Youth employment, fancy university in Kayseri and Cappadocia with its phalluses :)

Last week I participated in the Symposium on Youth Employment Challenges in Kayseri (Turkey, 23-27th of June), which was organized by the Abdullah Gul University (AGU), Youth Centre.
I really enjoyed the event, met a lot of other volunteers across Europe, working in many cities of Turkey.
Symposium was also attended by officials, politicians, youth workers and businessmen.
During 4 days of the event cross-sectorial cooperation, assessment of youth employment, good practices of different countries were presented to us. I liked some of the workshops and presentation of youth programmes. Most of them were presented by National Agency of Turkey, Council of Europe, European Commission in the field of youth.

I should notice that I liked the AGU Youth Team. They are wonderful and very helpful, especially students of the university. And I would like to tell you more about this university and its opportunities, because I was impressed by them.

The first steps towards founding Abdullah Gul University were taken, by the Kayseri City Council and other city notables, in 2007. The aim was to raise the profile of education in Kayseri in line with the city’s own vision of its development.
The University was named for prominent Kayseri citizen and the 11th president of the Turkish Republic, Abdullah Gül, who only accepted this honour on condition that the university would be dedicated to the quest to become a high-quality university that would be distinguished in Turkey and compete with international institutions.
The university was formally founded on 21 July 2010 as Turkey’s first foundation supported State University. AGU admitted its first students in the 2013 2014 Academic Year.
The educational system of the institution is in English and there are already the first 157 students studying there.
AGU provides scholarships for its students, and apart – living in the dormitory for free. Moreover all students can go for studying English language to the US for a period of 2 months, where accommodation, food and travel expenses are covered by the university.
It is a state university and local entrepreneurs of Kayseri provide financial support to AGU. That is why the institution gives MacBook Air as a present to each student, when they enter the university.
I was quite shocked when I hear that. Next academical years there will be a selection process of the best students who will get such present, university's employees say.
For those students who aspire to a more academic path, there will be significant opportunities to join research groups, even in their early undergraduate years. In this way AGU students will not only be exposed to high-quality teaching but will also benefit from opportunities to take part in research with academics from a range of disciplines to work both in their own field and in an inter-disciplinary fashion, while still undergraduates. Furthermore, the University places a strong emphasis on its postgraduate programs of research. Through the efforts of its academics experienced in national and international research projects, AGU aims to produce learning and knowledge which is of value to a wide range of stakeholders. It is one of AGU’s primary goals to work with industry particularly local industry to develop high-quality, and effective, projects in industrial R&D.
I wish good luck to all high school graduates who decided to enter this university.

The view from the 16th floor of a house in the old part of Kayseri

After the symposium we decided to go to Cappadocia area, which is only one hour away by bus.  
We were a group of mostly Gaziantep EVS volunteers and a volunteer from Chanakkale.
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province, in Turkey. The Old Persian name is Katpatuka, which means "the land, country of beautiful horses".

In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine (Black Sea). Cappadocia, in this sense, was bounded in the south by the chain of the Taurus Mountains that separate it from Cilicia, to the east by the upper Euphrates and the Armenian Highland, to the north by Pontus, and to the west by Lycaonia and eastern Galatia.
The name was traditionally used in Christian sources throughout history and is still widely used as an international tourism concept to define a region of exceptional natural wonders, in particular characterized by fairy chimneys and a unique historical and cultural heritage.

Many former Cappadocians had shifted to a Turkish dialect (written in Greek alphabet, Karamanlıca), and where the Greek language was maintained (Sille, villages near Kayseri, Pharasa town and other nearby villages), it became heavily influenced by the surrounding Turkish. This dialect of Greek is known as Cappadocian Greek. Following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the language is now only spoken by a handful of the former population's descendants in modern Greece. (Source: Wikipedia)

Cappadocia contains several underground cities (see Kaymaklı Underground City), largely used by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears.
The area is a popular tourist destination, as it has many areas with unique geological, historic, and cultural features.

The region is located southwest of the major city Kayseri, which has airline and railway service to Ankara and Istanbul and other cities.
The most important towns and destinations in Cappadocia are Urgup, Goreme, Ihlara Valley, Selime, Guzelyurt, Uchisar, Avanos and Zelve.

Hot-air ballooning is very popular in Cappadocia and is available in Goreme. Trekking is enjoyed in Ihlara Valley, Monastery Valley (Guzelyurt), Urgup and Goreme.  

The best place in Cappadocia to watch balloons is Uchisar, because it is a highest place there. And if you don't have enough money to take a balloon trip and fly over Goreme, which is 150 Euros per person, you can watch it for free from the rock of Uchisar – it is a museum and a panorama place.

So, we did so, in early morning at 4:30 we were on the top of a rock to meet the sunrise and legendary balloons. Almost 1,5 hour we were sitting there and enjoying the view. After that we continued to discover the village, which is very peaceful and small. There are many hotel complexes, which are available to each person to have a walk. And I liked it the best, because of no fencings there, which allows you easily to enter the territory.

Uchisar is 10 km away from Goreme, so we hitchhiked there and discovered a very touristic place. Many tourist come there, if you could compare it to Uchisar.

Many people say that it's better to have a car to see all the places, but we hadn't any, and succeed with hitchhiking, because many historical places are located in different parts of Cappadocia. But its towns themselves – small.

In Goreme we visited the “famous” Open Air Museum, I didn't like the personnel, which refused to give us any discounts for the entrance, because they were not familiar with volunteering work (I'm not talking about EVS itself). The ticket costs 20 Turkish liras + 10 liras to see the Black Church.

But we didn't go there. The museum is not so big, you can observe everything in one hour, but the panorama views are wonderful. The pity thing is that I couldn't do any photographs inside of the Greek churches, because of the flash which damages the oil on the walls (it is only my guess). But usually in such places, according to my guess, I take photographs without flash. Anybody can explain me that?

After the museum we went to the Love Valley :) I smile, because it's funny, the way it is called. In order to believe it you need to see it. Rather euphemistically named, the valley is home to rock structures that bear a passing resemblance to a shape of phallus.

Certainly this place is worth to see, to view the giant rocks of nature creature.
When I visited Cappadocia, I realized that if you never visit it, consider you have never been to Turkey.

More interesting stories and my adventures come soon.
Stay tuned.