Living in Uncle Mel's Train Set

Ephesus, Turkey

Traveling through Turkey is accomplished primarily by bus; they are nice buses with full service including hand sanitizer, ColaTurka and tea service. Looking out at the countryside, which reminds me of Greece and Italy (not surprising) with it's valleys and farming and vineyards, I imagine it might look from above like we are traveling in and out of mountain tunnels on the south western coast like the ones my Uncle Mel built for his Hurwitz towns in his miniature train set world. Leaving Istanbul at night, we came upon each city on the highway as if from the cockpit of a new Airbus mega-plane that seats 800. That is, the way the cities light up around the mountain passes and over small bodies of water, you feel like you are coming in for a smooth landing as you drift off to sleep.

There is no description possible for Istanbul, where "East meets West," except absolutely enchanting. It was far better than I imagined, and is quite a romantic place to begin a journey through Turkey. It is certainly the best city we've visited yet, and the most easily walkable and entertaining on foot. The Grand Covered Bazaar and Egyptian spice market could keep you busy for days, and the Blue Mosque and Aya Sophia are breathtaking. Justinian built the Aya Sophia in the 6th C.E., and for centuries while future emperors were crowned there the people believed that it had been built with a "divine" design. We stayed in Sultanahmet, the old city, where time is easily lost and found between the frequent calls to prayer 5 times a day from mosques on nearly every hilltop. It is an amazing thing to experience it day after day, and you can imagine what the city looks like from the harbor with a skyline dotted by scores of minarets. Besides wandering, we spent some time touring by short boat trips the Asian side of the city with another traveller, Chris, and an older bakery owner near our hostel who showed us around for a free lunch. We visited, for example, an Armenian Church (shout out to Sophia!) and the archaelogical museum including the tomb of Alexander. I love seeing all things related to Constantine, the Emperor who leagalized Christianity in Byzantium in 313 by edict and changed the face of "New Rome" (Istanbul), for I studied this period in Michigan and in Rome.
At the hostel we had nice Turkish hosts, but I did witness one educational fight between an Aussie and the owner - the Aussie made the cardinal mistake of insulting a Turkish man's mother.

Thank you Josh Eisenberg for suggesting Cappadokia. Our days in this beetlejuice-esque fantasy moonscape central mountain panorama land were filled with dancing, hiking, motorcycling between small towns and rockface monasteries, bathing in hotsprings, and wine libations. Standing above the valley of Gorime drinking 16oz Efes pilsners with Setsuko (she was so thoughtful to buy those!), a pretty girl from Okinawa who had lived recently in SoCal and Honolulu, I watched the sunset over the Rose Valley and other rock formations of all kinds. Only the sight of hot air balloons rising over these same mountains each dawn is better. Only in Cappadokia to you get the tremendous combination of mountains, plateaus, and even snowy mountains in the distance. All about, the landscape is marked with cone-head shaped rock formations hollowed out for ancient tombs, holy sites and places of shelter. When I later asked Ur {wasn't Ibrahim born in Ur!?}, our pension host, what type of natural phenomenon had formed these magnificent mountains and valleys, he simply replied with a smile, "God."

It was wonderful to spend the days with our friend Setsuko as well, who at first I mistook for a staff member at our Cave Pension. With some travellers you just have much better conversation. She explained at length the political situation and tensions between Japan and China which I found quite interesting and complete. With her we were driven around the 600 km area of underground tunnels and cave dwellings where once 20,000 people lived to escape harsh weather, prehistoric animals, and religious enemies. Numerous sites contain ancient churches and fading frescos of Jesus and company, and underground cities with 20 plus rooms remain intact in the valleys. Locals believe you can travel nearly 600km underground at the longest point. Star Wars was also filmed in one valley we visited with particularly unique rock formations. You just don't find places like this anywhere else in the world.

At our pension in Cappadocia, where "Hotel California" gently and continually pulsated from the stereo speakers, we dined with the family and sometimes local gendarmes -many local police stop by frequently for Chai. One Turkish officer spent the entire meal offering Setsuko the moon, literally, for her hand in marriage. After kicking us under the table for help, Scott and I attempted to negotiate further for sheep, camels, etc. As Turkish music blared and we toasted glasses of cheap wine (my favorite) and chai tea, the ladies danced until the old grandma smacked me in the tush enough times to win my participation.

