Month: October 2011

underground city

One of the afternoons in Urgup/Cappadocia, Josh took the boys to the underground city. I didn’t go because 1) it was time for the baby to nap and we had been hiking all morning 2) supposedly the underground city is made up of all these connecting tunnels, some that you have to kneel and crawl through and I didn’t see how that would be feasible with a baby on my back (and that part sounded a little claustrophobia inducing) 3) it looked to be almost an hour away according to the map, which did not sound like a fun drive with a tired, yelly baby.

It turns out that except for the necessary nap for Camille, all the other obstacles weren’t an issue. It was only about 1/2 an hour away and the boys didn’t want to go down any of the really narrow tunnels because they were small and pitch dark, so I wouldn’t have had to worry about squeezing through tunnels with baby. Either way, I enjoyed my quiet afternoon in my cave while the boys went and explored this cave.

From what I remember reading in the guidebook, thousands and thousands of people lived in these underground cities to hide from enemies/religious persecution. I should probably google that to make sure it’s accurate, but I don’t feel like doing that right now. Josh said the craziest thing was that everything was underground, including areas where they would grow food. He couldn’t figure out how you could grow food without sunlight. Maybe they just stored food for the times they were in hiding?


They had access to plenty of grapes. Cappadocia is wine country.

I can’t say a lot of interesting things about these photos, because I didn’t take them and I wasn’t there, but I do know the story behind this one. These underground cities (there are over 100 of them, but 2 or 3 main ones open to the public) are huge with tour groups and while Josh and the boys were there, they heard a tour guide talking about this well and how it provided water for all the thousands of people that used to live underground. He then took out a small pebble or rock and told the group to listen as he reverently dropped it into the well. It fell down, down, down and the group all oohed and ahhed and nodded when they heard the “splash.”

After the tour group left, Josh took the boys over to the well, because he didn’t hear a splash and he tossed a coin in and it clattered and banged all the way down until they heard a “thunk” as it hit the dry bottom. As the boys were telling me this story, they were laughing so hard that they had tears in their eyes at the idea that the tour guide made a big production about hearing water in the well when it was so clearly dry.

Some of those areas are looking pretty narrow to me . . . maybe it was a good thing I didn’t go along.

If you want to read more about Kaymakli from someone who has more information than I do, I found this link that describes what is on each of the 4 levels that are open to the public: http://www.anadol.com/kaymakli.htm or there’s always my friend, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaymakl%C4%B1_Underground_City

Maybe a table? A millstone? A door?
**Josh let me know that this is stone is actually part of their security system. The stone would be turned on edge, rolled to block the archway in the photo below, and wedged in place to keep intruders from entering. 

The main passages had some light (you can see the wiring running in this picture, but I guess a lot of the passages are completely dark. Josh said the boys started out with the idea of exploring all the side tunnels, but decided it was too dark. In all they saw stables, a church, living areas, kitchens, granaries, wineries, ventilation shafts, everything required to maintain a city, all underground.

sook shopping

Another old post that I “found” today. This is from summer when we went to the sook and bought our chess table from the Syrian wood guy. You can see Carter was eyeing the knives months ago in anticipation of his birthday . . . the kids that don’t belong to us are our next door neighbors. 

Recently we went to the sook because we wanted to get something interesting for our house. We keep going to this shop that carries items imported from Syria because it’s fun to browse and look at all the beautiful boxes, trays, and chess sets while Josh speaks Arabic to the shop owner.

This most recent time the boys had friends come along to keep them occupied while mom and dad shopped. These two were fascinated by these curved knives.

The boys have been wanting a chess board and I thought that instead of buying a chess board that I would have to find a place to store, that we should get a small chess table that would be useful/decorative when not being used to play chess. This is the one we decided on.

Thank God for the knives. They kept the boys completely occupied while we came up with a price for the table that was agreeable to both of us. It took a little while, but in the end, we were all happy. The best part about this table is that it folds in half and swivels on the base to become a narrow side table that we can eventually put in a hallway or entryway. 

backgammon, chess, checkers, and cards — both beautiful and functional

close up of the inlay detail. Amazing, isn’t it?


