Our Turkish Honeymoon

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. James and I got up at the crack of dawn to walk in the dark to the sunrise church service. I had asked James earlier in the week if he would go to the sunrise service at 6 with me and he said yes. The night before I double checked the time and when I reiterated 6 am he literally squealed, “You tricked me! You didn’t tell me we were going that early!” I didn’t realize that a sunrise service wasn’t self-explanatory. After church we came home and I got the pot roast ready for dinner (which was my first delicious, not dry, roast!) and then met up with our friends Bryan and Leigh for brunch at the club. When we got home we stripped off our church clothes (wait till I finish the sentence) and played video games and napped the afternoon away. I’m sure you can imagine who did what.

Ok, so I promised you I would tell you all about our Turkish honeymoon! In the center of Turkey there is a place called Cappadocia. It is known for the strange rock formations and cave dwellings. I first heard of Cappadocia from my grandpa, Dusty. He lived in eastern Turkey in…I don’t know exactly when but it was before I was born so I have an excuse not to know. While we were home for Christmas last year he said we had to see this place. He broke out all of his pictures, trinkets and mementos he had acquired while living here. He even gave me some traditional woven “good luck” socks that hang from your car mirror. 

Anyway, Mike and Nilifer drove us to Cappadocia and boy, did it start out with a bang! Just outside of town we stopped at an underground city that once housed Christians fleeing persecution. There were up to 10,000 people living in this underground rock city! It had ventilation, water sources, areas for cattle, food storage, bathing areas, anything you would need to survive, they had thought of.

Disregard the hideous face...Lutfen (please). They used these giant stones to block intruders from entering. 

The church just above the underground city.

After the underground city we went to our hotel to check in and drop off our bags. Mike pulled off onto this narrow gravel road with farm equipment on one side and the mountain side on the other. The mountain side had homes half inside the mountain and half outside. It was as if they their caveman ancestors lived there and the cave was passed down from generation to generation and they wanted to keep the family home so instead of building a new contemporary home, they just “added on” to the cave. I don’t know if even the best author could really describe this scene! Take my word for it, it was pretty cool to see. We got to the end of the road and parked in one of the two spots. We walked through a gate with a sign over the top the said Utopia Cave Hotel. O.M.G. You would never believe there was a beautiful hotel here! The receptionist showed James and I our room which was very nice and then Nilifer and this man began speaking in Turkish. Obviously, we had no idea what was being said and the man looked at James and I and said that we were changing rooms. He showed us to our new room and it was incredible. Like, how much extra do we have to pay beautiful. 

Where is our hotel, Mike?

Our honeymoon cave

We left for the afternoon and climbed into our first caves, was told by a man dressed up as Aladin that he would make all of my dreams come true if I took a virtual magic carpet ride and took about 1,000 pictures of fairy chimneys.   

First neighborhood we explored.

Supposedly that is original paint. I stuck my head in the window and I'm pretty sure it was a community bathroom. There were long benches carved along the walls with holes in the tops of them.

These are the fairy chimneys.

I feel like they should be called...mushroom chimneys instead?

 When we got back to our room there were rose petals strewn all over the entryway, bed and Jacuzzi tub along with kissing towel swans on our bed. Apparently Nilifer was trying to tell the receptionist that they had stayed at the hotel for their honeymoon and he thought she was saying it was mine and James’ honeymoon! I’ve got to say, this place was a lot nicer than our actual honeymoon. Look what a little misunderstanding can get you. 

Were they trying to tell us something?

Our jetted cave tub...sounds ridiculous.

We woke up the next morning and started our day off with a traditional Turkish breakfast. Let’s see, there was such an assortment of things; lots of bread with different jams including rose jam, olives, cheese, a light (and small) omelet, cinar borek (cheese filled roll up), french fries (I’m not sure this is traditional), hard boiled eggs and chai. It was nothing like our heavy and greasy breakfasts. After we ate we went to a place where they made terracotta. In the southwest, we are used to seeing terracotta but this was ‘ricotta with lipstick. Every piece in the building was hand painted, some nicer than others, but all tedious work. They demonstrated how to form the pieces for the famous Turkish wine decanter. It is in a shape known only in Turkey and I looked at James and said I had to have one. He responded with, “happy early birthday!”

Servants would wear the decanter over their shoulders so that when they would bow to the king, wine would pour into their goblet.

After spending way too much time at this place we left and went to an area near the fairy chimneys. This is the first place we’ve seen in Turkey that developed for tourists to view the area but not destroy it! We paid our fee (we don’t mind paying for these things if it helps maintain and preserve for future generations) and when we walked through the gates it was a whole valley full of homes, churches/mosques, stables and graves! James and I both felt like we were in a fairytale walking through this place. It was a strange feeling, almost like an out of body experience, like where the heck am I and is this place real? 

This is what you see when you walk through the gate.

Roped off homes

Amazing church. You can see where they held the holy water (the hole in front of the camera), the crosses at the back of the church and the holes on the right of the picture are graves.

These caves were actually inhabited until the 60's when the government condemned them saying they were not safe to live in. The inhabitants were ordered to move.

This is an areal shot and you can't really tell but this particular grouping of homes is HUGE. We weren't able to climb in these ones for safety reasons.

Mosque

We spent most of our day here and then went to Love Valley to view some more rocks standing…erect.

A structure at the bottom of Love Valley where we stopped and had chai.

Top view of Love Valley

After this we made one more stop at Pigeon Valley where thousands of pigeons live and fly directly overhead. How we managed not to get pooped on, I’m not sure. 

