The initial plan in Cappadocia was to just relax and rest my body. I’m glad I didn’t, cus that would of meant missing out on one the most spectacular piece of nature..in the world (?). According to UNESCO's world heritage listing, I’m not exaggerating. Yesterday I visited a town even smaller than Goreme, called Uchisar, a city that literally gave me goose bumps. I ended up going there again today.
Uchisar
Though it's probably only the locals that refer to place as "Petite France", I thought that this tiny town next to Goreme offers something that even Paris or Leon cannot level up to. The
Uchisar Castle, the most swiss-cheese-looking rock in the neighborhood, really adds something special to the landscape of Cappadocia. If you've ever seen "Hal's Moving Castle", the Uchisar Castle really reminded me of the castle in the film (even though I never really got to finish that movie..). I decided to walk to it since it was only about 4km from Goreme, and I designated the day for simple walks in order to preserve energy for the next day's biking trip. It was a nice long walk up to the castle. Met some people and stopped at some shops on the way. I was almost led on to purchase a pillow cover, until I realized that I'd probably blame it for not being able to sleep and that I didn't have any more space something (unnecessary) like that.
Getting to Uchisar was one thing. Getting up to the castle was a whole different story. You can probably tell from the photo that there isn't a large road that leads up to the castle. Instead, there's a valley called the "Pigeon Valley", and when there's valleys in Cappadocia, it means that you're in for a hell of a maze and you shouldn't expect a walk in the park. But as I say, that's what adds flavor to everything in life. It probably took me longer than it should have, but then I also got to see more than I could have if I followed a map.
Hostel people
When I stay at hostels, I tell myself that I'm not paying for the roof over my head, the shower, the warm water, nor the hospitality, but for the connections that I make. Hostels, especially in dormitories, provide the ideal opportunity to make connections. People I meet at hostel dormitories are usually young and broke backpackers, like myself. By broke I don't mean we're struggling to get through everyday, but that we're skimping on accommodation to ease the burden on our wallets.
At Ufuk, I stayed in a 5-people dormitory cave room (all guys of course). 2 guys from Austria, 2 guts from Japan, and myself (I mentioned why there's so many Japanese people here earlier). I think I got closer to the 2 Austrians more than any other person I've met on this trip. Before further into that, the Ya-pa-neese (Japanese in Turkish).
When I told them I have a blog, they told me that I can use their name, which helps just because I won't have to label them "this guy" and the "other Japanese one". So there's Ryota-san and Ryutaro-san (from now, Ryota and Ryutaro. Last time I checked, no age hierarchy in Turkey). Ryuta is 28 and comes from Osaka. He's been traveling for about 8 months after quitting his job and leaving his girlfriend waiting in Japan. Guys like this makes me feel so small for traveling for 10 weeks only (and makes me feel better making her wait. Just playing girl, you're thinking "Don't worry, I'm not waiting". I know, I know). Hnn what else about him. (Alright, why not be honest. This is my blog after all). He can get annoying. Well it was obvious that he was happy to talk to a Japanese person, and that he wanted to share his stories with someone who speaks his language. Felt like I was in Wakei, my dorm. Ah, the days of sitting on the floor for hours listening and nodding to stories that at the end, benefits me NADA. But this time was different. I was in Turkey, and I had no obligation to pretend to be interested. But me being me, I did exactly that.
The second Japanese is Ryutaro. Another unique individual. They both found me to be unique, but I think the same about them even more. So this guy attends Osaka Gai-Dai (a university specializing in foreign language) and is in his last year to obtain his degree with a Portuguese degree. Well actually, he's taking a year off to study abroad in Portugal and do some traveling. Sounds legit, right? That's what I thought at first, until I asked him why he chose to major in Portuguese. Turns out he's a crazy soccer fan. That's it. That's the reason. He like soccer = Brazil is good at soccer = Brazilians speak Portuguese = Major in Portuguese. Easy. I actually respect how he genuinly committed his entire life to his hobby. Makes me wonder why people like me think and worry so much about the future. What I can't respect is how he still doesn't know how to connect his major to his career. I can write a whole new blog (on a separate account) about future ambitions and career decisions, but if I had time to that I'd be doing more activities to polish my resume.
