Goreme Cappadocıa

3rd August
I guess this is the point of our trip where the adventure becomes just a tourist trip. You will know Cappadaocia for its weird rock formations in which houses were built as well as underground cities. We arrived here yesterday and experienced tourism for the first time on the trip really. Bus loads of tourists being ferried around, people sitting in cafes speaking strange languages ignoring other foreigners. Up to now if you saw another traveller you would at least acknowledge them and more than likely engage in conversation, find out where they're heading etc, not now, now we are one of them.
On the other hand there are things here that we have missed like opening a bottle of wine that we have purchased for the first time since leaving home, having a choice of restaurants, being in a proper camp site for the 2nd time where we have a shower toilet and power. We will spend three nights here and have even organised a guide to take us around tomorrow. It is a fascinating landscape which we will enjoy visiting. I was awoken this morning by the “wooshing” noise of 3 hot air balloons lifting off right next to us, might even take that in later.
I should have mentioned in the last post how Joan is enjoying not wearing the scarf over her head and having to cover up which was the case in Iran. It was hot there and having to wear all those clothes gave her almost a continuous headache the last week. Many women dress the same way in Turkey but here you are not forced into it. There are just as many in tight jeans and t shirts.
I was a bit out with the distance we would travel on this trip. Before leaving home I thought we would cover 12-15000 kilometres, here we are in the middle of Turkey and we have already notched up over 13400kms. We could be getting up towards 20,000 before we fly home. Still haven't decided on what to do with the van but it sounds like we could get a good price in the UK for it but we have to find out if we need to pay VAT etc.
5th August
Konya
The most of yesterday was spent sightseeing in the Goreme area with an Italian couple, Teresa and Felciano. A lovely couple from Salerno who's camper makes ours look very pecillo. As they are travelling the same route as us we should be running into each other the next couple of weeks.
This part of Cappadocia is really quite fascinating with its fairy chimneys, rock churches and underground cities. The landscape is just covered with these weird rock shapes. It's a tourist dive for sure but one of these places that you have to forget that and just enjoy what you are seeing. By taking a full day tour we were able to go to a couple of out of the way places and one of these, the Keshleck Monastery and St Stephano Chrch stood out. Off the beaten track, to get there we walked 100 metres or so along an apricot tree lined path until we came upon this shaded garden, both vegie and flower in which stood a table and chairs from where the attendant collected the 2.5 Turkish Lira per person. He then came with us to the monastery with his torch and proceeded to point out the frescoes on the walls and ceiling. Soot and time had darkened many of them and without his help they would have meant nothing to us. While we visited St Stephano's church his Mother made us a cup of apple tea which we relaxed and enjoyed. No money was involved and it wasn't part of his job. He was the third generation of caretaking the ruins and tending his garden. It was one of those moments that just come along unexpectedly out of the blue
The lower frescoes in almost all of the churches have been ruined by graffiti and the faces of the figures have all been gouged out. It is a crying shame and appears to have happened in the past by muslim Turks perhaps in the '20s when the Greeks were thrown out of Turkey. But not all blame can be with the muslims as the graffiti in some of the places was in Greek writing. There is a dire need of restoration as you get sick of seeing frescoes with faces missing. All these churches we visited have been carved out solid rock, there are none built in the style we are used to.
The underground city was another fascinating place. Built on 15 levels it could hold up to 10,000 people in time of crisis. We visited the top 7 crawling along narrow pathways. No the place for claustrophobics.
Today we travelled to Konya, the birthplace of the poet Mevlana Rumi. We visited his mausoleum, a place filled with Turks revering his name. We are starting to find proper camp sites now which is a nice change. Didn't think there was one here at Konya until we saw a sign. Turns out it is a free one with power and toilet laid on. Something travellers really appreciate.