when it's left to me to do all the research and organizing for a trip I'm going to choose what is the easiest in the end. Book hotel tour (after of course bargaining them down a bit), get picked up at 3:30 AM, drive  through the park up the majority of the mountain, and hike the last bit. Obviously the high elevation and thin air were the cause of my slow pace and huffing and puffing and not any utter and complete out of shapeness on my part...

Heracles with eagle & lion guardians

Apollo and Heracles

Commagene

We headed first to the East Terrace where are not only the more impressive statues but where you can watch the sun rise. There's a large, raised platform that seems to have been made as a resting place for people who have managed to get to the summit (imagine doing it without get driven up most of the way!) but was, I think, actually an altar. Behind us are the statues of Antiochos I, Commagene, Zeus (Oromasdes), Apollo (Mithras), and Heracles (Artagnes/Ares) flanked on each side by a lion and an eagle.

Eagle, Antiochos I, Commagene, Zeus, Apollo, Heracles

From the east terrace we circle around to the west terrace of the tumulus where the statues (mirrors of the east side) are in slightly less good condition. Both terraces should also have a series of reliefs marching perpendicularly to the statues. While there are some on the west terrace, several of them (most notably the zodiac lion) seem to be missing. They are not in the Adiyaman museum-we checked.

By the time we made it back to our van it wasn't even 7AM and, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I felt like I'd lived a life in those few hours. Well maybe not a life but certainly more than four hours. I've read some reviews of Mount Nemrut in which people have said they felt underwhelmed...how?! Sure the statues aren't in the best condition and some of the magic is disturbed by the chains keeping tourists from crawling all over the statues and the cage enclosing Zeus's head on the east terrace...but you're still standing at the top of a mountain on which, over 2,000 years ago, people quarried rock to create a ceremonial burial ground dedicated to their gods. Without motor vehicles or power tools. How is that in any way underwhelming?

There's still magic here at the top of Mount Nemrut and if someone as cynical and generally jaded as I am can find it then so can you. And if you have one, bring a tripod. I don't have one but it would have been worth lugging it up there for less blurry pictures.