Ah, the Austrians. Love these guys. Sab and Fleck (I think Sab is short for Sabastin). Spent an entire day and a half with them. Probably didn't put a smile on Ryota's and Ryutaro's faces to see me hang with these guys more than the people of "my kind" (Japanese). But I was having too much fun. They just graduated from Vienna University with a major in Film and Theatre. Yes, our interest couldn't of been any more different. Usually I'm hesitant to immediately open up to guys into art, drama, or theatre (I'm half kidding. half), but this time, it didn't take anything more than cup of chai and a glass of Cappadonian red wine. They were the easiest guys to get along with. Our hobbies and interests are different (complete opposite almost), but we had overlapping traveling styles and similar perceptions on tourists & backpackers. Ah, the joy of sharing criticisms with fellow backpackers.
After getting to know each other, we managed to find couple common interests. Well, one really matters. Football. One thing I'll miss from traveling is that, almost all countries outside of US have mad passion for the game of football. Even Japan has more Premier League, Serie A, and League Espanol followers than in the states. The question "whose your team" comes up in almost every conversation. It's a world-wide ice breaker. (I'm thinking of a phrase in Japan that can play the same role but can't think of one... well, this justifies the Japanese culture of hikikomori, neet, and otaku. Bam, I just hit 3 otakus with one stone. 「こんにちは、貴方のサッカーチームはどれですか？」。無理がある。)
Back to Fleck and Sab (why do I drift off topic in this blog..). The day we met was also the day of a friendly match between Austria Vienna and FLF. Yes, aka the most random game in football history. For Austria Vienna, it was their 100th anniversary since club establishment. For FLF, which stands for Friends of Luis Figo, it was a match to raise money for charity. By the way Luis Figo is a Portuguese ex Real Madrid player. He played for Inter Milan during the peak of his career, and he's also respected for being the Portuguese captain who helped the country get constant Ws during their golden age. Them being Austrian, and me being an ex-semi-Figo fan (I supported him enough to have his jersey), we decided to go to a sports bar/cafe to watch the game. Perhaps it wasn't the most exciting game to speculate after watching the Barca v ManU championship in Egypt.. especially because the average age of players were about 67. Felt like watching the senior Olympic.. in slow motion. Figo, who is around 40 himself brought his old "friends" to play along with him. Austria Vienna on the other hand is the number 2 team in the Austrian Football League, with handful of promising youngsters who are candidates to be on the national team roster for the 2014 World Cup. So the result was forseeable. By half time the score was 3-0 for Vienna. A friendly match means fan service is everything, so starting the second half Vienna started throwing in old, retired players as well (most of them are legendary players of the club). By the 60th minute, the match turned into an old-men match that you see in parks every Sundays. It was sort of awkward watching old, fat men chasing a ball for 90 minutes. So many scenes where the three of us would just hide our face in embarrassment and wonder why we're still watching. But well, it was a nice bonding time.
Bike Ride
Fleck, Sab, and I came up with a master plan. Rather than hiking all the valleys, why not bike it all. So that’s all it took for us to go to a rental shop and borrow 3 mountain bikes for a day (8 hours). Oh, by the way I didn’t know at the time that the two are huge BMX fans and frequently goes mountain biking back home. I just thought we’re going for a cruise.
The wine and the farewell
After returning back to Ufuk hostel and taking turns taking showers, we just relaxed in the terrace for a while and then ordered dinner. We felt bad for not spending any money and not contributing to the already small Goreme economy. So we ordered 3 “Turkish Omlete” that the owner claims is his specialty and the best in town. I’m no chef or food critic, but I’m pretty sure even I could of made something similar.. well to be optimistic for once, the atmosphere and the satisfaction of contributing to the hostel business was definitely worth the price. After dinner it was still bright outside (even though it was like 8pm), so we decided to go for a walk in the city before my bus departure at 10. The walk was actually a secondary objective. Our main one was to buy a bottle of Cappadocian wine and drink it while watching the sunset. Might have been the most romantic time for me in months. It was unfortunate that we only had an hour and a half to chat, because we got into a very interesting conversation.. from tourism, to Japanese people, to Austrian politics. I’ve never had such an open conversation about sensitive topics with Europeans, and it’s been forever since I laughed from top of my lungs.
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