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Published: June 13th 2011
A couple things about Cappadocia: It's mentioned in the Bible twice by Peter. The early Christians trying to escape the Roman Empire built numerous churches underground and in the caves and mountains here. The crazy formations are the result of volcanic eruptions a long time ago. If you want to know more you can look it up!
Lacey and I loved it and definitely want to go back as soon as we can. We're going to look into flying next time (1 hour as opposed to 25/26)! There is so much more to explore in this area. It is probably most famous for its hot air balloons. If you google Cappadocia you will certainly see tons of balloons floating in the sky. We would obviously love to do this but they take off around 5am for sunrise and we didn't arrive until 9am. It costs about $200 but I've heard it's without a doubt, worth it. Next time hopefully.
Turkish guy number three was a nice guy who we bumped into a couple times throughout the day. He leads tours in Japanese! He is Turkish and has never been to Japan but teaches Japanese students living in Turkey how
to speak Japanese! Crazy. Anyway, he took our picture for us a couple times and lives right near me in Istanbul. I'll be calling him when I'm ready to start Japanese lessons......
Lacey and I scooted around the city as quickly as we could, eager to see everything. I can hardly stand stopping to go to the bathroom when I'm in a new place, I just want to go and make sure I see EVERYTHING! ha ha But that was impossible here. We went into John the Baptist's church...which is quite unbelievable. It's inside rocks in a hill and has columns in it and art decorating the ceilings. It was all amazing to see. It is hard to comprehend how old everything is here!
Turkish guy number four owned a hotel in the area and showed us around on our scooter for a bit and we had cold drinks at his hotel. The high season is over in Cappadocia. It gets too hot in the summer so there weren't a lot of tourists. He told us that most of his customers are from France. I saw hundreds of Korean people! It was so funny to me to be
in Turkey sightseeing alongside so many Koreans. I talked to a few of them and they were all excited when they found out I lived in Cheongju. I tried to use my tiny bit of Korean and they loved it. One of the old ladies walked toward me and shook my hand, but only after she heard me use Korean! So funny! They couldn't really speak English but I met a few younger girls that were fluent. Very nice people.
Dinner was really good! We had pottery kebabs. Pottery is really big in this region of Turkey and they make you a kebab in a clay pot! And then you crack the pot and eat it! It was delicious, as was the soft, fresh bread they gave us with a salsa-like dip. Yum! We ate it really quickly as we were in a hurry to catch our shuttle.
The trip home was long and we were a mess. After scooting through sandy roads in hot weather and not showering since the day before, you can imagine. It started with a shuttle at 8pm to the bus station. The bus left around 9pm and we drove and drove until
8:30am when we were dropped at another bus station. At this point we had to wait for a shuttle for about 45 minutes. We got on the shuttle and were dropped off in Besiktas, where we had to wait for a bus. Are you seeing the pattern here? LONG morning!!! This is about when we noticed Lacey's ankles....they were huge! I didn't notice mine until later because I was wearing pants but they didn't go down for about 24 hours. I have never seen my ankles like this in my life. It was so gross! When I showered I could hardly even touch them, I felt obese!
Anyway, finally we caught our bus and I was dropped at the bottom of about 300 stairs, and only after climbing those....with my swollen ankles and heavy backpack, only then was I home! It was a long trip but so worth it! We had so much fun and we will never forget it with all the pictures we took!
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Jeanne
non-member comment
Wow!
Another awesome experience!! I'm so proud of you!! And how cool that Lacey is with you!! Be careful with the ankles but I can identify...same thing happened to me for the first time in SA, then again in SK, and finally in NY. All that walking!! Take care of your precious self!! What a beautiful and historic area you are in!! Love you!