Welcome to Cappadocia- Göreme.

Göreme . Cappadocia, Turkey.

We left early in the morning to catch a shuttle to the airport. The ride was about 1.5 hours and took us from the Europe side of Istanbul to the Asia side. We arrived in Kayseri in the late afternoon, and took the shuttle bus to Göreme. I don’t know if this driver was running late or what, but he definitely drove like a bat out of hell. The drive from Kayseri to Göreme was about an hour as well, and once we arrived in Göreme, it was dark. The place looked amazing! The fairy chimneys were lit up making it look absolutely magical. We stayed in a really cool cave hotel.

our cave room.

It was underground, with only a small widow near the ceiling that was actually at ground level. We slept in a cave! This was another very small hotel that was run by a family. We walked down the hill to the center of town for some dinner, which we weren’t too impressed with, and then crossed the street to another restaurant, and found the food to be delicious. They offered this meal that cooks in its own clay pot for 5 hours. You have to order the meal the day before, so that’s exactly what we did and planned to return the following night for dinner. Cappadocia was really cold, but absolutely gorgeous. 

Pigeon houses. Cappadocia, Turkey.

The next morning we woke up before the sun and were picked up for a sunrise balloon flight. Our balloon was small, which we both really liked. Our driver scared me in the beginning. He would drop the balloon into the valleys and weave through the fairy chimneys. He took us through a valley full of pigeon houses. Apparently, pigeons were really important to the Christians, and subsequently the people made little holes in the rocks, to house these sacred animals. There were several times I felt like he was too close to the cliff, but he would pull up at the last minute with no problems. After a while, I relaxed a little, especially when he commented that another balloon was flying dangerously.

Cappadocia, Turkey.

I was just happy he had limits. The flight was perfect, we were able to see the terrain from high above, our pilot was very entertaining, and we loved seeing the sky dotted with about 80 balloons in the air. (During peak season, there can be over 150 balloons in the air at one time). After we landed, we had a celebratory champagne toast, and made our way back. We had also booked a day tour that started at 9am, so we had just enough time to return to the hotel, eat breakfast (again provided by the hotel) and de-layer. I had three layers on the bottom and four on top, while Javier had about two on bottom and three on top. Like I said…it was cold. 

Cappadocia. Jackie in the underground city.

Our day tour was good with the exception of our guide. She was just annoying. I don’t know what else to say. We went to Pigeon Valley, where again we saw the many pigeon houses. From there we went to the underground city. This was a city that was created as a refuge by the Christians when the Ottomans would attack. The place was amazing. She told us that only a small portion has been discovered but they know there is a tunnel that leads to another city some 20km away. Thousands of people would live in this city for months at a time. It went down for 8 stories, and had a central skylight that they would use to tell when it was day or night so they knew when to cook. It was really amazing. They had places for the animals to live and wells to pull up fresh water.

Ağaçaltı Church.

We visited an old cave church, and walked along the river in the Ihlari Valley. It was a really beautiful and peaceful walk. At the end we had a mediocre lunch, and made our way to our last stop. Our final stop was an old cave monastery. According to our annoying guide, after a visit, George Lucas wanted to film an episode of Star Wars. The Turkish government didn’t allow it, so they recreated the terrain in Tunisia. Of course we had to go to the obligatory commission stops which included a store where we tried several Turkish sweets and seeds. We bought a small bag of pumpkin seeds, which we thoroughly enjoyed and even shared with an old grumpy guy on our flight out of Turkey- he was no longer grumpy towards us after that.

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Cappadocia

The final stop was at an onyx factory where they showed us how they shaped and polished onyx, and then took us to the jewelry part of the shop. We were shown the Turquoise as well as Sultanate, a magical little stone that changes color with the light. The sultanate was really cool, and we both found it really interesting. They guy tried really hard to sell us something, but Javier politely told him that since we knew nothing about the stone, we wanted to go back and do a little research and if we were interested, we would come back the next day.

We did, in fact, look up Sultanate, and what we found was this: It’s super rare to find real Sultanate. The Sultanate mine was closed in 2012, so as of right now, there is a limited number of Sultanate, and it is therefore, quite expensive. We also read a bunch of people talking about how they bought jewelry while on a tour in Cappadocia, only to find out that their Sultanate is actually colored glass. Can you believe it!?! These tour companies take you to places, knowing they sell fake stuff. I guess it must be a good kick-back, and the fact that it seems like every single tour company does it makes it even more frustrating, so if you wanted to boycot the tours that take you to a bunch of lying thieves, you wouldn’t be taking any tours.

Clay pot stew. Delicious.

That night we returned to our restaurant for our 5-hour-clay-pot-delight, and well, it didn’t disappoint. So much so, that we did, in fact, order it again for the following night. I mean, we’re probably never going to eat this stuff again, so might as well get our fill, right?

