Carpets, Cooking and Castles in Cappadocia

So we're in central turkey in Cappadocia. Ergun is taking us to all the sights, packing the days full of sightseeing. These are the most photographed rocks in the region because of their funny caps I guess.
Here's Lisa and Jane at Uchisar Fort. You can see the windows to the dwellings within the rocks. Some of them are still occupied.

A highlight on our Turkish Odyssey was the home stay. 16 of us all stayed in a Turkish family's home for one night. They cooked us a typical Turkish dinner, which we ate whilst sitting on the floor, helping ourselfs from the large silver trays on the floor.
We ate fresh bread with Yoghurt soup to start. It was an interesting flavour: creamy yet slightly like vinegar. Afterwards we ate home rolled dolma (stuffed vineleaves) and meatballs made using bulgar wheat and mince. Dessert was also made by the hostess. It was a cross between jelly and mousse made with grape honey. After eating we played cards with the seven year old, Aslam, and taught the group how to play "Pass the Pigs". We'll be sending a few copies of that around the world when we get home. Perhaps we should buy shares in the company?

In the morning the family tolerated photos with everyone and we presented a small gift of money.

Following our stay in Cappadocia we took the public bus about 5 hours to Konya. On the way the bus stopped and we sampled Turkish fast food. They're called Gozleme and consist of pancakes filled with various things. This mother and son team were whipping out loads of the things. The Gozleme are cooked on the black thing that looks like an upside-down wok.These ones had soft cheese and spinach inside but during the trip we sampled plenty of these things with meat or potato or even sweet things like chocolate and banana in the middle. Konya (historically called Iconium) was the capital of Turkey during the Seljuk Empire from 1097 to 1293. There wasn't a whole lot to see here apart from the Mausoleum to Mevlana, the originator of the Whirling Dervish order. Its a religion that emphasises patience. The Mausoleum contained the body of Mevlana and his father but was also a museum. Lots of items are on show, showing their creators patience, for example the worlds smallest handwritten copy of the Koran and several carpets with record breaking numbers of knots per inch.

Speaking of carpets, we visited a carpet factory in Cappodocia. It was a terrific experience since we were taken through the whole process. This factory employs around 20,000 spinners, all women who would otherwise be unemployed. Turkish carpets are special because they use a double knot technique. A silk carpet to fit in a hall way (perhaps 2m by 1m) would take one woman two years to make. She works only three hours a day because the silk cuts her fingers and strains her eyes.

Then we were shown how they make the silk. The silk worms only eat Mulberry leaves which are grown in the north of Turkey. One thread comes from each of these cocoons. 25 threads make a strand and 11-15 strands make a length of silk that can been woven into a carpet. Thats a lot of cocoons!
Mahmet took us to a large room upstairs where he laid out about a hundred different carpets to teach us how the different qualities feel underfoot and showed us the traditional patterns found in Turkey. We were unable to buy one because of the cost but it was truely fascinating to learn all the effort that goes into one small carpet.

The Valleys of Cappadocia.

Goreme is a the large town in the region of Cappadocia in Central Turkey. Many many tourists visit the area to see the amazing rock formations in the surrounding valleys. Its a "must see", World Heritage Listed area which we were lucky enough to stay in for 3 nights. The people traditionally live inside the "fairy chimneys" as they're called. We visited one such home that was 5 storeys high within the chimney. The formations were formed over thousands of years. Originally the region was underwater and there was an inland sea here. A layer of sandstone formed. The sea dried up and there was lots of volcanic activity. Ash fell forming a layer of tuff (compressed ash). Then lava flowed on top of the tuff, cooling to form basalt. The volcanoes stopped erupting and the area underwent erosion over the centuries with the tuff layer being the most susceptible to the weather. Now the landscape is a series of valleys and pillars where you can see the sandstone layer with tuff on top and basalt caps on top on the tuff. The valleys are all slightly different due to the colour of the rocks and the shapes formed by nature.

Our group did plenty of hiking over 3 days.

Here we are walking in Red Valley, White Valley and Rose Valley (the colour of the rocks being red, white and rose!). It was over 35 degrees each day but Ergun (our trusty leader) passionately wanted to show us the wonders near his home town.This is Pigeon Valley. The locals carved pigeon houses in the side of the cliffs. Pigeon poo is a fantastic fertiliser for the crops in the valley below. Can you see why this one is called Love Valley?

Pottery is an important craft for the people of Cappadocia, with clay coming from the nearby Red River. We stopped by a ceramic workshop for a display by the master potter. He used the age-old kick wheel which requires the user to manually kick the spinning wheel.Then the apprentice had a shot. Luckily they had a spare pair of extremely unattractive pants to wear so I didn't get too filthy. After firing the shaped clay in a kiln (at 700 degrees!) the plates/vases/pots are intricately painted. The workshop has hundreds of traditional pieces like this Hitite wine flask that Greg is modelling.

