It was startling to wake up at 6am on the bus, look out our window, and see Mongolia. Wait, this wasn't Mongolia. After basking in the Mediterranean sun, we weren't really prepared for the landscape that was laid out before us. The brown and yellow rolling hills of Cappadocia (pronounced “Ka-pa-do-kia”) are set against snow-capped mountains that feature prominently in the background. The ground is covered with grasses and bushes that reminded us of the Mongolian landscape. But once we got on the shuttle bus and drove to the town of Goreme (“GO-rem-eh”), and realized we were on top of a mountain looking into valleys of white, pink, and yellow stone, we knew the similarities to Mongolia stopped and the amazing landscape of Cappadocia began.
Day 1
The Goreme Open Air Museum is one of the largest (and easiest to get to) site in the Cappadocia region. This is especially true if you are staying in Goreme (obviously). It is less than 2000 meters from most of the cave hotels. We decided to walk over there shortly after checking in. As with the rest of Turkey, the town is very quiet, because it is low season.
The weather during the day was pretty nice, so the walk was a pleasant one. Unlike Russia, there were signs clearly pointing out the way to the Open Air Museum. For an introduction to fairy chimneys, cave churches, and cave dwellings, the Open Air Museum is a great primer. You will see all of those in about an hour and a half. We discovered that there were better examples elsewhere, but they are a bit more spread out. If you only have a day or two in Cappadocia, the Open Air Museum is worth a visit. If you have a significant amount of time in the region, you could skip it for more interesting examples elsewhere.
After we left the Open Air Museum, we got a hot chocolate at the museum shop and then headed into town for lunch. There were only a handful of restaurants open, so we chose one that advertised a set menu that included one of Cappadocia's signature dishes: stone kebap. They put a stew-like mixture of meat and vegetables inside of a clay pot and seal it tight. From the looks of things, they put the pot directly into the coals to cook it, and then they break it open when they serve it. That all makes for a fun little presentation during the meal.
After that, we just explored the surrounding area and made note of the things we wanted to do over the next few days.
Day 2
On our second day in Goreme, we decided to book a tour. The hotel calls the tour “Undiscovered Cappadocia.” It is a departure from the normal tour routes people go on. We generally try to avoid tours, but Cappadocia is extremely spread out, and you would need to rent a car (we realized we should have done this) to see everything. The tour covers Mustafapasa (an old Greek town), the Sobessos church excavation site, Soganli Valley, and Derinkuyu underground city. Usually, people go to see a larger valley (that is apparently quite ugly this time of year), the place they filmed Star Wars (should have gone), and the underground city. The tour was in a word, boring.
I try not to mock tours too much, but this one was pretty terrible. Mustafapasa is really just a village. The houses and cave homes have all been abandoned and aren't kept up in the least. Anything that made them uniquely Greek has faded over the last 90 years. The Sobessos church excavation site is actually past Mustafapasa. The church has been mostly excavated, but they are rebuilding the outer wall and the front gates that used to cover the cave entrances. There was heavy construction going on, the air was dusty, and the way in wasn't what I would term safe. Soganli Valley was the first fun thing on the tour, and it came when our day was nearly half over. It was a one kilometer hike past two old cave churches. The cave churches weren't that exciting and we didn't get much time there, but the valley was very beautiful. You could see very distinct lines of mineral deposits in the rock formations.
The underground city made the rest of the tour bearable. It is a remarkable feat of engineering. The underground cities in Cappadocia were basically underground castles. They were used to store food, but they were also used during invasions. Cappadocia was right in the path of the Crusades. The inhabitants of the area could live in these underground cities for up to two months. They created a complicated network of tunnels, rooms, and air ducts to make the city liveable and defensible. We went about 75 meters bellow the surface when we explored the city. We also got to see the air ducts that kept fresh air flowing throughout the entire nine tier city. The air ducts are actually what allowed the cities to be rediscovered. People would find holes that looked like wells, but get no water. Being naturally curious, they would drop a rope down to explore and find entire rooms that hadn't been touched in centuries. The city we visited is the largest open to the public. There was one discovered last year that they think is much larger, but some of the tunnels were built so you could only crawl through them. So there is a question as to whether that city will ever be opened to the public.
