DAY 55: DAY ONE IN CAPTIVATING CAPPADOCIA

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.

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.

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 formation at Imagination Valley

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!

Fairy chimneys

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!)

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.