Hello
everyone!
We now have
a three-week hiatus from school, and many people have gone home for Christmas.
Whilst I would like to be at home getting drunk at 11am with my parents as we
all open our presents and cook Christmas dinner, I also have an innate desire
to see more of the world. There will be plenty more Christmases that I will
enjoy when I live closer to home. I have missed the day before, and part of the
sacrifice we make by living so far from home is that we will miss some
important events.
Besides,
it’s very cold in Astana, so it’s about time we got some warmth, and Britain
doesn’t provide that. You could argue that the places I’m heading to don’t
really satisfy that need either, but they are places that I have wished to
explore for a while, and I have decided to use this winter break to travel with
my flatmate Justine to two countries a lot closer to my new home and my old
home. We are going to Turkey and Georgia.
These two
countries sit on the vague precipice of Europe, and are often counted as being
both European and Asian. I have been to Turkey before – I visited Istanbul and
Canakkale in 2008 on my Eurotrip – but it is a vast country that changes
markedly as you move from west to east. I also missed out on many national
experiences on my previous visit due to insufficient funds – living on less
than $10 a day makes it difficult to enjoy everything a country has to offer –
so this time, with a few more Turkish Lira in my pocket, I was determined to
satisfy my thirst for Turkish culture. The first stop on the way to achieving
this is a region called Cappadocia.
After a
journey that probably totalled about 18 hours, we arrived at Kayseri airport,
right in the middle of the country. We have a few hiccups on the way – from our
taxi not turning up at our flat so hailing a cab in temperatures approaching
-35’C, to finding my backpack that was supposedly in transit to Kayseri
cruising along the baggage reclaim conveyor belt – but it was relatively
stress-free. An hour or so later and the minibus we had managed to get onto
pulled up at a hostel in Göreme, one of the main towns in Cappadocia. We looked
out of the window to see these…
Part of the
reason we came here was to see for ourselves the fairly unique rock formations
dotted around. They have lots of holes in them because people actually used to
live in these caves, and they were also used as secret churches during the more
repressive times of Islamic rule. Many have now been converted into
restaurants, bars or even homestays. Throughout history the fairy chimneys, as
they are locally known, have been illuminated with lanterns at night, providing
a surreal and beautiful aura throughout the town.
Soon after
arriving we were whisked off to one of the other towns to experience a ‘Turkish
night’. It wasn’t just the promise of unlimited alcohol that sold it to me,
though naturally that helped. The copious amounts of food, ranging from borek
(cheese pastry) to plov (meat with rice) to lokum (Turkish delight, but
incomparable to the rubbish sold at home) at the end, was delicious. No kebabs,
though I’m sure I’ll make up for lost time on that front.
I was
intrigued to see some famed Turkish dancing. I’ve seen belly dancing before,
but it is mesmeric to watch the speed of the hip movements of the performers.
There were also group dances with sticks and swords, as well as some very
talented musicians.
But the
dancers that we had come for were the whirling dervishas. These are a
collection of men who wear long, loose white skirts. When the beat starts to
pick up, they start to spin. And spin. And spin some more, never losing their
balance and causing their skirts to whirl around them in a rhythmic, almost
hypnotic motion. Two of the three were very impressive, with one of them almost
sending himself into a trance and having to be shouted at to stop. That’s
supposed to happen, apparently. I would just fall over, as almost proved when
one of the girls started spinning me around in the communal dance at the end of
the show.
Turkish
delight in a cave in the middle of nowhere. A wonderful start to my latest
global adventure.
Love you all
Matt
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