I saw this saying on a gamers’ t-shirt. He was next to us on the bus, his nose buried in his cell phone; missing the remarkable scenery outside. Gamers’ get lost in the games they play on their computers. Virtual becomes reality. The edges of reality blur until they don’t know what is the game, what is a dream or what is reality. This is not only a phenomenon of modern day technology.

Once Zhuang Zhou, a 4th century Chinese philosopher, dreamt he was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. ” I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”

People have always questioned what is real? Is it the human storyline? A colorful tapestry of experiences woven into what we call ‘our life’? Our day to day lives, jobs, experiences, families, dramas, hobbies? Are we more? Is that all there is? Is that all I am or am I more? Is life just a game?

While traveling we encounter strange other worldly occurrences or places or even people. It is one of the reasons we keep circumnavigating this amazing planet. Later we ask ourselves, did we really see that? ‘Hard to believe’ or ‘hard to explain’ is right up our alley.

Traveling from Istanbul we followed the shores of the Karadiniz or Black Sea to the north. It was a lovely route but took forever. We turned towards the interior and ended up at dark in a town we had never heard of. Not wanting to miss the scenery we jumped off and slept the night. Good idea. The mountains we passed through the next morning were glorious. Hard to understand people regularly taking overnight buses and missing the journey in between. Around the final bend into Georme we arrived in the other worldly, fairytale area of Cappadocia. This area is home to some of the world’s most spectacular landscapes. Deep valleys and soaring rock formations are dotted with homes, temples, chapels, churches, tombs and entire subterranean cities; all harmoniously carved into this spectacular landscape. Little Love Valley and the Open Air Museum are both unique and fascinating. Hiking through Love Valley gets one speculating, very quickly, about the origin of the name. Classrooms without walls, try a museum with no walls. We had arrived in the land of ‘hobbit houses’ and I kept watching for fur on the top of the local’s feet, signifying a hobbit.

Through the ages the Hittites, Persians, Alexander the Great, Rome, the Ottomans, and now Turkey have ruled this area called Anatolia. One hundred square miles has over 200 underground villages and tunnel towns with underground caverns, hidden passages, and ancient temples. Cappadocia’s amazing history has each new civilization building on top of the previous.
Above ground the windows of dwellings peak out from towers or in rock faces, blending harmoniously into the landscape. But the ingeniousness of mankind’s ancient architecture through the centuries is evident at Derinkuyu. This subterranean city is eleven levels deep, with over 600 entrances, and miles of tunnels connecting it to nearby underground cities. There are sleeping rooms, stables, kitchens, ventilation shafts, bathrooms, tombs and much more. Most people didn’t live underground full time but when under attack the family would flee to their basement and follow the dark tunnels underground to safety. Unwary soldiers could be caught in the many traps laid out for them. Large boulders could be rolled across doorways or spears sent raining down on the unsuspecting enemies from holes in the ceiling or the narrow passages forced the soldiers to enter one by one and thus be picked off unawares.

Cappadocia has a history dating back thousands of years. Goreme was inhabited during the Hititte era, 1800 to1200 BC. To this day it is possible to wander the countryside and discover abandoned doorways or windows. Walking for miles each day we would pause outside ancient hidden houses or hiding places carved into the rocks and wonder who carved these dwellings, when, and why? If only the rocks could speak