winter vacation in turkiye

ishaq had two weeks off from work
during the students’ winter vacation.
daija came to spend some time with us.
she arrived in istanbul,
did a little site-seeing
and then she and ishaq rode one of the super comfy coaches
12 hours back to kayseri.

after laying around bored for a few days
we went to the city center and
walked through the old castle in downtown kayseri
that is now filled with shops.
later we had a traditional, yummy turkish lunch:
chicken and ground beef kebabs,
fresh bread, yogurt, a spicy pureed tomato salad, and tabouleh
with garnishes of parsely, lemon, and onion.
deeeee-lish.

we drove a rental up the almost treacherously curvy, steep
mountainside of mount erciyes / erciyes dağı
to go sledding.
on the way up and in the parking lot outside of the slopes
we saw people picnicking next to their cars
with grills and blankets sitting on inches of snow.
it was probably a sunny 2 degrees celcius,
but them turks love themselves a picnic.

ishaq rented a couple sleds for the girls.
they tried out the practice slope
– a small hill that led into the side of a restaurant
with — again — outside seating,
then they headed for the real thing.

the next day we traveled to kapadokya / cappadocia,
whose history is really interesting.
i remember bits and pieces, but thankfully
we have the talks of our tour guide, ali, on video.
we toured the underground caves
that apparently housed people during times of war.

we saw pigeon valley.
in this mountainous/hilly region
land on which to grow crops was scarce,
so the bird lovers built homes for their pigeons
in the sides of mountains
as to not take up land that could be used for farming.
they still house pigeons today.
not only did they house their pigeons in the mountainsides,
but they carved their homes into them as well.
relatively recently, the government built subsidized housing
to get these people out of their mountain-homes
which had become dangerous.

we saw the fairy chimneys
formed by two different types of rock that weather at different rates
and form interesting shapes in the process.

near the end of daija’s stay
we drove 12+ long hours to istanbul,
to take her to the airport.
we stayed in the home of the ever-gracious goksen family
although only their son was home.
their housekeeper cooked some great meals for us.
(i’m still trying to perfect turkish pilaf,
but my rice always turns out too sticky.)

istanbul made me long for the city life:
hustle and bustle, tourist, traffic, things to do!
we still got stared down to the bone,
but at least the crowd moved along.
i saw three brown people!
i almost wanted to say hi
just because it was nice to see someone who looked like us.

we went down to fatih to get some clothes for the girls.
i saw more hijabi’s and niqabi’s there than i saw during our first visit
– there’s a large sufi community there –
when we stayed near taksim.
ishaq was even able to use his arabic a bit
in the stores as he looked for thikr beads for his mom.
i think i could do turkey for another year,
IF we lived in istanbul or izmir or even ankara.

on the drive back to kayseri
we got to see a bit more of turkey’s varied landscape.
we stopped at a rest stop
to use the bathroom,
get a bit of dinner,
and let the girls jump around.

ishaq wove us through the “scenic” route
– read, dirt road instead of highway –
back to kayseri.
it was the correct way, apparently,
but the fact that the only witnesses
to our possible demise
would be the stars
brought me to some worrisome-tears.
alHamdullilah, we made it back home
after getting lost in kayseri for a bit
– our own host city for goodness sake! –
and plopped in bed exhausted.

can’t wait for the next trip.