Cappadocia

Ballon over the Museum

Weird, could be one description of Cappadocia, strange is too light a word, very interesting is also a good one.  We were dumped by the bus in the central square of Göreme at 5am, dark and heavens above, cold, well cool compared to what be had been used to.  The only movement in the town were two or three stray dogs hanging about for want of anything else to do, almost as if they were waiting for the bus themselves.  It was too early to go to the pansion to get rid of our bags, so it was dig deep and find some warm clothes and wait.  My nose led me to a café/bakery at 6am so we had çay and some strange pastry.  As it got light the hot air balloons started to rise up from behind the houses, maybe 20 or more big balloons, and when the flames were going it lit up the inside of the balloon.

Church Art

Megan in White Valley

First we tried the open air museum, it was so crowded we left as you couldn’t get to see anything, the tours were taking up all the space and when you tried to get past them the guides objected, so we left and walked around the valleys ourselves.  This was much more interesting as we found examples of small churches and habitation in the rocks, which made the discovery more personal.  In fact you can’t miss them, all around dwellings have been carved into the ‘fairy chimneys’ as they call them.  All but a very few abandoned as they are deemed unsafe by the authorities.

1st Tea Man

Hassan

There are some enterprising tea houses in the most unusual places, the first we got passed as he was occupied by three Spanish cyclists, however, we were caught on the way back to share a cup of çay (free we thought) with two American ladies.  We had an interesting conversation with them and then decided to buy some of his dried fruit as a ‘thank you’ half a kilo of mixed 10TL, plus 2TL for the tea!  We were hooked and played like two flounders.  The second at the top of a long valley walk, he had loads of ‘clients’, ‘How much’ we asked, 1TL was the answer, ok we said.  Hassan the tea man was fabo, 3 of languages we heard whilst there.  He has a pet turtle living up a tree, sshh he said to Meg he is asleep, bet it’s a tortoise Megan said, turtles live in water, so up the short ladder she climbs and there in a nook is a stone tortoise, one more snagged!

No Giggling!

Moving About

New Storage Box for Pinecones

Leaving Dikencik behind us, we are on another overnight bus, to Göreme in Cappadocia.  I think back to our time with Ayse and Cengiz and wonder what we will remember most about our time there.  The pine trees set in the hills and the wind sighing through them, the clear blue skies and the Bee Eaters trilling in the mornings and of course the company of new friends, who again we leave behind, with promises to try and return.

Briggete and Megan Scrabble Challenge

We’ll miss the animals; dogs, Rita and Pasha.  The cats, especially ‘Mummy Cat’ and her new litter, although for me, of all the cats, it’s ‘Himself’, a young male cat, one of four, of about four or five months old.  He is brave, caught snakes, but he will have to leave when at about 1 year old he will challenge the big white male and be driven off into the forest.  Such is life for the semi feral cats of the forest.  

'Himself' and Chris (I'm wearing the hat)

Then there are the chickens, although their number is minus one since we arrived.  A young cockerel was trying to gain the upper hand (or beak) and the older cock was having none of, it he made his life a misery so Megan and I beheaded him and put him in the pot, Coq au Vin, lovely.  The chicken’s queen was Megan, you should have seen them following her, but they have a new queen now, Brigitte Mol from Australia, another friend to visit down under next year. 

The Killing Ground

Chicken awaiting preparation

Everyone says we must visit Cappadocia before leaving Turkey, so that is where we are off to, then Istanbul, Safranbolu and Ankara.  Cappadocia is the region where the rock formations are like fairy towers, people have carved out houses and cities in them.  Sounds interesting, we shall find out soon, if you look it up on the net you will see what we mean.

It seems we cannot get away from celebrations, there was another wedding last weekend, friends of Ayse and Cengiz (they actually introduced the couple).   We helped with the preparations and during the Saturday evening party.

Pine Clad Hills

So once again with sadness and excitement we move on. 

