Joe’s Trip to Turkey 1999 (10 of 10)

Yesterday, the dolmus took me to Nevishir, the regional capitol, for market day. Of course there was the usual produce, mountains of ripe melons, piles of red peppers, oodles of offal. Horsedrawn carts loaded with unhappy hens, many stands selling nothing but cured black olives, sunflower cooking oil, spices, lentils, chickpeas, goatheads for soup. Strands of dried okra, strung as you would popcorn for a Christmas tree. Beautiful stainless steel cooking pots, stands selling nothing but short, straw brooms. Counterfeit Adidas, Timberland, Levi’s, Tommy Hillfiger and gobs of fake Nike everything.

I bought a few trinkets, a lovely cooking pot and a hat, but I passed on the goat heads. The dolmus took me back to Goreme with my treasures.

Then I spent the afternoon drinking the local white wine, one with a kerosene finish. Of the many fine products found in the Cappadoccia region, this one is not on that list. Around sunset a storm moved in and the rain started teasing us, never becoming annoying enough to move indoors. The winds picked up, followed by thunder and lightning. The storm moved in fast, I counted the seconds between the flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder. They became one. I moved indoors, in fact we all hurried indoors. A bolt of lightning struck and the power went out. We were in complete and total darkness.

Someone grabbed a Bic lighter, I drunkenly fumbled for my Mini-Maglite, candles were found and lighted. Every guest at Flintstones came out of their rooms over to where the only light was. I ordered more wine.

People started loosening up and the “Where are you froms?” commenced. Rain was falling steadily. There were about a dozen of us now, a German family, some Aussies, a handful of Kiwis, one particularly annoying Canadian, a gregarious lawyer from Italy, a couple of Turks. The door opened and a dark, dripping figure in a poncho arrived. It was a young Israeli who was made welcome by the group. We chatted and solved most of the world’s problems before I trotted off to bed, flashlight in hand.

Read all the adventures!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

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