It all sounds fantastic, until the tradition of every family butchering their own meat sends rivers of blood along footpaths, gutters and roads, and the screams and cries of lambs, goats and cows can be heard throughout the town. Especially for a vegetarian, this sight, smell and sound is not for the faint-hearted. Back in Istanbul, part of the Bosphorus ran red too, from all the blood that was spilt.

However, this special celebration does demonstrate the importance of family of local Turks. Grandfathers, fathers, uncles, sons, nephews, brothers and male cousins all gather together as they participate in prayer and slaughter, whilst the grandmothers, mothers, aunts, daughters, nieces and female cousins spend hours preparing feast upon feast in the kitchen.

We cooked our vegetarian micro-feast too, sharing in the celebration of family. We offer some to the family of our adoptive grandparents at Bahar Pansiyon (refer to previous post), who despite all understanding of our vegetarianism, had returned our offer with a dish of the meat they had slaughtered. After 12 years of vegetarianism, I wasn’t quite game to stomach it. But luckily, my other half was more respectful and ate all that was offered.

Hitch-hiking out of Uchisar the next day proved a little challenging. Not only was everyone on holidays and most shops closed, we dared not look further for cardboard signs when all the bins had animal offcuts, heads and offal engulfed by flies inside. Just opening a couple of bins was enough to say, we’ll just take the risk stick our thumb out and hope whoever stops is going in the same direction.

Ironically, Eid al-Adha coincided with World Vegan Day this year, where around 20 Turks protested for animal rights and against animal cruelty.

Here is the Hurriyet Daily News coverage. Warning: Graphic images may disturb some readers.

Uchisar Castle, Cappadocia

Cappadocia (turkish = kapadokya) is a unique region in central Turkey characterised by cave dwellings and fairy chimney rock formations. After meeting a fellow traveller who had come to Cappadocia specifically because of her studies in geology, I discovered that the unique nature of the landscape here is due to the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian Plates in the Cenozoic era (some millions of years ago) resulting in the formation of the volcanic mountains Erciyes, Melendiz and Hasan. The eruptions of these volcanic mountains left a layer of lava and volcanic ash in the surrounding area which over time was carved through erosion by the winds and rain flowing through the valleys. Human settlement carved out cave dwellings in these rock formations which leads to Cappadocia being a unique sight and a highlight for many tourists visiting Turkey.

We stayed in a charming place, Bahar Pansiyon, located in the neighbourhood of Uchisar. Interestingly, we found it through a listing on the internet but noticed that there was no internet available at the accommodation. When we arrived to check in, there was a cute elderly couple boiling an undiscernable sludge in a huge pot over a fire on the road outside the house. Later, we found out that this was pekmez, a molasses-like syrup derived from grapes. It was delicious! Ekrem, the father-figure, greeted us with a smile extending from ear to ear and kindly showed us to our room. It was located on the first floor, along with four other rooms, a common bathroom, kitchen and terrace. We realised we had just checked-in to our adoptive grandparents’ home. They lived downstairs in a unit surrounded by home-grown tomatoes, peppers and grapes. For only 50 Turkish Lira a night for a double room, it was an absolute bargain and one of the most delightful places I have ever stayed in during all of my travels.

Our adoptive grandparents at Bahar Pansiyon

We met Mustafa on the phone, a young family friend of Ekrem who was studying at Nevsehir University. He spoke some English and had been managing all of their online reservations and notifying them by phone. The question of an online listing without internet available onsite had been answered, although an online reservation is unnecessary for this accommodation. It’s simple enough to turn up at the doorstep, and be greeted as though your grandparents are glad that you’ve made an unexpected visit home. It does help to speak a little bit of Turkish though, as their knowledge of the English language is limited and their French extends as far as to greeting you as monsieur and madame. Nevertheless, their hospitality travels leaps and bounds beyond the requirements of a common language.

Uchisar is the highest point in the Cappadocia region, with many tour bus visiting just for the day to Uchisar Castle. The entry to the castle is a meagre 6 Turkish Lira, but also not necessary as standing on the highest town, you get an amazing view of the landscape and the sunset without having to climb the castle. There are also plenty of cave dwellings around the base of the castle for any young-at-heart adults to play around in. We met Mehmet, a local from Uchisar who used to live in one of these cave dwellings up until 40 years ago where all the locals were moved from their cave homes into modern homes courtesy of the government. He runs a quaint souvenir shop from his old cave home located beneath the castle, and will gladly sit and talk over some tea (turkish = çay). The terrain can be a little rough on the feet, so some good hiking shoes are beneficial for the adventurous in this region.

Mehmet’s souvenir shop and former home

There are numerous hiking trails in Cappadocia, and we managed to tackle most of them over two days. In most of the valleys, there is a clearly marked and easy path as well as a less clearly marked but more interesting river and tunnel trail. We initially opted for the easy trail to give up the best view of the landscapes as we hiked through the valley, then ventured through the tunnel trail when we sought a little more adventure and a different perspective. A word of caution, especially for those without the best sense of direction, such as ourselves, if a path looks too challenging, it’s probably not the right path and you will end up treading through thorny bushes, rock climbing and exiting the valley in someone’s backyard. Dangerously, we managed to escape death through one of these lost side trips through the valleys and back onto the main road where we were able to hitchhike back into civilisation. All that being said, the scenery was magnificent and well worth the hike.

Of course, you can’t mention Cappadocia without mentioning all those hot air balloons. It has been on my bucket list to ride one of these in my lifetime, and there’s no better place than Cappadocia to give it a go. Most companies quote 160 Euros for a one-hour flight, but if you shop around at the local agencies and barter (which helps tremendously if you know some Turkish), you can get the same for 40-50 Euros less. After saving some extra cash working in Istanbul, we only had to fork out 60 Euros to pay for our balloon flight of a lifetime. It’s hard to say what was the most magical, the sunrise slowly revealing the cracks and grooves in the valleys, the graceful rise and fall of the flight, the meandering through the unforgettable landscape or the vision of more than 100 balloons flying side by side.

Hot air balloons over Cappadocia

All in all, the short 5 day visit in Cappadocia was definitely one of the many highlights of my visit to Turkey this year.