Please exile me to the most beautiful time

Chapter 14 Turkey: The Heart of a Blacksmith and the Beauty of a Virgin (2)
Walking in Istanbul is either uphill or downhill.If you don't hold on to the railing at the steepest place, you will almost roll down the whole person, but it's hard for those elderly people on crutches.The car parked on the steep slope seemed to be hoisted, hanging in the air.Panting and climbing up a large section of steep slope, I thought all the hardships would be rewarding. Unexpectedly, when I turned the corner of the street ahead, hundreds of stairs appeared in front of me, and a sense of despair floated from the bottom of my heart.It seems that beautiful legs can not be cultivated overnight.Thankfully, the steps are painted in a rainbow of colours.I heard that the rainbow staircase was originally painted in color by a retired local engineer. This innovative and aesthetic move is deeply loved by the locals.The incomprehensible government sent someone to quickly restore the stairs to a dull gray, which aroused the anger of the people.People moved out of the paint one after another, spontaneously painted the stairs back to color, and protested to the government: "Our world needs color, you take it away, and we will bring it back." The protest spread quickly across the country, under the pressure of strong public opinion, The government had to back down and paint the stairs again in rainbow colors.Now, more and more rainbow staircases appear in every corner of Turkey, gradually becoming a characteristic landscape.

It's no secret that Turks love bright colors.This is fully reflected in the Grand Bazaar (bazaar) and the spice market.Exquisite hand-painted color plates and color bowls, hand-woven carpets and scarves, like old friends, even soap and Turkish delight are made into colorful.Once, I inadvertently broke into a residential area. When I looked up, most of the houses had only two or three floors. Because of the slope, these small houses looked a little crooked, like houses in fairy tales. They were painted as Various colors, red, blue, yellow, orange, green... as if falling into a big dye vat, the whole world becomes colorful.I love the colors here, and even started asking about rentals for these little brightly painted houses.My intuition tells me that this will be a good place to live.

The colorful house makes people feel good, but what makes people want to live in is the Turkish bath.Bring shampoo and soap, get into the steam room in the center of the small town, take off your clothes according to the instructions of the Turkish aunt, and put on clogs.My aunt opened a heavy wooden door, led me through an empty room, and then opened the second heavy wooden door. As soon as the door leaked, heat rushed out from the gap, and my vision instantly became blurred, so I had to feel for it. Into the steaming steam room.This is a polygonal building with a marble slab called a belly stone in the center. Women spread towels on the hot stone slab and steam their whole bodies on it.Surrounded by small bathrooms, a circle of stone steps and sinks are built along the corners. Sitting on the stone steps, use a copper basin to fill the low faucet with hot water, and then splash it on yourself with a towel.The aunt rubbed a Turkish girl and motioned for me to lie down. She put on coarse gloves and rubbed me up and down vigorously. After half an hour, she reached out and touched the "result". mud ball.

I remember reading Sanmao's "Bathing in the Desert" when I was very young. It's strange to say that the only thing I love in the whole book is Sanmao's story about taking a bath in the desert.Maybe it's God's will. When I grew up, I really went to the Sahara Desert. Although I haven't seen the bowel cleansing thing written by Sanmao, I'm still very excited.Now, I also feel a little bit bathed in the desert, or why so much mud?

Well, let's stop the story of rubbing the mud for a while, or it will become more mysterious as it goes on!
castle on cotton
Every traveler who comes to Turkey will not miss Cappadocia.

There are strangely shaped rock caves, magnificent and huge underground cities, strange fairy chimney rocks and magical hot air balloon tours.I moved from Crocus City to Cappadocia by bus.Long-distance buses are the best means of transportation for self-guided travel in Turkey.Tried three or four, the service is top notch and impeccable.Each seat has an independent on-board media system, which can listen to music, watch movies or play small games, and each passenger is equipped with independent earphones, without disturbing each other.The full-time flight attendants on the car often distribute free snacks and drinks for everyone.These comfortable coaches are all Mercedes.A Chinese engineer who grew up in Germany said that it was because a large number of second-hand cars in Germany were resold to Turkey.I feel a little bit injustice for Turkey, maybe they bought authentic first-hand goods, so they were said to be devalued.

I stayed in a cave hotel with an American girl, Cathy, who was volunteering in Istanbul.Cathy is in her 30s. After graduating from university, she has been working as a volunteer English teacher in different countries. Before she came to Turkey, she was teaching English in Georgia. "In Georgia, my salary was $200 a month. You know, that's a fraction of what the salary is in the U.S. But I was still pushed out by other teachers because I was paid more than local teachers." Cathy said helplessly.

