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Ed:
After trekking for two long days through Gallipoli, all I wanted was some sleep! Unfortunately, with a 6:30am flight to Kayseri, all we managed was to cram in five hours of slumber! Whaaah!
We arrived at the domestic terminal at around 5:30am, and were met by these long queues. One thing you can say about the Turkish is that they are big on security (guess experience does count for something). They scan anything and everything you bring, including all luggage that you check-in through x-ray machines. So by the time we passed our third security scan, and with only 20 minutes to spare for our flight, it was time to start doing some pushing and shoving. Thankfully, we made our flight just in time (I fear one day I’m going to be typing ‘and we missed the flight’!).
After an hour flight, we got into Kayseri, got transfers to our hotel in Urgup (about an hour from Kayseri) checked into our hotel (The Cappadocia Palace - again with twin beds!!) grabbed a quick bite and joined our tour for the next two days (all by 9:30am!).
I’m relieved to say that we finally got lucky on
Leaving Istanbul
Nothing like pollution for a great sunrise photoa tour group! I was so afraid we would get another Guido like on the ANZAC tour. Thankfully, our guide was nothing short of excellent. She was full of knowledge and charm, and made the experience all the more interesting. Our tour group consisted of about 15 people (three Americans, one Canadian living in America, two Polish-Canadians, three Singaporeans and four Aussies).
Our guide started off by explaining that Cappadocia is an area full of geological phenomenons. The area is surrounded by three inactive volcanoes, and millions of years of erosion have created an amazing area of incredible rock formations that defy description. It also has a rich history, and was at various stages the centre of the Hittite and Persian Empires and a refuge for early Christians.
Our first stop was the Devrent Valley, where we stopped to get an overview of the region. It was an amazing sight full of towering tuff cones and white cliffs. These went on as far as the eye could see and the bright sun lit up the volcanic rock with a honeycomb hue. It was quite astonishing.
From there we headed on to the Goreme Open Air Museum, which
is an old monastery used by monks in the 4th century AD to convert the locals to Christianity and hide from the Romans. This place was awesome and had one of the most impressive of all rock-carved Byzantine churches. It was built right inside the rocks, with large caves converted into chapels, churches and monasteries. The rooms contain domes with stunning frescoes painted on the walls. Most of them depicted scenes from the bible and a number of them included Mary Magdalene - for all you Da Vinci Code theorists!. There was one of St George attacking the dragon, another one of Constantine with his mother Helena, but most focused on the crucifixion of Jesus. It was fascinating to think that these paintings were drawn not so long after Jesus’ time. It really gave you a perspective on the plight of the Christians who had to hide out here in the middle of nowhere! We wondered on from cave to cave admiring the story behind each fresco.
Afterwards we drove over to Avanos, which is a town located on the bank of the Kizilirmak River, and famous for its clay pottery. We headed towards a clay factory where we
were shown how pots are made. The guy there made it look so easy. After his demonstration he asked for a volunteer. For some reason our group decided to nominate me! So with a little persuading, I geared up and sat for my Ghost moment. With cameras flashing I kicked the wheel that spun the clay and began spinning and moulding. Then more spinning and moulding. The only instructions I kept getting from my non-English speaking trainer were ‘speen fasta’ and ‘squeeze harda’. Before long I had nothing that looked like a pot but more like an enormous penis - much to everyone’s amusement! Evenutualy I began to get the hang of it and you can see the end result on the pics below. It wasn’t one of my proudest moments!
After my performance, we headed to lunch back to the hotel. It was nice to finally get something other than bloody meatballs (see Matt’s blog on Istanbul). We decided to sit with our American friends to hear about the rest of the tour as they started the day before. After the usual polite chit chat, I somehow got on to the topic of my experience of staying with
a Mormon family in LA. As I was about to launch in my usual tirade about the bizarreness of that experience, divine intervention kicked in and very nonchalantly Abby shares that she’s a Mormon. Had she shared this fact one minute later - it could have made for a very awkward situation. Phew!
After lunch we headed out to another small village with further caves and rock formations. These particular ones were the fairy chimneys, which is a bit of a misnomer because these isolated pinnacles in fact looked more like giant penises (if you don’t believe me see the photos)! It was here where they have the Witch’s Castle, which is one of the largest tuffs with hundreds of little windows carved out in it.
After exploring around here for an hour we went on to the Imagination Valley - so called as you have to use your imagination to see all these different animals and persons on the rock formations. Some where really obvious, like the animal formations. Others you really had to use your imagination as it looked nothing like the name. Also - Matt had a bit of an embarrassing moment when he tried
to prove that he could climb a rock with steps on it (he couldn’t). It was quite amusing, especially for the Singaporean girls in our group!
On the way back to the hotel we had the mandatory Persian Rug factory visit… which normally would annoy me, except that there was a hilarious moment where the owner asked the Canadian girl Rachel where she was from. She’s 2nd generation Canadian. Except that she looks Asian. So when she told the guy she was Canadian, he said - ‘but where are you really from’. The expression on her face was priceless! Reminded me of Annette face whenever anyone asks her where she's from!
After this we headed back to the hotel for a free afternoon. Needless to say, we headed straight for a nap for a much needed rest! We then went out for dinner with two aussie friends from the tour group - Maree and Andy. Maree found this fantastic restaurant and we ate and drank wine until closing time.
The following morning we were back on the tour at 9am. This time we headed out to Red Valley, and we hiked through orchards and vineyards, between fairy
chimneys and rock-carved houses. We then continued the walk into the Rose Valley which was even a higher hike! The view we got at the top was so fantastic though. I can’t recommend this place enough though - it really is beautiful. After the quick hike down, we went on to the town of Cavusin. Here there were old houses carved into the rock face. There we saw the Church of St John the Baptist, which is one of the oldest in Cappadocia, before breaking for lunch.
After lunch we headed out to an old Greek village named Mustafapsa. The village was an Ottoman settlement until WW1, and it has the 12th century St Basil Church. The town was quite small and the architecture had the familiar Greek columns and arches. By this time, I couldn’t climb another hill so I admired from afar while Matt went up to get the photos.
From there on we went to the underground city of Kaymakli. The city is believed to be around 4,000 years old, and with certainty it was occupied by 7BC by the Hittite and used as a hiding place at times of attack. It is about eight
levels deep, with rooms going left, right and up and down. There were doors and window everywhere. It’s incredible how this whole place was carved out. There were rooms specifically for wine storage, and they had sections they would block off with giant stone wheels that looked like something out of Indiana Jones. They also had specific holes where they would pour hot oil on enemies that would chase them. There was also a massive air vent right in the middle of the underground city the size of a lift shaft. It was quite fascinating, and I’m glad we had the guide as it’s quite easy to get lost!
After exploring there for about an hour, we then headed out to Pigeon Valley, so named after the hundreds of little windows carved into the rocks to attract nesting pigeons. So weird - back home we’d do anything to get rid of the dam rats with wings but these people attract them as they collect their poo for fertilising the soil. Now why didn’t I think of that!?
After this we went past a valley where you got a great view of the Mt Erciyes, then we ended the
tour. We had another three hours to kill before our flight back to Istanbul so we found a Haman near a hotel and decided to have another Turkish bath. When in Rome…!
The flight back to Istanbul was a little scary. The plane was about 30 years old and was making very strange sounds. Luckily we got back to Istanbul in one piece and stayed at the Raddison for our last night in Turkey (finally a double bed!).
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N/G
non-member comment
Wow
A really amazing place, you have seen so many places that we have never heard of. The saying 'it's a small world' may not be so true after all. Cheers N/G