Cappadocia - The Land of the Beautiful Horses

** Back after a maaaaaasive break in between posts**

After an awesome, beachy, relaxing time in the South of Turkey on the coast and on the boat, we headed North to Cappadocia which is right in the center of Turkey. The landscape here is amazing - it is all made of tufa, from volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. The formations of tufa are called 'fairy chimneys', and, hundreds of years ago, people hollowed out rooms in these structures and lived in them. Only a few are still inhabited by locals.

Arrived at 5am after 2 nights in a row on the bus with a nasty cold, pretty over it. We couldn't check in until about 11am. Finally got into our cave room and had a bit of a sleep.

Cave room.

Our room was actually a cave in a fairy chimney. Sparse and a bit damp, but cozy.

The first thing we did was head up to the Open Air Museum, this is basically an old section of villages carved into the rocks that has been preserved and turned into an attraction. We spent the afternoon there exploring the painted cave churches and houses and being harassed by private tour guides trying to get us to meet them for private tours.

Can't really argue with the sign.

Here is the camel in question.

Angie in one of the abandoned houses carved into the tufa in the Open Air Museum.

View from the first floor over one of the valleys.

Sitting at the dinning table in one of the monastaries.

One of the churches carved into a fairy chimney.

One of the ruined buildings within the Open Air Museum.

Next we took a tour of the greater area. We had steered clear of tours on the most part, but Cappadocia is spread out of such a large area that it was recommended to us as the best way to see the place. The tour was really good and covered a lot of ground, was well worth it. Here are some pics.

This clay pot tree was at one of the stops next to a little market shop.

The eye tree was at another stop.

Me.

There were so many hidden stairs or passages to explore.



Another one of the Valleys with the village in the distance.


The bus took us all over the place and we saw a whole buch of stuff...


We explored an old 4 level underground city with passive ventilation shafts, a whole section to keep horses and animals and a winery, all underground....

...hiked through a gorge...

....and had lunch at an outdoor restaurant that was swarming with angry bees.

The last stop was the obligatory tour-sponsor's-shop-of-authentic-Turkish-souvenirs. The guide explained that the only reason the tours were so cheap, was because local business sponsored a part of the ticket price so long as the tourists stopped at their shop at the end of the day. They actually had some really nice stuff, local stone Turkish Quartz (Turquoise) and jewelry, unfortunately all pretty exxy. But Angie bought a ring and also won a hand carved egg for answering a question about Cappadocia first!!

The Turkish guide also told us dirty jokes and sung a German (have no idea why) song on the way home to mixed reviews.

The best part about Cappadocia for me was just exploring it all on foot. There are heaps of different valleys that cover a huge area, none of them are fenced off or marked or anything, so you can pretty much just head off and explore what ever you like. We went out over about 3 days to different valleys, took loads of pictures and had a ball. Here are some of the shots.

There are abandoned homes like this all over the place, you can squeeze yourself inside, and more often than not there are more tunnels that run back into the cliffs and hand-cut foot holds in the walls to climb up to higher levels. Heaps of fun to explore.

One of hundreds of photos that I took of the amazing landscape.

Sunset with a silouhette of a lone guy having a stroll.

More Fairy Chimneys at dusk.

Rose Valley.

Aside from exploring on foot, we ate like kings. The food was really good, and pretty cheap.
There are stray dogs everywhere, all of them pretty friendly and well fed. Angie latched on to one in particular and decided to buy him a chicken shish from one of the local restaurants. We had to sneak him around the corner so as not to offend the restaurant owner.

This is just before he got his prize, he couldn't believe his luck and went mental. (A - i really miss him).

Next day and more exploring...

We had awesome weather which made for great photos.

Somebodys living room a few hundred years ago. There are no guides, signs, maps, tickets or anything to help or hinder your exploration of these areas, just a few arrows painted on rocks to mark the path. As such we got right into some of the old buildings, this one I clibed up 4 levels before getting my arms stuck with my legs dangling trying to climb up through a small hole in the ceiling, spooking myself and calling it quits.

The path through Rose Valley.

Me having a breather.

Again, no one to tell you where not to go...

Same spot.

Ice cream in Rose Valley.

They apparently shot some of Star Wars here.

Rose Valley.

The colours in Rose Valley were amazing.

Our last day exploring we headed to Love Valley, known to the locals as Dick Valley...

Dick Valley

What...

Ange at Dick Valley.

Dick Valley local.

Cappadocia was amazing. The most unique scenery that I have seen outside Australia I think.
I could have explored it for weeks. But no time, next we were off back to bustling Istanbul en route to Bulgaria.

See you there...