4/8/98: This morning we headed off for a day-long hike in the peculiar landscape of Göreme, before boarding a bus at 7:30pm for an overnight ride to Pamukkale..
4/8/23: Anna and Chengis, the owner of the pensione in which we were staying, had a big black dog. I suspect he was intended as a sort of guard dog, but he generally just laid about the place all day long looking rather bored. We missed our faithful friend Socs back home. So we took a shine to their dog, whom I called Goliath because I could not manage to remember or pronounce the Turkish name Chengis had given him.
To our surprise, when we rose early to head off on our day-long hike, Goliath jumped up and walked out of the compound with us. We kept expecting him to turn back, especially once we arrived at the edge of the village and stepped onto the trail we would be taking. But he actually stayed with us the entire day. At times he ran up and down the sides of the ravine like a puppy exploring the world for the first time, pausing only to take gulps of water from the stream.
We eventually realized he was also playing his guard dog role on our behalf! Whenever we encountered other hikers, he positioned himself between us and them. At one point we climbed a small hill that had a shady spot and lay down for a nap. The hill had a little bit of a cliff that looked down into the ravine and onto the creek-bed and path. Goliath lay right at the edge and whenever hikers passed by underneath, he stood up and barked and growled at them. It was funny, but also comforting. We were gone for over six hours, and upon returning to the pensione, Goliath plopped down and returned to his former placid self!
When we boarded our next overnight bus we were happy to find it was a large and rather luxurious tour bus made by Mercedes. Like a modern airplane it had a screen to display movies, stewardesses who distributed hot and damp cloths to each passenger to wash their faces, and a snack/beverage cart. Amazing service.
American travelers have a poor reputation abroad, and it is largely because they tend to be unaware of or ignore the customs and culture of the host country. Sadly, this bus trip was sullied by three very rude young girls from Florida who were doing the “backpack” circuit through Turkey. We felt rather embarrassed to be fellow Americans because of their behavior. They were loud and obnoxious, wore sleeveless t-shirts and went barefoot on the bus. They showed no concern at all for the Islamic culture of the country they were visiting. We had read about the importance of respecting the culture, but this experience early in our trip explained that truth better than a book could.
