Day 11 - Goreme

Again we've rented a scooter for the day, and this time Osman is sending us on a Southern loop. We breezed through Uchisar and missed the castle there (oops), and on the way to Cardak we're caught in another downpour. To avoid the rain we stop periodically wherever we can find shelter; under the shade of a country high-school, beside a telecommunications building in a field, and in a Turkish tea-house. These tea-houses are special places for men only, but because we are tourists we are welcomed inside and have a tea there. There really are only men in there, mostly old and grizzled, almost all smoking and drinking tea, and some playing backgammon and Turkish bridge. Leah and I were certainly the stars of the place as all the men stare us down, but the patron cheerfully gave us Cay tea for free so all seemed okay.

When the rain finally cleared we rode to Kaymakli and visited the underground city there. This place is huge, like a human sized ant-farm! There are tons of rooms connected with narrow passages, some with huge stone wheels to roll in place for protection from attackers. We had fun exploring without a guide, pretending we were the first to visit these rooms and imagining what each place was for. We know of a few things to look for, fire hearths with a rut carved to remove ash, and blackened walls from smoke surely indicate a place for cooking, rungs cut in the walls to rop animals, long tables for eating, huge storage compartments cut into the walls, and of course recessed (and sometimes protruding) shelving systems. All of this is monolithic, so there are no free pieces in the whole place, except the rolling stone doors.

I explored a few unlit sections, but it was a little unsettling so I had to go back. Maybe with a better flash light I could have explored further, but my headlamp is quite dim. It really made me wonder how people could live there, as the only light they could have had would be from burning flame, maybe an oil lamp; I can only assume you would get used to the darkness after a while.

Next we rode the scooter to Sahinefendi where a Roman bath house is in the process of being excavated. It was discovered 3 years ago and it was really cool to see the process of excavation.

We rode on to Keslik Monastery, again carved out of the volcanic rock. There are sections of stonework, in particular the chapel, but most of the place is carved right into the cone shaped structures left over from an earlier time of volcanic instability. Very faint frescoes remain, and it seems that most have been covered in black paint - it is speculated this was done to protect them although I can't imagine from what. Wandering the area we explore more caves, but as usual they're all empty except for what cannot be taken out, like the the hearths and one huge stone wheel used as a door.

In Mustafapasa we ate a huge pide (Turkish pizza) and admired the Greek architecture there. Once we made it back to Goreme we caught a night bus for Erzurum.

Day 10 - Goreme

This morning we rented a scooter from a motorcycle enthusiast named Osman who made some recommendations on where to go. So we went North to Cavusin. Here there are ancient homes carved into the cliff wall that was something like a block of swiss cheese that we could hike through. Erosion has exposed pretty much all of the rooms, leaving us to clamber over rocks and into gaping holes were once there might have been doors. After a while we're hailed from above by a voice that says 'church!' and a finger pointing far above us.

After searching unsuccessfully for a way up we see some Americans above who tell us to find a way through rooms into the hill and out the other side to a patch that leads to the top. The climb is high enough, but easy going in most places, although we had to puzzle our way through caves, along a wooden balcony path and cling to the rock wall for a bit. Our reward is an ornately carved chapel, with most of its frescoes destroyed by the elements, and graffiti.

As we ride the scooter into Pasabaglari we stop for a coffee, and then it really starts to rain. An Australian we had met in Istanbul and his friend show up on mountain bikes and we shared some laughs and stories over tea in the shelter of the coffee shop. There really isn't much to see from the road except mushroom shaped volcanic cinder cones, and although there are people hiking up the hills in the distance we don't want to be caught in the rain up there so we head on to Ozconak, and through some wrong turns we end up taking the long way there through some beautiful country roads.

When we finally get there we are treated to our first underground city - a small but rarely touristed one. These places feel like mines, and we can't help feeling a little like Indian Jones exploring the narrow and short tunnels, and peeking into dark holes carved for storage with our flash light. The rooms are high enough for my 6 feet to stand in with a few centimetres to spare, but the connecting tunnels are so short I have to double over at the waist, and compress my legs to get through - the passages are so narrow that it is very hard to turn around bent over like that; we wonder how tall these people were, and if they ever cracked their heads if they were in a hurry to get somewhere.

Underground it is cold, damn and dark, and we wonder what life could be like here, but there are reminders of their lives; stone hearths, chapels, storage units and rungs for tying animals all carved right into the stone walls.

We make a bee-line for home for Goreme, stopping only to take in the fantastic views but even then it was nearly dark and quite cold when we get back.

You can see more of our photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thewozza
http://picasaweb.google.com/leah.lesyk/Istanbul

Day 9 - Goreme

At 10am we awoke and got breakfast and made our way to the open-air museum. I had no idea what to expect, but I could not have guessed we would find 6th and 7th century churches carved into the rock with magnificent frescoes. Some have brilliant colour and depth, and obvious artistic talent - it is amazing these have survived open to the elements. As we explore we see that some areas are not so well preserved - the raw material is a rough sandy volcanic deposit that is easily fragmented, but solid enough to be carved into multi-level structures. Unfortunately it is easily eroded, and we found several structures where half of the room had been washed away piece by piece from wind and rain and only fragments of frescoes remained.

Many rooms are (or were) tombs, with long holes carved in the floor to act as a sarcophagus. These are all empty except for one room which still holds human remains. Plexiglass covers them, but we could see the bones!






