Cappadocia, Turkey, Part 2: THE HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE

Moment of the Day:
Getting straight to the point. This section comes first today because it was truly one of the most incredible things I've ever done - hot-air ballooning before sunrise over the gorgeousness that is Cappadocia.



Our company came and picked us up for a 4AM departure (ouch!).  Hot-air ballooning is probably the most popular activity that tourists come to Cappadocia for - you can hot-air balloon here 300 days of the year, which is incredibly unusual. However, the winds usually pick up during the day, and oftentimes the balloon rides have to all be completely cancelled if the winds are too strong (which apparently happened on the day before we arrived).

As a way of limiting air traffic, only 100 balloons are allowed up in the morning.  It's adorable because all the balloons start super close together, but then as you drift upwards, everyone kind of goes on their own merry way.

ARE YOU DYING YET

I have to say, floating about Cappadocia in the early morning hours, watching the sun rise over the crazy rock formations, was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen in my entire life. Sam and I kept commenting that the entire thing felt surreal - it didn't feel like real life.

I maybe took a million photos, and I swear I tried to condense them down as much as possible.

4:30AM

All the balloons lift off

Look how high we are! Max height is 1,800 meters above sea level, which is just about where we were at in this photo.  Our guide proudly pointed out that we were the highest balloon of them all

Honestly, photos don't do this justice

The sun has now risen

And then we floated down a little and this cow was staring at us

Put this on your bucket list ASAP

Afterwards, the guide gave us all champagne and then certificates (for doing nothing but standing in the basket, I guess?)  Sam remarked how adorable it was because they read off all our names and after each one, the entire crew would applaud and yell "Bravo!"  Despite the fact that they probably do this every day of their life....it was so cute

Cheers-ing in front of our balloon basket

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Despite the 3:30AM wakeup, and the fact that we didn't get back to our hotel until 7:30AM, and the fact that our hotel man "did not recommend we do both the ballooning and a full-day tour on the same day" because it would be exhausting, Sam and I signed up for a full-day 8-hour tour starting at 9:30AM to visit all these other sites in Cappadocia. Because we're crazy. And that's why we're friends. DO ALL THE THINGS.

First on the tour: overlook onto Goreme

• Our next stop on the tour was an underground cave city. There are a ton of these around Cappadocia. We went to a city called Derinkuyu. It was believed that groups of people that were persecuted lived in the underground cities, to hide from enemies and such. Derinkuyu is over a couple thousand years old, goes more than 20 stories below the earth, and could hold up to 20,000 people. It was like crazy mole people underground land. Or like those ant farms you used to have as a kid, but in life-size form.  There were kitchens, and bedrooms and small tiny passageways that funneled from room to room.  HOW COOL IS THAT.

The underground-ness kept the temperature cool year-round. There were also a handful of ventilation shafts to the surface so they could breathe and cook and stuff

Funneling through one of the tiny tiny passageways. Apparently these people were super small

They were so small, in fact, that a girl on our tour who was over 6 feet tall had to be bent at a 90 degree angle the entire walk through the passages

• Then hiked the Ihlara Valley, a very pretty trek down in a valley by the river where people (surprise!) used to reside in the caves along the valley.

A cave monastery in the  Ihlara Valley. These are the old-school frescoes inside

• Visited Selime Monastery - a cave monastery at the top of a cliff bluff - because apparently monasteries can't be easy to reach!? It was kind of an aggressive climb.

Selime Monastery

A cathedral inside the monastery

Meal of the Day:

To cap off the longest and most activity-filled day in all of history, we went to a local restaurant called Dibek, which is known for one of Cappadocia's popular traditional dishes: pottery kebab (testi kebap).  They take meat or vegetables, seal it in a clay pot, and then slow cook the pot over the fire for hours. Then when ready to eat, they break it open with a hammer, and voila! Pottery kebab. 

Our man getting ready to hammer open our pottery kebab, which we had to call and order early that morning so it was ready by dinnertime

Hammering it open

Pouring onto the plate

Entire spread

We sat on the floor and drank out of clay goblets, which I took as a sign to mean that the entire experience was totally authentic

It was so, so delicious.  Kind of like an olden-day slow cooker.  Our hotel man was telling us that only a couple places do this kind of thing authentically anymore because of the effort involved - most places cook the meat/veggies beforehand, then throw it into a clay pot and break it open for show.  Dibek, however, still does it old school. Nom.

Sam and I were so sad to leave Cappadocia - it truly is adventure-rugged-outdoor land, and there are SO MANY interesting things to do and see and uhhhh who doesn't love a good cave building?!  So, so great.  Next up, the insanity of the big city - Istanbul!

Cappadocia, Turkey, Part 1: Adventures on an ATV

Sam and I arrived bright and early in Cappadocia on Monday morning (there may or may not have been a 9-hour overnight bus involved in this endeavor), but we survived and checked into our lovely cave hotel.

What It's All About:
Cappadocia, Turkey is the place you always see those crazy photos of - the tall, thin, craggy rock formations, tons of rose-colored caves, hot-air balloons, etc.  It's like a totally other alien landscape. Rumor is that the landscape here inspired Star Wars, but George Lucas couldn't film here because Turkey was dangerous in the 1970s, so he had to move filming to Tunisia and recreate the scenes he saw here instead.  It is incredibly surreal-looking.

