Impossible Landscapes

View from the terrace at Kelebek Cave Hotel, Goreme.

The time I spent in Cappadocia, a region in Central Turkey, was the highlight of my trip last month. I've longed to visit ever since I first saw images of this magical, other-worldly place some dozen years ago.

Admittedly, mid-late November is not the ideal time to visit. Days are short, and the nights are bitter cold. On the other hand, such conditions attract few (other) tourists. Our rambles were blissfully solitary.*

Cappadocia (spelled Kapadokya in Turkish) has been inhabited for millennia. The Hittites lived here BCE. It was an important site of early Christiandom, producing many saints and patriarchs, as is evinced in the many cave churches that survive today. Hundreds of massive underground cities were built to protect early Christian populations from invading hordes, then forgotten and lost for centuries (a common theme in this part of the world). We visited on such site, Kaymakli. While the caves are no longer inhabited, people still live in some of the fairy chimneys, like those seen in the Goreme photo above.

*Not so blissful: getting lost, worrying about finding a road before it got dark and we froze to death.

Antalya

I'm wrıtıng from Turkey, where I have hıtherto been unable to connect to Blogger. Tomorrow we leave the warm, sunny Medıterranean for chılly Istanbul. Weather reports vary sıgnıfıcantly, the Turkısh sıtes beıng more optımıstıc (17-18 degrees C) than others (13-14, chance of showers). I'm goıng to belıeve the locals untıl they're proved wrong.

Wild- and Not-so-wild Life I Saw in Wyoming:

2 herds of bison
2 moose (cow + calf)
2 mule deer
1 coyote
1 herd pronghorn antelope

And lots of chipmunks, horses and cattle. No sign of bears. (Should I count the dead mouse?)

A Surprising Discovery and a Small Prayer

I took a tour of Jaffa this morning, and about 10 minutes and three photos into it I found that my 2 Gig SD card was full. I was shocked, but when I reviewed what was on the card, I discovered that it contained a ton of photos from Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. Which means that I haven't used the card since March 2008. I deleted at least 70 of them to make room for the new stuff and prayed that I had them backed up somewhere.

No, I'm Serious

I rarely travel internationally for shorter than a few months. But a few hours ago I got a ticket, departing tomorrow, for five days in Tel Aviv. With a few days layover in Paris on the way back.