Day
7 – Wednesday, August 31, 2011 – Cappadocia
After
a night of interrupted sleep on the bus, we arrived bright and early in Goreme,
one of the bigger cities in the region of Cappadocia. The views from the window
as we drove into the city were stunning with the sun coming up over the
panorama of fairy chimneys. When we arrived at the bus station in the center of
town a shuttle came and picked us up to go to our hostel. Turns out it was only
about 3 blocks away and we easily could have walked. We checked in and put our
things down in our cave (yes, our room was built into the side of a cave) then
had a brief explanation of the different tours offered around the region. After
a nice and much-needed shower and coffee, Daniel and Leah decided to head off
and ride scooters around Cappadocia for the day, and Jeremy, Abram, Leah, and I
went on the "red" tour.
We
started our journey with our tour guide, Kazban, at the Goreme Open Air Museum,
which is a collection of caves, fairy chimneys, and churches. We started our
tour at the monasteries, and visit the church of St. Basil, the Apple church,
and the Dark Church. Each of these churches has amazing frescos preserved
inside the caves that the churches are built into. Interestingly, most of the
eyes and faces are scratched off of the frescos – a result of the Muslim
population moving into the area and not being comfortable with the human
depictions common in Christian imagery. From the museum we headed to a
delicious lunch buffet which was full of meats, vegetables, salads, and
incredible desserts. After lunch, our tour made a stop at a pottery factory.
The Cappadocia region is known for its red clay, and the pottery made from it.
Up until about 50 years ago, a man had to know how to make clay pottery in
order to get married (and women had to know how to make textiles). We got a
tour of the factory and a demonstration of how they throw pots on a kick-wheel.
Leah got a chance to try, and made a beautiful pot. From there we went to visit
an old village all carved into the mountainside. From the top, we had an
incredible 360 degree view of the fairy chimneys and Cappadocia landscape. We
then visited the Pasabag Monks Village and the Fairy Chimney Valley, both
regions where the mountainside homes and fairy chimneys are plenty. Our last
stop before returning to the hostel was n Urgup, to see the collection of
family fairy chimneys. These three chimneys, which look like a father, mother
and child, sometimes represent the holy trinity.
After
our tour we met up with Daniel and Leah back at the hostel and headed into
Goreme to rent scooters. Each couple piled onto a scooter and we headed out of
town to a sunset lookout spot that Daniel and Leah had found earlier in the
day. We parked the bikes and walked out onto the mountains where we found a
somewhat quiet spot to watch the sun go down. The sunset over the chimneys and
the moon-like landscape was just beautiful. After driving back to Goreme and
returning the scooters we had a lovely dinner at a rooftop restaurant to
celebrate Abram's birthday. Like all of our meals in Turkey, this one also did
not disappoint. It was a great way to celebrate with a friend while overlooking
a beautiful city.
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