Bob and Ann in Turkey 2008

Please visit April 17 slideshow

Leaving our Train


Entering the Museum

We slept on the train (at least we tried) in our cozy compartment. The tracks were very rough which caused the train to bump around during the night. It made abrupt stops from time-to-time which jolted us awake. We expected this, though, so it was a fun experience.

Breakfast at 6:30 was olives, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread and a hard-boiled egg with coffee (Nescafe). Although Turkish coffee is made with real ground coffee, most "regular" coffee is instant. Almost everyone from our group made it to breakfast. The ones that didn't opted to sleep a little more.

We got to Ankara at 8:30 and met our bus. Then it was off to the award-winning Anatolian Civilizations Museum. It displayed artifacts from Paleozoic times to more recent history. It was a fairly small but very intense exhibit. There were lots of cave paintings, ceramics, stone sculptures, etc.

After that we made the requisite visit to Ataturk's Mausoleum and Museum. Among the exhibits were grusome, gory diaramas of various wars that Turkey fought to ward off invaders. This included some very realistic scenes of the revered Ataturk and his role in the battles. Numerous school children groups were being guided through the museum as part of their education of Turkey's past violent achievements.

Our Lunch

Lunch was on our own. We went to a fast-food place and had sandwiches. Ann was conservative and had tuna with tomatoes. I had my first Turkish gyro - lamb and vegetables. There were lots of locals there so it must have been good. I thought so.

Entering Cappadocia

Then it was time to get on our bus to drive 5 1/2 hours to Cappadocia. It was an easy drive because we had time to nap and catch up on some of the sleep we lost on the train. We also made two pit stops to stretch and relieve our bladders. The pit stops were in huge truck stops with restaurants and shops. We even had a chance to drop a one-lira coin in a slot and get a five-minute massage on a special massage chair. Ann said it was quite good.

Our Room at the Inn


Alex, Bill, our Host and Betty at Dinner

Our inn called The Greek House in the village of Mustafapasa is a 300 year-old house that has been run by the same family for many years. When the Greeks were thrown out of Turkey in 1923, the house was given to someone who couldn't keep it up. The present owners bought it for 10 Turkish lire, an astounding bargain. The original Greek owner was mayor of the village so it is a large, well appointed house. It has several old rooms that have been upgraded through the years to meet more Western standards (meaning attached bathrooms with Western toilets). Our shower, however, has no shower stall. Water is sprayed over most of the bathroom floor as well as the toilet.

Our dining room was right outside our room. We sat on the floor around three large tables. The family-style meal consisted of a tomato/cucumber/onion salad, a beef/pepper/onion/egg plant stew, rice cooked with butter, macaroni and two kinds of baklava.

We were asleep around 10:00.

The map of our route is below. To see it in Google Earth, follow this link.