Cappadocia

 Travel Days and Intro can be found here.

Istanbul Part 1 can be found here.

Istanbul Part 2 can be found here.

To be honest, Cappadocia (Kapadokya) was entirely Mila's idea. The name was familiar from The History of Byzantium podcast that I listen to, but nothing particularly stuck out. Apparently it's been the recent en vogue vacation spot for some of the Latino celebrities she follows on Instagram. I had originally looked at contracting a tour company to basically do everything for us, but Mila rightfully balked at the price and talked me out of it. So, it was on us to patch together what we were going to do, where we were going to stay, and how we were going to get there.

While flying into Kayseri airport, I was watching the scenery. Mila was sleeping, obviously. It was odd, the city that I saw from the air was drab, empty, and incredibly... orderly. There were several blocks of gray/brown, identical buildings with little to no traffic on the streets. 

Anyway, we walked through the snow (who wudda thunk that the only snow we saw all season would be in the central Anatolian desert?) and jumped in the van for the hourish drive into Goreme. Arriving the in mid-afternoon, we spoke to the very friendly front desk clerk at Dervish Elegance Cave Suites showed us around the hotel and informed us that we'd been given a free room upgrade.

Goreme from our private terrace. When I picked out the place, I'd imagined reading in the mornings before we left for the day. You can see the amount of snow on top of the chair so that didn't happen

The coolest room we stayed in the whole trip. On the first floor, there was a sitting area and bathroom. On the right you can see the signature piece of pottery from the area, a wine vessel

Hotel rooftop view

Cappadocia, an area which now relies almost entirely on tourism, was once the second most important area of the Byzantine empire.  Armies would rally and stage there and it was often a battleground between Christians and Arabs. Nowadays, it is known for its strange landscape, best seen by hot air balloon, and ancient cave dwellings. You can see some of the "fairy towers" in these photos above. Obviously, they're more dramatic and stunning once you get out of town. We didn't rent a car as some people suggested. Since we were only there for a couple days, I think it worked out. The weather was too poor for balloons the first two days we were there and they were just getting filled up when we left for the airport on the third day.

Between the 8th and 11th centuries, Arab raiders routinely crossed the Cappadocia region. The Christians living there were constantly in danger. To escape, they carved lodgings and churches into underground caves and even above ground towers. One of the popular underground cities is Kaymakli, which has been open to the public for about 60 years. While it is part of the "green tour" we didn't have time for two tours. So, we decided to just go check it out. The front desk clerk contacted a taxi driver who agreed to take us round trip and wait around while we explored.

Due to the weather, and the fact that we weren't part of an established tour, the area was fairly empty. We walked past closed vendor's stands before finding the entrance. After paying, we were confronted (maybe a strong word) by a couple of men loitering around the cave entrance. They were unofficial tour guides that just hung around waiting for folks like us to show up. The older man (unfortunately we don't remember his name) told us that we would likely get lost by ourselves and there was little information given. He wasn't wrong about the second part and probably right about the first.

A stone that was used to block an entrance to the cave system

I'm going to be honest, I'm not 100% sure what all of these pictures are of. There is an entire city underground in Kaymakli. Of the seven total levels, only four are open to the public. When raiders were noticed in the area, villagers would rush to the caves and thousands could live down here for weeks if need be. The higher the level, the nicer the accommodations were and the richer the people that stayed there.

This was the living room of a rich family

an Orthodox church

probably mentioning that the rich people lived on level two, middle class on level three, lower class on level four, and immigrants below that (he mentioned that about 10 times)

you can see the orthodox cross on the left and a more "traditional" cross on the left

"comfortable tunnel" as he called them

these were kept small on purpose to deny freedom of movement to invaders

It took 5 soldiers using levers to move these stones into place. they are much easier to move from the inside than the outside

a ventilation shaft running through all 7 levels. the holes were used as a ladder for the defending soldiers.  they could get to different levels quickly and shout messages as they descended

yes, I bonked my head several times

these holes had multiple purposes, air circulation, passing messages, and diffusing cooking smoke

another upper class living area

stables on the first floor, the area also had storage spaces for dried goods and wine

you can see the arrows guiding folks around the city. I never did see an explanation on which arrows we were "supposed" to follow

A second, longer video is too big to be added unfortunately. After the 45-minute tour, we headed back to the hotel. Luckily, the taxi driver had hung out at a small café. We went to the restaurant attached to the hotel and had some giant steaks and a new favorite, Turkish Efes beer.