Doesn't this look like it's from a fairytale?

After our long day pretending to be cave people we headed back to the hotel to relax in our cave beds. I find it funny that our ancestors lived in caves and would have loved a “real” home and we have “real” homes and want to live in caves. Again, when we walked into our room to a surprise which consisted of the driest wine I’ve ever had and a fruit basket. All-in-all this was an awesome little trip. It was great to have a personal chauffeur and tour guide (Mike and Nilifer) so that when my parents come, we’ll know all of the good spots to take them.

Princesses, Snakes and Fish

I feel like it's officially time to swap out the real (uncomfortable) bra for a comfy sports bra and my stretchy pants and get to updating this blog.

I told you we were heading to the Mediterranean coastal town of Mersin a few weeks ago with Mike and Nilifer. What a great day! The first stop was at the ruins of an ancient agora. 

Agora: (in ancient Greece) a public open space used for assemblies and markets.

There is a fountain in the middle of the ruins with a pool that the water was held in. On the bottom of the pool are tile mosaics with different designs and wildlife depictions. 

The fountain pool that we can only assume held water. The black marks in the top center and top right are fish designs.

These ruins are on the side of a hill so if you walked up the hill about 30 yards you were in the ancient amphitheater!

Me just hanging out in an ancient amphitheater. No biggie.

If you look at the top of the picture someone has made themselves a home at the top of these ruins. Have  you ever seen such a thing?! Talk about a cool view.

Behind and the the left of the arch is where the fountain is and up the hill to the right of Mike and James is the amphitheater.

Me standing in front of the fountain. This was the only area of these ruins that was roped off. Check out those original colored tiles!

Not a great picture but we were amazed at the detailing in the stone. This used to be at the top of a pillar.

After this stop we parked and saw what we had come to Mersin to see. Kizkalesi or Maiden's Castle is a castle that is situated about half a mile off the coast, on its own tiny island. Nilifer was kind enough to give us the story behind Kizkalesi. 

 "There was a king who had a beautiful daughter here in Mersin. A fortune teller told the king that his young daughter would soon meet her death by snake bite. The king loved couldn't stand the thought of his beautiful princess dying so he came up with a plan to keep her safe and avoid death. He was going to build a castle in the middle of the sea where no snakes could ever get to her. While the princess was living in her castle, she told the king she missed fresh fruit and requested a delivery. When her basket arrived she reached her hand out to take a piece of fruit when a snake lurched, bit the princess and she died."

View of Maiden's Castle from the beach.

Inside the Maiden's Castle. The elevated walkways in the middle allow you to see the mosaic tiles without walking through them.

I know it's upside down but this was the only angle you could see because of the elevated walkways. Look at how detailed the tile work was.

The entrance to the castle and James looking like a stud muffin.

This is our very first picture with the Mediterranean Sea!

On our boat ride back to the beach.

You may be asking, where did the princess' father, the king live? To our pleasant surprise he lived just across the way.

View of the king's castle from his daughter's castle.

After we got back from Maiden's Castle, we met back up with Mike and Nilifer and strolled along the beach. We put our feet in the water and did some people watching. We got to the king's castle paid our menial fee of about 50c each and walked the outer walls of the castle. It was amazing to think something that old could still be standing.

We think this was used as the port or dock.

King's view of his daughter's castle.

Outer wall of the king's castle.

I have never been a very creative person but when I am surrounded by history like we were in these castles, my imagination goes cray cray (slang for crazy). I want to know what things looked like in their prime, how horrible did it smell, what did the people look like, what did they wear, how did they talk, how disgusting was the food, could I have survived being a peasant? (Lord knows my luck and I definitely would not have been born into royalty!) You feel as if you have been taken back in time, like you can see history happening before your eyes. Lately I have been obsessed with history and I think it has to do with living in Turkey and knowing how much historical significance this area has. Being able to see and touch it makes history lessons seem so much more interesting. Which brings me to another point; it is awesome that people are allowed to climb all over these historical sites but it comes at a cost. We may not see the cost now but in another 100 years, that generation and after will no longer be able to see, feel and touch these incredible pieces of history and culture. As much of a bummer it is that we have limited access to preserved sites and areas in the states, I truly do understand and appreciate why it is done. I want my great x5 grandchildren to be able to feel these things I feel. To feel like history is brought to life.

After the castles Mike and Nilifer took us to a local fish restaurant for lunch. James' least favorite food in the world is fish but he was such a good sport about it. We walked up to a restaurant with beautiful blooming flowers and a cool breeze. We stepped onto the dining patio that literally sat on top of the water. All of us went to the kitchen, picked out the fish we wanted and sat down to a beautiful waterside lunch.

View from our table.

Not good lighting but I wanted proof that James ate fish! You can tell by his fake smile he wasn't looking forward to it. It wasn't as bad as he thought.

My fish was deep fried and delicious. Turkish meals come with fresh veggies, fruit and salads.

To top the day off, we went to a little stand just around the corner from where we had lunch. I was super excited when I saw the place because I had seen a YouTube (which is now banned in Turkey) video of this exact dessert stand! These little heart attacks are Heaven in a bite. Deep fried dough balls with melted honey and topped with cinnamon. 

To Die For!

I have another trip to write about but this one took me longer than I expected. A League of Their Own was on and I can never say no to that movie. I think my dad and I have watched it about 10 times together! In the next couple of days I will make a new post and tell you all about our Turkish honeymoon!