ABSTRACT
It is clear from the portraits above that the tourists in Göreme contrast their own temporal behaviour to that of package group Tourists, who they see as being on short trips and therefore whizzing through Cappadocia in a couple of days following a full and strictly organised itinerary. The non-tourists in Göreme generally prefer to travel for longer periods and with a much more relaxed schedule, or preferably no schedule at all. They spend much of their time in the village ‘hanging around’ in their pansiyon, preferring not to have to do anything at any particular time. In their travel narratives they frequently use terms such as ‘wandering’, ‘exploring’ and ‘hanging around’, and some make a point of not wearing a watch while travelling, saying they prefer to sleep and eat just when they feel like it. A lawyer from the USA travelling in Göreme told me:
I live a highly scheduled life, so I will do things that, you know, like not wearing a watch for days, and I’ve literally gone and taken a ferry and I had no clue where it was going, or the next bus. It’s the absolute polar opposite, and a sort of balancing.
