7-21-09 Who thought I would ever go to Turkey

So I am in Turkey right now and I just got back from going to one of Turkeys cities called Cappadocia. Now on the first day of arrival I went out and was trying to find the Grand Bazzar which is the largest outdoor shopping center in the world where you can wheel and deal with anyone and do your best on bargaining, but we never quite made it to the Bazzar, no Cameron Dani and I only made it to the Egyptian Spice Market. In retrospect it was just as fun going there and being with all these turkish people. You could hear the shop keepers yelling out trying to get you to come to their store and if you stopped and looked at something they assumed that you wanted it, and they would ask if you walked away, "How much you want it for?". So it was an interesting expereience bargaining and getting the price that you actually want to pay for it. And in these places you would see a mix of any store you could imagine, from tool stores to spice stores, I think I even saw a gun store. Indeed it was a feast of shops, well worth going and checking out though. When I got back in there was a group of  us who wanted to go and see HP^ which is (Harry Potter 6), and the theater was past the Great Bazzar and just to the left at a place called Movie Max, so we payed our 8.50 Lyra which is about 6 bucks and then we headed down to the theater it was playing, there was no air conditioning in this building so needless to say it was a little hot in the theater. I found it interesting that instead of previews for other movies at the beginning they had commercials instead, but then at the halfway point of the movie they would stop the movie and have intermission. All in all it was a great movie and then we walked the streets of Turkey home. We got home about 1:30am and I had to be up early the next day and when I say early I mean 5:30am, for a trip through Semester at Sea. This trip was to Cappadocia. Now when I woke up it was 5:43am and I freaked out, jumped out of bed, sprung into some clothes, packed a quick backpack and ran up to the Union. Luckily I made it in the nick of time for the trip. Once we all were gathered in the Union we made our departure for the buses, they brought us to the airport which was a short 30 minute drive where we were able to see another side of Istanbull. I almost forgot to tell you, when traveling outside of Istanbull you need to acquire a Visa for any city in Turkey besides Istanbull, I have no idea why that is just the way it is. We get to the airport and when you have 64 people in a group it poses a tough job to rally everyone up and get everyone their boarding passes. After we all attained our boarding passes we jump on this bus that loads us up and we travel to the site on the runway where our plane is. I always find it interesting to load from the ground, but non the less I love it at the same time. We all board onto Turkish Airlines and make our way to Cappadocia. My seat was the very last row too on this plane. Once landed we get off and I swear it was the most awkward smell I think I have ever smelt, it was like a mixture of like cows, gasoline, fresh cut grass, some dirt, and a few other scents, but it really was interesting and I had to take a few deep breaths of it in to really ask myself what am I smelling. Outside the airport in Cappadocia we have 2 buses waiting for us, a short bus and a big yellow bus, well I guess there more of a motorcoach then a bus. Naturally I get on the shorter bus, I just thought that they were funny looking and I wanted to be with my friends Will Bill, Craig, and Nicco and one of my professors sons, who is 3 years old, was on our bus too his name is Ryder and he is pretty awesome. Also on a short note Ryder loves hanging out with me and pretending to be a tiger monster and trying to scare me and he gives some pretty good high fives. On the bus ride we sit there and attempt to listen to our Turkish Tour Guide, who speaks decent English, but it is hard to take in everything that he is saying. One of the first stops was this underground city where people had carved into this sand like stone deep into the depths of the earth homes and churches and wine cellars, and they even had the ingenuity to put in an air duct, which is dug deep into the ground to bring up the cold air from the earth and naturally cool the rooms. For defense they had these giant wheel shaped structures that they could roll in front of a passage and seal themselves off from any intruders and the way they did not suffocate was they had a big hole in the wheel so that air could pass through, it was pretty amazing to look at this stuff and think that someone lived in this places hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Getting through these underground cities was amazing they had these narrow tunnels and passages, which was another means of defense because if someone had a gun or a huge sword they had trouble getting through these doorways at a quick rate. The narrow passage ways were fun to go through and once we were to the top I was just amazed that Christian people who were being prosecuted in earlier times would hide out in these structures for 3-6 months to as far as one year all underground. Outside of these underground cities there were more markets and naturally I was destined to go I bartered with an 8 year old for an item that I got for less than half of what he was asking. We then traveled to what Cappadocia is famous for, these natural wonders that were formed from Volcanic Ash and then when erosion took place it created these cone like stones. Local people in 12th century were able to carve out homes and churches from these marvels and they were able to do so because the settlement that was from the ash had an interesting effect when you would carve out the sand like rock the air would harden the inside, giving you a secure and sturdy inside. The insides were decorated with old Christian art work, which most of the figures had been defaced by the Roman Empire, this was because the Roman Empire basically thought it was God. Making our way through the many different cone churches and alters we made a break for lunch. Will Bill, Craig, Nicco and I did not want to be like the group and all go to the same place where food was most likely over priced so we walked up the road and had an authentic Turksih lunch inside one of those Cone Shaped buildings. For desert Nicco ordered these grotesque dried apricot things in this god awful sauce which I gagged when trying to chew them up and get them down, but we did not want to be rude either so we had to eat 2 whole dried apricots. Possibly one of the most dirtiest things I have ever ate in my life especially for desert. We rushed back to the buses and had a short time to go to a little store and purchase a chocolate ice cream to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. After lunch we got into the buses and went to the valley of the and I do not remember the exact name of the place but we went there and got to explore a little before getting back onto the buses and making our arrival to the hotel. Our hotels name was Dinler and it was half way decent, we had air conditioning it had a pool, a mini golf course, a basketball area, and a soccer area. And the beds were comfortable which was very nice to have a nice comfy bed for once. I had to get up at 4:45am the next day in order to make it to the Hot Air Ballon ride, which I did this time with a little less freaking out and realizing I might be late. We all met in the lobby of Dinler and traveled to the location where the hot air balloons were. This was my first time on a hot air ballon so I was just excited to go, let alone that I was going to be doing this in Turkey. We get up into the air and we see the sun rise and all of the amazing cone shaped buildings in the area and all the vegatation on the ground and the local people working their land, and it was really quite an astonishing thing being up in the air and getting to see all of this. But anyway that is all for now I am meeting Will Bill and this girl Jessica to go and see the Blue Mosque and a Chapel and go the Bazzar but I will tell more later, bye and love you all hope your being safe.
-Cam