Trout-Obsessed Bees and Glorious Gozleme: Cappadocia Pt. 2

Southern Cappadocia is really....large, and the public transport system exists in name only (the name being dolmus, the actual system being i-didn't-see-it-the-entire-time), so we paid 95 TL apiece to get driven around to different places for the day. For the most part, it was worth it. We drove to this beautiful valley (Ilhara Valley) and walked through the valley a few kilometers. There was a stream, which was weird because the rest of this place is basically just beautiful rocks and dust and no water, and we could see the monastery caves that had been carved out in the giant rocks next to us. It was awesome.

                                                                         Ilhara Valley

We went to lunch in Ilhara Valley, which was really exciting at first because we got fresh river trout and got to sit in a hut on little stilts on the stream. Then it all turned terrible. There were bees. A LOT of bees. At least fifteen bees just hanging out, sitting on my fish, buzzing around in my ears. Next time you eat trout, remember that it is mysteriously seductive to bees. I have no idea why bees would be so into trout, but I'm terrified of bees (traumatic experience with orange soda and bees as a child), and it just made the whole meal a lot more stressful. And then I had to rescue my waterbottle from the trashcan (who throws away a full waterbottle, especially when you're in a mini- DESERT?).

Our deceptively peaceful lunch spot.

Finally, after about a half hour of bee-based shrieking, one of the waiters brought out some coffee grounds that he had lit on fire that were supposed to scare the bees away. Didn't work. Stressful lunch.

The stress was worth it, though, because after lunch, we drove to this giant cave monastery from the fourth century that was just basically an entire mountain of volcanic rock that had been carved into churches, dormitories, cafeterias, you name it. For some reason, the fourth-century Christians built their cave churches so that they looked like they had Roman architecture--you know, the domes, the windows, the columns. Which would have been a great idea, except it was literally in a CAVE. Carving out the shape of a window without having an actual window = just awkward and sort of useless. But pretty.

Useless windows.

After that--this is the coolest part--we went to an underground city that people ("people" being I forgot who--early Christians probs) built for times of war. It was pretty intense. The city goes 55 m underground, but they had rooms for keeping livestock and graves and food and everything they needed. And they built a ventilation system!!! Pretty cray. It reminded me of the Catacombs in Paris, except no one cared about ventilation down there because it was for dead people (why they didn't care when it was a coal mine, I don't know.)
The underground city was followed by an awkward visit to a very expensive jeweler where our tour guide all of a sudden started trying to make us buy stuff. Also the salespeople were saying mean things about us in Turkish about how we came in our pajamas (we were all wearing hiking clothes. DUH). So I didn't buy anything and glared at them for a while.

Here is the best part of the whole day: dinner. We were walking up a hill past a restaurant and this boy was handing out free samples of gozleme (the Turkish version of a crepe). Gozleme, I think, is amazing no matter what, but this was particularly good gozleme. So we went there, and it might have been the best meal of my entire life. First, we got fresh lavas (bread) that this old lady was making in a stone oven RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and then sort of throwing it at us. And it was unlimited. And so, so, hot and perfect with yogurt-dill sauce (also unlimited, although we asked for so many refills I felt guilty.) Then we ordered a bottle of Cappadocian wine. Not as good as, say, Bordeaux (I promise I only know this because I was just in France I don't normally know anything about wine), but pretty good. Then Kimia and I shared something called "dry beans in pot" or something--I forgot the Turkish--which was great but the manti, little Turkish dumplings covered in yogurt sauce and magic, was just wild. I don't even know. I don't know what's in them, but they were little packets of buttery pasta heaven. Azra got a "pottery", which is a thing here, and it means that they bake a stew inside a pot and then have to chop open the pot (with a mini-machete thing) to get at the stew inside. Just so cool.
OK. Here comes the best part. I, admittedly, have been to many a baklava store in Istanbul. Also in New Haven and elsewhere. This was hands down the best, most crazy-delicious baklava I've ever had. It was so fresh, not sweet, and just...I don't even know.

Baklava that cannot be captured in pixels.

 To make my life even crazier, Oya apparently (apparently because it was in Turkish) that her American friends had come all the way to Turkey to try rice pudding and how could they be out of rice pudding?

So they MADE US FRESH RICE PUDDING. AND IT WAS FREE. The waiter put one of them in front of Azra and she wrinkled her nose and was like "oh I don't like rice pudding" but then she tasted it and changed her mind. We are talking Platonic rice pudding here. Also baklava. Also manti. Oh man.