Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Preliminary Cappadocia

We've recently arrived in Üçhisar, a smallish town in the Cappadocia area. Preliminary exploration of the neighborhood at dusk revealed a friendly purple-shirted Turk and a colossal climbable conical castle.

I was hitchhiking down a long and dusty road.

I was hitchhiking down a long and dusty road.

I was hitchhiking down a long and dusty road.

Views of the smaller cones surrounding said conical castle.

The aforementioned friendly and purple-shirted Turk turned out to be so friendly that he showed us all around the towers, explaining the original uses of various mysterious stoneworks. None of his explanations seemed particularly feasible (particularly his assertion that a certain basin was originally used to store large quantities of Efes that came out of a spigot at the bottom) yet they were certainly entertaining.

I was hitchhiking down a long and dusty road.

It was only after a lengthy tour of the ruins that we discovered our friendly purple-shirted Turk wasn't so much a friendly Turk as an unemployed but enterprising Turk, and that the free tour of the ruins he'd provided wasn't free so much as... not free. All of this came as something of a shock.

He assured us that he only wanted a little money. I had unsettling memories of Cairo, where this phrase really translates as "I am going to attempt to estimate your cumulative net worth and ask for twice that. Ready set haggle." I braced myself for the worst - how much would the 'tour' be? 20 YTL? 30? 40?

He asked for 5 YTL. What a wonderful country Turkey is. Even the hustlers are more reasonable!

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