I’m here in Goreme, in the Cappadocia region of Central Turkey, and it’s great to be back in one of my fave places of all time.  Actually, come to think of it it’s quite apt that I’m kicking off my Silk Road trip here, as it was near here that my interest in the mystique of the Silk Road was first aroused.  I was on a day trip around the region back in ’99 and the last stop was a visit to a caravanserai.  These caravanserais are fortified buildings that the Silk Road-era caravans would use at night to protect themselves from possible attack and theft.  They’re positioned at 40km intervals (a day’s travel) all across Turkey, and you can even find the ruins of inns every 10km in between that the traders would use to water the horses and camels and rest during the day.

But I digress…  Let me tell you a little about the Cappadocia region of Turkey, which is really one of the country’s gems and a MUST for any visitor here.  The highlight of the region are the interesting geological features formed by gradual erosion of the soft volcanic rock, resulting in narrow valleys and pillars or rock called "fairy chimneys" (not unlike Byrce Canyon NP in Utah if anyone’s been there).  But it gets weirder: over the centuries the local people have carved their dwellings and churches out of the rock!  The end result are picturesque and unique little villages that look like something out of either Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.  There’s even an underground city that goes down eight levels and was large enough for the entire village to hide in when the marauding armies passed by overhead!

I arrived in Goreme after a horrendous night bus from Istanbul, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to return to the same pension I stayed at seven years back – Kose Pension.  It’s still there, looks the same, feels the same, and is still run by the same owners.  The place ROCKS!  Especially since they’ve put a pool in.  I dumped my gear on the bed and as it was only 7am I decided to use the early start as a chance to get some good photos of the town at dawn.

This afternoon I went for a hike into the nearby valleys and canyons, where you can see some of the rock formations up close and explore some of the abandoned rock dwellings (BYO torch).  The weather was perfect and and views truly outstanding.  I was even able to retrace my steps (it’s horribly disorienting in there) through Red Valley and Rose Valley and was able to find this old guy who was there seven years ago, living at the bottom of the canyon selling overpriced drinks.  Nothing much has changed…

   
Inside one of the many hidden Christian churches spread around the valleys.  Note all the eyes in the wall paintings scratched out by Muslims.

Now before you all ask I’ve JUST heard about the bombings here and no I’m nowhere near where they occurred and am fine etc.  BUT I don’t know how they might affect the rest of my trip through Turkey.  From here I’m going to be doing a short three-day minibus tour through southern Turkey (near the Syrian border), and from there I was going to head through south-eastern Turkey towards the Iranian border.  Unfortunately that takes me straight through the heartland of the Kurds, who claimed responsibility for the bombings.  I don’t know what I’m going to do…  I don’t think I’ll be a target as I’ll be traveling independently, but who knows.  Sheesh, who ever thought I’d be having these concerns before I even leave Turkey!

Well when it rains it pours!  That’s sure what happened in Istanbul the evening I left – and it was their first rain in 4 1/2 months!!!  It was a HUUUUGE thunderstorm, the streets turned into muddy rivers, and I had two bolts of lightning strike less than 50m away from me – yikes!

After the storm passed the sky had that wonderful ethereal glow about it with the backdrop of the storm clouds, and while I was waiting for my bus to leave I was able to snap off some cool pics around the obelisk and the Blue Mosque.  Check ’em out…  Love the different colours!

I arrived in Istanbul at around 2am on Friday morning.  Easyjet had however failed to notify me that I was not arriving at the city’s main Ataturk International airport but another airport waaaaaay on the other (Asian) side of the Bosphorous.  It turned out to be a huuuge hassle to get from there to where I was staying in Sultanahmet, a part of Old Istanbul near the Golden Horn on the European side of the straits.  It was 5am by the time I found the hostel and collapsed into bed.

No rest for the wicked though!  I was up a few hours later to go to the Iranian consulate to pick up my visa.  I spent the morning jumping through a few hoops for them, but it now looks like I should be able to collect the visa tomorrow (Monday).  I was knackered after that and went back to the hostel to sleep for a few more hours.  After a couple of days of travel from Washington DC to Istanbul via Zurich and Basel (and without my backpack in the same clothes – it’s a long story but need I say more than "United Airlines"?) I didn’t know which way was up.  I wasn’t really hankering to see anything in the city anyhow, as I’d done most of it the last time I was in town back in 1999.

I have to profess that I LOVE Istanbul!  It’s such an amazing city and really does deserve the "East Meets West" tag it’s got.  There’s nothing better than enjoying a beer at sunset from a rooftop bar overlooking the Bosphorous and watching the ships go by while the call to prayer wafts over the city from some of the tens of mosques nearby.  It’s a modern European city with a fantastically rich and diverse history which is truly astounding, and it carries it so well.

Over the past couple of days I haven’t been able to resist a few of the touristy highlights around the city.  It was great to tour Aya Sofia again, a giant monument originally built as a church in 537 by Emperor Justinian but then converted into a mosque in the Conquest of 1453.  Afterwards I walked below the Topkapi Palace and through Gulhane Park to have a tea as I watched the ships ply through the Bosphorous and up the Golden Horn.

    
Aya Sofia’s dark interior.                        One of the recently uncovered mosaics.

After my cuppa I walked through the Spice Market – not many spices there these days – and through the market district to one of the most beautiful mosques in the city.  My pick of the mosques to visit isn’t the famous Blue Mosque but the Suleymaniye Camii, designed by Mimar Sinan for the powerful Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent in the 1500’s.  I took a lazy stroll and got inevitably lost through the Grand Bazaar on the way back, but I wasn’t in a shopping mood because I knew I had many bazaars ahead of me and I didn’t want to load myself up with stuff at the beginning of the trip!

    
Suleymaniye Mosque.                              Headstones in the cemetery out back.

A few scenes from the Grand Bazaar.

You can’t visit Turkey without enjoying one of the quintessential experiences – a Turkish bath!  I fell in love with them the last time I was in Turkey and took one every couple of days.  While I used to go for the local off-the-beaten-track ones, this time around I decided to splash out (hahaha, pardon the pun) for one of the pricier ones.  The Cagaloglu Hamami is over 300 years old and worth every penny.  I signed up for the Turkish massage and soap bath knowing what I had in store: a pummeling and back-cracking full-body massage that would make any chiropractor cringe followed by a soapy and invigorating exfoliation bath.  Afterwards you can do nothing but lay on the hot marble slab and stare at the domed ceiling in a state of relaxed bliss.  And that’s not because you’ve been naked and felt up by a hairy, large and brutish man…

On the way back I popped into the Basilica Cistern, an old Roman water cistern that was forgotten for centuries under the city.  It’s a true engineering feat and fascinating to see – and also a cool respite from the day’s heat.

Aaaaaanyway, I’m leaving Istanbul tomorrow after I collect my passport and will make a bee-line straight for Cappadocia in Central Turkey.  I had such a great time there back in ’99 that I can’t resist going back for a second dose.  After that it’s east and further east until I run out of Turkey to see and bump into Iran.  Then the adventure really begins.

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