A few seconds of Josh chatting in Arabic

flying high

I was going through old drafts on my blog, looking for Turkey stuff when I found this. I think I was originally going to do a post about our flight/trip to Oman, but it got lost in all the chaos of landing in country and finding our way around.

I forgot how quiet those lemons kept her — I wonder if I need to pack some for our trip to Jordan in a few weeks?

cave dwelling

I’ve been trying to hold off on posting the Turkey photos until I feel like I’ve adequately captured the feeling of being there, but I’ve realized that’s an impossible task so I’m just plunging in. When we last left off, we were leaving Ankara and had stopped at the salt lake on our way to the Anatolia region of Turkey. This is where we stayed in Cappadocia: Esbelli Evi Cave Hotel.

The hotel was located just up the hill from the downtown area of Urgup and we were easily able to walk down the hill to go out to eat, get ice cream or shop.

The unique thing about the Anatolia region of Turkey is a type of rock that is filled with caves that were formed by a volcanic eruption a long time ago. And the stone in this area is soft and perfect for carving out cave dwellings, which is how people lived here for years. Recently, some enterprising people have taken abandoned cave dwellings, renovated them and turned them into boutique hotels. 

Once we stepped through the entrance of the hotel it was as if we had entered a secret garden.

On the grounds are stone steps that go up and down and pathways that wind around to all the different rooms.

Looking down on the front door to our Family Suite. There is a garden with fruit trees growing on the roof.

Inside the front door was the entryway, two bathrooms, and the stairs leading down to the main cave rooms. 

At the bottom of the stairs — the passage to the left leads to the living room (to the right are the bedrooms).

The living room was cozy and comfortable, beautifully rustic and plenty big for all of us. The back door led to our huge private garden. 

(like the makeshift baby gate at the bottom of the stairs?)

Flowers, fruit trees, climbing vines, plenty of space — I could have called this place home permanently.

And the view of the hillside from our backyard — plenty of caves to explore right outside our back gate!

The rest of the house was just as beautiful and I must have been too busy relaxing and enjoying it to get very good pictures. This was our bedroom. I loved that all the rooms had windows that looked out on the back yard. 

The kid’s bedroom was the most fun. There was a bed carved into the wall and the closets were created from smaller hollowed out areas. Perfect hiding and play spaces. 

 

Nighty-night! Don’t let the cave animals bite!

Proud Mama

“You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have: The Facts of Life. The Facts of Life.” That song is stuck in my head right now (unfortunately taking up valuable brain space) because I often have “funny” stories about Carter related to school — not wanting to read or take tests, his homework frustrations, his non-love of academics, but today I have a fabulous Carter school story.

Two days ago Carter came home and said that his class was hosting an assembly and his teacher had picked him and another boy from his class for speaking parts. I was sure I misunderstood him because a child who just two months ago refused to read out loud if his brothers were in the room wouldn’t possibly be willing to read out loud in front of the entire 4th grade. “Not the 4th grade mom. The whole elementary school!” Say what now?

Sure enough. Today I got to go watch the child I feared would never read, read into a microphone to about 500 people.

The purpose of the assembly was to remind everyone to take care of the toys and playground equipment during recess. Since the 4th grade was hosting the assembly they brainstormed and came up with the points that they thought should be brought up during the assembly: take turns, use the slide properly, always bring a water bottle and hat, wait for the recess monitor before getting toys out of the bins, be careful on the swings, etc.

Then a staff member filmed them while they demonstrated these points on the playground, interviewed each other, etc. The format of the assembly was a news broadcast and Carter and his friend were to be the news anchormen who would introduce the video.

A full house: the bleachers were completely filled with kids from preschool through 5th grade


right before going onstage


the main event


Carter on the big screen (he said being in the video was the most embarrassing part).

He did a great job and I’m so proud of him. I was also really happy that he invited me to watch him perform. It felt like I was watching a miracle in action . . .