As our time here in Malatya
slowly trickles to an end, everyone wants to spend time with you, which is a
lot of fun, but also makes for a very busy finale. As classes slowly finish (or quickly as the
geniuses in charge have decided that finishing an entire course in a matter of
six weeks is a plausible undertaking: spoiler alert- it’s not) work has been
surprisingly busy, but so too has our social lives.
On Friday, once again, Eser
picked us up at 11am and we headed out of Malatya to a town about 100 km west,
called Darende. This town is quite
famous (as it was a centre of science and culture during the ancient silk road
times), and although Joe and I have driven through it many times on our bus
journeys elsewhere, we had not yet stopped to visit and it was something we had
been meaning to do. We passed the
journey with music and laughter (Eser drove equally as fast as on the road to
Nemrut, but it was a far less dangerous road and thus much more relaxing) until
we got there.
We headed first to Somuncu
Baba a very famous mosque carefully stowed away beside the river amidst the
mountains, was named after Somuncu Baba- a grandchild of Muhammed. As it was namas
(prayers) on the holiest day of the
week, we had tea and went for a stroll along the river while we waited for
people to finish before heading in to take a look around. It was a beautiful, marble mosque and made
for quite a beautiful sight. After a
quick jaunt around the marketplace, we headed out
Next we headed out to Gulpinar
Waterfall, not far off, and went exploring.
Again, nestled away it makes for quite the tourist destination. We enjoyed lunch at the base of the
waterfall- fresh fish and bread, and the complimentary salad that I will
desperately miss when we leave Turkey, and relaxed for a few hours before our
last stop.
We veered off the highway and
down a dirt road into the Akcadag Levent Valley. The valley was stunning- having been formed
between 65-3 million years ago, providing valuable information about the
region. The many caves also have ‘geotouristic value’ as they have many traces
of human life and is Turkey’s most important candidate to be labeled as a
Geopark.
In 2011 the government built an
observation terrace at an elevation of 1400m (240m from the base of the
valley), complete with a glass floor (highly vertigo inducing) and a
wrap-around walkway with a decently low rail.
We had fun wandering around, being slightly overwhelmed by the distance
to the earth, and left a half hour or so later,
arriving back in Malatya at about 7 o’clock.
On Saturday I wrapped up my
class, and then headed for brunch with some students and Elif in Gunduzbey
while Joe headed for lunch and bowling with his Speaking Class. It was a lovely day at my favourite location
(a restaurant called Su Sesi- The Sound of Water) as it is made of tree houses
and stone stairs and running water.
It
was a pleasant few hours of chatting and Turkish breakfast before calling it a
day and heading home to relax. We are
down to our final week in Malatya.
No comments:
Post a Comment