Days 19 - 21 Everything else in Cappadocia

 

Days 19-21 Everything except the rocks and flying saucers

Weather: Cool to very pleasant

Activities: Up early to fly to Cappadocia, meet Halil (our guide for the next few days, eat meals, see a few interesting shopping spots, duck out of touring the underground city

Day 19

breakfast buffet at Doga Hotel opens an hour early so we can be 2 hrs early for our flight to Cappadocia (we say goodbye to B before boarding). The only buffet on the Turkey part of the trip that includes real pretzels and biscuits

fake that includes an advancing toilet seat cover

airport art?

rock and jump at our departure gate

Halil's choice for lunch, overhangs the Red River 

local chef is well-known, food is very good

another chef making his own wine, it is a thing in Turkey

best brewski of the trip

local specialty: stew marinated in pottery, then served by chopping off the lid

dessert 

another dessert, lemon sorbet on the half-shell

this pic fell off the last post

so did this one

THB has not learned how to read Turkish park signs

is it going to rain? maybe...that was a large beer THB had with lunch

our hotel for the next two nights, a cave hotel. Only THB seemed immune though rumor has it DA also got one night's good sleep

view from hotel courtyard 

view DOWN from front courtyard 

breakfast and appetizers spot 

that's a solid rock arch over the bed

the windows open into an interior sitting area, still well underground

giant tub

small shower in a big bathroom

appetizers and wine for dinner

or was it breakfast?

hashbrown balls...very good

THB couldn't read this one either

the Ottoman Empire covered a huge territory

A I comes to Cappadocia 

a demo of pottery and tile making, shopping is done by several tour members 

THB psyches himself up with a Turkish coffee

lunch at a bakery; THB and DB share a pizza and Halil looks at us like we are crazy. It was pretty good!

along with pizza, we share meatless chickpea dish (except it comes with a few chunks of meat)

group photo before the Whirling Dervishes performance

this is not the real thing, it is not a  genuine fake, it is just fake done by hired performers, not religious guys necessarily. THB is near the back, can't see the faces, and the  young couple in front of THB can't sit still for more than 1.5 minutes. Of course, THB can sympathize...an hour was 52 minutes too long

the guy in the middle in the dark suit is the head coach

near the end photos are allowed 

pretty good meal, pretty much the standard menu

mezze same as it ever way

cracked pottery stew like baked Alaska (is that still a state in the U.S. of A....THB has been gone for what seems like an eternity)

Days 20 and 21

snow

25 cents to pee, DB treats two other tour members

this pic slipped out because THB wants to emphasize that going up to the bedroom is easier than coming down

look at those rocks balancing on the poles...how the hell did the locals do that 15,000 years ago? Yep, making ramps of local clay

another shopping stop, THB takes a seat in the courtyard

lunch is terrific, Auntie lays a great spread

cousin on far left, Auntie between MM and DA

After LONG lunch, head to airport for our last internal flight, back to Istanbul. Get to the Pera Hotel, re-unite with our big bags, and get a good night's sleep. MM, LS, DA and SA fly home the next morning. DB and THB have one more day chasing art. 

Book Review: The Museum Of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk (novel, read by John Lee, pub'd 2008): a dud...even the Turks couldn't finish this turkey. A 30 year old on the eve of his engagement starts an affair with an 18 year old shopgirl distant relative She disappears the day after his engagement. Much woe-is-me, more woe-is-me...until even the most avid fan of Pamuk's cries uncle. Even if you visit the fake museum in the book now located in Istanbul, THB defies you to say you made it through this clunker of a book.