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Heide and Mark Adventuring until the money runs out.... |
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Lunar Landscape Capadoccia, Turkey
It was a long travel day to get to Cappadoccia. From Northern Cyprus we travelled 4 hours by ferry to cross back to the mainland and then took a 13 hour overnight bus to Ugurp – a small town in the center of the Cappadoccia region. It was my first long bus ride and surprisingly less painful than I thought it would be. We actually got quite a bit of sleep.
We have spent the last two days exploring this strange and wonderful region. Cappadocia is an interesting geographical area with a volcanic landscape that could easily be described as lunar. The area has been inhabited for several thousand years B.C. and over time it was discovered that the rock could be carved into homes, churches, and even pidgeon houses! Many of the churches date to the early Christian period when early Christians moved west to escape persecution. It has not been proven but is considered possible that St. Paul travelled to Cappadocia as it is known that he was in Konya which is a town not far from here and which we passed through on our bus journey.
We have to laugh a bit at the change in the climate... in Northern Cyprus we were in shorts and T-shirts and enjoying tropical sunsets... now we are in long underware and wolly hats. Still, we think we have really lucked out being in this interesting region out of the hight of tourist season. Our hikes through the landscape have been very quiet and peaceful.
Our plan was to head to Istanbul tomorrow but (although we were never exactly intending to make this a politically fuelled site... I will permit myself to make a few pointed comments now) for the second time in a week the grotesque and misguided have sown seeds of anger, despair, pain and loss in the city. Today it appears that suicide bombers have exploded devices at the British Consul and at an office of the HSBC. I am saddened to say that, at time of writing, 27 people were murdered today. What offence they caused the bombers, or those who share their opinion, I am incapable of answering. However the net effect on us (and I feel somewhat selfish bleating on that this has adversely affected our plans when there is much greater loss for many) is that we are accepting the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and scratching Istanbul from our itinerary.
Now as many of you know I (Mark) am in fact bullet proof, or at least I was on my last big jolly. However I am not prepared to test the possibility that Heide may not be. We are in the early stages of redrawing our route but will perhaps spend an extra day here in Cappadocia before heading out to the coast and taking a ferry to Greece. While it seems that murderous acts can take place anywhere, and I must confess to having felt Istanbul would be safe -- lightening can not strike the same place twice. However, I will now revisit that theory and say perhaps it can strike thrice and we dont want any part of that. So, my friends we are safe and will now be turning west, not north and continue on to see where the road leads.
Next Entry: November 22, 2003 Previous Entry: November 18, 2003 This Page was last update: Monday, December 29, 2003 at 5:37:59 AM This site is using the Adult Contemporary (purple) theme.
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