Kaymakli underground city in Cappadocia

Friday, April 17, 2015 and Saturday, April 18, 2015

The rest of us took it easy while Gorkahn and Sarah went hiking this morning. Sarah said later that it was really worthwhile. After getting everyone together at about 11:00 a.m., our first stop was Mustafapasa, a perfectly preserved Greek village in Cappadocia. Greek-speaking families had moved out during the “population exchange” of 1923, while Turkish-speaking families from what is now Greece had moved in. This makes the whole exchange sound fair and orderly, while in reality it was not. Gorkahn referred to “population exchange” as a “soft term” for something that was in reality quite harsh.

In Mustafapasa (named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk) we saw an old doorway surrounded by lions and signs to ward off the evil eye. We had learned from Esin that such signs were meant to reflect jealousy back to the jealous person – thus, in modern terms, they ward off jealousy. We walked into the Old Greek House Restaurant whose entrance was overhung with an ornately-painted balcony. Antelope horns hung underneath the balcony and over the doorway as signs of good luck. Our itinerary called for us to eat lunch at this restaurant but, as it was only 11:00, we moved on.

As we drove down a winding two-lane road in rural Cappadocia, Gorkahn spotted a farm where the women were baking bread in an outdoor oven. Selim put on the brakes and backed up the van so that we could pull into the farm driveway. Gorkahn enquired whether we could watch the bread-baking process; the answer was, yes. The matriarch of the family was stoking dried potato plants, without the potatoes, as fuel into an outdoor concrete-block oven. She was about 55 years old, and her daughters, daughter-in-law and four-year-old granddaughter we helping. Her husband and a son were milling around, but were clearly not involved in the bread-baking. Fortunately for us, her 20-year-old daughter had been a chef in Australia and had perfect English. She was able to translate all our questions, even taking us into the room where the dough was mixed with an electric mixer, and describing the ingredients. In addition to yeast, flour and water, the bread included a little potato, this being potato-growing country. We watched the loaves go into the oven. After about 10 minutes, the matriarch decided they should come out. She gave us a couple of loaves (Gorkahn had given her 20 lira). They were delicious; we snacked on fresh bread for the rest of the day.

After a hug from the four-year-old, we said goodbye to the rest of the family and continued on our way to the Kaymakli underground city. Xenophon, in the 5^th century B.C., was the first to write about the underground dwellings of Cappadocia. Hittite (2000-1200 B.C.) artifacts have been discovered in them. The caves and passages were significantly modified and expanded centuries later by early Christians, to the point where they could be described as underground cities. Large quantities of grain and grapes were stored in them, as protection against an invasion. As invading armies swept across the semi-arid plateau of Cappadocia, the locals could hide in the caves for months at a time, until the invasion threat had passed. Wells cut down to the water table provided fresh water, while ventilation shafts provided enough air even for ovens. Entrances were hidden in peoples’ basements, and large round stones could be rolled across the entrances to keep out unwanted visitors. Some of the round doors had holes in the middle through which spears could be thrust to keep invaders at bay. Four different floors can be visited in Kaymakli, but more floors below the fourth level remain unexcavated. We viewed various rooms used as living rooms, stables, kitchens, wineries and a Christian church.

Our next stop was “Pigeon Valley” where there was a nice overlook of cave dwellings, including Uchisar Castle, the highest fairy chimney in Cappadocia. The “castle” was used as a fort in the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, and was later inhabited as a cave dwelling. It was abandoned in 1960, when it was declared unsafe because of erosion. 

We had a Turkish lunch in Avanos, which for me consisted of mezes, or appetizers, of various kinds of eggplant, plus bulgar wrapped in grape leaves. We then went to the Avanos farmers market, where we saw various lentils, vegetables, tools, herbs and spices.  We walked down the steep hill into central Urgup and found Muti by Prokapi Restaurant. I enjoyed the lamb shank and mashed potato, while Abby had baked chicken and Sarah had soup and appetizers. Mark stayed  home to rest up for the next day's travel.

The next morning, at 6:45 a.m., we met Gorkahn and Selim for our transfer to the Kayseri airport. We flew to Istanbul, and then on to Izmir, where Evren met as at the airport to take us to our hotel, the Doubletree by Hilton in Kusadasi.

Evren recommended a restaurant, Cinar Balik, that was walking distance from our hotel. He advised us to get the bream or sea bass, which would be the most reasonable in price. He also advised us the get there before sunset, which is at 7:30 at this time of year in Kusadasi, so that we could watch the sun set over the Aegean Sea as we ate dinner. That we did, only we ordered the red snapper instead of the farmed bream or bass, preceded by mezes of artichoke salad, leek and asparagus salad, fried sardines, spinach, and calamari. We watched the red sun set over the Aegean and thanked each other for agreeing to go on such a wonderful vacation.