Dikencik 2

New Born

Twenty two hours on a bus; scorpion stings, infected lower leg from insect bites, are run of the mill for hardened travellers like ourselves, but five kittens being born in the middle of the night is enough to soften the hardiest of travellers.  Midwife Megan sprang into action, rescuing the two firstborn from roll of loft insulation, then looking on as the rest emerged.  The hard worker didn’t need anything, Megan and I needed a cup of tea!  Megan demanded I donate a tee-shirt for the new arrivals to make them comfy which I gladly did.  The infected lower leg was treated with painful injections of antibiotics just in time; otherwise I would have to have had it amputated.  Well, I would have eventually, if antibiotics hadn’t been invented or, is it discovered, what the heck I had them anyway.

One week old

It is very beautiful here, the pine clad hills all around, and in the mornings we can hear and see above the pines, Bee Eaters flying around, trilling away.  We are in a smallish clearing in the forest, Ayse and Cengiz have two houses, three if you count the old farm cottage where we sleep, one of the houses sleeps ten and is rented out, a group of Russians had it when we arrived.  Their home also has rooms to rent like a B & B; there is also swimming pool for which I am the current pool boy – first job in the mornings.  We do a variety of jobs, cleaning, tidying, and helping to serve meals.  We also have ‘projects’ Meg is creating decorations for an upcoming wedding; I have made various things including a recycling area.

Recycle

Meg and the chickens

Time is a strange commodity for us, with no fixed weekends and we take time off when we can.  Our present Helpx day is quiet long but that is compensated for, for example our hosts paid for a day boat trip around the islands near Fethiye;  lots of swimming in the sea and a lunch thrown in, we had a great day.  Our hosts are very nice and it is peaceful here, time seems to stand still and rush by at the same time.  It seems like we have been away for ever but at the same time, no time at all and nearly five months have gone by!

We stay in Turkey for three weeks after we leave here and we have booked flights to … no that will have to wait for another Blog, bye.

View from Dikencik

Dikencik

Mavi Konak Hotel

The evening is warm as I sit here composing the latest blog, wondering how many people out there read it.  We know the family does, we also know some people are struggling to leave a comment.  If you are a registered ‘friend’, when you open the blog sign in first and it might improve your chances of saying something.  If you are not a ‘friend’ and do not want to be, we would still like to hear from you, please e-mail us on either chris@chrisvickery.co.uk or meganulrika@hotmail.com  with comments and if you think we don’t know you, explain how you found out about the blog, thanks.

The landing outside our room

Meg Embroidering

We left the Muses House and spent a couple of nights in Muğla (Moolah) in a Ottoman courtyard house now  a small guesthouse with five bedrooms, it is owned by a German couple, who were away, and we were looked after by a young German volunteer!  The town is not really a tourist spot (all the more reason to visit), a great old town with all sorts of shops/businesses – sheet metal, leather, blacksmith and a barbers, well more than one barber, I think the average Turkish male has his hair cut every other day and a shave.  Talking of which I needed a beard trim and Meg wanted to see me have a shave as well, the whole works, lather, cut throat razor and everything.  

The Shave

'The Donkey Down Dere' - Tied

Blog Writing

Anyway Muğla was good, we then caught, yet another bus, to Fethiye where we were picked up by Ayse and Cengiz our new Helpx hosts.

This a different area of Turkey now, on the Mediterranean coast, and we are 700m up in the hills, where the pine clad slopes are a little cooler in the evenings, still very hot during the day.  Our first couple of days turned out be very eventful, we were interviewed for Turkish television for a magazine programme for a slot about volunteering, it will shown next week - Tuesday or Wednesday – we are trying to get a copy.  Then the next morning Megan trod on a scorpion just outside our door (we are in separate quarters to our hosts) and was stung, then had to go to the health centre for anti-venom and antihistamine injections, one on each cheek, she is ok, by the way the scorpion died…….!  

The Offender

TV Star

There seems to be lots to do, both here and around the area, so we will be kept busy for the next three weeks, already been here for nearly a week and we can’t believe how fast time is moving.  Went for a swim in the Med this morning with our hosts then breakfast, the water was smooth and as warm as a bath, fabulous. 

The Med

Moving on in Turkey

Ephesus Theatre

The now familiar feeling we both have just before moving from one Helpx host to another, was felt again a few days ago, just as we realised the end was close.  It is that heavy heart, of leaving behind new friends and now familiar places, which not long before were both the subject of  previous apprehension.

