Entering Goreme in Cappadocia was like entering a magical fairyland. Volcanic activity millions of years ago and human activity much more recently created incredible rock formations that resemble “fairy chimneys” - tall pillars with mushroom-like tufts at the top and tiny little doors and windows on the sides from caves that were cut into the rock by Christians fleeing persecution. The flowing lava created verdant valleys surrounded by large smooth rocks, punctuated by these fairy chimneys. In addition to beautiful scenery this resulted in an amazing outdoor playground for hiking, biking and horseback riding enthusiasts.
Our bus arrived in the wee hours of the morning, 4:30am, so we sleepily stumbled off the bus and wandered the streets until we found a hostel (Rock Valley Pension) that had been recommended to us by the owner of our hostel in Fethiye. The doors were open but reception was closed, as was expected, so we slept in the lounge on the couches for a couple of hours before the manager arrived at 8am and we were shown to our room, where we caught a few more hours of sleep before braving the day. We were pleased to discover that our hostel was in a beautiful setting, complete with swimming pool, which we took full advantage of in the hot days to follow.
In the spirit of adventure we elected against joining a guided tour and instead rented bicycles to explore the surrounding valleys. Everything was very close by and accessible, and in one day we saw the phallic structures of the White Valley, climbed the pink coloured rocks of Rose valley and did some amazing downhill trails in the Red Valley.
There were old churches built into the rocks in the valleys and it was amazing to see the ingenuity of these people who had to literally carve out an existence in the face of persecution because of their religious beliefs.
During our bike ride we happened upon the old town of Cavusin, which was a village, now abandoned and slowly falling apart, built entirely in the rocks. It consisted of interlinked cave rooms that one could climb through like a maze, and a relatively well-preserved old church with stone arches and carvings. After a full day of climbing and bike riding we returned to our hostel dusty and sweaty, ready to enjoy the pool.
The next day we visited the Open Air Museum, which was a bit disappointing after our explorations of the amazing (and free) Cavusin, but it was interesting to see the well-preserved artwork in the old cave churches.
We were on the lookout for a Turkish carpet for our living room, and had a connection through our friends Orla and Gurken to a store in Capadoccia called The Silk Road. Unfortunately we did not find one to our taste, but the owners Ahmet and Yasar showed us incredible hospitality by picking us up from our hostel to visit the store, even providing a visit to Ahmet’s luxury cave hotel in Urgup, where we chilled out on the veranda with a glass of cold beer and white wine. The rooms in the hotel were amazing, restored from previous cave dwellings into architectural works of wonder.
On our second night in Capadoccia we climbed up to a viewpoint to enjoy the sunset over the valley, with a picnic of green olives, cheese, nuts and red wine. We had lofty plans to wake early the next morning to take pictures of the hot air balloons, which fly into the sky shortly after 5am, but unfortunately we were unable to wake up in time. Thankfully a friend of a friend took an amazing picture, and we have taken the liberty to put it in our blog to give an idea as to how magical this place can be.
After a fun three days, we took a night bus back to Istanbul, where we stayed for two more nights. We revisited our favourite local haunts including the fish sandwich stalls and enjoyed a Nargile in the dappled shade beside the stone walls of the Topaki Palace.
On our last night we met up with a friend we had made in Kabak, Gunes (which means sun in Turkish), who was a fun bundle of energy and showed us an amazing time in the Istanbul nightlife. She is Turkish with an international crew of friends who came out to party, including a touring musician who joined the group, so after hanging out over beers on the “happening” stairs of the Beyoglu neighbourhood, we all trooped into a bar and danced our hearts out all night long. We arrived bleary-eyed at our hostel at 4:30am, and woke the next morning just in time for check out and to catch our flight out of Istanbul.
Our next destination? Tanzania!! It is hard to believe that today we are heading into Africa. Ben has been working hard over the last few weeks in setting up an amazing Safari for us, and we also plan to hike Mt Meru and chill in Zanzibar. Thank goodness we have some fun plans ahead, or it would be too hard to leave Turkey. It has been an incredible five weeks and one of our favourite destinations of the trip so far.
