Farewell Turkey, but Not Forever

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Technically I am not in Cappadocia at this moment; I am actually sitting the hotel lobby waiting to go to the airport to fly to Athens. My time in Turkey has ended, but I will be back hopefully soon in my life.

Since my last entry, I have went to a natural hot springs in Pammukale and then headed out east to central Turkey in the region of Cappadocia. This area is amazing to be sure! The rock called tuff is a volcanic rock that is soft enough to dig homes and cities out of. In this area I went to an underground city which was nine levels and explored the long tunnels and rooms that seem to appear out of nowhere. A hike was later on that day which led to several churches that were carved out when Christians still inhabited the area. I hiked a gorge which was filled with over 100 churches with amazing frescoes of which we went into about 5 or 6, not all of them or we would have been there for days. I visited the open air museum in Goreme which boasts the best and largest preserved fresco in a barrel church.

For more of a cultural immersion aspect instead of only rocks and ruins, we went to a Turkish carpet workshop/store and saw how they were made and went to a pottery workshop as well that made tiles and traditional Turkish designed pieces. The food here is also amazing with more spice than Greece.

There was one long day of driving that went from Cappadocia to Istanbul in one day with a stop at the archaeological museum in Ankara. Arriving back in Istanbul was like homecoming for me. I had missed the big city of 14 million people. I love the clash of cultures and everything about the east meeting the west.

For the last day in Istanbul we took a cruise of the Bosporus Strait, went to a great sultans mosque, and went to the large shopping/cafe district and ate dinner there prepared by an amazing Armenian cook.

I have sincerely loved my time in Turkey and am counting down the days until I can return.

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