15-Whatever

I have opted to no longer number my posts by the days I've been in Ankara--it just highlights how lax I've been at posting recently and how quickly the summer is going! My negligence is mostly because I haven't been cooking much; I think possibly I've cooked myself out, at least when it comes to Turkish things. But I plan to get back on the wagon tomorrow and make some seabass (levrek) with tarator sauce (made from bread and ground hazelnuts or almonds).

I have, however, just returned from Cappadocia/Kapadokya, which is 5 hours (by bus) southeast of Ankara. It's an incredible place, where ancient people built underground cities and houses (called fairy chimneys) inside columns of rock (you can see the windows in the photo below).

There were also some very impressive byzantine frescos for the art historian in me, though I couldn't take any photos of them.

The landscape generally was impressive; lots of valleys, precarious cliff dwellings and byzantine churches to explore.

I was lucky enough to go on a weekend with a free, open-air classical music concert was put on; apparently an American woman who is married to a Turkish man and lives in the area organises a scholarship programme every summer for Turkish and international children to come to Cappadocia and learn and play music. The owner of the hotel where I stayed and his family went to the concert, which was held in the Sakli Vadi (Hidden Valley), and they kindly took me with them. It was a beautiful space for a concert and it was great to see all the children (ranging from age 6 upwards) playing so well with their adult counterparts. It was clearly a community thing; there were very few tourists there, which made me feel as if I'd gotten off the beaten path a bit.

I promise to be back soon with words about food I've actually made instead of holiday pictures!