"Volunteering overseas all year round with such a low salary, can I bear it?" "Well, I don't have much savings, but I enjoy it very much. I like living overseas. Although the salary is small, it is always enough to live on. That's fine."

Cathy and I agreed to get up at 5:[-] in the morning to watch the hot air balloon, and no one was allowed to stay in bed.This is not an easy task.The temperature in the cold valley was freezing at this time. We were wrapped in the thickest clothes, our teeth were chattering, and we walked shyly to the high place, and were forced to jump around in place in an attempt to warm ourselves up.I couldn't feel my toes in the freezing cold.

"God, we are so heroic." Cathy let out a sigh of relief and rubbed her frozen hands vigorously.

A few minutes later, the sun emerged from the horizon, bringing the first ray of sunshine in Cappadocia, and the light gradually diffused, slightly relieving the coldness. "Look there, the hot air balloon is rising!" At the end of the field of vision, the first hot air balloon rose slowly, higher and higher, until it was a tiny dot.Immediately afterwards, the second one, the third one, and soon, dozens of colorful hot air balloons floated as far as the eye could see, big and small, far and near, full of amazed and excited tourists. Flying over Padocia.Cappadocia is known as the most suitable place in the world to ride a hot air balloon. The cost of a hot air balloon ride is around 100 euros, and there are more expensive options.For me, watching the hot air balloons take off together from the ground is much more interesting than flying in a hot air balloon.Maybe you will say that if I can't eat grapes, I say grapes are sour, and I still feel good about myself. If you think so, you really wronged me.In fact, I am afraid of death!I have always been terrified of the aircraft floating in the air, afraid of falling suddenly, afraid of losing people all at once.I was worried that I would die in a foreign country and no one would collect the body. Most importantly, I was afraid that the bones would not be found after death.

Therefore, every day in Cappadocia, I walked on the ground, walking honestly.

Pamukkale, is it a castle made of cotton?Thinking this way, under the guidance of passers-by, he walked into the winding path, and a snow-white hill suddenly appeared in front of him.Snow mountain, really snow mountain, how could it appear here?
Is this really ice and snow?of course not.At first glance, it looks like a snow-capped mountain, but in fact, there are many large and small hot springs distributed here. The natural hot spring water is stored to form a pond. The limestone layer formed by the cooling and deposition of calcium-containing hot spring water is like a large group of cotton, layered on top of each other. It is more than 100 meters high and looks like a castle from a distance, so it is called Pamukkale.According to the legend of the Turks, the handsome shepherd Andy Mien forgot to milk the goat in order to have a tryst with the Greek moon god Selene. It looks like a fairy tale.People take off their shoes and socks, roll up their trouser legs, and step barefoot on the snow-white limestone. The soles of the feet attached to the limestone feel a little cold and hard to the touch. Because of the effect of the hot spring, the water flow is still warm, and it is not cold to walk barefoot in winter.

Climbing up to the top of the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow, overlooking Pamukkale, there are ponds stacked on the edge, and the clear hot spring water is reflected in a shallow lake blue by the sky.People lifted their trousers and stepped on the hot spring carefully.It was the off-season, and there were few tourists, so I didn’t see anyone taking a bath in the hot springs. I went into the bathroom and changed into my swimsuit, looked around, and quietly got into the hot spring pool, and my body immediately relaxed.Seeing me enjoying myself, the white man at the side took off his jacket and trousers and joined the hot spring camp on the spot.It turns out that I am not the only one who is crazy!

I don’t quite remember how I left Pamukkale. I just remember that a big Turkish brother who claimed to have a Chinese girlfriend approached me in Pamukkale. In order to escape, I had to return to Istanbul in the dead of night.

The weather in Istanbul turned fine, and the sun brought warmth. Under the blue sky, the colorful houses looked like animation bridges written by Hayao Miyazaki.Some people say that this is the most beautiful city in the world, not one of them.I also like this place very much, because this kind of environment always burns people's desire and makes people have a sense of curiosity.

If there is desire, there is desire, and if there is no desire, there is ignorance.In the tireless journey of life, some desires are still needed to dilute the calm life, what do you think?

The day before I left Turkey, I bought myself a new pair of shoes in a vintage corner shop in Istanbul after years of wearing them.As soon as I put on these shoes, I immediately have a feeling of excitement. I want to wear them to many, many places and see the world far and far away.Because I know that when time is gone, there will be no more; when people are old, they will never regain their youth;So every time I go on the road, I will let myself regain my impulse and the courage to continue going down.In the past few years after graduation, I have always felt like a child who never tires, and I can't help but reach out and touch everything unknown in front of me.No matter how far away the place is, as long as you are willing to start, you will eventually arrive.

(End of this chapter)