day starts

Up at 6am and down for coffee by sýx thýrty however the breakfast buffet
not open yet. sat and výsýted ýn lobby týl open at 7. the buffet at thýs
hotel ýs loaded. Cereals of all kýndsç. oatmeal. 4 kýnds of olýves.
cheeses. yogurts. and so forth. hot breakfast statýon wýth 2 cooks makýng
omlettes or eggs to order. breakfast shakes. french bread. and my favorýte
at thýs statýon ýs french bread wýth a cheese of somesort on top. after
breakfast cappucýno! now we are off!

Today, fairy chimneys in Cappadocia. The locals call them fairy chimneys because they look like homes in fairy tales.

Volcanoes blew, ash and tuff blanketed this area for 100s of miles tens of thousands of years ago. Then a lake. Then the water went somewhere. After that years of erosion. What's left are valleys of tuff peaks that are soft enough to carve out rooms and such. Some of the villagers lived in these fairy chimneys for many years. Now have moved into modern houses in town with modern plumbing, easier life.

The fairy chimneys are mostly used for pigeons these days. From the pigeons is collected guano, fertilizer for the fields. Within the last couple decades the realization that tourists might possibly be interested in seeing, and even staying in these cave dwellings has taken hold. We went into one of the cave/fairy chimneys that was at one time a little chapel, with paintings on the altar area. We sang Amazing Grace and the acoustics were great - and apparently applified our chorus to the nearby area. I'll try to upload pix or two, but it take soooo much time to get even on uploaded and this is a shared computer, so what you see is what I could do.

At the Roman aqueduct (very fascinating how these work, especially 2 story ones. The low pressure sucking air in to make more pressure on the downward slope, pushing water up and venting air at the top, then back down the arch and across the valley), well anyway, after our educational lecturette, this gentleman was making fresh juice - squeezing 1/2 pomegranete and 1/2 orange, 2 lira or about 1.29usd. Delicious! Might try to find one of these juicers before I come home!! Pomegranete is a popular fruit in Turkey. We came across many orchards with these red fruits. The harvest is just beginning.

Our guide is very good at describing the history of the area, the activities of the Greeks, the Romans, the Hittites, Egyptians, Ottomans, Mongols, Turks. He is also able to retell the myths and tie them to actual places we have seen in Turkey. And he uses the Bible to describe the travels of Paul as he moved about this land. Words that we thought came from the Greeks or Romans, are variations on the original Turkish words, all of the myths have some relation to places in Turkey, in fact tulips started in Turkey and then the Dutch got them and there you go, everyone thinks they came from Holland.

pýx

Out boat docked in Fethiye, we had free time in the evening to wander the
waterfront. In among all of the souviner shops, I saw this lady working in
a 8x10 shop running her sewing machine. Displayed out front were table and
bed linens, and yes, she confirmed that she had made them all. I like to
support the locals who are making things, so after some sign language
conversation, I bought a handmade table runner for 10 lira, end of season
price, discount for you. This is 6.80USD, for handmade!

Here, the gentleman said end of season discount on everything, pashimas 12 lira, his demeanor was one of I don't really care if you buy anything, but thought I'd mention the prices. I said we might be back, and we did return. Now his wife we there, and once she found I like blue, she was pulling every blue scarf out that she could. Daughter showed up on her skateboard. I bought something because they were trying to hard to make a sale. After I made the purchase, the man said

5 yrs ago, motorcycle accident, and 152 days in coma, I am lucky to be alive.

That called for a family photo. They gave me their card so I can email a copy to them.

A few pictures

Here we are in front of the Turkish Bath house that we went to in Antalya. It was definitely a cultural experience where you feel pretty incompetent, not knowing what to expect or what to do and being unable to ask anyone who speaks your language.

You start in a steam room that has big marble octagon pedestal. An attendant (all girls on the girl side of the bathhouse) dumps warm water on you as you enter the room. Each of us then took space on the marble, laying on our backs to warm up. We found out later this is the belly stone, but it was too hard to lay on your belly!

They gave each of us an exfoliating scrup pad, and said wash. Were we supposed to? Did they do this? We waited, no one came back for awhile, so we started to. After 20 min or so attendants for each of us showed up and they proceeded to scrub, hard. Then dump more water on you. After that out to the lobby wrapped up to sit. They brought tea. They disappeared. We saw them in their break room. We waited, talked, waited. They talked amongst themselves and stayed out of sight.

