Failure To Launch

View from Pigeon Valley

Today's first activity - hot air balloon ride. Luckily, we were still waking up early and that, being winter, sunrise was much later. A 06:30 pick up was very civilised. We waited in the van for about an hour munching on our provided "breakfast". Unluckily, the winds didn't die down and the conditions were deemed unsuitable and so it was cancelled. Oh well, them's the breaks. We were driven back to our hotel where we had a "real" breakfast before starting our planned itinerary for the day. 

The only "souvenir" we had from our hot air balloon adventure

The breakfast offerings inside

Breakfast at our cave hotel

So full of sugar I know but the body was craving it!

The two main big ticket items to tick off the list today was the Kaymakli Underground City and the Goreme open air museum. Both remnants of the early Christian history in the area and both didn't disappoint. 

The Kaymakli underground city was originally carved by the Hittites for use as storage sometime around 2000BC (the exact dates differ depending on the source). Additional underground levels were carved out by early Christians fleeing the roman persecution, and used as a temporary place to hide when needed. We were able to wander down to level 4 with some tunnels going down very narrow with low ceilings. So relieved the olds made it out!! The "city" came with its own stables, church, morgue, kitchen and of course a wine press.

Next up was a quintessential Cappadocian tourist stop, the Göreme open air museum. It was essentially a sprawling series of rock cut Christian buildings - chapels, churches, nunnery, monastery and associated chambers, dining halls and the like. We weren't allowed to take photos inside of the wall paintings so I've included an example in the photos below. It was a great way to end our time in Cappadocia. 

We stopped at Mustafapasa, previously called Sinasos, a village with Greek Orthodox origins before the agreement to "exchange" citizens after the Independence. Original greek door. 

St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The town is otherwise pretty dull...so its a "can skip"

A model of the underground city which helped immensely in understanding what we were seeing

Started off nice and spacious. The stables

The church complete with altar

This was the "morgue" where bodies were held temporarily until they could go to the surface to bury their dead

The tunnels got long and narrow...

They used the stone carved out from within the rocks as a door. Roll in and out of place

One of the well lit and wider tunnels

This was for wine storage

The olds needed to rest and stretch their legs!

Examples of pigeon houses

Lunch time! We've been enjoying trying all the different appetisers

Turnip juice and yoghurt drink. Both salty! And the first spicy as well...

Yup. That was the verdict all around

The rest of the food though was amazing!

Ex nunnery

An example of one of the wall paintings inside. Of interest is St Onuphrius on the left, who has the body of woman and the head of an old man

Exploring the cave chapels

There were a lot of doors to go into...

Like an Asian toilet says the kids

Goodbye Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Zelve-Paşabalar Archaeological Site

It was time to say goodbye temporarily to Istanbul and head west to Cappadocia. We were picked up nice and early for our 0950 flight to Kayseri. Our service included help with check-in, even we didn't really need it. Mr Husnu insisted on making sure our bags were checked and we had our boarding passes as well making sure we made it the to the right gate to go through security. Istanbul domestic airport is attached to the international terminal occupying a corner of the massive airport. Facilities, much like the international counterpart, were fantastic. Our flight of an hour and a half to Kayseri was short but we received a hot cheese sandwich and a drink. The flight attendants were friendly. We were picked up our guide for the next 2 days and we were off. 

From Kayseri, it was an hour's drive to Zelve-Paşabalar Archaeological Site for a close up look at the famed "fairy chimneys" of the area. All Mal and I saw were rocks shaped like penises...the area was fun to explore though climbing into chambers carved out by monks. 

Plenty of seats everywhere as well as charging outlets

Clean planes

Welcome to Kayseri! A small regional airport and taking me back to my Asian roots

Pasabag Valley Fairy chimneys

Fairy chimneys of different shapes and sizes

Seems like 18 year old girls need to burn energy like 5 year old boys

Countless chambers

Grandparents waiting patiently at the bottom

Ooh a hole to climb up

Mal's ascent was not as elegant

View of the valley from the caves

Still practicing for instagram

Penis city

Burak, our guide, wore a koala jumper! Apparently coincidental and not planned

Passing by the Red River, so called because of the red clay collected by the locals for pottery and not because of the colour, we continued on to Avanos to experience pottery making. Pottery making has existed in this area since the Hittites (around 1800 BC). The pottery that we visited has been run by the same family for 7 generations. We were served tea and given a demonstration by the master, before given a chance to have a go. In the good old days, the artist would have to make a sugar bowl and lid free hand. If the lid fits (there were specific measurements too that the fit had to be within) then the artist would be allowed to get married. From here, we were shown their collection which were beautifully detailed and stunning, all hand made and painted/decorated free hand. We weren't able to take photos here understandably. They had caves and caves of pottery! Being shoppers, we caved and bought some...and probably would have bought more if we weren't starving!

Lunch was where we had an interesting incident. A family who were already seated suddenly stormed out after some heated words. We later found out that it was because they saw that Malcolm was served a beer! They didn't want to eat at an establishment which served alcohol. Our guide was quick to reassure us that although Turkey is 99% Muslim that this was an extreme and not the norm. It fortunately did not take away from the amazing pottery kebab that we tried, a specialty of the area. The food is cooked in a clay container, then poured out to be served. The flavours were intense and delicious! Once again, Belinda found herself eating and enjoying lamb!!

Red river, source of red clay

The pottery master. He finished sugar lid and bowl in minutes

Lara's turn. Simple bowl

The "cheap" section

A Hittite wine decanter

Pottery kebab

Piping hot, and poured out

The final product, looks wishy washy but packs a punch!

Turkish "ravioli". I forgot to take a photo of the name, but this was yoghurt based and delish too!

It was finally time to head to our hotel, Utopia Cave Hotel in Ürgüp, one of a gazillion cave hotels in the area. The hotel was lovely and like a warren with rooms scattered everywhere. We got the basic rooms and perhaps would have been more "wow" if we had not been so stingy lol and not fallen prey to the allure of social media images! The rooms themselves were comfortable. The only minor problem was that the water had a strange smell which probably is common to the area. 

We only had time for a short rest as we had a Whirling Dervish ceremony to get to. The venue for the ceremony this evening was an 11th century caravanserai, used as a travelling inn along the silk road. The "dance" is a meditative worship practice, also called a sema. Our ceremony was 45 minutes long and that was probably the right length for us. As much as it was interesting and entrancing, it was repetitive and difficult to stay awake! We did all marvel at how they did not stagger out of balance and they whirled in the same direction the whole time!

We are also loving the Turkish hospitality and custom of offering tea and coffee! Especially loving their teas! We've already bought apple and pomegranate...tonight's offering was cinnamon tea.

Our cave room

Our massive cave bathroom

The passageway to our rooms

It kept going!

The entrance

One of the buildings in the hotel 

Entering an 11th century caravanserai. Entrance of the stonework is original.

The courtyard used in summer

It was freezing by now and so we were glad the ceremony was indoors!

We weren't allowed to take photos or clap during the real ceremony but they did a photograph "whirl" for us afterwards

The children loving the cinnamon tea