Category Archives: Holidays

Day 517 In Beijing: Blue Tour In Cappadocia: Sukru Scaling The Steps.

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Jill, Sukru and me on our tour.

Jill, Sukru and me on our tour.

 

Sukru was our guide on the blue tour and did an amazing job.

He was getting married about 2 weeks after this tour and felt his joy and excitement as he told us about his life.

He had also lived outside of Turkey, for a few years, and spoke some Spanish.

It is always nice to meet up with other travelers, who understand how magical this world is, and want to see it as much as we do.

As Sukru showed us the little handholds that go up to the third level, he gave a small demonstration of how they would climb up.

Realize that this is about 10-15 feet, straight up, and they were monks.

I would guess they weren’t wearing robes, but maybe they were, and that would make it even more impressive.

There is a second way to go up, but one has to climb to the second floor first, and I’m guessing they would use this to save time, and if being attacked, be able to escape, as quickly as possible.

It would also be easy to defend from above because anyone coming up would be unable to protect themselves and be slowed by the armor, swords, and other gear.

I was tempted to climb up and see how difficult it would be and then realized we are hours away from a hospital and common sense took over my ego.

For that, I’m thankful.

 

Day 516 In Beijing: Blue Tour In Cappadocia. Pasabaglari.

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As if from another world.

As if from another world.

 

The tour Jill and I were in moved on to Pasabaglari, or Monks’ Valley, as it is known in English.

This is a small area, on the outskirts of everything, where monks used to live, and I guess, thrive.

There are two really interesting points of this little area that caught my imagination.

The first is that the monks would basically climb up, inside man made shafts, inside the fairy chimneys.

These weren’t angled passages but totally vertical pathways that had little niches for their hands and feet to find purchase.

Think about this: They would basically free climb, at full speed, or they’d slip down.  It would be very hard to hang out and take your time since the holds are so tiny.

This also allowed them to escape attackers, and make it very hard for attackers to follow them, as the weight of gear and weapons would make it prohibitive.

The second is that one of the fairy chimneys looks like Frank from Donnie Darko.

If you’ve never seen Donnie Darko, it is one of my favorite movies and deals with alternate realities, time travel, and is absolutely confusing beyond belief while also being utterly magical.

Frank is, without giving too much away, a 6 foot tall bunny rabbit who informs Donnie that the world will end in about 28 days.  It is an amazing movie that balances the idea of someone who is either mentally ill or perfectly sane.

It is a must see.

Actually, both the fairy chimney and the movie are both must sees.

 

Day 515 In Beijing: Blue Tour in Cappadocia. The Holy Cross Church.

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The view from inside the church.

The view from inside the church.

 

One of the truly amazing things about Cappadocia, and humanity, is the will to survive and prosper no matter what is thrown at them.

I think of Victor Frankl, who lived through the holocaust, realized that humanity is based in kindness and hope, and wrote a book named Man’s Search For Meaning and became a psychologist.

He saw the worst of humanity and made something positive out of it.

I think of how I work as a psychotherapist and hope I do the same for my clients.

I know I’ve never experienced anything that comes within 1% of the horror that Frankl did but I hope to learn from him and help my clients do the same.

I actually recommend his book to my clients as a way to look at what seems to be a negative experience and then use it to find a way to better themselves and change their way of life to change or accept the circumstances and their emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

This is a tiny little church, named the Holy Cross Church, and it was amazing to think of what the inhabitants of this little town would have felt when they were praying.

This is not an easy place to survive and I have to imagine they had many doubts and questions but their faith probably helped to keep them alive in the worst of times.

I’ve never been much of a believer in anything but I’m guessing, as humanity tries to survive in places like this, faith makes a difference and eases so much worry and fear.

The pits in the ground also were used for wine and for fires.

If you notice, there is soot all around the ceiling of these rooms.

I appreciate that wine, light, and a gathering of people made their lives just a little bit easier.

 

 

Day 514 In Beijing: Blue Tour In Cappadocia, Part 1.

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Another wide view of Zelve Open Air Museum.

Another wide view of Zelve Open Air Museum.

 

Jill had booked a few different tours for us while we were in Cappadocia.

She’d been on one or two of them before and wanted me to be able to share the experience with her.

I usually hate tours, as does Jill, but since she recommended we do these, I trusted her.

The tours were set to only have about 6-10 people in them and to have a guide who spoke English, Turkish and usually another language or two as we’ve found we often got put in groups with people from other countries.

We loved that this happened because we were able to meet more people, from all over the world, who were traveling and enjoy Turkey as much as we were.

One this tour, we met a wonderful family from Colombia.  We all bonded and had a great time talking about the world, what we want out of life, and how to achieve your goals and be content.

We talked a lot and the parents, who are in their late 50s or early 60s, invited us to come and stay with them whenever we visit Colombia.  I grew up in the countryside of Healdsburg and Spanish was spoken a lot.  I was very used to listening to it and speaking it, a little.

When they said, “Mi casa es su casa” I knew that were were like family since it means, “My house is your house.”

We told them that if they ever visit China, or somewhere else we are living, we will extend the same honor.

The daughter, Andrea, and her brother, Camilo, are living in Germany and we became friends very quickly.

It is one of the joys of having small tours in that we can spend time with interesting people, not be rushed, and learn about new places, new people, and share the excitement of seeing something that sparks ours, and their, dreams.

Trust me, Cappadocia sparks dreams.

Imagine living in a place like the Zelve Open Air Museum, hidden from the rest of the world, so you can stay safe and not be attacked or killed for your belief system.

And imagine living in a place like this for hundreds of years and it changing from Christian to Muslim through that time period depending on who is ruling the area.

