Sunday, November 05, 2006

Capadoccia

November 5, Urgup (Cappadocia) light snow and Mysterious!

What a trip up from South Africa: the 11 + hours flight up from Cape Town to London where BA put me up at the in-airport Hilton....Heathrow more of a potential disaster than I remember.....the Hilton is attached for example to terminal 4...to reach terminal 1 with any amount of baggage at all is a 20 pound taxi ride...no shuttle buses from any airport hotel it seems...security?

BA was comfortable coming up...a thrilling ride over the Kalahari and then Angola...clouds and then northern Nigeria and the utter vastness of the Sahara....clouds then and suddenly Lyon below and dusk over NW France enroute Heathrow. Oddly, BA is like Qantas in many ways: the glorious sleeper seat (with pajamas again given to passengers), 18 seats in first (all filled which they have been on all of my long haul flights)...food which is decent enough (with quite superlative wines) but not remotely out of the ordinary....you know, a filet in red wine sauce or a tuna steak after no special canapes...good cheese platters.....the days of caviare and foie gras are over with it seems...the food does at least leave one less bloated.
The night at the factory-like Hilton....the one, which charges something like 200 pounds for "civilians" but which British Airways gets for 60 Pounds a night...also have a dinner and breakfast voucher which I did not use.

Morning flight over Europe.....mostly cloudy but brilliant skies leaving London over the channel...and again clear over a very snowy E Rumania, Bulgaria and Thrace.....snowing at Ataturk Airport as I arrived.
To find Eyup and Aysegul and the fact that we were leaving in two hours (my surprise!) on a Turkish Airlines flight to Kayseri/Cappadocia......nice Turkish Airlines domestic service, greatly improved from the old days....even on the 1 1/2 hour flight a tuna sandwich and a brownie!...we arrive at Kayseri to find Suad, the Argent driver in a comfy VW van (all leather inside) for the 1 1/2 hour ride over here...to be greeting by DEAR DEAR Suad a travel writer couple from London whom I like...and a typical groaning board dinner of full mezze and so on....I was about as hungry as someone who has just finished a huge Thanksgiving dinner...but tried to appear starved....particularly glorious tarama, dolmades and all the things I like.

It is now 1130 PM as we go to Esbelli Evi, the in-cave hotel of ENORMOUS charm and to bed...for all of 5 hours....a 500 AM wake up call and a trasnfer to Urgup Village for the hot air balloon ride...which is cancelled because of the snow....yes, it is a lovely wonderful of the Gaudi-designed landscape of Cappadocia with a brushing of the white stuff...utterly surreal...so is my body.WHERE AM I? You all know the feeling. I am now typing on S's computer in the living room at Esbelli Evi...having returned to the hotel from the aborted hotair balloon and slept for an hour or so...a superb breakfast with those poppy seed simits, village bread, home made yoghurt and jams, beyaz penir...the works...oh glory....
Aysegul is more beautiful than ever....Eyup more solicitous and loving...they have a complete 5 day tour mapped out for me....wandering the backroads, staying in little inns...it sounds enchanting and I am finally waking up to the land of Oz.

I so love this country...beyond love! Should have some really original antics to report when we get to Istanbul on Wednesday night. With any luck Suat will travel with us.

The editor in chief of LONELY PLANET is due here today and all bells and whistles will be intoned.

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