A day spent on the ground…not above or below!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hello!

Today for some reason brought a migraine I could have well done without, so of necessity, this posting will be shorter than usual.

Our last dinner at Seten restaurant at Sultan Cave Suites was excellent. Robert had the equivalent of Turkish ravioli (actually, more like gnocchi) stuffed with (I think) goat cheese. I had their chicken breast with a spinach stuffing, and it was delicious. Early night at least for me; in bed by 9:30 p.m.

Up earlier than I’d hoped (5:30 a.m.) but wanted to check and see how the balloons were doing. To my surprise, there were very few of them! R says it is all based on wind direction, as it turned out later, many of the balloons ended up flying over Goreme. Lovely bright and sunny morning; only problem being that breakfast isn’t served until 8 a.m. and I was definitely feeling VERY hungry by then! Packed up and out of the hotel about 8:30 a.m. Saying goodbye was difficult, as we really enjoyed all aspects of our stay; love our cave!

We didn’t have too far to drive today, as Bogazkale is about 3 hours from Cappadocia. Nice drive over mostly really good roads; rolling hills initially, growing into some sizable but not huge mountains. Bogazkale is where the capital city of the Hittites, Hattusa, has been excavated; and it’s huge!

Drove to our new hotel, and to be honest, greatly disappointed. As R says, there always has to be one such place per trip, but I try never to let it happen! The first and second rooms they showed us were truly TINY – and there was basically a sink and toilet in the bathroom, and then a shower hose sticking out of the wall – a “wet room” as I’ve heard it called…UGH! I did notice next door there was a much larger “triple” room, which actually had a bathtub, so we asked and moved. The room is perfectly fine; very clean; comfortable bed. R also happy with the internet connection; says it is the strongest signal yet. However, it is bone-chilling cold, no hairdryers, only one electrical outlet in the entire room, and to be honest, I think taking a shower could risk getting pneumonia. So…

Left the luggage and headed down the hill a very short way to the entrance to Hattusa. Huge site; seems to go on for miles. The Hittites built the site using rocks and boulders for their foundation, putting the equivalent of dowel rods into the rocks, with wood as frames, then used sun-dried mud brick for the walls with plaster on top. Because of this method of building, none of the walls are there – but keep in mind that this site was first built circa 2,000 B.C. We toured their temple and store rooms as well as their gates. Most of the time we had these places to ourselves, but there was the occasional tour group as well. Somehow, when there are so few people, it’s not hard to “share” a site with them. Unfortunately, somewhere mid-temple the migraine hit, which did knock me back quite a bit.

We made it through most of the site before it started raining, and as we were in shorts, it was a bit uncomfortable, even though we do have umbrellas. Decided at this point to go back to our hotel so I could take a nap. Good idea; I slept for a couple of hours.

Up again about 4, and down into town … Bogazkale has a population of 5,000 (according to our road atlas), although the sign on the road says 1,500; I believe the atlas is closer to the truth.… to the museum. Small, compact and relatively new building, and very well appointed. Fortunately their signage is in Turkish and English. Back to the hotel, and the decision to switch places tomorrow night. So, I got on-line with booking.com and we will be moving to Hittite Houses tomorrow night…we will see what that brings!

Much love,
m
xxx