Cappadocia- as seen from a more earthly perspective.

As enjoyable as it was to soar over Cappadocia in a hot air balloon, the limited amount of fuel (not to mention the lack of a bathroom, kitchen or bar on board) dictated that we had to return to terra firma, sooner or later. This left me with nearly four days to explore the tiny town of Goreme and its surroundings. I was on my own and the daytime temperatures hovered in the 105 degree range, so I was not very motivated to do the public bus shuffle all over this very scenic desert. Instead, I opted to join the two ubiquitous tours offered by every hotel, hostel, tour agency and/ or street-side carnival barker.

I set mine up at what has to be one of the coolest hostels I have ever stayed in. As with most of the accommodations in the area, Yasin's Backpackers Cave Hotel is located inside one of the rock formations. This means that some of the rooms, mine included, are actually natural caves. Uh huh, that's right, I spent my vacation sleeping in a cave. That alone would have this trip a success.  And before anyone has visions of prehistoric-era deprivations, I should point out that my cave had free wifi, something that the four star hotel I am writing this from currently lacks, and managed to remain cool and comfortable when everyplace else was roughly the temperature of the sun itself.

With the southern and northern tours, otherwise referred to by everyone, inexplicably, as the green and red tours set up by the helpful (and handsome) Yasin himself, I was free to spend my first day enjoying my cave sweet cave and hiking up to a recommended sunset point. I would have probably have enjoyed the hike a bit more had I actually made the effort to find out when the damned sun was going to set.  Instead, I got all the way up there, hung around for about thirty minutes, wondered what the symptoms of heat stroke might be, returned to the cave, learned there were still about 2 hours to go, grabbed a beer and eventually, returned up the same steep path, cursing everyone including Helios himself along the way. The scenery, and the long-awaited sunset were spectacular, as is everything else about this area. Still, that evening, I crankily wrote in my journal "I am either going to leave here fit or in a body bag".

My very own cave bed in my very own cave (dorm) room.

View from the lookout point way before sunset.

The path back down to town.

And finally, we have a sunset.

Day 2: After a balloon-filled morning, I was picked up for the Red (or was it the Green?) tour.  Either way, it is the one that covers the Northern section of Cappadocia. At first, it was myself, four Italians and the guide in a van configured with three seats facing forward and two facing the rear.  I got one of the backward facing seats and was none too uncomfortable, particularly because the Italians, who were well-versed enough in English to take an English language tour refused to indulge me in even the most basic niceties in our common language, but I was certain we were on our way to meet a larger group with a different mode of transportation. When we stopped right outside of town at a scenic viewpoint (really a misnomer because the entire region of Cappadocia qualifies as a scenic viewpoint) and our guide, Faruk, began explaining the history of the region, it dawned on me that I was wrong. I was to be stuck with these people all day.  I considered ditching them all and trying my luck elsewhere, but since the tour included the admission to the Goreme Open Air Museum, I decided to at least tough it out through the first stop.

The Open Air Museum, deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a monastic grouping of churches that were carved into the rocks sometimes between the 9th-12th centuries.  In an effort to preserve the frescoes in this heavily visited site, photography is not permitted in any of the churches, but by clicking on the link at the beginning of this paragraph, you can get an idea of work on display.  Faruk did a fantastic job of explaining the history of each church and the meaning of the frescoes, but where he (and even the Italians) won my heart was when he suggested, and they agreed, to enter into the Dark Church.  It went from being a church, to being closed off and used as a pigeon coop, thus preventing sun light from entering and destroying the amazing frescoes, resulting in the best preserved artwork in all the complex. Thanks in part to a recent costly restoration, it is not included in the entrance price and requires an additional $4 payment, resulting in most groups skipping it altogether. The fact that ours did not made me abandon my abandonment plans.  So what if I did not have the same conversation with them all backpackers must have (Where are you from? How long are you in Turkey?  Where are you going next?), I got to see the Dark Church and it was incredible.

