Having a wonderful time in Turkey. Man the scenery here is spectacular. I was able to visit with Melanie Paton from Peterborough for 5 days and will see her again in a couple of weeks. She has lived in Turkey for close to 10 years and is teaching English at a private Turkish school to grade one kids. There are two english teachers for each grade and four sections of each grade. She was awesome to stay with and took me in on little notice. I have to say thanks and then I wasn’t feeling the best so I was able to recoup a bit there. She is a fantastic person with tons of energy and life. Her apt inspired me to buy some Turkish items, it was so homey.
One day I went to a village where Paula, Melanie’s friend lives by bus, 20 minutes and spent the day with her. She is from Calgary and lives here with her husband. They built a stone house in the village and nieither of them speaks Turkish and the builder no English. A big accomplishment. Paula has a friend in Cappadocia, which is in the center of Turkey and she set me up with him so now I am here. You know, his uncle has a hotel and his cousin is a hot air balloon pilot, he is a guide and his friend will pick you up at the airport using the sign with your name on it! So lots of connections. Now I know how those people in Peterborough without my connections feel when we drive down the road and wave at everyone. It is the same here for Yasur. Even got to drive a moped through the scenery.
Oh the call to pray is currently on and it is so cool to hear billowing through the village.
Cappadocia is beautiful and not too be missed. I am so happy I made the effort to get here. It was created by volcanic ash and for my Egypt friends it reminds me of the Valley of Kings. There are huge, tall outcropings called Fairy Chimneys everywhere and people lived in the caves. Some still do and my hotel is in one of them. The town is not very busy and it is little so it is nice to walk around and the hiking in the valleys and craitors is spectacular. The colours of the rock are continually changing with the sunlight.
I went for a runrise hot air balloon ride this morning. The views were spectacular. I don’t know where all the people came from to fill the many balloons that were out, as I mentioned the town is not too busy. But I guess they must have come from the other three villages in the area. The ride was awesome and long. It was an hour and a half long and finished with champaigne. My body wasn’t right so I passed on that drink before 8am. I will tell you as you may have heard on the news, who knows? There was a balloon accident two days ago here and a man from England died and three others are in the hospital. I guess the balloons were too close and hit each other causing a problem. I still went, you know me if I die doing something I want to do I know I have had a good life.
I should be able to meet up with Glenn, Shelley, Max and Madison next Sunday as their cruise ship comes into port in Turkey and I will make the effort to get to there by then. So that will be neat to see them. For those that don’t know that is my brother, sister inlaw and nephew and niece.
Turkey is spectacular and there is so much to see. Click on the following two links for pictures.
Click on this link for Izmir Turkey pictures
Click on this link for Cappadocia Turkey pictures.
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