Day 17 September 16, 2010 
Thursday     Adiyaman Cappadocai                 Day 18   Table of content for Eastern Turkey Turkey tour Journal                  
Submitted by  Meli Seval

We left Kahta Nemrut Hotel at 08:00 AM. Today we will drive straight from A to B. Our final destination is Cappadocia where our tour will end in couple of days. since we could not visit with my friend Father Gabriel in Mardin, I was hoping that we can visit him in his church in Adiyaman. The second person we asked for the address of the church. he offered to ride with us and took our bus to the Church of Pauvlos and Petros. The church was being restored. the door was closed. the neighbors told us that there was probably a service going on inside. We knocked the door in as many way as we could. Just as we were giving up, a church member arrived and apologized for not being being there earlier. He unlocked the door. There was nobody inside. He invited us inside. It was a beautiful church completed in 1880. The iconostasis was painted by the lady that we had visited in Mardin. Father Gabriel was not there . He was in Mardin buying rocks for the construction. We learned that there were 150 families who were living in Adiyaman and attending this church.

After the church visit, we started our long journey which soon was interrupted with bright red peppers being dried under the bright sun. The scenery was too tempting so we stopped and took pictures of the peppers that we so much enjoyed eating through out our tour.

In Kahraman Maras we stopped for an excellent lunch.The highlight of the meal was the local ice cream which you could eat with fork and knife. Barbara thought it was awesome and very different and she took these photos of  the salad and the ice-cream.
The rest of the day through the eastern Toros mountains was pretty much a race to catch the sun set in Cappadocia. When we did arrive in Cappadocia just in time for sun set, it was absolutely worthed. We were all impressed with the landscape under the soft lights of setting sun.

Once we arrived at the hotel, Meli was in tears to see that the hotel was completely booked by her company.
There was another MELITOUR bus. This had never happened before. she quickly called her daughter Asli to thank her for running the company so well!!

The terrain looked amazing.  We will learn more about Cappadocia tomorrow.

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