So the verdict on the tour is don't do it. Get one of the public buses to the underground city and do it yourself. Make sure you read up on it ahead of time to know what you are looking at, but the rest of the tour is completely unnecessary.
Day 3
We set aside day three for hiking. We have been traveling for two months now, and through Mongolia and Russia were able to control ourselves food-wise. Well, in Russia, it was really the fact that you paid separately for every little thing that controlled us. In Turkey, the portions are generous, the bread is amazing, and the wine is pretty good. We gained a little weight in the Mediterranean, because that's what you do.
In light of that, we decided to hike two of the valleys. One is called Pigeon Valley. It is a short two mile jaunt through mostly flat land. There are some stone chimneys, tons of pigeon houses (more on that later), and very nice volcanic rock formations. The valley funnels toward the town Ucisar (Uchisar). It didn't take us very long to get to Ucisar where we got lunch.
As we walked toward the town center, pretty much everything was closed. Ucisar is much smaller than even Goreme, which isn't big to begin with. We settled on a restaurant called Lil'a. You could tell by looking in the window that the restaurant wasn't cheap, but it was pretty much the only option. We were glad we chose it. The prices were high for Turkey, but not too high in general. The food was excellent and their standard table wines were very good. We were good and only got one glass each.
After lunch, we were off to Honey Valley. Honey Valley is a little more ambitions, because the valley is just over three miles long, but it lets you out another mile and a half or so from Goreme. We discovered that it is also difficult to find. We went to the onyx factory near the opening to the valley and walked down the road. We walked and walked, but didn't see a place to get into the valley. So we decided to get off the established path and see if we could find an entrance. We later discovered that we were looking off the wrong side of the path. We actually went completely around Honey Valley. Due to this mistake, we probably walked closer to four or five miles without even realizing it. We only figured out what happened when we were on our balloon ride the next day.
We still had fun though, and we were able to meet up with Amanda and Dennis again for dinner at a place called Alaturca. It is in Lonely Planet, so the food is a little more expensive than the standard price, but it is very good. The wine there is extremely cheap. Only 22 Turkish Lira (around $14) for the cheapest bottle. After dinner, we headed over to the mulled wine place again. Nothing beats a warm drink on a cold night.
Day 4
At 6:05AM we left for a balloon ride (see Come Fly With Me...). After we returned, we relaxed and moved into a suite at the Kelebek Hotel (see our review). Emily had a few job interviews with people via Skype. We decided to use the Turkish Bath (hammam) at the hotel after lunch.
The hammam is a two-room bath house. One of the rooms is a dry sauna. The other room is a room to relax in that has a warm stone sitting in the middle with water basins built into the walls on the outside. We were expecting a Korean-style bath house with hot and cold pools of water, but that's not what we got. We had free entry, so it was nice to sit in the sauna for a while, use the basins to bathe, and then just relax on the hot stone. If you weren't staying in a suite though, the price was 10 Euro. There is no way I would have paid that much for the experience we got. They also offer massages, but they bring the cost up quite a bit, so we didn't partake. The bath was still very beautifully decorated, even if it wasn't really worth the money.
After a whole day of doing basically nothing we met up with Dennis and Amanda again for dinner. We took the advice of the hotel and went to the Setin Restaurant next door. They serve Anatolian food and wine. I got lamb shank and Emily got stuffed squash blossoms. Both dishes were very good. Amanda and Dennis got Turkish ravioli and stuffed chicken respectively. They let us try some. The stuffed chicken was delicious. The ravioli was better than the version we had in Kas. Setin's version wasn't as thick.
After dinner, we went back to the suite, started a fire (yes there was a fireplace), took a bath, and went to bed. The perfect end to our Turkish adventure.
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