The Second Trip, Part IV

I warn you, it's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaally long.

On Thursday all I have pictures of is eatting and the road. It took me a while to realise that that's because we were on our way to Cappadocia! We stopped for lunch in the birthplace of Turkish icecream. It was necessary to try the icecream. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well, so I only ordered one scoop of vanilla. The guy serving was heartbroken. Didn't I want anything else? How about strawberry? No? Well I had to try the pistachio- it is his favorite. It's not that I don't want it, it's that I don't know that I do. And so a scoop of pistachio was added. I attempted to take my icecream, but no! I should try the almond as well! Won't I take the almond? And another scoop went on. I managed to deter any fruit flavours, but still ended up with four scoops dipped in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with nuts.
In the end he only charged me for the scoop I had ordered, and with a bus full of boys, I had no problem getting rid of my icecream when I had had enough.

After that we left the mountains, and were back into the open sky. We arrived in Cappadocia in time for supper, then spent time in our rooms. (If anyone is wondering, this time the chaperon was complaining that we had better internet). Since (as I said) I wasn't feeling well, I stayed in while everyone else went out for a walk. Garet, Blase, and Carly returned soon after with a large bottle of coke and a bucket of icecream. We borrowed some spoons and cups from the hotel's restaurant downstairs and made icecream floats before going to bed.

The next day we explored Cappadocia, land of beautiful horses! We didn't see many horses, beautiful or otherwise, but every time we passed a goat or a sheep or a cow, someone would say "Look! A beautiful ho... no wait... Never mind." We did, however, see plenty of houses built into the cliffs and hills, and odd rock formations known to tourists as "ferry chimneys" and me as "hoodoos". Indeed, the guide agreed with me when some of the Americans didn't believe that we had a word for them in English.
After a short photo expedition, we entered The Underground City. Not for the claustrophobic! It was a system of small, winding passages opening into low-roofed rooms with small signs stating in Turkish and English what that particular cave was used for. Here I am in the church.From the underground city we drove to a community of sorts that from what I could tell was entirely churches, kitchens, and monistaries. It was great fun to run around in the buildings and attempt to take decent photos in low light with no flash then run outside and be completely blinded by the blazing sun and attempt to take photos where your subject wasn't a complete shadow. It would probably help if I knew something about photography. But alas, you are stuck with these:
THEN, on our way out we passed the President of Portugal. The Brazilians yelled in Portuguese and ended up with video cameras pointed at them. I shall always wonder what they said...

Now I believe I told you that we had a short bus for this trip. 15 seats for 15 people. It made for a very crowded trip, especially with bus rides that lasted the whole day. Well for the sake of comparison, here's our bus beside a regular tourism bus, like the one we had for the first trip. Get the idea? Anyway, now that you're done laughing, we next visited a town nearby where we ate lunch (and impressed the locals with our Turkish) and were given a tour of a pottery business. Everything was hand-made, and we followed a plate through the different steps taken to create the extremely expensive souveniers in the shop.
As you can see, their home and workshop was partially underground, like most of the buildings in the area. This meant that it was beautifully cool! From there we toured the vastly less exciting jewelry place and then it was off to the "moonlike landscapes" where we were free to explore.

At the end of the day (there's another day dawning! Couldn't help it, sorry...) we returned to the hotel. Blase, Carly, and I signed up for the hot air balloon ride and went to bed early for that.

End Trip Update.
As for my new family, they are wonderful! I have been spending nearly all my time with my host sister. I've been helping her improve her English and she has been teaching me more Turkish. I can now make If clauses and say "I wish..." (and with that, I learned conditional phrasing). This probably doesn't sound that impressive, but I'm happy! She talks in English and I talk in Turkish and we translate what each other is saying and correct any mistakes.
The next update will be the balloon ride! I'm almost done!

Love,
Maeghan