We finished our week in Turkey with three days in Cappadochia.
We arrived at Nevsihir Airport at about 11am and took the hotel shuttle to our hotel, the Sultan Cave Suites, in Göreme. Göreme is city central to a network of valleys filled with huge rock formations, called ‘fairy chimneys.’ I would compare it to a cross between Sedona, Arizona and Monument Valley, Utah. There is a huge network of caves that people had lived in since the third century. No one lives in them anymore (to my knowledge) but some have been converted into hotels, like ours, shops, restaurants, and modern homes.
I am so glad that we did not rent a car! The highways were fine but the drivers were crazy! We were in a fifteen passenger van, loaded down with luggage, and our driver must have been going 90 mph and repeatedly passed other drivers in the opposing traffic’s lane. All of the other drivers on the road were equally aggressive. When we reached Göreme, there was only one paved road, and the rest were dirt. The driver zoomed up narrow, steep, dirt and rock roads to our hotel.
Even if we had rented a car, there would have been nowhere at our hotel to park it as it was perched on a mountainside and barely had roadway behind it. Luckily, the town was in walking distance and we found all the activities you could want to do provided transportation in their own vans. During our walks up and down the road to town, we would learn to dive out of the road when we heard a zooming van coming our way.
When we arrived, only one of our rooms was ready. We headed to that one for a quick nap since it has been an early morning, and then made our way to the pool. Despite the heat, the pool was pretty cold. We alternated between dunking ourselves in the cold water and frying out in the sun.
We had an early dinner at the hotel and then were picked up to head out to a ranch for some horseback riding. After we were up in the saddle, we set off in a group of about twelve for a trek across the valley and up into the mountains to watch the sunset.
The Cappadochia Region is famous for its rock formations, called ‘fairy chimneys.’ The hard stones were pushed up out of the earth due to volcanic activity millions of years ago. The softer sand was eroded away by wind and rain over the centuries; leaving the rock formations behind, much like the way Monument Valley was formed. It was really cool to be able to see the fairy chimneys up close during our ride.
We made it up to a perch where they had tables, chairs, benches, beanbags, and swings set up to look out over the valley. We stayed for about thirty minutes watching the sunset and then saddled up to head back down.
It had been a rough ride up over the uneven, and sometimes slippery rocks. On the way down, our guide’s horse slipped on some of the smooth rocks and slid down a little ways, throwing the guide off. The guide had been leading Ryan’s horse by a rope so it was pretty scary for a minute. Thank God the guide, his horse, and Ryan’s horse were all fine and we were able to continue the trip back to the ranch.
Back at the hotel, the kids went to bed and Matt and I had a drink on the roof terrace overlooking the valley that was now lit up for nighttime.
The next morning, we woke up at 4:30am to be picked up for our balloon ride. Thank goodness the company served us a packed breakfast in the van. We packed towels from our hotel room to keep warm as it got pretty cold overnight.
Our van picked up several other people and drove us out to our balloon prep site. On the way, we could see that several balloons were already in the air while several more were adding their flames from the ground.
As we arrived, our balloon was still laying on its side, being inflated with cool air, added by massive fans blowing into them. Then, they fire the gas and add flame, which almost instantly uprights the balloon, which is still tethered to the ground.
Ryan is afraid of heights and was very nervous about getting in the balloon. I asked that he at least come and take a look at the balloon and make a last minute decision. As they were firing the balloon, he told me he didn’t think he could do it and I had resigned myself to staying on the ground with him. We were then given quick instructions to climb in, and to my surprise, Ryan jumped in the basket. We all followed suit and we took off.
It was such a gentle flight, we floated right up to 800 meters. This part scared us all a little bit. When booking, I didn’t give the flight part much thought, but it is a little bit jarring to be floating so high up in a wicker basket. Ryan opted to sit down in the basket and not look out while we were so high up. After seeing the sunrise from so high, the pilot released some of the hot air and we gently floated down into Love Valley for an up-close look at the rock formations again. It was stunning to see the valley offset by all of the colorful balloons.
There was one part that was scary for us, although the pilots were in complete control the whole time. We got a little “stuck” in the valley as the wind almost completely died out. We started heading towards a rock formation and without any opposing wind, didn’t have a way to steer around it. There was a balloon directly above us so going up was not an option and there was no where below us to go. In the end, we missed it by inches. I was not that worried about it at the time but Matt told me afterward he was really scared and never getting into a hot air balloon again.
We made our way over the ridge, out of the valley and found a field to land in. The ground crew for our balloon had kept in touch with the pilot via radio and they met us there with the truck and trailer. It was so gentle and wind-less, the pilot was able to land the basket right on the trailer, as opposed to landing in the field.
We all climbed out of the balloon, happy to be on solid ground again. Hot-air ballooning was invented in France, so naturally the tradition is to have a champagne toast at the end of each flight. We had champagne and cake and then were taken back to the hotel where we all took a long nap.
We woke up in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon lounging by the pool and reading. We were all pretty tired of Turkish food at this point so we walked to town and ate at a Chinese food restaurant for dinner. Matt and I ended the night with another drink on the hotel roof terrace.
We woke up early the next morning, this time to watch the balloons float over the valley instead of riding in one. There was definitely a lot less stress in being an observer. We woke up at around 5am and watched the balloons firing up across the valley and then take flight. It was really pretty watching the balloons against the backdrop of the sunrise. The hotel served coffee to everyone on the terrace while we watched. We got some great pictures and then headed back to our rooms to go back to bed.
We woke up again at noon and walked into town for lunch and some shopping. We tried a burger place for the lunch, but the burgers weren’t quite the same as they were served on pita rolls. While we were shopping, we picked up some really cool souvenirs including a ceramic balloon. We had thought about doing a short tour through the valley but we were all so tired, we decided to go back to the hotel and hang by the pool the rest of the day. We ended the day with another dinner at the hotel on the terrace.
Instead of sleeping a little later on our last day, we decided to get up early one more time to watch the balloons and I’m so glad we did. The wind was different on this morning and the balloons came much closer to our hotel. Some of them even floated between the chimneys and were close enough that the passengers could say ‘Good Morning’ to us. We got some more even awesome photos.
After we were done watching the balloons, we grabbed our luggage and met our shuttle back to the airport. We took the short flight back to Istanbul where we all enjoyed Popeye’s for lunch and then caught our longer flight back to Stuttgart. We were so happy to be back in orderly Germany after a week of sensory overload in Turkey. We picked up the dogs from the kennel and blasted the schlager version of Sweet Caroline all the way home 🙂
We really did like Turkey, but overall, we didn’t love it. We definitely liked Cappadochia better than Istanbul, but it was not without its challenges. Everything was very expensive in Cappadochia; the region’s entire economy is based upon tourism. Tips are expected everywhere, even at the hotel check in desk. It was also soooo dusty, it seemed like we permanently had dust on our faces, in our eyes, and in our teeth. The people were so kind though, and so hospitable, and the landscape was so beautiful. We absolutely feel like we learned a ton and were enriched by the experience, but non of us have a burning desire to return to Turkey very soon (well, maybe to its beaches 😉)
Gilcrests Abroad 