Our bus arrived in the wee hours of the morning, 4:30am, so we sleepily stumbled off the bus and wandered the streets until we found a hostel (Rock Valley Pension) that had been recommended to us by the owner of our hostel in Fethiye. The doors were open but reception was closed, as was expected, so we slept in the lounge on the couches for a couple of hours before the manager arrived at 8am and we were shown to our room, where we caught a few more hours of sleep before braving the day. We were pleased to discover that our hostel was in a beautiful setting, complete with swimming pool, which we took full advantage of in the hot days to follow.
In the spirit of adventure we elected against joining a guided tour and instead rented bicycles to explore the surrounding valleys. Everything was very close by and accessible, and in one day we saw the phallic structures of the White Valley, climbed the pink coloured rocks of Rose valley and did some amazing downhill trails in the Red Valley.
There were old churches built into the rocks in the valleys and it was amazing to see the ingenuity of these people who had to literally carve out an existence in the face of persecution because of their religious beliefs.
During our bike ride we happened upon the old town of Cavusin, which was a village, now abandoned and slowly falling apart, built entirely in the rocks. It consisted of interlinked cave rooms that one could climb through like a maze, and a relatively well-preserved old church with stone arches and carvings. After a full day of climbing and bike riding we returned to our hostel dusty and sweaty, ready to enjoy the pool.
The next day we visited the Open Air Museum, which was a bit disappointing after our explorations of the amazing (and free) Cavusin, but it was interesting to see the well-preserved artwork in the old cave churches.
We were on the lookout for a Turkish carpet for our living room, and had a connection through our friends Orla and Gurken to a store in Capadoccia called The Silk Road. Unfortunately we did not find one to our taste, but the owners Ahmet and Yasar showed us incredible hospitality by picking us up from our hostel to visit the store, even providing a visit to Ahmet’s luxury cave hotel in Urgup, where we chilled out on the veranda with a glass of cold beer and white wine. The rooms in the hotel were amazing, restored from previous cave dwellings into architectural works of wonder.
On our second night in Capadoccia we climbed up to a viewpoint to enjoy the sunset over the valley, with a picnic of green olives, cheese, nuts and red wine. We had lofty plans to wake early the next morning to take pictures of the hot air balloons, which fly into the sky shortly after 5am, but unfortunately we were unable to wake up in time. Thankfully a friend of a friend took an amazing picture, and we have taken the liberty to put it in our blog to give an idea as to how magical this place can be.
After a fun three days, we took a night bus back to Istanbul, where we stayed for two more nights. We revisited our favourite local haunts including the fish sandwich stalls and enjoyed a Nargile in the dappled shade beside the stone walls of the Topaki Palace.
On our last night we met up with a friend we had made in Kabak, Gunes (which means sun in Turkish), who was a fun bundle of energy and showed us an amazing time in the Istanbul nightlife. She is Turkish with an international crew of friends who came out to party, including a touring musician who joined the group, so after hanging out over beers on the “happening” stairs of the Beyoglu neighbourhood, we all trooped into a bar and danced our hearts out all night long. We arrived bleary-eyed at our hostel at 4:30am, and woke the next morning just in time for check out and to catch our flight out of Istanbul.
Our next destination? Tanzania!! It is hard to believe that today we are heading into Africa. Ben has been working hard over the last few weeks in setting up an amazing Safari for us, and we also plan to hike Mt Meru and chill in Zanzibar. Thank goodness we have some fun plans ahead, or it would be too hard to leave Turkey. It has been an incredible five weeks and one of our favourite destinations of the trip so far.
Hi Guys!! I'm so happy to hear that you made it up north in Zanzibar. Our friend paul from london just blogged about his last day and meeting lovely people called patricia and ben, so i'm guessing it must be you! We've stayed at kendwa/sunset for the past 2 weeks and just returned home sunday. It was great being there and making friends. Never had such a lazy holiday before. I hope you will enjoy it thoroughly and i'm looking forward to reading about your safari and kili-trip. LOve from maggie and frank from holland (machteld haaksman and frank janse on facebook)
ReplyDeleteFrank! Great to hear from you! It was so funny to hear Paul say that "Frank and Maggie say hello"! Such a small world.
DeleteWe totally loved Kendwa and understand completely the lazyness you felt. Straight from bed to breakfast and then back to bed on the beach every day!
Hope to see you again somewhere in the world...