Blogs from Cappadocia, Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East

Now I know why everybody raves about Cappadocia, or Kapadokya, if you like the Turkish way of spelling everything phonetically. It really is a beautiful and very unique place. I have never seen anything like it. The mix of ancient cave dwellings, historic cave churches, modern tourist infrastructure and incredible landscape all make it a lot of fun. My parents and I flew to Kayseri and rented a car to drive to Göreme, where we were staying for the first two nights. I booked us rooms in a cave hotel, which is a very touristy thing that I just couldn’t pass up. It seems like most of the population of Göreme is turning their old family home into a hotel. Lots of work goes into converting a normal residential cave into a modern hotel and this ... read more

Like my friend Nuno said, when you go to Turkey you must visit someother place beyond Istanbul - he actually stayed in Turkey during 20 days and had the chance to drive the whole western coast from Istanbul to Antalya and also got a flight to Central Anatolia. From what I saw in his pictures Cappadocia seemed a very interesting and unusual place to visit after Istanbul. We didn't had many days in Turkey, but we managed to buy a bus ticket from Istanbul to Goreme - average round-trip costs 100 TL (less than 50 eur). There are lots of travel agencies in Otogar - Istanbul's main bus sation. We bought tickets from Suha and Nevsehir - it's a 12-hour journey during the night, both companies offered a snack (coffee, juice, crackers and a muffin) and ... read more

From Istanbul, we arrived in the early morning in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, via an overnight train. Ankara was established as such by Ataturk in 1920 when he chose it as his base of operations in the struggle for independence. It was declared the Turkish capital in 1923. The city’s position in the centre of Turkey made it better suited as capital than Istanbul, both physically and symbolically. We visited the Anatolian Civilization Museum of Ankara which is housed in a beautifully restored 15th-century bedesten (market vault). The museum has displays of artifacts from the earlier Anatolian civilizations: Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Neolithic, the Bronze Age, Assyrian, Hittite, Phrygian, Uralian and Lydian AND Greek and Roman artifacts as well. You name it; they had an artifact for that era. Our journey continued to Cappadocia-Goreme. Our ... read more

Oh, wow! Today Ernest and I had our first hot air balloon ride, and what a ride it was! We had to get up at 5:00 am and it was cold, but once we got to the launch site, it was worth it. There are several balloon ride companies but we were booked with the oldest one, Kappadokya Air, and we had the pilot trainer as our pilot. Getting in the basket was a little difficult for Ernest and I but the crew was great and lifted E up and helped me swing my big rear over. The hot gas warmed us up so the trip was very comfortable. We rode up and down the Cappadocia valley. The rock formations here from the volcanic ash are so unique it is a World UNESCO site. The pictures ... read more

Cappadochia is one of those places in the world that has you going "Wow" everywhere you look. The scenery is stunning and the addition of the balloons in the sky for the morning is great. As we said earlier we had to wait an extra day to get a booking and there was the possibility that our flight may be cancelled due to thunder storms looming. Having been on the flight now I see why the weather is such an important factor as you truely are at the mercy of the wind. We were picked up at 05:30 for our flight and taken to Kapadokia Balloons office where there was about 60 people waiting to fly. Graham our pilot was from England and flies n Cappadochia for 6 months of the year and then in the ... read more