Stacy Takes Flight
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Photos

Travel is my favorite kind of bug.

Welcome to my travel blog!  I quit my job in NYC to go on a 100-day travel adventure, and I will be documenting, inspiring and sharing as I go.

Today I am in:  New York City

More about me

DAY 55:  DAY ONE IN CAPTIVATING CAPPADOCIA

6/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Sunday, June 8 (Cappadocia) – Cappadocia is an inland region of Turkey, about an hour’s flight southeast from Istanbul.  The region is known for beautiful and unique-looking natural rock formations as well as caves that were used as churches and homes over 4,000 years ago. 

I was really excited to visit Cappadocia because of how different it would be from Istanbul and other cities I have visited, there are a lot of active things to do in this region, and our hotel (most hotels in Goreme, the main city) is built in the caves!

So on our first day, Tali and I grabbed breakfast in our hotel (Dervish Cave Hotel, recommended!) and walked one or two kilometers to the Goreme Open Air Museum.  The ‘museum’ is really a gated-off area of cave dwellings and churches like you would see across the street or throughout the region, but it has some very well preserved cave paintings and descriptions of what you are looking at.  There is also a separate Dark Church within the museum that you can pay an extra 10 lire for, but we opted out of that.  It was a nice introduction to what we would be seeing for the next 48 hours, but it was full of tour and school groups so the caves got a bit crowded at times.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Since we didn’t do a guided tour of Cappadocia, we had to figure out transportation on our own.  There are some buses from the center of Goreme, but we were lucky to find a taxi as we were leaving the museum which became our ride for the day.  “Black Snake”, as our driver called himself, was a jolly Turkish man who was happy to take us around and even wait for us or come back for us when we finished with each site.  The cabs certainly add up in cost (metered fares), but it was cheaper than a tour and we got narrative when we wanted about what we were seeing.
Picture
We drove around Imagination Valley (Devrent Valley in Turkish) where we saw rock formations that appeared to take on certain forms (hence the name 'Imagination' Valley):
camel_imagination_valley_devrent
Camel formation at Imagination Valley
devrent_imagination_valley_dancing
Couple dancing in Imagination Valley
Then we went for a walk at Pasabag Valley and hiked up to the top of the highest rock for views of the region – so beautiful!
Picture
Picture
fairy_chimneys_cappadocia
Fairy chimneys
Picture
After exploring the natural wonders on foot and by car, we went around a different area on horseback!  Of course I insisted that we go riding, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.  We were able to get very close to the different rocks and caves, cover more ground and experience the landscape on our own – without another tourist in site.  Moonlight was the name of the barn (I think) and I recommend them for a two-hour ride.  (They use English saddles!)
Picture
horseback_riding_cappadocia
Continuing our busy day, we changed from our riding clothes and went to a one-hour Whirling Dervish performance.  The Whirling Dervish are members of the Mevlevi Order and they perform a religious ceremony / dance called a Sema.  It was a really interesting experience to watch, and you could tell that the people on stage were not performers, but they were truly engaged in their prayer.  I felt a bit strange being part of an audience watching the ritual – especially when the lights went on at the end for tourists to snap photos – because it seems like such a sacred and private event, but it is a good opportunity to learn about other cultures.
whirling_dervish_turkey
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Hi! I'm Stacy, a 28 year old Manhattanite who quit her job to go on a 100-day journey across the world.  Follow me as I hot air balloon in Turkey, hike the Todra Gorge in Morocco, horseback ride across Ireland, and take part in all the other active adventures I can find!

    Archives

    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    100 Days Of Travel
    Accommodations
    Active Travel
    Antalya
    Apartment
    Apps
    Art
    Austira
    Austria
    Beach
    Belfast
    Best Of
    Best-of
    Bikes
    Bike Share
    Bonvoyage
    Budget Travel
    Cappadocia
    Cinque Terre
    Connemara Park
    Cordoba
    Dorset
    Dublin
    England
    Fitcation
    Fitness
    Florence
    Funny
    Galicia
    Galway
    Germany
    Good Food
    Granada
    Grunau Im Almtal
    History
    Hobbies
    Horseback Riding
    Ireland
    Istanbul
    Italy
    Itinerary
    Jerez De La Frontera
    Lease
    Life Lessons
    Lisbon
    Local Delicacy
    Local Sports
    London
    Madrid
    Malaga
    Mallorca
    Marbella
    Marrakech
    Milan
    Morocco
    Music
    Natural Wonder
    Nerja
    Nightlife
    Northern Ireland
    Nyc
    Photos
    Planning
    Porto
    Portugal
    Rome
    Running
    Salzburg
    Santiago-de-compostela
    Sevilla
    Seville
    Shopping
    Spa
    Spain
    Staces-places
    Switzerland
    Touristy Things
    Travel Tips
    Turkey
    Unemployed
    Valencia
    Vienna
    Work
    Zurich

    RSS Feed

© 2014 Stacy Schwartz.  All rights reserved.