Friday, July 13
written by: Brian

Location: Cappadocia

We took a 13 hour grueling overnight bus ride from İstanbul to the heart of Turkey, a region called Cappadocia.  İ won't get into the grueling bus ride part, but trust me on the grueling part. Think of your worst grueling moment and that is about what it was like. 

We had left İstanbul at 8pm and the grueling bus dropped us off at 9am the next morning in Goreme, the most beautiful of all Cappadocia towns.  When you step off the bus, you are transported back in time.  İ would best describe it as: The Flinstone Era, you know the song, Flinstones meet the Flinstones their the modern stone age family, now you have the picture of where we are.

I know you are waiting patiently for the tid bits of history, Cappadocia, which means land of beautiful horses, was orginally settled by the Hittites ın 1200 BC.  Later (1000 AD) Christians taking refuge in the area built churches into the mountatins around Cappodocia that can still be seen today. Goreme, the town we stayed in, is made up of large rock structures called Fairy Chimneys that people still live in today, though most have been turned into hotels. 

When we woke up from our nap, we headed down to the center of town to meet Mustafa and his friend Ahmet.  Ahmet and his wife live in a fairy chimney in town.  We went for Turkish coffee and saw their beautiful cave home.  From the inside you would not know you are sitting in a cave home. İt is very modern with hard wood floors and satellite TV.  Susan is trying to work out a deal when they are done fixing it up so she can buy it.

Mustafa was an excellent tour guide the 3 days we were there, we scootered around to the different towns, took a pottery tour as cermanics are famous from this area, went off roading, saw an underground city, and the most special part -  the hot air ballon ride.  There were so many things to see and do it was hard to enjoy the relaxation of the laid back town. 

The most interesting story was the day we scootered around the different towns.  We stopped at a town by the name of Urgüp.  We were going to walk around and find a cafe to sit at when we walked by a carpet store and this gentleman asked us how we were.  We replied good and he started a conversation with us.  He asked where we were from and told him America.  He then of course invited us into his shop.  We politlely declined and he responded by saying, please as an offer of friendship have tea wıth me.

Both gentleman were very much against the war, obviously they have learned from their history that there are NO winners in war, and felt bad that young American troops were being killed.  We were there for about 2 hours and then said goodbye and were on our way again.  It was interesting to sit and hear another country's opinion about world politics and their view.  I never would have imagined that the Turkish culture was as open and accepting as we have experienced.

Our last night in Goreme, Mustafa made us Turkish barbecue which consisted of cooking eggplant, tomatoes, garlic and various meets all on an open fire pit.  Together with bread, wine, cheese, and little slices of sausage, we were stuffed and headed off to bed around 12:00, as we had to wake up at 4:30 am for the ballon ride.

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date: Friday, July 6 
written by: Brian

Location: Olympos, Turkey

Ok, I will admit I was a little nervous with our plans to come to Turkey.  It was a country I knew little about.  I knew that it was once part of the Ottoman empire, that it was a Muslim country and that Istanbul was once Constantinople, as I said I knew very little. 

Why should I have been nervous then, was it because it was a Muslim country ???  That sounds a little prejudice, I don't think I am prejudice.  So what was it....  I picked up my lonely planet guide and started read, I read for over two hours, hoping to learn more as to what about this country made me nervous.  I read about history of the country, the Turkish people and the basics of Islam.  When I was done reading, I realized that it was ignorance that plagued me not prejudice. 

Turkey is rich with history, Istanbul truly is where East meets West as it is the only place in the world that sits on two continents, Asia and Europe.  Istanbul was once Constantinople and was made the capital of the Roman Empire in 330 ad.  The entire country was converted over to Christianity at that time. 

The first Turkish people were actually from Asia and were a nomadic people.  As they moved west, they met the Arabs and converted to Islam as well as taking over parts of the territory they crossed, thus they became the Ottoman Empire in 1300 AD and conquered the Middle East and Eastern Europe and held if for over 500 years.  Just like all empires though, the Ottomans fell after WWI and the territory was split up in to what we now know today as the Middle East and Eastern Europe.  That little bit of history helped me to understand the Turks and where they came from. 

Turkey is 95% Muslim and over 32% of the population is under 15 years old.  The lifestyle in the major cities is very western and the Istanbul is very clean.  I realized quickly that Turkey is a very gracious culture, as well as multicultural.  Everybody in Istanbul wants to know where you are from and then they want sell you a carpet.  Our first experience was a nice gentleman that met us out side the Ayasofia the first evening we were there and started talking to us and then gave us a tour of a few sites as we talked.  He said he wanted to work on his English, I thought what a great chance to talk to a local, but in the end he took us back to his carpet shop and tried to get us to sit down and buy a carpet.  We politely declined saying we were tired from our travels.

One of the major sites in Istanbul is the Ayasofia, which was built as a beautiful cathedral, then converted into a mosque, and now is a museum.  Through all the changes the people did not change the beautiful mosaics that line the cathedral and have done their best to protect to this day.  I thought this interesting that a different religion would protect these paintings and then promote them, but as I learned the Turkish people are multicultural.

Since the Ottoman Empire, Turkey has always allowed the practice of multiple religions even though they are primarily a Muslim country.  The Jewish people have always found a safe haven in Turkey especially after WWII.  When you talk to Turkish people about religion they are very open to the teachings of Christianity and believe in the old testament that Christians do.  It is interesting to here the call to prayer a few times a day, it is very beautiful.  A man comes on at the appointed hours and sings that it is time to come and pray to God for about a minute or so.   This is blog is not about religion, I just thought it interesting that this religion that we know so little about, accept what we have heard in the media, is very accepting of discussing the different religions of the world.

Istanbul is quickly changing to a Western culture, women are not wearing head scarfs as much as well it is against politics for women to wear a head scarf while in office.  If there is a political dinner party a political wife may not attend if she is wearing a head scarf.  The are trying to adopt a modern world view of their religion and culture and this is causing some controversy among the population, though most seem to want the change in Istanbul.

As I strolled around the streets of Istanbul and was greeted with a smile at every corner, I realized I had misjudged this wonderfully historic culture.  I learned that I should not to be nervous going into a new place.  I also learned not listen to media hype and to not judge a group of people by "what we think we know" and to do a little reading and discover myself what makes a culture who and what they are.

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