Floating above fairy chimneys in Cappadocia (or so I should have been)

---

Sleeping in a bus station was definitely not on my list of things to do whilst in Turkey (as adventurous as I would like to be) but hopefully last night was the first and the last! There was supposed to a connecting bus from Ankara to Cappadocia but when we arrived in Ankara at 3am we were told that there was no bus to Cappadocia until 9am which meant having to wait at the station for 6 hours!

Thankfully I wasn't travelling alone. I am now on the road with Sandra and Xavi, a lovely Catalonian couple from Barcelona who I met in Safranbolu. I have also seem some much seedier bus stations than the one in Ankara, and we were able to find benches to catch a few hours kip before our ride to Cappadocia so I wasn't really complaining.

I thought sleeping on hard surfaces was good for your back. Well after resolving to sleeping on a hard bench at the bus station using my LP as a pillow, I felt like I was in need of some back surgery! But it's what you get for going with the flow and not booking bus tickets in advance. More importantly I have saved myself travelling time during the day and a night's free accommodation - a joy for someone travelling on a budget! Whoever said Turkey was cheap came here many moons ago because cheap it definitely is not.

Due to our lack of sleep we got, by the time we arrived in Cappadocia, the landscape looked even more surreal than I had imagined. A region that has been settled by Hittites, Persians, Romans and then Christians has led to an abundacnce of churches burrowed into stone cliffs.

In addition to living in caves, underground cities were built in order to shelter the people during the Roman invasion. Visiting these underground cities, it was hard to fathom how they actually survived on the resources they had and the lack of space they occupied.

We stayed in a cave in Göreme, which is the main village in the region set amid spectacular valleys with fairy chimneys jutting out of the valley making them look very strange. The village is quite touristy but I still got glimpses of traditional life, encountering woman that were working inside their homes.

Walking through the streets you could see all these broken terracotta pots lined up outside restaurants and we were wondering what that was all about until we discovered that one of the specialities here is testi kebap which is meat and vegetables cooked in a terracotta pot, and then broken at the table to serve. Of course I had to try one of these and what better way than to have it at THE traditional restaurant where you actually have to order it 5 hours in advance so the dish can be cooked properly. I think our expectations were spiked with all the hype as it was tasty, but definitely not one to go down in the books as a highlight.

I couldn't not take the plunge and splurge on a hot air balloon ride to view the dramatic landscape from above so I ignored how much was charged to my credit card and got up early as the balloons can only be flown in certain conditions - the optimum time being around sunrise when winds are light.

Unfortunately luck was not on my side today. They say that you cannot steer the balloon and it all depends on the winds etc but my one happened to be the only one that veered away from the centre of it all! All the other balloons that went up flew over Uçhisar castle and the picturesque valleys approximately 500m above the ground, while mine started going in that direction and then headed straight for a random paddock on the other side! Neverthelss it was an awesome experience and we had a safe landing...

In a matter of days I'm about to have my 3rd overnight bus ride and hoping that there are no hiccups this time around!

---

Photos

fading frescoes
Kokar Church, Ihlara Valley