Then, we made our way to the hotel rooftop hoping to catch the sunset. It's a bit difficult as Goreme is situated in a valley.

The next day, we took the red tour. The red tour takes visitors on a 7-8 trip around the northern area of Cappadocia. Kaymakli, on the other hand is to the south and part of the green tour. However, the red tour is considered better (at least from what I saw online and what our tour guide told us) as it covers more of the highlights. Cappadocia is a region, not a town or city. I liken it to the hill country in central Texas. It's an area defined by a geographical feature with multiple small towns and villages dotted around it.

A funny part of getting on the bus - we knew we supposed to meet the bus outside the lobby but with the small, confusing streets and multiple entryways, it was hard to tell where exactly they would be. I stood outside where a few cars were parked. When I asked a parked tour bus if it was for the red tour, he said no. At that moment, Mila called me back to the lobby where we met the tour guide who had us load that same exact bus. este...

Our first stop was Love Valley. Sunny, our tour guide, says it was called that because young lovers would surreptitiously meet there away from their families and communities.  My question is-if everyone knows that, how secret can it be?

Moving on 

ewww cooties

Sunny, while a great tour guide, wasn't the greatest cameraman

there were several pushy salespeople at this stop. A couple (the dude is in the background working out of the white van) would take pictures of you, print them, and put them in cheap frames then get visibly mad when you didn't buy them. There was also this group of guys with ponies and camels. They'd quote you a price for a picture then try to get you to go on a camel ride so they could charge more. Mila shut them down. The young woman from Chicago that went after her - not so much. She didn't have any cash (not sure why she thought she could just hop up on the camel) and they walked her around the whole area. She ended up encircled by salespeople and our tour guide ran over to smooth things over

The old guy with the camel, however, had some practice.

Our next stop was Uchisar Castle, the tallest "structure" in the area. While not a man-made castle, the rock formation was carved into to create a fortress. We didn't climb atop the castle but got some pictures in the area.

This is an office for the Turkish military.  Like, today, not 1,000 years ago. How neat is that

The smaller holes you see on these "buildings" are pigeon holes. While of course used for communications, pigeon poop is the primary ingredient in fertilizer that has been an important export of the region for centuries.

From there we went to probably the strangest part of the tour - a high-end leather store. They started us off with a fashion show (and apple tea) where they got the ladies of the group involved.

OK, fine. But then we spent another 45 minutes there while they tried to sell us very expensive goods. Maybe they've made sales before but they're taking a group of people expecting to see cave dwellings and beautiful, strange landscapes and take pictures for the Gram, not go shopping. The second escort/salesperson we had was a Colombian woman. Mila felt a little betrayed that, after explaining that we weren't going to spend $200 on a pair of gloves, she would still try and work us. Can't blame her for trying I guess.

she's been practicing for this moment for 35 years

We grabbed lunch in Goreme before heading to the Goreme open air museum. The area was a complex of Orthodox churches dating back to the 4th century. They were carved into rock and thus small. Also, many of them have funny names. Snake church had a snake in it when it was excavated. Dark church is... really dark inside. They've got beautiful frescoes dating back to the 9th-11th century (after the iconoclast period) but you can't take pictures.

at the dinner table in a monastery

Another important export of the region is pottery. Dating back to the time of the Hittites, pottery has been a staple due to the moldable clay in the Red River. We stopped at a pottery workshop and salesroom in Avanos. 

One of the shops masters gave us a quick demonstration while we sipped apple tea. We then toured the salesrooms. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of any of the masterpieces. Gotta be the first time I've ever been impressed by pottery. This place made more sense than the leather store since you could spend $5 on a knick knack here. We walked out with a coffee mug and a hot air balloon decoration. You can guess who chose what.

Our last stop on the tour was the Pasabag Monks Valley. Considered the home of the best examples of the fairy towers (you know, the ones that look like ummm... I'll go with mushrooms), it is a location where monks would go for solitary reflection and penance.

a bunny!

Sunny said that's THE Instagram spot

We went back to the hotel and walked across the street to a restaurant where there was some super interesting people.

and coloring. the owner would give you a star if he liked your coloring

The next morning, we were up before the sun and on our way back to Istanbul. Even though I wasn't familiar with Cappadocia, I'm very glad that we went. It reminded me a little bit of New Mexico with the desert landscape and the focus on hot air balloons. Definitely a tourist spot, but also a worthwhile stop. Rick Steve's advises against staying in Goreme but, since we didn't have a vehicle, I'm glad we made the choice to stay there.