Day 5: The Underground City and Turkish Night

lessons learned in turkey today: people don't pay attention to traffic signs. our bus driver frequently speeds right through stop signs (which actually say DUR, which i find hilarious). he also drives down the middle of the road. if there's a median, he drives straddling two lanes. so does everyone else. what's the point of more than one lane then? it's great.

today has been my favorite day so far, no competition. here's why!

when we got up this morning, we headed straight for the underground city, which is 11 stories of man-made caves that christians used as safe houses when they were being threatened. we went to the largest one, but there are 36 known cities throughout cappadocia. there were parts of the tour that were very cramped and uncomfortable (good thing i'm not claustrophobic), and i couldn't even imagine walking those tiny little hallways in the dark.

after our tour, where i hit my head at least once, we went to take pictures of pigeon valley, which is basically a canyon that looks similar to mesa verde, but it has little square holes carved into the rock for the pigeons who populate the area. it started to rain a little, but we were only outside for a few minutes.

across the street, we went into the onyx factory. we got a tour of the place and then got to look around in the showrooms, which have a LOT more than onyx. they also talked about the number one stone in turkey: turkish turquoise. i bought quite a few presents here, plus a coral rose necklace for myself.



at some point we stopped at a pottery factory, where we got another demonstration. the majority of their products are hand-painted and absolutely stunning (and expensive!). we even watched a man make a pot who has been making pottery for 24 years. he made it look so simple! one of the girls, jacee, got to make something. it was hilarious watching her try while the potter, who didn't speak english, gave instructions and the owner, who spoke english but didn't make pottery, translated. at one point the potter said something in turkish to the other man and they laughed. our guide later translated it to mean, "what the hell is she doing?" but it still ended up perfect! with a lot of the potter's help, of course. i also bought a few presents here. :]

one of our last big stops for the day was another set of wall-carved houses. we toured small churches with beautiful frescoes and carvings. amazing views.

there were quite a lot of ten minute stops to take pictures of rocks along the way, and i can't remember what happened when. i can't even remember when we had lunch! all i know is it was very tasty. there were also a couple camel rides today. jacee and eddy weaved through a bunch of buses, which looked really awkward. i didn't ride a camel because they kept on looking at me weird. i thought they were going to spit on me. so i kept my distance and decided to save that for another day.








after we got back and had class and ate dinner, my group of friends went to turkish night. it was an optional thing that cost extra, and we were the only four people willing to go. so it was us, one of my professors, and our guide sevim. girls' night! this was such an amazing experience. the room was underground and circular, with 8 archways. each archway had booths for people with unlimited drinks and appetizers. first to perform were whirling dervishes. these men spin in flawless circles for minutes on end to achieve a transcendental state. it was so beautiful to see, and it made me have a sort of out-of-body experience as well. very amazing.


after them came a lot of traditional turkish dancers, including belly dancers. there were a few times that brooke and i got pulled out to dance, shortly followed by erica and jenna (and even lisa one time!) and we had so much fun. at the end, they kept playing music (some turkish, some spanish) and just let everyone dance. after a few songs we decided to head back to the hotel. and here i am, exhausted after a wonderful day of sight-seeing, picture-posing, lots-of-money-spending, laughing, and dancing.

i hope everyone has a fantastic friday. tomorrow we head out on an 8 hour bus ride ( :[ ) to the mediterranean coast. hopefully i'll have internet at the next hotel, but i doubt i'll have too much to say. i love you all, goodnight!