All the time we are out there we're being rained on, which is one downside of visiting an open-air museum. Apparently the summer here is very hot with no rain, but we have it cool with lots of rain.

We've become accustomed to working around tour-groups. Sometimes we have to wait, but the reward is having a site all to ourselves as tour-groups generally mob a site all at once, and leave all at once. We had the beautifully frescoed Buckle church to ourselves for a few precious minutes before a group arrived to fill the space.




We went for a quick hike in the evening, enjoyed dinner and a beer and then called it a night.

Day 8 - Selcuk

This morning we took the scooter to Ephesus (or Efes locally). By the time we arrive it is already full of tour buses, but we expected this as it is said to be the most well preserved Roman citadel of all Europe. As we walked through the site it seemed to not be so bad; sure at some bottleneck spots there are hundreds of shuffling humans, but in the confusion of following a tour guide they are not crowded around the structures that we want to see!

And it is amazing, even the road is marble and it shows the grooves worn by the long years of carts travelling up and down the path. we enjoy the opportunity to imagine the life in Efes, the market stalls and huge temple fountains, and also the public fountains not so unlike a drinking fountain that we might have today. In particular the toilets in the bath-house were well preserved, you can see that they had constant fresh water brought in for hand washing at your feet, and the human refuse was efficiently washed away too!

We left Selcuk that afternoon for Cappadocia, a 12 hour bus ride that left us in Goreme at 4am. We had called ahead to the Kookaburra Pension to make sure we could arrive early in the morning.

Day 7 - Selcuk

The next morning we packed our bags to catch an 8.45 am bus for Selcuk. Somehow this bus takes almost 6 hours, despite being fewer kilometers than our first 6 hour bus ride. We're learning that distance is just a number in Turkey. Selcuk has a few sights and the town is pleasant enough that you could easily spend 3 easy days there. But we're now operating at maximum backpacker speed so we will do it in about 24 hours.

In the afternoon we walked around the town to St John's Basilica, but not much remains except for some rough stairways, a few arches and the basement beneath the garden. Walking through town we saw a hamam (bath house) from the 13th century, and the Temple of Artemis that was one of the seven wonders of the world! A single column has been reconstructed and it is astounding to think that over 100 of these were in place, supporting a huge marble top. Seeing Leah beside this one column really puts it into perspective.

That evening we rented a small, wimpy scooter and made our way up the mountain to Mary's House, where it is said that Mary lived in her old age, being guided there by St John around 60 AD. There is a legend of how the location was revealed to a blind, paralyzed, stigmatized nun in Germany - and when they followed her direction and excavated the location this house was found.

Day 6 - Bergama

We stay at the Gobi Pension, a nice enough little place. Breakfast is a variety plate of bread, fruit and a boiled egg. Thus armed, we head off to the Acropolis with two New Zealanders that we keep bumping into and we all hike up some backroads, and sneakily push through a hole in the chain link fence to avoid a few km walking up the road. We're greeted with many fallen columns, ancient wells, stone walls and arches, but almost no tourists. It feels open and lonely here, the way it probably has been for thousands of years. A small building shelters some extravagant mosaics, and we continue climbing.

Once we reach the top the throngs of tourists appear, having been shuttled up the road by taxi and tour bus. We can see many white tour buses, actually we could see quite a few from below as they park with their rear ends hanging over the cliff edge. The ruins at the top are magnificent - huge white marble columns supporting intricate workings on the top pieces. We walk around the top, poking our heads into a few holes and then pick our way down through the rough road and trails.

I can't help feel a bit of smug satisfaction that I have visited the Acropolis the way it was meant to be done, one foot after another up stone steps. I always wonder if the builders would be proud that their achievements still stood, so many thousands of years since they were built, or if they would be sad that the true beauty has been lost to centuries of earthquakes, wind, rain, fire, war and human looting; probably both.

The climb and the sun has worn us out, so we both take a break inside. Later, right before sunset we walked up to the Asclepion, but the sun set before we got there so we just enjoyed the view and head back to the hotel.

Day 5 - Cannakale

The next morning we take our luggage to the dolmis stop to catch a bus to Troy. We hope to continue south from there so we take our packs with us in the tiny mini-bus. When we arrive we stow our bags at a tourist restaurant (expensive food at the tourist spots!) so we can hike around Troy unencumbered.

Naturally there is a huge wooden horse there, but the real magic of Troy is imagining the city as it once was. And this can be difficult at times, as there isn't much left, and what is left is confusing (archaeologically speaking) as the city was razed and rebuilt 8 times. For us, not much remains but the citadel walls, a ramp and the foundations of houses.

We discover that it is not possible to catch a bus south from Troy, so we have to lug our packs to Cannakale again and catch a bus from there. This is only a 30 minute inconvenience, but it is the principle of the thing. The dolmis back is filled with a family of characters, grandfather, son (the driver) and grandsons are all on the little bus attempting to talk to us, and we're doing our best with whatever Turkish phrases we've remembered; hand gestures help, and we're all laughing at ourselves anyway.

A 4 hour bus ride later and we're in Bergama, or almost. We are unceremoniously dropped off on the side of the highway, and the bus attendant points at some buildings and mutters "Bergama". We laugh nervously between ourselves, two backpackers looking at the two buildings in the distance, wondering what we've got ourselves into. Thankfully (perhaps not be co-incidence) a taxi pulls in within a minute and offers to take us to the center of town - for a modest 20 Lira.