Cappadocia, Turkey

Written by Mike.

The reason why i love travelling so much is that you to get out and have new experiences on a daily basis.  This blog entry is about a wonderful place in Turkey that allowed us to experience many ‘firsts’ including a hot air balloon ride and a hostel argument.

After Istanbul, like most tourists to Turkey, we had the dilemma of whether to head to the Mediteranean coast to experience some sun with the beautiful trendy people or head inland. While Jo and I consider ourselves to be very beautiful we probably aren’t trendy at the best of times so the decision was made to head inland to the Cappadocia region and specifically the town of Goreme.

The Cappadocian region is famous for spectacular valleys, canyon, hills and unusual rock formation created as a result of the eroding rains and winds over thousands of years surrounded by large volcanic mountains.

To cap this off,  in the 2nd century B.C, Christians escaped from the Roman Empire and carved cave houses and underground cities literally out of the rock.  While I applaud their commitment I reckon I would have converted to whatever was religion was in vogue at the time rather than resorting to the hard labour of carving my own 3 bedroom townhouse (with the exception of Scientology…those fruit loops are crazy!!!)

To demonstrate the beauty and uniqueness of the environment – George Lucas wanted to film scenes of Star Wars here (apparently a small matter of civil unrest put an end to that).  While we didn’t see Chewie (although some Turkish men are quite hairy) or Jar Jar Binks wandering around we did meet some great Turkish characters and see some spectacular scenery.

Open Air Museum

Our first stop was The Open Air Museum in Goreme.  The museum is an old (even by Turkish standards) Christian settlement dominated by churches, chapels and monasteries cut into mountain.

Some churches had painted frescoes of bible scenes of the walls and roofs which were quite spectacular.  Jo forked out the extra 10 lira for an audio guide which provided interesting explanations.  It appears that the early Christians in the region either had a sense of humour or were also joined by John Cleese and Eric Idle – above one painting of Mary on a donkey there was a caption which when literally translated read ‘i want to get off this donkey’

We largely spent the rest of our time exploring by foot the nearby spectacular valleys.  This made for some tired feet by the end of each of the two days. The long walks were exacerbated by the fact that Turkey tends to not value well signposted tracks.  All the valleys were spectacular and unique in there own way:

Love & White Valley

Why it is called the Love Valley.  I would be lying if i said i didn’t make many ‘witty’ references regarding the phallic nature of the rocks, however thankfully we cross paths with a group of 60 somethings making the same jokes (Jo was a bit shattered to find out that you don’t grow out of everything).

Pigeon Valley (which was mysteriously bird-free)

 Rose / Red Valley

It was so hot. This was our 2nd icy-pole stop in half an hour.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Undoubtably the highlight of our time in the region was an sunrise hot air balloon ride.  Neither of us had ever been in a hot air balloon before.  I think the photos do the experience more justice than any more of my rambling… so here they are:

Our pilot for the flight.  He was quite the character. His antics including playing the titanic theme song while we were peacefully cruising (he called his balloon the Kite-Tanic).  He also turned out to be the waiter at a local restaurant we dined at that evening (thankfully he was only helping out for the night)

Now as well as the above pilot we also meant the following characters in Cappadochia:

Character 1:

After a long walk in the Pigeon Valley we decided to stop at the top at ‘Hasan’s Tea House’.  Hasan not only provided us with a delicious cup of Cha he also launched into an energetic quiz for all his customers with prizes for all.  Now i think Hasan was silently passing judgement on my intelligence when he asked me the question ‘what is your name’ when it came my turn to answer a question, but his excitement at my correct answer and my plaster model made for a very enjoyable break from walking

Character 2:

It seems that most businesses in the Cappadochia region are family run affairs and our hostel was no different.  Mustafa was a early 20s employee who after confessing that he had been drinking vodka most of afternoon launched into the story of how he loved a girl (who not surprisingly was a distant relative) however her mum was crazy and was ruining everything.  Just goes to show that love troubles are the same everywhere (just joking Marie!!!!).  This was interrupted every 10 minutes with him trying to find the guests who had ordered a plate of chips by opening random dorm rooms and yelling.  When the guests were found there was much celebrating (and i think more vodka)

Other fun facts on our time in Cappadochia

We had our first dorm room disagreement with a pair of french girls.  The final straw being when they objected to us packing our packs at 9:30am (check out was at 10am) as they were still in bed.  Thankfully being a bit older than some other travellers we were able to solve our differences rationally (by yelling a number of 4 letter words at each other).

In case the Love Valley made you fell ‘inadequate’

A standard street in Goreme and the other close by villages