We spent another entire day motoring around the area on rented bikes, CRT style baby, just Scott and I. Oh man was that a crazy day. What started out well quickly deteriorated into me finding Scott hitch hiking in the back of a Canadian car after running out of gas. This, of course, after I lost him on a straughtaway through a valley smewhere near a town called Mustafafasa after a lunch in Guzoluz where we tried to superglue Scott's rear brakelight back on after he crashed just before on a dirt road heading toward a snow-capped mountain. Whew. Obviously we went off the map and paid for it. I wish someone had filmed Scott falling off the bike, and me throwing mine aside to tear down the hill with my helmut still on screaming "No! -- Chino!!!!" while he rocked back and forth in pain with the bike landing on his knee. He is fine, by the way, no worries just memories. We ended up riding for more gas on just one bike back to a town called Urgup, like in Dumb and Dumber. We were lucky the rental place gave us such shitty bikes, we returned to cups of chai and no extra charges.

After Cappadokia we headed south to the beaches, hopping around the Fethiye Bay area for a few days in Cilas Beach, Fethiye, Oludenez, and our favorite, Butterfly Valley. The small dingy to Butterfly Valley took an hour across choppy waters, but we met very cool Americans. Two were from Park City - one recruiting manager for Deer Valley (yeah Scott!) and another guy a hippie from Westwood, LA with dreads and all. The captains smoked and drank 3 beers each, each way, reminding me of the good life in Thailand...The waters of the southern coast are gorgeous. The water is light blue and turquiose by the famous Blue Lagoon where it laps agains the rocks, but out further on the water it is a blue so deep it is purple. High above Oludenez paragliders leap from the mountain tops - the area is the best in Europe and only second to Venezuala, they say, for the sport. But it's also a hndred bucks, so we skipped it! Butterfly Vallet is literally like the movie The Beach, a small locked sandy cove between two cliffs with one bar/tent rental place and a bunch of hippies dancing to Bob Marley and Fugees. Perfect. We hiked to the waterfall and got out of there with our drunk captains as the Utah man's free-spirited and topless wife waved us goodbye.

We are now in Ephesus for some educational archeology on our way back up and into Bulgaria. We're talking about stopping at Gallipoli as well, where the great Ataturk first won his fame defeating the British, who futiley hurled waves of ANZAC (Aussie and New Zealand) soldiers at them in the epic Turkish battle of WWI. Mustafa Kemal went on to lead and reform the new Turkish nation, and his picture graces the walls of nearly all small business and certainly all government and police stations - I know this because we had chai with the chief of police at his station in Taksim, a neighborhood in Istanbul, for 2 hours without him ever actually producing a cup of tea, but I digress.

It will be sad to leave Turkey. I love it here. I can't believe they are not yet part of the EU - they are clearly ready on the face of it. Further, why are they not even included in Eastern Europe traveler books? They may be part of the Mid East, but gimme a break, this is Europe.

Last night we went for a Turkish Bath at 10 o'clock at night. Very weird experience, but we think most dads would like it for some reason! It's basically a rotation of showering, sauna, heavy massage with a guy who rubs your naked body down with mittens that scratch off layers of dead skin (exfoliation), and finally a soap massage. Worth the experience, but the exfoliation better not mess up my georgeous tan.

If you know me well, then you know that I am not always a big eater. Hunger is sometimes elusive for me. Well, here in Turkey, especially after no meat and deathly heat in India where we lost weight, I am relishing the kebabs potatos beans rice-pilaf. The food is simply fantastic, and I sometimes eat a donner kebab right after dinner off the street just because. I think a good kebab stand would do really well by the bars back home. But Turkey is not cheap. Our 15-20 dollar per day budget from Asia is not maintainable here with pensions costing 10. I hope Bulgaria will be better. We are heading to Plovdiv and Varna on the Black Sea, and probably skipping Sophia all the way west in favor of heading up into Romania (maybe rent a car).
I have a personal resolution to try to be nicer in Eastern Europe. India in particular hardened me to the point where I am often a real asshole to locals trying to sell something or even give free advice. It is not odd for us to simply ignore the bastards offering genuine help, but after I got in a fight with a shopkeeper about the price of his postcards yesterday I realized I need to tone it down. We are back in Europe, we can relax right? It just might take some reconditioning, but behold the post-India Peter Fox nice streak! Local hospitality here, when given, is second to none.

Another random thing learned: if you lock your hands together, fingers intertwined, and open them in the middle to look, the lines on your palms form the word "AllA." Pretty cool, huh?