Istanbul -> Cappadocia

Well, I finally arrived in Istanbul after an exhausting flight from Toronto via Frankfurt (what a messed up airport !) with not a blink of sleep.

Arriving in the morning, I was able to wander around the city a bit, roaming down cobblestone alleys and along the waterfront boardwalk.  I even managed to take in a mosque on the first day (the Blue Mosque), though I was desperate for some sleep, and not wanting to throw myself too much out of sync I tried to stay awake during the day.

Blue Mosque

The second day in Istanbul I took in the Archeological museum - lots of sarcophogi and marble statues - and opted for a night bus to Cappadocia.  (hoping to spend another day or two exploring Istanbul on the way out)  Due to my earlier sleep deprevation, I was able to sleep pretty much the whole way, and arrived early morning in Goreme, where gigantic cones of sandstone the size of multi-story apartment buildings jut out from the earth.  The 'multi-story apartment building' size metaphor was not lost on the early settlers here.  They scraped out living quarters from them long ago, using them for housing. 

4000 year old housing project - Cappadocia

Just out of town there is a whole city of churches hewn into the rock - quite amazing to imagine dozens of monks hunkering down in the stone dining hall where huge benches and tables are also hewn from the existing sandstone.  Strangely, many of the entrance ways are dotted with graves, which are open and covered over with grates so the public doesn't fall in (!) 

 

Tomorrow I hope to check out entire underground cities used by troglodytes as long ago as 4000 years back.  Hot air ballooning is also big here though a little pricey.

 

In general Cappadocia is much more laid back and conducive to relaxing and soaking the local culture in - even if the specific sights here are a bit unique to the area.

 

I managed to upload a few photos onto picassa, so you should be able to have a peek at some of the things I have been looking at during my first few days in Turkey.

see http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Turkey