Kirazli is a small to medium sized village near the Agean coast of Turkey, about 2,000 inhabitants, a thriving community; as the Turkish government has adopted a ‘hands on’ approach to development of the country. Foreigners are only allowed to buy property in designated areas, leaving most of the country free of the property inflation influence, that ex-pat ownership brings.  So unlike parts of France, Italy and Greece, the village was full of families, with schools, shops, cafes and all the rest of the paraphernalia that communities need.  Children can be heard playing in the streets as the temperature falls in the evening, all the games we know so well ourselves.  Knock a door run being the most popular!

Ephesus Photo Shoot

Road to the Port Ephesus

The children are not the only thing to be heard – the call to prayer five times a day, plus extras as it is Ramadan.  The call is either a very bad recording or as some people think, a ‘down the line’ call from the Iman in Izmir – a call from afar you could say or long distance calling.  On our arrival in Muğla (ğ is silent, so pronounced moo-lah) we discovered a very melodic call from the mosque, however, the wake up at 5am plus the signal to break fast at 8pm is a cannon shot!  More of Muğla later.

We visited Ephesus and I am almost speechless, it was truly wonderful, the scale of the city and we only see the ‘posh’ parts, all the rest where the lower classes lived just rots away, like the people I guess.  Marble roads, the library, terraced houses, fountains, theatres, council chambers, and lots of columns and pedestals where statues stood. 

The Library

Listening to the description

 

All the finds are in the local museum again good to visit.  As a comparison we visited an ancient site called Priene, a much smaller settlement a bit like Halifax to Manchester, anyway Meg and I said we would prefer to live there, higher up, pine trees and a cooling breeze and not so many people, both then and now.  The crowds at Ephesus were huge when we left near midday about 3 - 5,000 we estimated and the crowded streets must have resembled it in its heyday when it had a population of 250,000.

Feeling the Stones at Priene

So we have moved and are halfway to our next host where we arrive tomorrow, Tuesday 23^rd August.

Priene

Kirazli

Istanbul to Izmir Birthday Cruise

Now where were we………oh yes, we didn’t believe it, well we didn’t!  Spent 22 hrs travelling, 7.15pm Popovo to Istanbul, arrive 5.50am, find another bus to Izmir and set off again 6.05am, we get to Izmir and find a small minibus within 20 minutes and set off again to Selçuk (Sellchuk) at 4.40pm and arrive to be picked up straight off the bus by Nick, our new Helpx host, and then onto the Muses House Boutique Hotel,  www.museshouse.com , where we arrive at 5.15 pm – 22hrs with hardly a stop.

The hotel is great, we have been staying in one of the 5 guest rooms – four poster bed and a bathroom big enough for a beach volleyball match (got to stay topical to convince you guys we are still part of the real world…WE ARE) swimming pool outside the door, Meg out of bed in the morning straight into the pool. 

Hotel Courtyard

 

 

 

Fatih

The hotel was shut for 10 days to allow jobs to be done, I’ve been making Ikea wardrobes, and making doors for the end of covered walkways to make cupboards, for things that the guests don’t need to see.  I have also been gardening.  Megan has been sewing; again, we think her fame goes ahead of her.  This time she has spent a good while taking a patchwork quilt made by Maggie (also our host) and her mother and turning it into a bedspread, it looks fabulous.   So we have been working honest! Megan has also adopted another cat, Fatih (pron Farty) formerly Tom, not a good name for a Turkish cat, so along with the help of Maggie he received a new name.  Needed de-fleaing, worming and the usual two brick operation at the rear end – two done one to go, so long as I don’t get my thumbs between the bricks I should be OK (ear plugs in of course).

Maggie and Megan with the quilt

Selcuk Market Busker

Market Stall

 

Turkey is amazing, we are really feeling at home here, the people are friendly and the countryside is beautiful.

We have also started to see some of the sights, Ephesus is just down the road and we hope to go next week, hope is the wrong word, we will be going, if you look it up you will see why it is a must, the best preserved Roman ruins in the world!  We have been to see The Basilica of St John which has the grave or tomb of St John the Evangelist inside the walls.  The church there was built by Emperor Justinian in the 6^thC when the original structure protecting the tomb started to fall down.   

