Turkey Tastes Good

By Tom

Goreme, Turkey

As I sat outside a carpet store this evening sipping tea and listening to a man play a Turkish Saz, a traditional stringed instrument of the Middle East, enjoying conversation with local people and surrounded by homes carved out of stone fairy chimneys, I decided that Goreme, Turkey is the single coolest place on the face of the earth (or at least place I've been to).

The fairy chimney homes

Julia and I took an overnight bus from Istanbul to Goreme, in the heart of Cappadocia in the center of Turkey. We awoke to the sun rising over the white waves of stone canyon that ripple across the landscape here. The canyons walls of Cappadocia are white, pink, and red and they radiate out in all directions from Goreme. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the unique stone structures that Christian settlers built homes and churches out of starting 1500 years ago. Settlers carved into the stone chimneys or into cliffs and created buildings with arched rooms complete with windows and doors. Today, many of the buildings have been turned into hotels, restaurants, and family homes.

The white carved hillsides of Cappadocia with a fairy chimney

A hotel carved into the cliff-side

Enjoying a hike up the canyons

Wouldn't you like to ride on a camel? It is a nice experience, right?

Julia and I are having a hard time deciding what is the most spectacular aspect of Goreme; the homes built into fairy chimneys, the beautiful rippling white canyons that surround the town, the fascinating Muslim culture and friendly people, or the spicy savory Turkish food that they cook where every meal is better than the last.

Ahh, spices!

We went out for a morning hike before the heat of the day set in, then enjoyed a meal at a cafe in town. It was the same place we had dinner last night but the meal I ordered was so good that we had to have it again. It was a dry flaky pastry with spinach and cheese with spiced yogurt and tomato sauce to dip it in. After spending the summer trying to avoid eating the same rice and beans every meal, we've been savoring every bite of Turkish food; the spices, the yogurt, the sauces, the fresh vegetables and spiced meats. After the heat of the day had passed, we rented mountain bikes and headed up one of the canyons. As the light of the day faded, we watched the sun dip below the horizon setting the rock formations aglow. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at a 450 year old restaurant where the clay pot meal we'd ordered earlier in the afternoon was cracked open at our table. Food here is served on a short table and you sit on a cushion on a carpet on the floor and lean against another cushion behind you.

Julia sitting back for a meal

Food fit for a sultan

Our waiter cracking open the clay pot at our table

Despite the Christain history of the Cappadocia area, it is now as Muslim as the rest of Turkey and is in the middle of the month-long celebration of Ramadan. Muslims fast during the day, abstaining from all food and water, but then feast as the sun dips down. All social activity in towns in Turkey shift to the evenings. The street cafes stay filled with men sharing tea and playing card games until midnight or 1 am. We are reminded of Turkey's Muslim heritage five times a day (starting at 5:30am) when the call to prayer radiates from the crackling speakers hanging from the minaret towering above the mosque in town. The caller sings in the traditional style, which sounds not unlike a tone-def singer trying to hit a note but instead ends up hitting every note possible but the one he's trying for. Still, the people are talkative and friendly and every store owner invites you in to sit and enjoy tea with them while you discuss business, even if that business involves buying a 75 cent souvenir. I try to imagine if things worked this way in America. You walk into Sears looking for a power drill and the store owner says "Before I sell you drill bits, why you sit down and have some tea together?" Somehow, I can't picture it happening.