I am most proud of our travels into the Middle East.
We went to Turkey last October for 2 weeks and it was tough at first, but ultimately awesome. The people are really great. They welcomed us in Istanbul, a historically cosmopolitan city, rich in the history of so many people.
It was a magnificent crossroads between Europe and Asia for millennia. And now still is in many ways.
For us it had enough European culture to feel a little familiar sometimes. Yet there was the deeply exotic in tastes, smells, colors, textures… just gorgeous, eye popping sights around every corner.
It was tough because I was hesitant as a woman and not sure how it would feel being there. I needn’t have worried. I don’t remember any moment when I didn’t feel pretty safe. But it took a while to relax. The language was hard for me, and I can’t read the alphabet to even begin to suss out words. But we did alright!
However, everyone smokes. A LOT. And that’s pretty awful for me. I just couldn’t breathe. Masks being made normal now, I wore mine a fair amount just to try to breathe.
Yet, the locals are so friendly and happy to help tourists get around. And the food is AWESOME! OMG if you get a chance to go you must have the Turkish breakfasts. Insane.
I wish I could have done more shopping. Sellers are aggressive and have unreal sales mutant powers. I didn’t have any experience with that. It bothered me I couldn’t just look without having someone up in my face. Since we are living out of suitcases, we can’t carry much. I did buy a pretty jacket I love. We got some earrings for Glenn’s daughter. But otherwise I didn’t need ‘stuff’. So we took photos! I have a lot on my Instagram.
Most of my photos are of the cats!
Cats are everywhere!
The Turkish dote on the kitties. Food and water bowls and cat condos are on every store stoop and along sidewalks.
It was explained to me that they feel cats are good luck, and maybe even divine. They guarded knowledge by protecting delicate scrolls and sacred texts from the mice and rats and bugs they carry. They kept vermin and disease away from the people.
So the people take care of them.
We moved on to Cappadocia for 4 nights in a wonderful cave hotel. If you get to Turkey, please visit Cappadocia! It’s like nowhere else. The landscape is unexplainable. The best thing we did was take a hot air balloon ride the first morning we were there. It was life changing seeing the morning sunlight on that incredible, alien landscape.
The other thing that was life changing–I rode a camel.
I have ALWAYS wanted to. But I didn’t want the carnival version with a poor, worn out camel that may or may not be abused. The right opportunity hadn’t arisen.
Until Cappadocia.
Like I said the Turkish are FAMOUS hosts. They really are incredible. Our Cave Hotel manager wrangled the hot air balloon which can have a long waitlist. And he also made sure I rode a camel.
All the animals in the Middle East work. All the people work. They don’t seem to just have pets. But there are a LOT of animals, dogs, cats, donkeys, horses, mules…and camels.
And the animals have a place in the society. They work, and they are treated well. I often saw dogs just loitering around between their duties, mules walking down the street towards their patch, and people seem to know who they belong to and let them be. Traffic moves around any beast in the way. Shops and restaurants have water bowls out for them.
I was at first all worried about the dogs, one of whom came up to me and lay across my feet while we ate. He was ENORMOUS and turns out a herding and protecting dog called Anatolian Shepherd, native to this region of Turkey. They’re huge dogs with massive heads, cream fur and black on their face. He evidently was off duty and liked my feet to snooze on. I didn’t try to move him. He was HUGE. but very sweet.
We watched the people just react to the dogs with affectionate tolerance.
But back to the camels.
We were taken, with our host’s guidance, to a shack with several men and their camels for our ride. The camels were all female because, as we were told, they are gentle, don’t fight with each other, and smaller. They were already 7 feet tall!
Mine was named Lemon. She was a blond. Silky coat, well coiffed. And she wore a gorgeous rug with a soft saddle for me.
Glenn, whose camel was named Poppie, and I were the only ones there so we had a private guide who walked with our ladies for an hour.
We had a mounting platform so the camels didn’t have to kneel for us to get in the saddles.
Lemon had a graceful slow walk that was so comfortable! Her strides were, however, pretty formidable. And so quiet! Camels have padded feet and make very little noise.
She made little purring growls every once in a while, maybe talking to Poppie. When she turned her head to look at me, her head was in reach and I could rub behind her ears. She really liked that. Camels can walk one way and look the other. Neat trick! And that means reins have little effect if they don’t want to go where you try to steer.
We didn’t even try though, since our guide was leading us along a desert path that the Ladies knew well. Professionals will use their legs and a stick to let their camel know where they want them to go.
We took a lot of cheesy photos, saw incredible land formations (you really have to see it to believe it), and our hour was over way too fast. Once again I was struck by how lucky I am to be able to do this, with my husband whom I love so much and makes everything so special. In the photos, I look like a tourist, obv. Glenn looks like a film star.
I was pretty obsessed with camels. This solidified it.
We post on the Quest.Retreats4Nerds Instagram and FB pages lots of photos so check them out!
