Delta Angel
Experiencing US Immigration at JFK airport is right up there with a trip to the Turkish Postal Service. Both experiences are to be avoided if at all possible. After an 11-hour flight and dreading the hellhole that is JFK immigration, we walked down the jetway to find a perky Delta agent holding a sign with […]
Carpets and Carpets and Carpets . . .
Almost anywhere you point your camera in Turkey, there is something beautiful to capture. Carpets, rich in reds and oranges and blues, hang outside shops and cover cafe benches and tables. They are made even more stunning when hung against stone walls and ancient wooden doorways. In Turkey, it is the men who sell the […]
Food. . . just colorful, delicious food
I don’t believe we have had a bad meal here. Succulent grilled meats, nut and dried fruit-filled delicacies, aubergine stews, grilled breads—all of it has been fresh and tasty.
Maybe not ready for EU membership just yet . . .
This trip to Turkey came about because Kevin and I are attending an educational conference in Istanbul. Because we were traveling around the country before the conference, we didn’t want to carry conference materials. After reviewing shipping options, we decided on the US Postal Service rather than UPS due to the cost difference. We arrived at […]
Cat Up A Tree
One morning, we watched a bevy of hotel cats watching one of their particularly adventurous compadres climb to the top of a tree in pursuit of a bird that had landed on a branch. Clearly, the bird had a sense of humor. He sat there, even jumping to a nearer branch, until the cat got […]
A thousand stairs, no, make that two thousand . . .
Our hotel in Göreme was stunningly beautiful. White and pink stone arched walls, floors, and stairs, wrought-iron railings, Turkish carpets, views across the valley floor, little courtyards, wood beams and doors, artfully placed antiques, cats, and more cats—you couldn’t look in any direction and not see something beautiful. The hotel was laid out like a […]
Katpatuka” The Land of the Beautiful Horses
Five Minute Geology Lesson Eons ago, this was an active volcanic area. Three now-dormant volcanoes covered what is now known as Cappadocia with ash (think Mount St. Helens, not lava flows in Hawaii). During periods of eruptions, some ash layers hardened into welded tuffs, while others remained soft. Over time, the soft layers eroded more […]
Hiking the Rose Valley
We took a 3 km hike through the Rose Valley. Our guide dropped us at the top and told us to “just walk down” and he would pick us up in the village. “Simple, simple,” he said as he drove away. Basically, it was except that the signs sometimes pointed one way to Rose Valley […]
Girl with a Dog
There are packs of wild dogs in Turkey. Yet wild is not quite the right word, as it connotes dangerous packs of dogs who jump people in the middle of the night and tear them limb from limb in a feeding frenzy. Here, they don’t seem to roam in packs and appear to be sedated, […]
Kaymakli, the Fabled Underground City
Kaymaklı is one of the fabled underground cities in Cappadocia. Not fully excavated, it is an endless maze of tunnels connecting rooms for food storage, animal stabling, wine making, cooking, sleeping, and prayer. There are ventilation shafts and a system of stone doors that keep intruders at bay. These cities were probably first carved out […]