The next day, we decided on a little adventure. After debating whether or not to hike, run, or bus to our next destination, the bus won.The buses in Cappodocia are some of the nicest we’ve been in. We were on our way to the next little town, Ürgüp. I had looked into Hamams (Turkish Baths) while in Istanbul, but due to a few factors, the most important of which being the price, I decided to forego. Well, while we were in Göreme, I had looked up Hamams again, and found one in the hotel right next door! It had great reviews and was around 75 euro per person.

Turkish bath time.

Kinda steep for these little travelers! Another place was on my radar, but it was a local bath in the neighboring city of Ürgüp, and it was around 65 lira, or about $25 for both! Now that’s what I’m talking about! We had a difficult time finding the place, apparently Google maps didn’t locate it correctly, go figure, but we eventually found it, and it was a charming little place.

The Hamam is family owned by a father and his sons. On arrival, we were given some rubber slippers, a towel, and shown a little changing room, where we could store our stuff under lock and key. We were shown into a steamy, circular, stone room. In the middle of the room was a large round platform where there was already another couple lying down. The circular room was connected to several other smaller alcoves that had water basins and faucets. At the far end of the room was a separate steam room that was even hotter than the room we were currently in. Yikes! We were instructed to rinse ourselves at one of the basins, and then retreat into the steam room to cook. Normally, the men and women kept separate, and therefore most people only wear the towels. Since this place was family run and owned with only the sons working there, it was suggested by previous patrons to wear a swimsuit under the towel, or not, depending on comfort. Javier and I both decided to wear swimsuits, which turned out to be a good idea. While we were cooking in the steam room, the other couple left, and we alternated between steam room and big stone slab to keep from passing out…It was REALLY hot in there. After about 30 minutes, a man walks in wearing the same towel as us, and tells us to follow him. We are led into a small room with two stone beds on opposite sides covered with a vinyl-type cushion. We were instructed to sit down on the separate beds, while the two brothers started dousing us with buckets of warm water and washing our bodies with soap. Next comes the fun part. They took this scrub-mitten-thing and began to scrape off our skin. It was rolling off like dark little worms. They scrubbed us down- starting with our necks and finishing with our feet! I’m not going to lie, it was really gross to see all that skin. After this we were rinsed and told to lie down. They take this large pillow case-looking thing, dunk it in soapy water, fan it open to get it to inflate like a balloon, grip the end to keep the pillow case inflated, and deflate it by gripping the pillow case with the other hand and sliding it down creating tons of soap suds that cover the entire body. So, there we were, covered in soap suds. The men then gave us a full body massage both front and back, had us sit up again where we were rinsed, hair shampooed and rinsed and told to return to the stone room for about 5 more minutes, rinse at the basin, and then we were done. We did exactly that, got dressed, and left for lunch feeling absolutely AMAZING!!! We couldn’t keep our hands off each other- now hear me out…our skin was incredibly soft. Even our clothes felt different on our bodies. It was better than any spa/massage experience I’ve ever had. Oh, how I wish we could go back!

A facial in Turkey. nice.

After returning to Göreme, Javier decided that he needed a haircut. He asked around to the local guys, and we followed their recommendation. When we arrived, a older British guy was receiving a shave. Javier tells the guy he is only there for a cut, and we sit in the little waiting area and are served tea. During our wait, Javier decided to get a shave as well- why not! After the haircut, where I was sad they didn’t use the flaming Q-tip to burn Javier’s ear hair like they did the others’, came the shave. This shave was complete with a face, head, shoulder, and arm massage AND a facial to top it off! Javier has never had a massage before, and the day he does, he gets a total body exfoliation and massage, additional upper body massage, and a facial! Nice huh?

Dinner consisted of yet another fabulous 5-hour-clay-pot-meal, after which, we tucked in early for our super early morning pick-up to the airport. I should mention that the hotel was run by a family with two sons who looked to be about our age. Javier had challenged both brothers to a FIFA game at some point during our stay. Every time we would drop off or pick up our key, the brothers would be playing in the reception area, which, like our place in Istanbul, looked more like a cozy living room. When it was close to our dinner reservation, I went to the reception area where I found both Javier and one brother deep in competition. It was kind of fun to see. The brothers were both very serious and polite when we encountered them, but now, they were all talking trash and laughing together.

Go pro. Balloon ride. Cappadocia.

Our time in Turkey was absolutely amazing. I was already in love with Istanbul, and Cappadocia just blew me away. Arriving to this little town at night looked truly out of this world. I have never before, nor probably ever will, see anything like it again. Of all the places we have been so far, Turkey was by far the most unique place we have been. and definitely high on the favorites list!

To see more pictures of Cappadocia, click HERE.