Our Own Brigadoon

There was a film made in 1954 called Brigadoon. The story described two American modern-age men who stumbled on a village in the Scottish Highlands that only appeared every 100 years under special conditions. Our year long experience near Glasgow in Scotland could only be described as our own Brigadoon. Some how the conditions and timing was just right for us in so many different aspects. The timing worked out just perfectly with our accommodation. We arrived last October when the Barlow's had an empty appartment above their house and agreed to rent it to us. They treated us just like family and we'll be eternally grateful for everything they did for us.

The timing also worked out perfectly with our jobs. We loved working together at Crosshouse Hospital. We were even invited to a Scottish wedding when one of the radiographers we worked with got married. Then Greg moved to Ayr hospital where the ladies he worked with spoiled him and included him as one of the team. When work ran out at Crosshouse, Jane got work instantly (timing agian!) and commuted to Glasgow on the train to work at Gartnavel General Hospital where she's made some life-long friendships. We really were blessed by the opportunities that unfolded before us. In the end it was very sad to leave our Scottish home. We really hope some of our new friends will come and stay in Australia in the future so that we can re-pay the favors.

Istanbul: The City on Two Continents

On the 19th of July we flew from Heathrow Terminal Five (with our fingers crossed) to arrive six hours later in Istanbul (with all our luggage!). Our tour with Gecko was due to start on the 20th. We met 13 other budding tourists and our leader, Ergun, to began a 19 day Turkish Odyssey. Obviously the hundreds of pictures we've taken on the tour will take us some time to filter through so we can select the best to blog for you! Have patience and we'll entertain you!

Istanbul is a city built on two continents. The Asian and European sides are separated by the Bosphorus river which is part of the connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean . We cruised up the river on the public boat, passing by a Sultan's hunting lodge, some beautiful riverside mosques and many houses owned by the rich with lots of huge windows.

The Bosphorus Bridge is 169m high and 1073m long. It carries the major road across the river.

The Topkapi palace was the home of the Ottoman Empire from 1465 to 1853. Its an impressive sight. The jewellery (mostly given as gifts/peace treaties) from countries around the globe. The Iznic tiles all over the city are at their most splendid both in the Palace and inside the Blue Mosque.

In order to go inside the Mosque we took our shoes off at the door. Women were encourage to cover up bare shoulders and their heads and men wearing shorts above the knee had to wear a sort of skirt to cover their knees.

Sultan Ahmet commissioned the building of the Blue Mosque between 1606-1617. He actually asked his architects to design and build him a gold mosque. There wasn't enough money in the treasury for this but instead of incurring the wrath of a cross sultan they decided to trick him. The words for six and gold in Turkish are very similar. So...they built him six mosques instead! These mosques are the basis for the world famous skyline of Istanbul.Istanbul has been an important religious centre for many centuries. Emporer Constantine converted to Christianity during his reign, therefore changing the Roman Empire from paganism to Christiany. He was facing a large army with no resources but he had a dream one night. An angel told him if he painted a Christian cross on all the shields of his soldiers he would defeat the army. And he did! To repay the favour Constantine became a Christian. He built a huge cathedral between A.D. 532 and 537 in honour of his conversion, called Hagia Sophia. It was the largest cathedral ever built in the world for nearly a thousand years. In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmet 2 ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. The Islamic features - such as the four minarets outside - were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans. It remained as a mosque until 1935, when it was converted into a museum by the Republic of Turkey. Istanbul also holds many ancient artifacts. The tomb of Alexander the Great (the famous Roman Emporer) can be seen in the archeological museum and there are several extremely old obelisks in the area known as the Hippodrome, next to the Blue Mosque.They say this obelisk was 2 times the size but when it was shipped from Egypt it broke or was broken in half! Just imagine the original size! Seeing objects and places several thousands of years old became the norm for our Turkish Odyssey.

We visited the Basilica Cistern, a spectacular sight hidden under the main road. Apparently it was discovered when two locals decided to question why they could fish under the Hagia Sofia!

It is the largest of several hundredd cisterns in Istanbul. Water was kept here for the city. When it was built the Christian builders used the remains of pagan temples as building blocks. At the very back corner of the cistern you can find 2 Medusa heads, one upside down, one on its side.

We left Istanbul on a Monday night, taking the overnight train to Ankara and from there we crossed the desert-like central part of Turkey to Cappadocia. On the way we passed one of the largest salt lakes in the world and had some fun with the camera.

Stay tuned for the next edition of The Altmann's Turkish Odyssey.