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Date: 03 Apr 2011 10:23:26
Title: Cappadocia
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We picked up the car, a Ford Fiesta, at the travel agency the night before.
25 euros a day... the bad news, it only runs on 95 octane green gas what ever
that is, at 4.18 TL per liter. (that's about $10 per gallon) "Wheels up" 07:30.. The inland of Turkey is
much different than the port resort of Kemer. We stopped for a pit stop at a roadside cafe
There was a camel tied up to a tractor tire by
the road side. One hump or two?

We climbed up into the first set of mountains complete with road side snow banks. My sinuses went ballistic for the most of the rest of the mountain segment. When the mountains flattened out a bit we hit rolling farm country. Looks like wheat. Men sitting on tractors
watching three women complete with long dresses and head scarves hand till furrows. Go woman's lib. No lawyers here either...

The roads were very good, 90 KPH max with Turkish style speed traps every 50 clicks or so as we climbed over a mountain
range toward Konya our first stop. Lots of sheep herds, shepherds and dogs. Took about 4 hours to make Konya. The city was much bigger than we had
anticipated from the guide books. We got pretty turned around in the bazaar area and finely found our hotel. Back alley place for 60 euros a night.

Konya is home to the whirling dervishes. This turned out to be a religious Moslem sect founded by a poet named Medieval or something close. His crypt was turned into something of a museum. Their basic tenant was that Islam should be more tolerant of outsiders and invite them to join. Missionaries? Their special dance that involved a medium speed spin for at least a half hour put them in a state of meditation. If you don't throw up you may see... Karen, my sister, had her guide call my Turkish cell and we arranged a meet at the front gate of the museum. We made our meet and during the tour arranged to meet again at the dinner and whirling dervish ceremony in Cappadokia in a couple of days.

We had dinner that night at a place recommended by Fodor's. We had a hard time figuring out where the restaurant was and a guy from the hotel lobby walked half way there with us until we could see the place from the street. Great folks in Turkey. Lamb cooked in a clay pot on pieta bread, salad of mostly parsley and tomatoes. Couple of glasses of apple tea for desert.

Clean and quiet hotel at least until the morning call to prayers came blaring in through our open window from the local mosque at 5:30 AM. Time to thank god you made another one.

We had the big barbeque here at the marina last night. Grilled chicken, meat balls, and liver. Drinking raki and dancing till? A group of Turks was learning to dance our style and then came up with a CD of their music. We all learned a few things then. Rainy day here in Kemer, Sunday, as we are getting ready to leave on Tuesday. Katie is doing the wash, I'm tuning up the rig and greasing winches. Got the staysail up yesterday. The repairs look great. We'll do a final shop tomorrow and be set for a couple of weeks. We have the movie night detail tonight and that will be our last official gig here.


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