Cappadocia is in Turkey's Nevşehir Province. It is a dreamy place where fairy chimney and unique rock formations are plentiful. Early Christian settlements here carved impossible cave rooms and houses into the cliffs and modern day tourist come here in the hoards to see them.
All in attendance: Kristen and David
I made the same joke from time to time about me being "cute size". I am 5'3 (155 cm) which is the tallest in my immediate family but shorter than 80% of my friends. Being small has its advantages which include being able to get comfortable more easily on hot stuffy turkey night buses. The buses are similar to the coach greyhouse buses back home. Every seat has a personal television (all in Turkish) and they load you up with complimentary drinks (tea, coffee, water) while you ride. However, their middle-of-the-night stops to 24h bathrooms and small bus station restaurants are a complete drag because they turn on the lights which not only wake up you but the screaming children in the seat in front of you too.
Needless to say, when the bus attendant woke David and I up when we arrived in Göreme, we had the most dazed mad dash off the bus ever. It was barely 6am and we were seemingly alone in a town which consisted of 70% hostels, hotels and pensions. We staggered in hazy sleepy confusion towards Star Cave Hotel - the cave hostel we booked through the sketchy Metro guy in Pamukkale. We woke up the people working the front desk stumbled into our dorm room. Cave hostels in Cappadocia are wonderful because they are freezing - perfect for Canadians.
We were suppose to take a tour at 9 o'clock that morning so we only got 2 or so more hours of sleep. We also booked this tour through the sketchy Metro guy. We chose it because it drove you to many places in the Cappadocia region that would've required a vehicle to get to (or a full day hike). The Green Tour is offered absolutely everywhere. Highlights include:
- Göreme panorama (near the town of uchisar "oo-shi-sar")
- Derinkuyu underground city (I think once you see one underground city, you see them all)
- Ihlara valley (small 3 hour hike through a valley with a whole bunch of small cave houses and churches. It was followed by a delicious meal which was included in the price)
- Yaprakhisar (crazy panorama)
- Selime monastery (Incredible set of cave homes and monasteries ! We were lucky to be some of the few people there!)
- Pigeon valley viewpoint
After such an exhausting bus ride and a lack of sleep - it's no surprise we soon went to bed at the end of the tour.
The next morning was the big splurge of our trip - a hot air balloon ride at sunrise! We figured we may go on a hot air balloon ride only once in our life so it might as well be here and now. Is it incrediably touristy? yes! Expensive (150€)? yes! Worth it? I sure say so!
They picked us up early in the morning, about 4 or 5 o'clock and drove us to a building near the Göreme Open Air Museum for some basic breakfast. Here they cram you in a room completely packed past fire code regulations (maybe not Turkish fire code regulations though) where you sit and try to stay awake while you wait for them to call your name. They drive you out to the launch site where you have many Turkish people yelling for you to move this way or that way and to go faster. This is standard "zero-patience-for-picture-taking-tourist". They put us into a balloon (ours was just like to colourful ones in the photos!) with small compartments (4 people to a compartment) which weren't overly cramped but still quite full and off we went.
We flew over the rose valley and our pilot was a lady with a crazy strong face. She was probably a milatry commander in another life, but in this one, she pilots hot air balloons for tourist. I never knew a hot air balloon ride could be so ridiculously steady. We took a trillion photos. It was a cloudy day and we had gotten air born a bit after sunrise but these are trivial things in the scheme of it all.
We started hiking from the open air museum towards pink valley and Ürgüp. Here there were so many cave homes/rooms that you could peak into. What do you find inside? Usually beer cans and cigarette butts. Sometime you are lucky and there are paintings still on the ceiling though. Cue: stunning views and steep crumbly paths. Once in Ürgüp, we went all the way to see the fairy chimneys before heading back to Göreme for a fruit smoothie and dinner.
Dinner here - things like basic kebab, pizza, meze - is really expensive compared to the other cities we went to in Turkey. It was also a bit more dry and less tasty too.
The next day we decided to take a nice break. A few light showers occurred during the day. We spent the day smoking nargile, eating food and relaxing in the sun. We browsed tourist shops but didn't see anything that authentic (no surprise). Not wanting to have another overnight bus experience, we booked a cheap(ish) flight from Kayseri airport to Istanbul leaving that night. Our time in Cappadocia was done - something off of my bucket list.
Things I learned:
- Turkish men love backgammon
- Turkish men who work in tourism like to play coy-and-flirty to awkward Canadian-Asian girls
Things I loved:
- Tourists who ask to take photos of David and I
- Apple tea, lemon tea, orange tea, turkish tea
- Beautiful hanging Turkish lamps
- Surprisingly few tourists in May
Things to do next time:
- More hiking!
- Get crazy clay pot kebab.
- At this point - I am starting to wish I we had more time to go to the East of Turkey - maybe to the less touristy parts.
