Off (with his head) to Kapadokya this weekend

We have a long weekend coming up due to Bayrum which is a celebration of the end of Ramazan and the fasting that goes along with it for devout Muslims. The cafes don't seem less crowded over lunchtime right now but we're probably not the best gauge of such things and this is Izmir, one of the most liberal cities in Middle East. But I digress...

Kapadokya (Cappadocia) sounds like a very cool place both geologically and archeologically. The early Christians built extensive cities and churches underground in the soft rock to escape armies unsympathetic to their beliefs. One entry in particular caught my as I was reading our guidebook about how Persian horseman would come marauding through the countryside and it occurred to me that we have it pretty easy in 21st century America. I also wondered just how, as an early Christian in Kapadokya, a pre-Mennonite of sorts, I would have been able to get in a position to take a Persian bride. Just guessing but the conversations seem like they may have been strained, requiring more creativity than just taking my future father-in-law out to dinner in Beverly Hills.

"Saheb, I know I'm just a simple cave-dwelling Kapadokyan but I am in fact training to be a Mennonite and was just thinking about how well your daughter and I..." (swoosh, head falls to ground)

We'll write more about the real Kapadokya, and maybe the imagined, after we arrive.