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Published: December 14th 2009
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The Aegean Coast
On the coast near Kas Well, onwards and upwards is a good way of describing this next leg of the trip… After departing the “not-so-snow-capped” hill of Pamukkale, we transited back to the coast and enjoyed a few days on the beautiful Aegean Sea. It brought back memories from our time in Greece last summer, with the warm weather and crystal clear water.
From there we went on to Olympos where we hiked up Chimaera to visit the “eternal flames”; an area where natural gas slowly seeps out of the rock leaving exposed flames continually burning.
From there we said good-bye to the Mediterranean and headed for the hills of Cappadocia, known for it’s “fairy chimney” rock formations and the dwellings carved within. Upon arrival we checked into a hotel straight out of the Flintstones, carved into the side of the hill. On first appraisal we thought: “Cool! We staying in a cave! “ But as any of you who have lived in a cave already know, caves are cold and damp, especially if it’s only 4C outside. We also had the added luxury of a very stinky en-suite with a door that didn’t close… Needless to say the novelty of staying in a
Chimaera Eternal Flame
On the slopes of Mount Olympos “cave room” wore off in about 38 seconds… Oh well! The next day made up for it…
The following day was a huge highlight for us as we went hot air ballooning over the amazing landscape of Cappadocia. It was a first for both of us, and the location could not have been better (it’s rated as the #1 spot in the world for hot air ballooning). There was 11 of us from our group in the basket, piloted by none other then Jesus himself, or as they pronounce it in Turkish “Isa”. The morning was cool and crisp, but clear with little wind. We took off around 7:00am and were all excited as we left the ground. In no time we were dipping in and out of valleys and around the “fairy chimneys” (which also remarkably resemble something that boys have and girls don’t have…not a lot of need for imagination here…). Jesus’ ability to navigate the balloon was amazing (as to be expected with a name like Jesus) as he brought the basket within feet of the rock face, and then the next instant had us gaining altitude to over a kilometre in the air. We were
in the air for a little over an hour and enjoyed every second of it! There was over two dozen other balloons in the air, creating amazing 360-degree scenery as the sun warmed up the morning. The trip was topped off with a perfect landing (he actually landed the balloon onto the trailer being pulled by a Land Rover…James Bond style!) and then some bubbly and cherry juice for breakfast…perfect! Some of our travel mates were calling it “the best day ever“, and it wasn’t even 9:00am!
Once we got back to our smelly cave hotel, we had a more traditional breakfast of fried eggs off the truck and then set out with the whole group to explore the Cappadocian hills. We visited a massive, six-level deep, underground city that was over 2500 years old, exploring the basic dwellings that housed over 2000 people during times of war, when they hid the civilian population underground. Then we checked out some of the Byzantine churches, that are carved into the rock (also to hide them from invaders, as well as out of convenience), with some of the frescos still intact or restored. All in all it was a pretty amazing
day…but it wasn’t over just yet…
Our guide and driver highly recommended “Turkish Night” where you go to a restaurant that feeds you all the Turkish food you can eat, all the booze you can drink and pairs it with traditional Turkish dancing and entertainment…all for the equivalent of $30. Sounds great! Definitely cheesy, but why not?! We were picked up by a small coach and brought us out to the restaurant, but upon arrival our driver yelled “this isn’t the right place!” (First warning sign!) After some conversation we discovered that the other “Turkish Night” restaurant was closed that evening. So we went for it! The room actually looked pretty cool, but since it’s the low season the 200 seat hall, looked pretty empty with only us and another bus group of Japanese tourists (I told you it was cheesy…) So we got to see the Whirling Dervishes, a traditional Cappadocian Wedding (including bringing a horse into the hall - not very appetizing) and a belly dancer, which managed to drag yours truly up on the floor and throw down a couple hip thrusts for the crowd. The entertainment (although all very token) was fun, but unfortunately the
The view...
Ballooning over Cappadocia food wasn’t that great which kind of made the “all you can eat option” a mute point, and the booze was watered down… probably not worth the $30, but never the less we all had a ton of laughs and a good night out!
The following day it was time to bid Turkey farewell, but there was one more surprise Turkey had for us… Due to the very cold overnight temperatures the diesel in the truck decided to gum up which caused the engine to stall about 15km out of town and we had wait for a couple hours (freezing on the side of the road) for the sun to “do it’s thing”. Being good, impatient overlanders though, we decided to help the situation and took out our propane stove, dropped it under the diesel tanks, removed our passports and a couple valuables from the truck and then started to heat the tanks in somewhat a less then responsible way. Fortunately all worked out and after an hour of assisted heating we were able to start the truck and make our way to Syria.
Thank you Turkey for two great weeks of wonderful travel! We will be back!
Up and Away
Turkish balloons over Cappadocia. Until Next Time….
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Sandra
non-member comment
Wow...
I'm jealous. Really, really jealous!