Finally, one of them came in and sat with us - did she speak english? No. Hmm... waited more... Finally, another came by and we asked are we done?? She pointed upstairs. We proceeded and each attendant had a massage table, and each of us was worked over pretty good. The tables were all in the same room with separating curtains. So, we could here them ... giggling, whispering, talking - of course, we were convinced they were talking about us since we couldn't understand. Finally, Done. We changed and walked downstairs to find them back in their break room, eating, chatting and watching TV. It felt like we were their last customers of the day, and they were waiting for us to get the heck outta there.

We compared notes with the guys that went and found that they really got worked over, with range of motion pulls and tugs on on their limbs, etc.

Across from our hotel in Antalya, which was in the Old City, there was an old house turned souvenir and jewelry shop. We asked if we could come in and look around. This guy is the nephew of the owner who was also there. The uncle showed us the rooms on the first floor - it was 600 yrs old (he said), from Ottoman times, and the first floor were offices and the upstairs living quarters. While he was showing us around, S was talking to the nephew, who it runs out is a fledgling model. Here is his picture in an advertisement for a line of clothing.

Here is a picture of our hosts for the home stay. Mustafa on the left, and our tour guide on the right (Ayberk is first name, it means moonlight). In the background you can see his wife Fatma (or it could have been Fatima = the same name as wife of Mohammed). Next to her is the 12 year old daughter, name sounded like Twodonna, but I'm pretty sure that's not how it was spelled. We are sitting in their living room/tv room. Wood cookstove, used to heat tea water. They cook with gas in the kitchen. We are having a sit down after dinner, doing question and answer with the family - how big a farm \200,000 sq meters\, growing sugar beets, chickpeas, vegies. have 10 cows.

Each village has 1 cowboy that comes along in the morning after milking (all milking is done with machine regardless of whether 1 cow or many). He herds the cows to shared pasture, and keeps them there for the day. Then he herds them back through the village, with each cow knowing which barn to return to.

The older couple, I didn't get their names straight. They own the house, Mustafa is nephew to this man and his wife. This man is retired primary school teacher. The women, who take care of the home, children and food, do handwork in their spare time - crochet, knit and tat.

Hıgh Plaıns Drıfter

Arrıved Cappadocıa. Thıs ıs up on ın the mountaıns, past the Konya Plaın * huge and remınds me of Nevada.

Sınce the arrıval of our gulet ın Fethıye, we have been many places. The drıve down to Antalya we ran ınto a storm that pelted the hıghway wıth haıl such that ıt pıled up 1-2 ınches. We assured the bus drıver we had all the tıme ın the world to get to our destınatıon. Thınk: Oregon Coast headlands for 50 mıles or so wıth thıs haıl and peltıng raın. The storm clouds were beatıful, the sea was stıll turquoıse.

Aspendos - ıntact Roman era theater - they stıll use ıt for performances! I had someone on ground level speak normally and I on upper level normally to them - you can hear perfectly. Enterıng the theater, takes your breath away. At Perge, the extent of the ruıns are somethıng to see. Streets, agora, and the baths are most extensıve of that age. Of course you have to have a lıttle ımagınatıon to get past the broken columns, no roofs, no buıldıngs.

Shoppıng has not been the assertıve vendors we found ın Egypt, or the agressıve gauntlet of vendors ın Chına. Much more laıd back, and they keep sayıng ıt ıs end of season, ı make you a good deal, bıg dıscount. or already bıg dıscount, ı cannnot eat thıs xxx so no more dıscount. wınter comıng.

Last nıght was homestay - the pıctures wıll tell all about that. the famıly was very nıce, our guıde ınterpreted. the food was great! Sunrıse over Lake Beyeshehır thıs mornıng.

Got ındoctrınated very well to h1n1 back home, but tryıng not to let the lack of servıng spoons (use your own (even ıf you have eaten wıth ıt), or all of us rıppıng the same akmak apart to get a pıece bother me!

Turkısh keyborad.....

Gulet

I am sitting here in the inner cabin of the gulet with the Captain and deck hands and tour guide at the other table. They are watching Batman movie on a small 15"tv, 1 of the deckhands has a small notebook open, and the Captain is using it to skype his daughter. Sounds like a young girl on the other end of the skype phone. Tour guide's cell phone rings; another deck hand's cell phone rings. I am using the tour guide's wi-fi connected laptop to write this message.

This is the last night on the gulet. The 4th night. I finally get it: sailing is like camping, only it's on the water. Showers limited, bed a bit hard. But the food has been great. Each day there has been swimming in the sea, hiking in the forest. Today we visited a shepherd and his family out in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, until 2 other tour groups traisped along.

To my english ear, the language here sounds like a mix of russian, norwegian, italian, greek, arabic. Lots of ch, tch, lll, ylyl. MOre on that later. Battery going.