CRAZIEST LANDSCAPE EVER

There are a handful of cities that make up Cappadocia, and we stayed in Goreme, the largest and more budget-friendly city of the lot.  AND YOU CAN STAY IN A CAVE HERE. There are so, so many cave hotels that offer accommodation (props to Sam for booking ours).

Our cave hotel!

Most of the insane-looking caves and landscape were formed from volcanic rock, which makes it "soft" and easily dig-into-able. So people way back when carved homes and churches (oh my god, so many churches) and their lives into these caves. It's also helpful because it is HOT here, like desert-weather = 50 degrees at night, 85 degrees and sunny during the day. And inside the caves stay nice and cool. AND YOU'RE IN A CAVE.  And there's different kinds of caves! Ugh, this is the best place.  There is so, so much to do.

Cave residences!

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Night bus from Pamukkale to Cappadocia, which was around 9-10 hours (this includes like, 10 breaks throughout the night though). I don't mind night buses (I know people do not share this sentiment with me). Give me a sleep mask and earplugs, and I will pass out (it's a talent). Sam, however, does not share this talent.  I woke up in the morning as we arrived, and she had like, 10 stories of things that happened while I was sleeping.

Before our overnight bus endeavor

• Upon arrival in Goreme, we rented an ATV for the day to explore some of the neighboring sites and towns.  It was SO worth it - there's tons and tons of off-road paths you can follow and most places we went, we were totally alone to explore.  It was seriously like living in Indiana Jones. For 4 hours, we just drove through these desert paths wherever the hell we wanted (well, based on recs of our hotel man...but still exploring!!).

ATV ADVENTURE TIME

Crazy rock formations of Rose Valley (named for the color they turn at sunset). Do you see how tiny Sam is (on the left) compared to these??

#rocks

A lot of rocks had little dwellings and caves dug into them. LOOK HOW GIANT THE ROCK IS

In the town of Cavuchin, a church carved into the rock mountain!

Some of the detail carved into the cave rocks

The old village of Cavuchin. People no longer live in these, but these are just chillin' by the side of the road and you can park your super-fly ATV and just go wandering in. SO COOL.

And then we veered off on the wrong trail and ended up at this man's fruit farm, in which he spent 20 minutes chatting with us and showing us his entire fruit farm and giving us fruit from the trees. THE. CUTEST. 

The tiny area of Pasabag, where these rocks are called "fairy chimneys" due to their interesting shape. As my guidebook most helpfully explained, "People are in two camps - they either looks like mushrooms, or phalluses"

On a rock in Pasabag

• After our 4-hour dusty ATV excursion (seriously, it felt like we were in the Wild, Wild West......or , again, IJ: Raiders of the Lost Ark) - we visited the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's this awesome outdoor museum where you can visit an old cave monastery compound from the 10th century.  There's a ton of churches (again, SO MANY CHURCHES) inside the caves that you can visit with frescoes and paintings on the wall, and it was SO COOL. Cave monks from 900 A.D. They even had kitchens where they carved huge seating areas and communal tables into the rock.  Love it.

Goreme Open Air Museum

Churches, churches everywhere. It was hot as balls outside, but inside the caves were nice and cool. Exceeeept they wouldn't let you take photos inside to preserve the frescoes

Goreme by night

• By the end of the day, we seriously had seen a million different variation of caves. People lived inside the caves in this area until the 1950s, when a couple of cave collapses happened and the government forced all the people to move out. According to a local, only a couple crazies/artists/writers still live in the caves today.

Convo of the Day:

Not even joking, I've had this exact conversation at least 5 times while I've been in Turkey. EXACT.

Local: "Where are you from??"

Me: "United States"

Local: "That's where you come from?"

Me: "Yes"

Local (suspicious): "But you were born there?"

Me: "Yes"

Local: "But your eyes are slanted/different/long/*uses hands to stretch eyes out to the side*"

Local: "Where were your parents from?"

Me: "Taiwan"

Local: "OH YES THAT'S IT"

Obviously, I'm sure it's some kind of cultural thing and it's more amusing to me than anything else.  I cannot believe how many times I've had this exact conversation, word-for-word. Everyone wants to know where you're from, always - and not just me, as they ask Sam as well and basically any tourist they come across.  They just seem especially fascinated that I can look Asian and be American.

On a serious note, and on a more general level, the Turkish people are seriously the most hospitable, nicest, most helpful people you will come across.  They ask you questions because they are genuinely interested in your answers and they are fascinated by what you have to say - I can't even count how many lovely, amazing, adorable people we've met over the past week. Even in areas where I'm sure tons and tons of tourists trample through all the time, the people are the best and will go out of their way to help you (albeit while trying to sell you something sometimes, but they are more than happy to step back if you don't want to buy anything).  Sam and I have had a great time recalling all the amazingly helpful/sweet people who go above and beyond to talk to us, interact with us, ask us questions, and help us.  THE BEST.

Fun Facts of the Day:

• This is a Turkish tea (called chai in Turkish).  They always serve them in these adorably tiny glasses, it's always piping hot, and people drink them like it's their job here.  Everywhere you go, people are drinking these in cafes, or there are people dropping off a tray of them to the business owners, or what have you. 

Turkish tea, complete with sugar cube

Lastly, not that I'm advertising my blog on my own blog, but you're gonna wanna stay tuned for the next post when we go HOT AIR BALLOONING AT SUNRISE ABOVE ALL OF CAPPADOCIA AND MY LIFE CHANGED FOREVER.