A friend was booked on a flight to Australia for Monday evening, but on Saturday evening came the bad news that the Kayseri flight to İstanbul was delayed. Was this, we wondered, a prelude to cancellation, or would it eventually take off? What if she postponed her departure by a day and then the same thing happened on Sunday? The dilemma was made worse by the fact that outside the window not a single snowflake was falling in Göreme even though the television was flashing up pictures of İstanbul’s Bosporus Bridge at a complete standstill.“Ah well, at least at this time of year the buses will be empty,” I said cheerfully as my friend pondered the unpalatable alternative to the flight of 12 hours in an overheated tin box, one of the worst aspects of having to take the night bus in winter being that it’s usually cloaked in the same sweat-inducing, sauna temperatures as my neighbor’s stove-heated homes.
Wrong, as it turns out, because we’d all forgotten about the onset of mid-term school holidays. By the time my friend eventually bit the bullet, cancelled the flight and phoned the bus company, all that remained were the last two seats right by the center door without any legroom. I thought it best not to mention Mt. Bolu. There’s the Bolu Tunnel now, of course, to ease the traffic flow, but still that part of the country is notorious for its fog and general grisliness, especially at this time of year.
But really, we shouldn’t have been caught off guard in this way. Last year I was prevented from getting to a friend’s wedding in Wales by appalling weather in the UK; the year before buses couldn’t even get into Göreme, and I had to taxi over to Avanos just to get to Kayseri. Note to self -- make no plans to go anywhere between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 in 2011.
But what a difference a couple of days make. No sooner had my friend flown out of the country on the Monday than the skies cleared, the sun came out and on Tuesday we had one of those wonderful winter days that make living in Cappadocia such a treat. All along the road between Göreme and Üçhisar snow clustered on the branches like so much cherry blossoms. Beneath Üçhisar Kalesi, the scenery resembled a child’s drawing of an orchard with big puffs of cotton wool dabbed onto the branches to represent snow. The wavy rock formations facing the Kale looked like chocolate meringues sprinkled with icing sugar. And in the trees the abandoned nests of summer looked to have been reoccupied by a special breed of all-white bird.
Of course by Thursday the thaw had set in and all around us came the sound of a myriad temporary waterfalls. There followed the stories of pipe bursts and leakages. More snow is forecast for this week. Winter as normal, then. Just a little later than anticipated.
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.
