Cave Overload

After 3 flights (Dulles - Amsterdam - Istanbul - Nevşehir) and approximately 24 hours of travelling, we arrived at our hotel in Göreme, Turkey.  Our phenomenal cave hotel.  Yes, there were doors, floors, and electricity (all pertinent questions from Brooks on our plane ride there).  The hotel was so special - you could see each individual mark left when they carved out our room; the walls were reinforced with beautiful slabs of White Onyx!  

Caves everywhere!  Our hotel

Local Cave House hotel room

Cappadocians take hospitality to a new level.  Our innkeeper was amazing and willingly answered all of my pertinent questions about history, culture, and general things to do in the area.  He definitely went the extra mile – you can be sure my tripadvisor ratings of this hotel will hopefully help its rock star status!

One cultural difference I was struck by was the fact that Turks find dogs and cats in the house 'dirty', so there are tons of stray dogs and cats.  Anyway, it KILLED me to see these pups wandering - they mind their own business and strut about the streets like they own the place.  We saw a puppy one night and I so wanted to cuddle - but lord knows if they have shots/are used to physical contact.  The cultural difference, naturally, led to Brooks fielding countless questions from me.  Do they judge people with dogs?  Do they view dogs/cats as pets like I view rats as pets?  How can they have no problems with sheep and cows (and horses, if they are rich) occupying the first floor of their homes but dogs and cats are too dirty?  Where do these feral animals sleep?  How do they eat?  UGH - I didn't like it...but hooray for cultural differences!  Throughout our Turkish adventure, I grew more comfortable with the idea of stray animals, as I noticed that the Turks take care of them in their own ways by leaving nightly leftovers in the streets (ever wonder where the term 'doggie bag' came from?) and marking the ears of vaccinated dogs and cats (at least in Istanbul).

A stray pup eating a sandwich handout

Cappadocia (specifically Göreme) is beautiful in a freakish Mother Nature sort of way.  On our first day, we rented a car and drove around the region a bit (the “Red Route”) - hiked and explored shops and wineries between bouts of rain.  There are interesting geological formations everywhere - Turks are most proud of their 'fairy chimneys', which, if you ask me, make Mother Nature look like a pervert - giant phalli coming out of the ground.  Impressive, yes, but seriously?  I didn't get a good picture of what we saw due to the poor weather, but check out these fairy chimneys for a mental picture.  

Our second day consisted of a guided tour of another portion of this region – the “Green Route.”  My favorite part of this was watching my 6’5” husband try to fit through the narrow tunnels of the underground cities.  Since Cappadocia has crazy soft volcanic bedrock (called tufa), people literally burrowed into the ground and carved their homes out of the cliffs.  The underground city we toured was incredible – ancient Christians used them to hide from Pagan Romans 2,000 years ago.  Down there (10 stories down!), they carved entire cities - schools, churches, hospitals, and homes - and rolled enormous boulders in front of the entrance to the city so that the persecutors couldn't find them.

Brooks would have struggled big time if he had needed to run/hide for his life from Pagan Romans in the underground city...his jacket was SO dirty by the end of this visit!

Wile E. Coyote going up, up, up...and coming down, down, down.

Brooks working on his bowl.

On our final day in the “Land of the Beautiful Horses,” our amazing innkeeper drove us around in his personal vehicle (for free!) to proudly display more his hometown’s gems.  We visited Paşabağ, which reminded me of the Looney Tunes desert, where we explored more caves and Brooks attempted to outsmart gravity in true Wile E. Coyote fashion (sadly, epic fail).  We also enjoyed the breathtaking, lunar-esque panorama of the Devrent Valley.  Finally, we tried our hands at throwing clay in a generations-old ceramics workshop in Avanos.

Shadow puppets in the Devrent Valley

3 days was perfect to get the full flavor of Cappadocia.  It was unlike any place I have ever visited or seen...but Holy Caves!  By the end, we were on cave overload – they are cool but after 3 days, they all look pretty similar.  On to Istanbul!

Lunar-esque Devrent Valley