Saturday, September 3, 2011

Tea, Whirling Dervishes, Fairy Chimney Climbing and Card Games

Saturday, September 3, 2011


Our tour around Cappadocia continues. Last night we checked into our very nice Konya hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant upstairs on the roof. They served a buffet meal that was said to be quite good. After that we were thirsty, and asked Tohsen, our guide, where we could find water. He told us where the nearest store was, and Peter, Justin, Ashlee, Chelsey and I walked around the corner and found it about 50 yards away. Later that night Kelli, Ashlee, Peter, Justin, Jon, Carlos and I played Dutch Blitz (a card game). I learned the rules right then from some really good players who are among us. It was actually really fun to play. Ashlee says it's available in Christian bookstores.

Next morning we again dined at the buffet upstairs for breakfast. The typically Turkish menu included fresh bread, several cheeses, jam, honey, marmelade, plums, peaches, olives, dried apricots, fried eggplant, boiled eggs, cheese pastries, rolls, muffins, tea and coffee. A lot of street restaurants and cafes here offer freshly squeezed orange juice, but all they had here was a fairly gross tang-like beverage. It was really out of place; everything else was delicious.

More about food: The peaches here are really, really good. Yesterday at lunch Peter, Kelli, Ashlee, Justin and I weren't that hungry, so they said we could walk around the city for an hour and meet back at the restaurant. We bought peaches, nectarines, figs, and an ice cream bar at a grocery store. We walked around and eventually sat upstairs in a stairway in some old, reasonably clean office building. The peaches were really, really good. Every single peach I've had here has been more than satisfactory. The fresh figs I've had have been pretty good too.

Dr. Mallery taught us the Turkish word for peach, which is Şeftali. She further instructed us to only use the Turkish word in public when referring to the fruit, which is quite often. The reason for this is somewhat amusing: 'Peach' sounds like a certain misogynistic Turkish obscenity. We actually observed some people on the street turn their heads in our direction yesterday when we mistakenly uttered the word.

We drove a long way in our tour bus today, the destination being Ürgüp. On the way, Jon, Carlos, Hew, Caitlin and I played Spades. Jon and Carlos rotated, partnering with Hew. They taught me the rules in a few minutes and we played for most of the trip. I had some really embarrassing noob moments mixed in with some nice plays, but it was a lot of fun. It also really sets the intellectual mood on this study tour, sharpening up the mind.

Random note: All the buses in Turkey are stick shifts. The clutch on ours is heavy but not too bad. With the large engine, it takes 3 seconds between shifts. It feels like a long time. The drivers here are extremely skilled in Turkish traffic. We've learned to trust them a lot.

We made a stop near some of the cave houses here. There's a lot of fascinating geology in the area created by erosion of a soft stone layer. Some of us ran around in the hills and climbed around on the rocks. Not to worry, no bodily injuries were sustained. It felt like a playground, and I was a little kid running around after being cooped up on the bus.


















We're staying two nights in a very nice hotel here in Ürgüp. They have a swimming pool and even a 'disco' floor. After checking in, we swam in the pool and played Dutch Blitz until dinner. After that we went to see a Dervish ceremony at the converted Saruhan Caravanserai. Tohsen says Saru means 'yellow' in Turkish, and Han, among many possible meanings, means a resting place or inn in this context. Incidentally, we also visited the Sultanhan Caravanserai earlier today, which was a 13th-century rest stop for caravans. Han signifies the same thing here as well.

There were ten dervishes, four of them musicians. We all agreed that they put on an excellent performance. They all turned around in full circles, as opposed to the 270-degree turns the less practiced dervishes used in the earlier performance we saw. The skirt portion of their costumes whirled very properly, and it was very neat to watch. There was a singer, a ney (traditional reed flute), lute, Kanun (dulcimer harp with pegs for pitch adjustment), and tuned drums. The ney player was excellent, and I thought better than last time. The singer had a very nice voice. The leader who was not a musician gave a homily at the end, but it sounded slick and theatrical. It was a good performance, but we thought it didn't seem as sincerely religious compared to the previous one. This was more of a tourist attraction. Afterwards they served us some tea that was the same that Dervish Erol served us earlier when we talked with him at Ali's apartment. It contains a lot of different spices, once of which is cinnamon. It was naturally sweetish and further sweetened. It was absolutely delicious, but they warned us that a doctor had said not to drink more than two cups a day. It's also nearly unobtainable; the only way to obtain it would be from Erol. Not to worry, I didn't notice any acute effects from it. It seems like a mild stimulant, and I might have felt a little warmer after drinking it, although of course it is a hot drink.

1 comment:

  1. Carol Bradfield, Member of LSU learning community and admirer of LSU studentsSeptember 10, 2011 at 8:22 PM

    Enjoyed all the details - sounds like you are making the most of every moment.

    ReplyDelete