Love Your Summer: Göreme: Land of the Fairy Chimneys

The bus ride to Göreme was remarkable for two reasons.

Reason 1: I had a breakthrough with my Turkish. I had been trying to use simple phrases from our Turkish language book but had been failing miserably. Single words were no problem but every time I tried to speak like an adult in full sentences my attempt at communication was met with a blank stare. I had to resort to phrasebook pointing, my least favorite and most shameful form of communication.

But at a stopover in Ankara I met a young Turkish man with great English so I got him to repeat a few of the phrases I had been trying to say and realized my problem. I was speaking waaaay too slowly. The secret seems to be slurring all those syllables that are so clearly delineated in the phrasebook together into a nice mush. The first time I tried it and was understood (meaning someone responded back to me in Turkish with three sentences that I didn't understand) I was giddy. Giddy with language power (well, just a little bit of power). It felt good and I was encouraged to lean farther outside the safety net of the English language that so many Turks use to speak to us.

Reason 2: This baby.

A mother was traveling alone with her wee babe. To my surprise, the mother happily passed off the baby to be entertained by fellow passengers on the bus, including us, the foreigners. We played with the baby for at least 2 hours of the 5 hour bus trip before the little one fell asleep on our laps. It was nice to see that kind of trust and it's fair to say it made an impression on me.

I would be remiss if I didn't spend at least one paragraph describing the comfort and near luxury of Turkish buses. Turkish buses have the conveniences of modern commercial airplanes, just with pit stops along the way. Most of the better buses have Wifi and personal screens with radio, movies, and TV. There is a bow-tied attendant who patrols the aisle with ice cream, pastries, and drinks. He even doles out lemon cologne to keep us all smelling like a refreshing citrus breeze. It's all very civilized and lovely!

And just where did we end up after this journey?

Göreme! Göreme is in the Cappadocia region, known widely for its rock formations known as "fairy chimneys." This strange other-worldly landscape is the result of erosion and volcanic ash. Inside these "chimneys" are centuries old rock-cut houses, churches, monasteries, and - wait for it - pigeon lofts. Pigeon excrement was once a valuable fertilizer so the lofts were built so it could be easily collected.

It's a fascinating landscape that we found was best explored via scooter. We were able to explore many of the amazing valleys of these formations and the surrounding historical sites and towns on our own.

Now for the dramatic introduction of the video portion of this blog: flying high in a hot air balloon over Cappadocia!

It really just looks like I'm doing a slow pan over a still photo but I assure you, we are balloon cruisin' at sunrise.

Göreme Balloon Ride 1 from katie lapi on Vimeo.

Göreme Balloon 2 from katie lapi on Vimeo.

One of the most memorable experiences we had in Cappadocia was meeting this family.

We were on the outskirts of a small town and saw two ladies making something on a rug outside of tents. We pulled over on our scooter to see what they were doing and were invited for tea. We had many, many cups of tea with this family (who spoke no English) and Shane and I exhausted our Turkish vocabulary visiting with the mother, grandmother, and three children.

A few locals we met along the way.