01 May 2015

Cappadocia, part I - Invisible cities

Tired, so incredibly tired. I’m writing this on a a coach which has just left Göreme and is speeding steadily towards Samsun. I spent a day hiking and exploring Cappadocia, but now I’m exhausted. The tray table is loose and rattles. In the front of a bus, a child of maybe 3 years keeps himself occupied by straight-up screaming without interruption. Might as well use the time for writing then, although the coach is expected to reach at 03:00h and that means that every minute of sleep is valuable. I certainly hope you lot appreciate my sacrifice!

Oh, hills!

I left off in Ankara, where Marc and Mohamed had convinced me to forego my plan to drive to Samsun and instead travel to Cappadocia with them (by asking “Are you coming?”). So we rose nice and early, took a metro to the huge coach station and got tickets and food. Since we had such a huge safety margin in our timetable, nobody thought of looking at the clock. We effectively jumped on the coach at the very last moment. Well, the very last moment before the official departure time. The time I foolishly thought the bus would depart. The time around 15 minutes before it actually did. German time vs. Turkish time, this has been an issue a few times already…

Sidenote: Kids are great, aren’t they? So full of life, so much energy! Kids are our future!

The busride from Ankara to Göreme took around four hours and I spent most of the time just staring at the fields, hills and valleys outside the window. The countryside around Ankara seems incredibly devoid of people. Much of it looks like steppe and goes on and on until it meets the wide open skies at the horizon. I would have loved to get off the bus for a moment and just stand in that seemingly endless field.

Looking around on the bus, most passengers were too enthralled by “Scarface” (shown in Turkish) to notice. The coach was quiet, except for an elderly gentleman whose cough made me think of a sore-throated vulture in distress.

Halfway through the journey we had a break at a reststop near the massive salt lake Tuz. This is where the following, highly symbolic photograph was taken by an unknown artist:

Okay, yes, it was me. It symbolizes the salty lake-ness in which we sit. Allegorically.

As we continued onwards (again, around 15 minutes late), I was left wondering: Isn’t Cappadocia known for it’s cliffs and hills and such? The landscape all around me looked mostly flat. Somewhat hilly at best. It would stay that way until we arrived in Nevşehir, where we changed buses.

On the way into the city we passed a huge industrial area (empty) and loads of of apartment complexes (also empty). Not a single damn person. Why is everywhere I go empty? Where did all the people go, and why? Did they know I was on my way? Are they scared?

It was on that second bus that we finally got to see some cliffs and rock formations, as it hurled down the empty highway at breathtaking speed. And then we passed a bend and suddenly a valley opened up befor us. This was the “OOOOHHH!” moment we had been waiting for: In the brilliant sunshine we saw formations of pale white rock sticking out of green meadows. To me, they looked like molten icecreme - I was hungry. Everywhere I turned, bizarre formations and stony columns pointed towards the sky, surrounded by blossoming trees and bushes. The passengers on the bus went whisper-quiet.

The bus left us in the centre of the small town of Göreme. The name apparently means “you can’t see me”, since the village is tucked away in a valley and is hard to see from the surrounding hills. We found our hostel fairly quickly and headed out to explore. And boy, did we find places!

Disregarding the suggestions of our host, we just picked a random direction and then followed the first incline up towards the rocky ridges surrounding the town. On the way there we stopped amazed by the stone columns which stood all over the city. Each of them was higher than the houses around it, and all of them showed various entrances, windows, pidgeonholes and staircases cut from the rock.

Once we climbed up on the nearest ridge, we stood frozen for a while, just amazed by the view:

So-called ‘fairy chimneys’

If you look closely, you can see a small bird on top of one of the columns. It made a fantastically ridiculous “Whoop-whoop!” sound. I want one of those birds!

In the end, we decided to take a shortcut back into town. This largely meant sliding down steep rocksides, some of which were clearly the ‘roofs’ of cave hotels and apartments. We had a lot of fun and nobody died, so it was worth it!

After a quick dinner we walked up to the so-called sunset point, a cafe nestled on top of a cliff overlooking Göreme. The place was fairly crowded with tourists, but the view was something to behold. The three of us sat on the cliff edge and watched the sun slowly drop towards one of the table mountains around the city.

Once the sun disappeard, we remained there for a long time. The city below us turned dark and one by one, lights appeared in the darkness. Brightly lit billboards, streetlights and lights behind windows all over the city. A flock of sparrows swooped this way and that over our heads, feeding on the insects of the valley. One by one, the tourists left the sunset spot. As night fell, our seats on the cliff got colder and colder, until we decided to head back. After another quick meal, we walked back to the hostel and turned in.

Roadtrip

The next day, we walked over to a local travel agency to go on a tour of some sights. We had discussed this move before, since we would have preferred to move about independently. However, Cappadocia is a relatively large area and sparsely populated, so public transport would not be ideal. Rentals turned out to be a lot more expensive than anticipated (did somebody say rip-off?). The tour included a guide, several sights and the obligatory meal. Summing up the prices for the individual tickets and adding transportation, we figured the tour might be the cheapest way to go.

Sidenote: The kid has started imitating a police siren with impressive endurance. Not kidding, it’s actually going “BEEEEE-BOOOOOO-BEEEEEEE-BOOOOOO”. 6 minutes and counting. His parents don’t seem overly suprised. Kids are, after all, our future.

So we found ourself on a minibus with a Turkish guide from the region, some Aussies, some Kiwis, some Chinese and the three of us. The guide assigned all of us Turkish names. While Muhamad got to stick with his name, Marc and I became Ahmed and Mehmed, since we apparently looked like twins. In the manner of tour guides everywhere, ours also began flirting with one of the Chinese girls, who was not impressed.

Sidenote: Aaaand now that little shit bundle of delight is crying. Again.

While the previous day had been warm and sunny, it began drizzling as soon as our bus pulled out of Göreme. Once we reached our first stop, a panorama view over a nearby valley, the light drizzle had turned into heavy - and very cold - rain. So we each took that one photo, said something to the tune of “Yeup, it’s pretty alright.” and then jogged through the downpour back to the bus.

On the way to the next step, Selime Monastery, our guide explained some historical background of the area, both in terms of its history and its geology. With regards to the latter, he was able to explain the formation of those ‘fairy chimneys’: Cappadocia’s top layers consist of very dense, heavy and dark basalt rock with a layer of spongy, brittle and white tufa underneath. Wind, extreme temperature changes (-25°C in winter, +40°C in summer), rain and melting snow erode the two layers. First, they dig away at the basalt on top, leaving those characteristic conical shapes. Then they start chipping away the softer stone below. However, by then the weight of the basalt on top will have compressed the softer stone underneath. Thus, it will not erode right under the basalt cones but only around them. Over time, this leaves those characteristic formations which look like…well, like chimneys, alright.

Over time, the local people dug into them and built houses inside. Smoke rising from cooking fires throught openings at the top supposedly led travelers to believe that they were occupied by fairies.

It is getting late. The kid is finally asleep or passed-out or whatever. Since this article is way too wordy already, I’ll grab some shuteye now and report on the rest of our tour in a seperate post.

Until next time,
Arne