Turkey- Istanbul and Cappadocia

It’s been a long time since I have really made an entry here. Partly, it is because I do not have internet in my new tiny bungalow and partly because I went to Turkey for 8 days. My home is smaller than my garage in Atlanta. I have plenty of light, a breeze, A/C, and what I like to call the “head” and the “galley”. It’s rustic, low-possession living… and I love it. I’m at home. My bed is 6 feet up in a loft so I can utilize the space beneath. My Landlord has been ever so eager to supply me with whatever I may want: furniture, dishes, small repairs, etc. He keeps showing up with suggestions of how to improve the place; bringing shelving, tables, a bookshelf… Unless I can get internet, I will have to write blog entries, save the file, then copy them to the blog. Otherwise, I have to write in cafes with the battery slowly dies. It’s the type of place one would picture an author retreating to in order to tap into his or her creative depths.

I am happy. I really have enjoyed the 5 hours of Hebrew school that I have each day although I have fallen further behind due to the trip to Turkey. I have been seeing an Israeli woman, Einat. She lives about 25 minutes from Tel Aviv so we don’t see each other but once or twice per week. She makes me laugh. That’s important. I may or may not share this relationship with the blog. It’ll be touch and go.

She and I just returned from a trip to Turkey. I took a week off from school so I don’t know if I am going to be able to catch up. I started the class three weeks late so this is another week that puts me even more behind. My classmates think I am right with them so we’ll see. I can always change to a class that started later than mine and catch up that way. However, I love my teacher.

We flew from Tel Aviv to Istanbul. Turkey has a secular government with 99% of its population Muslim. The rest are mainly Christians with a handful of Jews still in Istanbul. Like the rest of the world, Turkey hates Israel and the USA. They did not support the invasion of Iraq and a recent poll showed Anti-Americanism at a new high. The same poll showed little support for Bin Laden. By the way, the highest Bin Laden supportive area was the Palestinian Territories. We were a little worried about Einat telling people that she was Israeli. We didn’t know what might happen.

Our first two days were the worst and they soured our taste for Turkey. It seemed that everyone was out to rip us off. No one speaks English (and why should they?) and you have to negotiate for everything. That goes for restaurants to stores, to tickets. The first night, we went to dinner in the main nightlife area, not knowing what to expect. We asked a hotel clerk to recommend a good fish restaurant. He gave us his card and told us of an “excellent” restaurant down the alley owned by his friend that would give us a discount. We later found that that meant he was entitled to a 25% commission from out bill. We looked at the reasonable prices on the menu and asked several questions about the fish. They had English translations of the fish: salmon, dorado (mahi mahi), and mackerel. The fish he brought out were none of the above but I’m sure they thought that would make the fish sound good. I think they were the local mullet. So, I ordered one plus a couple of nice sounding side dishes. The dishes were cold, slimy and disgusting and the fish small, bony, and dry. The check came to four times the amount of what we ordered. His reasons were ludicrous. He said the fish was 45 lira. When we asked for the menu, he took it and hand-wrote over the “1” in “15” to make it a “2”. Thus, the fish was 25 and not 15. We looked at another menu and showed him the 15. He also tried excitedly to show us that the butter was worth about US$9 and that we had each had 2 more drinks than we actually saw. As nice Americans, we overpaid by a little but didn’t make the loud scene that I now know us expected and the norm. Later, at a live local music venue, the waiter refused to bring our change and we had to call in the manager to negotiate.

That happened every time we tried to buy anything. So, the next day, we booked a trip with a local travel agent, southeast to Cappadocia. This is the land of caves and lunar landscapes. This is where the early Christians dug out and lived in caves for decades before Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the new Roman religion. Thousands of people lived in these caves that kept them cool in the brutal summers.

Lonely Planet Publications captured the magic of the area with the following description:

"Cappadocia’s heavenly backdrop consists of the soft volcanic tuff that has been sculpted over millennia into fantastic shapes by water and erosion. The end result is fascinating huge stone mushrooms and fairy chimneys, soft ridges and deep valleys, acute edges and mild undulations – all riddled with numerous ancient cave dwellings like a Swiss cheese. To add to this, the light plays out a daily show against and outlandish landscape of vibrant hues, from gleaming white, through terracotta to bright mustard-yellow, with the gigantic snow-capped Mt Erciyes looming as a backdrop."


They lived there until the government forced them out about 20 years ago. Many of the caves were lovely and made sense. Imagine living rent free with no electric bills. At a time with no running water or electricity, it was better and safer to be high on a hilltop away from predators and enemies. They make Swiss cheese of some of these mountains; sort of prehistoric apartment buildings.

We flew the hour and a half from Istanbul. We did not like the hotel in Istanbul and we had been told we would be able to stay in an actual cave. Einat and I looked while I wondered if she was really as rustic as I like it.

When we arrived at our 10-room boutique hotel and its serene picturesque setting, we immediately felt at ease and at peace. We had a spectacular view and the manager was eager, warm, and kind. We later found that he was the owner’s father and was retired. It helped that he had a huge crush on Einat. We stayed in what was technically a cave but with the modern conveniences of a lovely bathroom, windows, electricity, and a bonus room. We toured the various caves in high mountains and several stories below ground. It was amazing. We took a mini-tour bus around the area for 2 days. Our Hotel manager, Ishmael, even took us for a hike one afternoon with his Doberman pinscher. The dog, Booch, was huge and playful and occasionally took a playfully hard bite out of my leg whenever Ishmael’s jealousy got him to sick him on me. By the end of the trip, we had met Ishmael’s daughter, brother, and mother. He invited us to stay with either him or his mother on the next trip. Of course, he wanted Einat to opt to stay with him.

We retuned to Istanbul with a 13 hour overnight bus ride. We slept surprisingly well. After a power nap, we set off to knock off the sites in Istanbul. We took the city much lighter this time, found that not all vendors are cheaters, and over-tipped those that didn’t try to rip us off. Here are the tasks and sites that we were able to check off our list in Istanbul:

Shopped in the Spice Market and the Grand Bazaar
Toured the Blue Mosque the Aya Sofya Church/Mosque/Museum and the Sultan’s Topkapi Palace
Visited the main Synagogue from outside
Took a boat tour of the Bosphorus strait
Saw the whirling dervish dancers
Cruised the Princes’ Islands where we rented bikes
Ate freshly caught fish beneath the Bosphorus Bridge
Crossed the bridge from the European to the Asian side

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. I could have stayed another week and would have liked to have explored more of the remote mountainous areas. Turkey has all of the history that Israel has. It has been conquered and split up over at least five millennia. I’m sure I will return.

Getting back to Tel Aviv, I have found that I am, indeed pretty far behind in my studies. I am thinking of leaving the Ulpan for a while and coming back to another class. You can do that. Again, I am happy here and I so appreciate the timeout from life that I have afforded.

Randy