Kapadokya (Cappadocia) Part 3

A creak, a scrape and a bump opening the door and -- "Whoa!" -- a sunny, cool cavern morning. The shadows and spirits have been chased away by the dawn and the people, critters and chimney smoke are stirring. It's time to go out and play. But not before Eda opens her eyes and we charge ourselves up with some coffee and french toast, courtesy of Jacky, Mustafa and Elif of our pension, the Elif Star. Eda gets up.

"Where are you going?" I ask lazy-eyed, fat and happy.
"I'm going to watch some stones."

From here on out it's rock, boulders, stone and more rock. This is Kapadokya. A region of underground cities, eroding caverns, and alien rock formations -- indeed, there is even a UFO museum here which I assume attempts to describe some extraterrestrial goings-on. But a more rational mind will accept the scientific explanation of what is undoubtedly the Grand Canyon on acid.

Millions of years ago one or more volcanoes spread hot ash and rock called ignimbrite across the region. Layer upon layer of ignimbrite piled upon each other, the hardest layer being at the surface. The water, wind and erosion sculpted many strange formations in the region. The oddest and arguably most entertaining of all, depending on your humor, must be the fairy chimneys. These rock towers have eroded faster in the softer middle and bottom, leaving a larger and wider "hat" on top. The continuing process of erosion and the elements have also produced rocky mushrooms, dunes, slopes and columns.

We watch all these stones on an embattled, bickering walk from Goreme up through a cavern to Uchisar, where a large fortress oversees the land. Eda describes the hike as "hard paths which you have to walk like your ass off."

But you never feel alone. Man and pigeon's presence can be seen to this day, as the initial visitor will notice all the holes of various sizes in the cave. Men have built churches (the area was Christian before it was Muslim), food depots, and homes for pigeons in the rock. The pigeons are valuable to the farmers for their fertilizer. Today most villagers have built homes, pensions and nightclubs for themselves and for the blooming tourist industry. As we take several wrong turns, and get lost more, pass a camel-leg next to a scorched patch of earth, we traverse through hibernating wine vineyards, the produce of which awaits us at the Museum Restaurant in Uchisar.

Ahh, the wine. We would bring some back to Bursa with us, but we can't help ourselves. Once you settle in a nice wine state, the bottles easily flow and who cares? Our favorite is a bottle of Turasan Okuzgozu (Bull's Eye) Eda loses in a game of tavla (backgammon). The winner is happy to share this and his personal plastic bottles of home-made raki with us, too. After that I forget that I didn't care about what I couldn't remember in the first place. Only echoes of laughter, smoke, confusion, I think two boys just walked by the window carrying sacks of animal parts, blurry golden light, fuzzy final drinks.