I remained with them as we visited Cavusin, a ghost village, where all the inhabitants were moved from their rock homes to alternate accommodations, when large chunks of the formation started crumbling to the ground.  It now has a new life as a tourist attraction, but still looks like it is one good sneeze away from turning to rubble.

After lunch and the obligatory factory stop, this one in Avanos to watch pottery making, we were in for some of the coolest fairy chimneys in all of Cappadocia.  In between Pasabag and Dervent Valley (more aptly known as Imagination Valley), we saw rock formations of all shapes and sizes.  Faruk explained all about the continuous volcanic eruptions followed by millenia of erosion that led to the creation of nature's very own Alice in Wonderland-like dream scape and set us lose to try to take it all in. 

I like to call this one 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'

The camel.

We finished off with a drive through the tony town of Urgup and hugs all around with the still uncommunicative Italians.

Back at Yasin's Place.

Day 3:  Time for the Southern (or, oh, let's call it Yellow) tour.  Things started off hectically when I screwed up the time and was still lounging in bed when the driver arrived for the pick up but quickly improved when I realized that I was to have Faruk as my guide once more. I already knew him to be a well-informed fun-loving guy, who was maximized his guests' enjoyment at all times.  I figured this was going to be necessary because I was dreading the first portion of this tour.  There was to be a 4 kilometer walk through the Ihlara Valley.  I had no doubt it would be beautiful but, in case I have not mentioned this enough, it was hot...scotch bonnet hot, inside a microwave set to 20 minutes hot, sitting inside of a sauna while eating fire on a stick hot!  It was fricking hot!!  I could not fathom walking for 4 kilometers in this.  Yet again, my concerns were unfounded.  This lush green valley was a good 15-20 degrees cooler than the rest of Cappadocia.  It is so different that there were many crops which would only grow within the temperate climate of this valley.  We leisurely strolled along the river, occasionally passing rock churches or pigeon coops, until we came upon a series of river-side restaurants where we relaxed with an early lunch.

It was great that we got that chance to take it easy because next came the workout for the day.  We stopped at the Selime monastery, a rock-cut church that requires a nerve-wrecking amount of climbing up steep rock and slippery tunnels to access.  With a lot grumbling from me and some help from Faruk, I was able to reach rooms that were used as kitchens, stables, classrooms, dining rooms, living quarters and churches.  I was fascinated with the work that had gone into this complex but horrified at the knowledge that all this climbing up was inevitably going to result in an even scarier climb back down.

Faruk and I atop the Selime Monastery

A lot of the same work and a very similar layout was to be seen in inverse at our next stop, the Derinkuyu underground church.  This is one of over 300 churches that was built as a hideout to protect Christians from persecution. This particular church goes eight stories deep and features many of the same rooms we saw at the Selime Monastery, only in a much more accessible manner.  It was fascinating and cool and the perfect site for a party or ghost tour.

The tour ended with a stop at yet another scenic overlook at Pigeon Valley.  There was a wish tree where you could tie an evil eye purchased from the nice vendor who probably planted the tree in the first place and make a wish, but I was too contented with the last couple of days to be able to think of an evil-eye worthy wish, so I just hung out, trying to absorb every detail.

Day 4:  I was taking an 11 hour night bus back to Istanbul, so this was to be my 'relaxing' day.  For the first time in days, I managed to sleep in but of course, this was also my last day in Cappadocia so sitting still was not even close to being a realistic option.  I had been seeing walking trail signs for days, so I decided to find one and follow it.  Then I realized I am the person that manages to get lost in the middle of major cities with a map in hand and directional signs all around.  Here, I had neither, so I never actually followed any trail to its conclusion, more like wandered until I could no longer see a particular landmark and then doubled back.  Not surprisingly, it was still a worthwhile endeavor that allowed me to visit a rock church that had not been included in either of the tours where I spent some nice heat-free time examining the interiors and see yet more phallic rock formations.  By the time the bus came, I was happily exhausted.

Now having experienced Cappadocia from both land sky, it is hard to say which was better, or if such a comparison is even possible.  Suffice it to say that both were as magical as they were unforgettable.  And did I mention I got to sleep in a cave......