Cappadochia Trip

This past weekend, a group of us went to the Cappadochia region of Turkey.  This area is a big tourist area that is famous for it's incredible landscapes and ruins.  The bus left early Saturday morning (after the teacher's dinner), and made a few stops before arriving in Goreme, the town we stayed in.  The first stop was at an underground village.  The underground village was inhabited by the Hittites, then by the Romans to escape from fighting and wars.  Families had their own little areas where they lived, cooked, and slept.  These people must have realized that wine makes everything more fun, because we even saw the winery area of the city.  There are extensive tunnels that connect it to other areas as well.  This tour involved a lot of crouching and huddling through tunnels to make our way around.  Here are some photos of the group in the city:

The group in the underground city

Crouching down to make our way through the tunnels

Crouching in a tunnel

People down here liked spice in their food....each hold held a different spice in the kitchen

After the underground city, we stopped to take a look at another castle (I am losing count of the number of castles I have seen here in Turkey!).  The landscape in this area was amazing.  We saw several hot air balloons, which is a gimmick Cappadochia is known for.  I would love to come back in the spring to do a hot air balloon ride in the area.

Cool rock formations in Cappadochia

Amazing landscapes

Castle photo

Finally, we stopped at a place called Pigeon Valley that is known for, you guessed it, pigeons flying around.  Needless to say, I was glad we didn't stay here for long.  But, it is also a place where people hang evil eyes and pieces of cloth on trees for prayers and spiritual reasons.  Again, some sweet views of the area....

Pigeon Valley

Evil eyes hung up to bring good luck

After a long drive, we finally arrived in Goreme, the town where we stayed on Saturday night.  The hotel we stayed at was amazing!  It was built into rock and the rooms were amazing.  We went to a whirling dervish cultural performance in the evening.  It is kind of difficult to explain...it is a Sufi ceremony, Sufis being a disciple of Islam.  The performance was interesting and it made me want to see the full-on show in Konya sometime.  After the show, we enjoyed dinner in Goreme at a restaurant where we had to remove our shoes and sit on cushions.  Kathy, Stacy, and I enjoyed some snacks and red wine from the Cappadochia region.

Such a relaxing way to enjoy a dinner!

The next day, Kathy and I went back to a carpet store where we wanted to find a "recycled" rug for our apartments.  As lovely and spacious as these places are, they are filled with BEIGE!  Beige floors, walls, and furniture.  So we have been wanting to find something to make our places more home-y and colorful.  Turkey is known for the quality of it's carpets and rugs.  The night before, we had seen patchwork carpets that had been pieced together from several different rugs.  The shop owner turned out to be the nicest guy in Turkey, who not only spoke excellent English and could answer our questions, but turned the process of purchasing a rug into a cultural lesson.  He took the time to show us his selection of patchwork rugs and allowing us to take our time choosing.  Some of the pieces used to make the rugs are over 100 years old.  At the end of it all, I ended up buying one for my apartment, Kathy also bought one, and Donna "DJ" Johnson was the big spender who bought two!  Here are a few photos of the show room and rugs:

Showroom at the store

They dye some of the carpets into a monotone, such as this one

My 2nd choice....I didn't get it, but I liked all the little pieces 

The rug I finally decided on!

I have to say, I know I liked the patchwork rugs because they reminded me of QUILTS and of course, I love quilts :)  Angela, the woman who owned the hotel we stayed at, said these patchwork rugs are very unique.  I know I hadn't seen one yet, so I am happy that I waited until I found one that I really liked.  Now I have some downtime ahead of me before a weekend in Istanbul in a few weeks, followed by my trip home for Natalie's wedding and Christmas!  I can't believe how quickly time has gone here in Turkey and how much I have experienced.  Some little Hendrickx birdies tell me that I might have visitors soon, which is really exciting :)  In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season :)

Early November events

Hi everyone, it has been a while since I last updated my blog.  So I am going to try to do a two-part update here tonight.  The first part will go back to the beginning of the month.  After the blue cruise, we returned to Tarsus and continued sunny and warm weather.  The first weekend in November, four teachers from our group rented a car and drove down the coast towards the Kiskalesi area.  We went to an area known as Heaven and Hell.  Ironically, Heaven was a much more difficult hike than Hell.  Here are a few photos:

Beautiful day for a November hike!

View of Hell

After the hike, we spent some time at Kiskalesi, swimming out to the castle and relaxing in the sun.  It seemed surreal to be enjoying sunshine at the beach in November.  Having a frozen daiquiri delivered to my beach spot was really the perfect way to end the weekend.  November seemed to be the month for luxurious treatment, as the following weekend I stayed at a 5 star hotel in Adana!  A group of teachers went to a blues festival in Adana, and Kathy and I decided to stay a night at the Hotel Seyhan. We enjoyed some awesome Italian chardonnay (Turkish white wine is usually dry, so this really hit the spot!) and a salon hairstyle at the hotel before making our way to the Hilton for the blues festival.  The bands were really fun and it was nice to hang out with some of the Turkish teachers outside of work as well.  The next morning (feelings the effects of all that yummy wine!), I finally made my way down to the hotel spa and workout facility.  Talk about a hangover helper.  An hour of relaxing in the steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi, and I felt like a brand new woman.  Five minutes before check out, Kathy and I were still sitting in the jacuzzi when I came up with the brilliant idea to stay another night.  AND so we did!  We even discovered an outlet mall in Adana to do some retail therapy.  People who know me well will understand that a weekend filled with good wine, music, spa treatments, and shopping is my idea of a perfect weekend.  It was awesome, and I can't wait to go back and stay at the Hotel Seyhan again.  

School has been going really well.  The third grade students are really sweet and it's fun teaching them new vocabulary and seeing how their English develops and improves.  They always make me laugh, and surprise me.  This past Saturday was Teacher's Day in Turkey, which is a nationally recognized holiday.  It was celebrated at school on Friday.  I had the morning off, and then arrived at school to see smiling students wishing me a happy teacher's day, and giving me little flowers and gifts.  It was so sweet, and I was actually speechless at the beginning of my first lesson.  After school, there was a social hour with snacks, cake, and speeches made by the administrators.  Then they bussed all of the staff to a restaurant in Adana where it was all you could eat, drink, and dance all night!  It was really great night.  

Dance party at the dinner!

My teaching partner, Gulcan and I at the teacher's appreciation day dinner