Tag Archives: Cappadocia
Dervish Dance
I had mixed feelings about attending – but I am glad I did. Whirling dervishes are part of an obscure branch of Islam, an ecstatic dance performed only in a few places. I won’t go into details, you can look it up. I am extremely reluctant to contribute financially to something I don’t believe in, […]
Hiking In The Rose Valley V
Time to let the pictures speak for themselves. I walked for a couple of hours, no more, and really only scratched the surface of what there was to see. I’ve been back to Turkey a couple of times since, but on those occasions I never got out of Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. I’m hoping that […]
Hiking In The Rose Valley IV
I knew from the faded frescoes on the walls and ceiling where I was though I didn’t know its name, if indeed it had one. It was perhaps the most emotional experience of my trip to Turkey. I was wandering through the Rose Valley and choosing caves at random to explore. People had been living […]
Hiking In The Rose Valley II
Our balloon pilot said the caves in the Rose Valley were no longer inhabited, that the Turkish government had moved everyone into the towns about 50 years ago. Supposedly a safety issue. He was wrong. Oh, I’m sure the government did make that edict. But just because the government tells you to do something doesn’t […]
Hiking In The Rose Valley
For more than a year I have been meaning to tell you about an afternoon spent wandering through the Rose Valley in Cappadocia, Turkey. And I just never seen to find the time to sit down and tel the tale, to really do the place justice. I don’t have time to do that today either, […]
The Buckle Church
Anything free when you are traveling is a good thing, given that travel can be so expensive. Of course if you don’t know it is free it kind of defeats the point. That is the case of the Buckle Church. The church is part of the G Tokali Kilise (The Buckle Church) is the oldest […]
Up, Up and Away – III
As we headed into the van for our hour-long balloon ride over Cappadocia, my friend Mike asked “so how much does this cost?” I told him we had a discount – 150 Euros each. The look on his face said it all. He doesn’t have my stinginess, but he’s not a spendthrift either. I could […]
Up. Up and Away – II
Cappadocia is one of the top three places on the planet to go for a hot air balloon ride, or so I have been told (the others, if you were wondering are the pyramids in Egypt and the Loire Valley in France). And for very good reason – the view is spectacular. I had never […]
Up, Up and Away – I
I am noted for my frugality. I make no apologies, and for the most part have no regrets about pinching pennies. Mind you, my idea on what is worth spending money on has changed a little bit over the years. In 1986 I was in Paris for the first time, and like any good tourist […]
The Dark Church
They call it “the dark church” because it gets very little natural light. That is a good thing – the dark interior means that the frescoes on the ceiling and walls are still vivid more than a thousand years after they were first painted. My son spent the third year of his undergraduate degree studying […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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