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| View of the sunrise and Mount Erciyes in the distance from our balloon |
For the past week I've been waking up with the main purpose of
exploring incredible landscapes, often bringing along bread, olives,
cheese, and wine for a picnic along the way. The Goreme National Park in
the Cappadocia region of Turkey is absolutely amazing. I was fortunate
enough to be here for my birthday, making it one of my best birthdays to
date.
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| "Fairy Chimneys" in Love Valley |
Cappadocia is most often associated with the
"fairy chimney" shaped formations found throughout the region, as well
as the balloon rides, which give you a bird's eye view of the area. The
hundreds of cave churches and homes as well as various underground
cities are also very popular sites. The region's formation dates back to
millions of years ago when the extinct volcanoes in the area were
active. There were many eruptions which covered the region in ash, lava,
and basalt. Over time, both water and wind erosion have worked to shape
the formations seen here today. The basalt is the dark layer still
visible on many of the structures and is much stronger than the layers
underneath. The ash layers below are very soft and extremely easy to
carve, which resulted in the creation of all of the homes, churches and
cities that people can visit today.
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| Flying over Love Valley |
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| Cave bedroom! The bed frame is carved from the rock too! |
The town of Goreme
has been our base for this past week. It is a small town surrounded by
valleys perfect for hikes. There are many accommodation options to
choose from, most of which offer cave rooms. Yes, that means you get to
sleep in a cave. Not a natural cave, but a man-made cave, still pretty
incredible. The town also has a bunch of restaurants and cafes. Pottery
kebabs are one of the delicious meals unique to this region, so they are
a must if you ever visit. I really love this town, but I don't think
I'd have the same opinion if it were the high season. Being here during
the off-season has resulted in a quiet, peaceful environment with plenty
of empty rooms (so competitive prices!). There is a hill that everyone
goes up to get the best view of the sunsets. It has been perfect up
there since there aren't many people, but if you had a full hill, it
would definitely not be as relaxing.
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| Goreme after the sunset |
What's been going on each day? Well, here you go!
Day 1: Short hike. Explored a few caves. Discovered several caves used to store water for agriculture. Pottery kebab dinner!
Day
2: Hike around. Climb up into a cave and learned bees create hives in
some of the rocks, also
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| Walking through White or Honey Valley. We were a bit confused by the map. |
learn that not all caves are stable. Picnic with
bread, olives, cheese, sausage, fruit, and wine! Witnessed tortoise
sex. Realized picnic was a little too early because the perfect picnic
location was discovered shortly after. Enter Love Valley which
unfortunately is a very touristic location. Return to town and plan a
balloon ride! Enjoy a second pottery kebab later followed by some Efes
Malt beer.
Day 3: Finally made it to the post office! Open
Air Museum (not worth visiting, but we did meet a couple pretty great
people!). Picnic with incredible views. Turkish ice cream. Turkish
ravioli for dinner. Early night since waking early next day!
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| A church at the Selime Monastery |
Day
4: Picked up at 4:40 for sunrise balloon ride! Really horrible
"breakfast" of cookies and junk. Balloon! Return to hotel, eat breakfast
and get ready for a 9:30 pick-up for the Green Tour. Guided through the
Derinkuyu Underground City. Short walk through the Ihlara Valley and
lunch over the stream (river?). Explore the Selime Monastery (my
favorite part of the tour). Drive back to Goreme for tasty chocolate
covered apricot and milky pumpkin seed samples. Only 6 people on the
trip which made it nice. Don't do a tour if you visit the area, go to
the sites on your own if you want to actually experience them
completely. Enjoyed the sunset up on the hill with wine. Watched random
birthday turned proposal and failed lantern attempts.
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| Salep |
Day 5:
Nice hike aimed towards Red and Rose Valley, but we never made it. Got
invited for Melissa tea by a woman who moved out to a cave house and her
friends. Hung out with them for a while and resumed hike. Encountered
juice and resumed hike. Ran into a friend and spent some time climbing
up one of the cave structures. Incredible spiral stairs up there. Walked
back and had salep and food. Wine and friends in the evening.
Day
6: Switched hotels. Met up with friends for breakfast. Hung out at a
cafe. Sunset from balcony with a bottle of wine. Nice relaxed day.
Day
7: Early start and long day of hiking. Explored a lot of cave
houses/churches. Got slightly stuck, went down a "slide," got a bit
lost, but met up with friends in the valley randomly. Walked back and
enjoyed an amazing sunset on the hill with wine and the annoying cat.
Day 8: Easy, relaxed day. Sore and exhausted from Day 7. Hang out on balcony, cafe, balcony for sunset. Write this up!
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| Rose Valley |
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| Another cave church. |
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| Cave houses/churches (Top) We managed to climb into it and here is one of the rooms we discovered (Bottom) |
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| Jim coming back down from the 4th floor |
Our
hikes usually consist of walking through the valleys and getting very
distracted by the various caves we encounter. We often go inside them
and try to work our way up to the different levels. Some caves have
stairs, others require us to just climb up through holes in the
ceilings. Some of the stairs are very well preserved while others are
nearly ramps due to the erosion. Sometimes there is enough natural
light, but other times it is pitch black. Remember to bring a flashlight!
We've come across churches, kitchens, rooms purely for pigeons*, and
many other rooms. Occasionally we encounter tunnels that lead to
nothing, while others lead to a giant hole in the cliff. As we hike,
tortoises are EVERYWHERE! Well, maybe not everywhere, but we do
encounter them daily. We will often hear rustling
sounds, and when we do, it is most often due to a tortoise. Look
closely because they are pretty good at blending in. Seeing as it is
currently the start of spring, the valleys are full of blossoms. They
are really beautiful and smell incredible. There are hundreds of bees
buzzing around and birds on the cliffs and in the sky. As for the
trails, they are often very slippery from all of the loose rocks. It's
often hard to tell which sections are trustworthy to step on. In
addition, we encountered one area too steep to walk down so we opted for
the slide method. It was pretty fun, but also quite dusty.
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| Trying not to slip down the stairs |
*Pigeons
were a huge thing in this area. There's even an entire valley named
after them. People used to use their droppings for fertilizer and their
eggs for a glue substance. In addition, the pigeons themselves were used
as messengers.
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| View out a window |
This region is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone
who visits Turkey. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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| Sunset overlooking Goreme |
Jim says, "It's effing awesome!"
(Posts
for other places and events will be up one day. It is hard to get
motivation to write when there are so many things to see and do!)
