Olympos to Cappadocia

We've been wandering all day through the valleys, caves, and rock churches of Cappadocia - an absolutely beautiful part of turkey - picutures to come soon when we get back to new york - we have seen so much but still there is so much that we want to see - it has only left us wanting to see more of turkey - our little gang is already talking about a reunion trip, one where we can hit the towns, landscapes, walks etc that we missed on this trip.

we travelled from olympos to egirdir in the lake country with Jacinta and Ryan - Jacinta and I hiked up a large mountain above the town and had lunch in a small farm village above the town and lake that egirdir sits on - the 3rd largest in turkey i believe. The boys spent the day hiking on the canyons about an hour away - they jumped off of numerous waterfalls and cliffs into the river - the also met a turkish tourism film crew that shot a little of them and invited them to a mock turkish wedding back in Egirdir. So that evening we joined in the festivities of the mock turkish wedding, actually it was supposed to be the evening before the wedding when the bride and her family and friends get her ready for her big day with dancing, singing, henna, feasting, and some crying... after our moment on camera dancing with the bride we left the crew and grabbed the 7 lira *5 bucks* jug of wine we had left over from our boat trip and got drunk on our way to dinner. The next day Russ and I made the plunge and purchased rugs before heading to Konya, the birthplace of the whirling dervish. Jacinta and Ryan remained in Egirdir for some mountain biking, more hiking etc.

Konya was an interesting town - definitely does not get the tourists the rest of the places we have been to get, but it was nice to have a little change of pace. We got in to late in the day to do the dervish museum so we had a walk around and had a nice big dinner and collapsed into bed early. I was feeling the burn of the rug as my bag is now almost twice as heavy.

The next day we were up early and off to museums - on our way to one a turkish gentlemen passed us and ended up showing us the way to the museum and telling us a little history of Konya and of the dervish - the museum was a private collection of artifacts that one man had collected and donated to the gov't, his house was also part of the museum so you could see a traditional turkish home from the middle of the 20th century - the gentlemen was also helpful at arranging for us to view the house - it turned out the reason he was so helpful was because he had a rug shop he wanted to show us - which turned out to be about a block away from our hotel - basically the man saw us walk past his rug shop and followed us across town in order to get us in his shop - we felt obliged to go and russ, after some orange tea (warm tang) and swapping pick up lines, was somewhat suckered into getting another rug - but it's a nice little piece and the story is a memorable one.

we made our way to the dervish museum, which is a site of pilgrimage during the month of december but also houses a hair of mohammad's beard so it is a site of much religious significance - so that was pretty interesting and exciting.

after the museum we found two really cool shops - one felt shop that actually has two exhibitions currently going on in the US - a husband and wife team that uses traditional felting methods (the ones used to make the hats the dervish wear) and new experimental methods to make blankets, rugs, scarves etc - they had some amazing pieces and actually teach courses in the US and turkey, so it's on my list of things to do.

we also discovered one of the wholesalers for ABC Carpet and Home (one of my favorite stores i can't afford) after unfolding many wonderful textiles from iran, uzbekistan, turkey and other places, and bemoaning my lack of funds (it would take being a millionaire to feel comfortable spending money there) Russ and I got back on the road and made our way to Cappadocia.