It is truly fascinating beyond belief.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 513 In Beijing: Videos Of The Hot Air Balloons At Goreme, Turkey.

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Truly magical.

Truly magical.

 

Jill and I love taking videos of Goreme.

It is such a peaceful and comfortable little town.

We really enjoyed meeting so many friendly people, in such a short time, and are very thankful we came here.

We realized that even though pictures definitely capture a good idea of what Goreme is like, a video, or two, is also helpful to feel the whole expanse of the land.

When we first arrived and were being driven from the airport to our hotel, I remarked to Jill that, “This really reminds me of New Mexico.”

I lived in New Mexico for about 3 years back in the mid-90s.  I went to UNM (GO LOBOS!) and lived in Albuquerque during that time.

However, I really enjoyed Santa Fe, Taos and this tiny little town called Galisteo, which is about 20 minutes outside of Santa Fe.

There was a place, The Galisteo Inn, where I used to deliver beer and wine, when I worked for the New Mexico Wine Patrol, and it was a little peace of heaven.

Interesting enough, my mom and my step-dad ended up buying a place in Galisteo, and now share a fence with the Galisteo Inn (it is no longer an inn, unfortunately).

Coincidences like this almost make me smile.

Obviously, New Mexico doesn’t have fairy chimneys but the barrenness of the land, the magical quality of the sunlight, and the amazing sunsets, really make this feel like home.

If you’ve never been to Goreme, or even New Mexico, make sure to go.

You will be happy you did.

 

 

 

 

This will let you see how quickly it filled up with people as this was taken only about 15 minutes after the previous video.

 

Day 512 In Beijing: Hot Air Balloon Sunrise In Goreme, Turkey.

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The view from our balcony.

The view from our balcony.

 

Jill and I woke up quite early this morning.

Actually, I woke up quite early.

It was a bit warm and I decided to see a bit of the sunrise.

I opened our curtains and yelled, “Oh my gosh, Jill!  You have to get up and see this right now!”

Jill sleepily opened her eyes and got up.

We both went outside and stood in awe of all the hot air balloons rising around the little town of Goreme.

We both knew that the hot air balloons go up in the morning but we had forgotten about them.

We decided to watch for a few minutes and then realized we’d have a much better view on the area above our hotel where we were last night.

So we hoofed it up to the top of the ridge, and with only about 10 other people there, it was magnificent to watch the balloons fly around us.

It was about as perfect a way to wake up as I’ve ever had.

And, since we knew we were going to go on our own hot air balloon ride, the next day, it was an awesome way to get ready for it.

 

 

Day 511 In Beijing: Evening Call To Prayer In Goreme, Turkey.

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sunset10

 

After Jill and I relaxed on the balcony at our hotel, we heard the call to prayer start again.

When I write again, it is because the call to prayer happens 5 times a day in Turkey.

I’m guessing this is true in all Muslim countries, but since I haven’t been to all of them, I can’t state that.

We didn’t hear the call to prayer in Malaysia, when we visited there two different times, and we were in major cities with lots of mosques.

We may just have been too far away from the mosques to hear the call but I doubt it.

There is something so relaxing, so calming, and so hypnotic about the call to prayer.

I love listening to it and just letting my mind wander.

The owner of the Village Cave House Hotel told Jill and me that he believes his grandfather worked on that mosque and another one that is near the hotel.

As you listen, you will notice you can hear the call to prayer bouncing off itself as the different mosques’ speakers played it just a second or two apart from each other.

It may have also been perfectly synchronized but the distance between the mosques, and our hotel, may have caused the delay as the sound may have reached us at slightly different times.

Either way, it was magical and a perfect way to be welcomed into Goreme and our stay at the Village Cave House Hotel.

 

 

Day 510 In Beijing: Night View Video From The Village Cave House Hotel.

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The night view from our balcony.

The night view from our balcony.

 

Jill and I loved just sitting on our balcony and hanging out.

We had a nice bottle of Turkish wine, and if you didn’t know, the Turks make some great wine, our favorite Turkish white cheese, and some crackers to enjoy along with the view.

We knew we were only here for a few days so we wanted to make sure to take advantage of the peace, calm and tranquility as much as possible.

so we did.

Enjoy.

And cheers!

 

Day 509 In Beijing: Sunset In Goreme, Turkey, Part 2.

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It almost doesn't look real as the lights turn on.

It almost doesn’t look real as the lights turn on.

 

Jill and I wanted all our readers to get more of an idea of what the sunset in Goreme looks like so we made sure to get a quick video.

There were probably about 100 people, total, on this rather large expanse of land, and it was more than quiet enough to make it special.

Enjoy.

 

Day 508 In Beijing: Sunset In Goreme, Turkey.

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The mountain range as the sun sets.

The mountain range as the sun sets.

 

Jill and I hung out on the platform, overlooking the gorgeous town of Goreme, and watched the sunset.

We were lucky enough to be one of only about 10 people up there so it was very quiet and very calm.

The town is known for the hot air balloon rides, but since those only go up in the morning, there is very little traffic or anything else going on in this sleepy little town, which was perfect for us.

We both grew up in relatively small towns and love the quiet and the outdoors.

It is something we desperately miss living in Beijing as there is almost no quiet time and almost no outdoors.

There are parks, and some are quite large, but they are usually full of people.

Sadly, most those people are posting pictures of themselves and not even paying attention to the nature and the beauty right in front of them.

The irony is that I was taking pictures of this natural beauty while complaining about it but this was only for a few minutes.

Jill and I spent most the time just wandering around, in utter joy, looking at people, the architecture, and the nature while being amazed that we are lucky enough to be in this amazing town.

So, with that, I’ll leave you in peace to enjoy the sunset with us.