Chris in the Basilica

Megan in the Basilica

The stones for this were robed out from the older site of Ephesus a couple of kilometres away and from the Temple of Artemis just down the hill.  Later with the rise of Islam the stones from the Basilica were robed out to build the mosque, isa Bey Camil, all three can be seen next to each other; all three using the same stones, for three different religions. 

The Tomb in the Church

Wedding Fever

Registry Office Wedding Party

Move over Wills and Kate, the wedding of the year was in Palamartsa, Bulgaria last weekend, on the 30^th and 31^st July to be exact.

After our arrival at Jeni & Jordi’s our time was taken up with wedding preparation tasks, Meg made yet another bridesmaid dress and the house and gardens had a complete tidy and clean.

Guests started to arrive on the Wednesday evening, Jeni’s dad, quickly followed by Jordi’s mum, sister and auntie, who Megan christened the Spanish Armada, because they sailed into the house on various occasions taking over the kitchen with Spanish food preparation, yummy!

Steve and Barry 

Rings

Waiting for the 'off'

Up until Thursday 28^th we all thought there was not going to be a legal wedding at the registry office as the paperwork was horrendous, three different countries, Bulgaria, Spain and the UK all with their own rules and regulations, the Bulgarian being the worst, physcological  appraisals, VD, and aids tests amongst the requirements.  However, Jeni was on the case and the go ahead came through and the ‘legal’ wedding was set for 5 o’clock Saturday evening in Popovo.  We think the on/off nature and the full on preparations for the ‘Bulgarian’ wedding on the Sunday meant that this first wedding was a surprise, the emotions it set off in both families, when they realised that they were actually married!  Tears flowed and there were lots of hugs and kisses and smiles and laughter.  This was followed by what started out as a meal for friends and family before the ‘big’ day, it turned into a party celebration where the drink flowed and everyone danced the night through except for Jeni & Jordi who had another ‘wedding’ the next day.

 The Sunday started off low key with a few hangovers, us included, final preparations and at 3pm Jordi heading off to Popovo to his Mum’s hotel to get ready, leaving Jeni and retinue to prepare at home.  So the scene is set, Jeni shut in at home, Jordi motoring to Palamartsa.  At the edge of the village he is stopped by a crowd and has to prove he is man by doing a number of tasks including shooting an onion – don’t ask me I was busy photographing the bride and retinue who were late getting ready and I missed it!!

The Bride

Jordi's retinue

After passing his tests he advances on foot to the house to claim his bride with traditional dancers and musicians leading the way, only to be met at the gate by her protectors who won’t let him in, after trying to force his way through he has to concede to buy her.  So reluctantly pulls a few coins out of his pocket and hands them over, these are dismissed as worthless so he tries again, with the same result.  So out come the notes, first 2 lv, then 5 and 10 lv, to no avail, then 20’s no luck, so a girl in his retinue pulls him away saying, Jeni is not worth it, but "she is" says Jordi forcing his way back to the gate only to be rebuffed again.  So out come the 50lv notes to cheering of the crowd.  600lv later he is let in but does not get to see the bride who is locked in the kitchen with her mother to the sounds of traditional songs and tears as she is told to say goodbye to her mother as she has to leave with her man to live another family.  Jeni didn’t actually leave then as she wanted to ‘walk up the aisle’ with her father to get married, so she followed Jordi down the road and she now had the dancers and music accompanying her.

'Buying the Bride'

Inside the gate

The ‘aisle’ was in the village square and was a strip on fabric strewn with flowers leading up to an arch where the ceremony took place.  This carried on through to the hall where the food and drink were and more ceremonies took place, eating bread and salt from the grooms mother, bread and honey from the brides mother, drinking wine and throwing the glasses over their shoulders and ripping a large loaf of bread in half.

Father and Duaghter on their way

'The Aisle'

We survived the wedding, both weddings, and both hangovers and a 20hr, 3 buses, journey to the Aegean cost of Turkey to our next Helpx hosts where we are now, but more of that next time, you will not believe it, we didn’t.

The End