M-whY

For years, pigeon droppings were used by locals as fertilizer for the soil. To make collection easier, they hollowed out pigeonholes in the rock, where the birds would come to roost and drop waste. Smartly, this was usually done outside of town; Otherwise, can you imagine how annoying it would've been waking up every morning to a cart covered with pigeon poo?

I stopped by Steve's pension to see how he was feeling. "Not good," he groaned from in bed. Sapped of strength by a bad case of diarrhea, he wouldn't be hiking Pigeon Valley anytime soon. Sadly, that meant I was stuck with the Austrian chap. I wasn't sure how to tell him I didn't want his company without being blatantly mean, and so reluctantly, I partnered up.

Also joining us was the pension's dog. I was a little surprised when he just started following us. "Is he going to follow us the entire way?" Apparently so. A Turkish man, seeing two foreigners walking in the direction of Pigeon Valley, correctly deduced our intentions, and pointed out where we might find the trailhead. "It might be easier if you took a bus to Uchisar and walked back in the other direction," he suggested, citing confusing forks in the path we'd encounter. But we'd be okay, chiefly because we had Buddy.

This obviously wasn't his first time out here, and he knew the way like the back of his paw. Racing ahead, our four-legged friend excitedly urged us on. Like yesterday, there were unique rock formations, caves, and tunnels. The new thing to watch out for were the pigeonholes though. In addition to collecting pigeon droppings, pigeon eggs were also harvested, as they were used in making paint to decorate rock cut churches. It must not have been a fun job; The nests were high up in the rock face and had I been asked to go up there, I probably would've shit myself.

At a junction, we couldn't decide which way to go, so we turned to Buddy, who confidently led us in the right direction. We encountered a group coming from Uchisar, and it wasn't long before we reached the town ourselves. Estimated walking times can be grossly exaggerated sometimes, and what was labeled as an hour and a half on the map had only taken us half that. A second trail picked up where Pigeon Valley left off, and not quite ready to call it a day, we descended into White Valley and the aptly named Love Valley. Hard to believe these rock formations were all natural.

"Tired yet?" I asked Buddy, and he sort of just wagged his tail and scouted the road up ahead. Canine guides, an interesting idea for a new business. Take a few dogs out for walks until their familiar with the trails, then hire them out to tourists. It could work...

But back to pigeons. So what exactly is the pigeonhole principle? It's one of those things they teach us in computer science classes: If you have n pigeonholes and n+1 pigeons, it logically follows that at least one pigeonhole must have at least two pigeons in it. As simple as it sounds, it's actually useful in certain branches of math, and even has real life applications too. For example, if there are two shish kebabs on the plate, and only one person eating, then logically, someone has to have eaten both shish kebabs!

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!