Cappadocia
Every day we found one of these notes in our hotel lobby and snapped a picture with our phone so we could remember the game plan. It’s a five hour ride with a truck stop lunch on the way to our little village of Mustafapaşa, in Cappadocia, but we will have three nights there.
Arrived about dusk at the Upper Greek House, a sprawling bed and breakfast where rooms are off open courtyards, sometimes up a short flight of steps, and all are different. Ours had a wood slat ceiling, a huge mirror-fronted armoire, and a fun lampshade light fixture. The room door won’t stay closed unless it’s locked with the key, and the bathroom has a treacherous threshold, but this B&B has tons of Turkish charm, and they will do our laundry. We had good WIFI, and fun, family-style breakfasts at one long communal table. They have no website, and I don’t know how you would find them on your own, but this was one of my favorite hotels.
Before we left for our group dinner at the Old Greek House, there was a cute guy from Butterfly Balloons collecting signups and money in the courtyard.
Tour Day 5: Cappadocia
Today was a bucket list day for me: Hot Air Ballooning! A van from Butterfly Balloons picked up fourteen of us at 5AM and drove us to Göreme National Park. It was still dark when we arrived at their building and joined at least another hundred people for breakfast. Almost too excited to eat, but we were soon back in the van and headed into the park.
All across the field bursts of flames were inflating giant balloons lying on the ground. We passed the the Civil Air Patrol building, and knew there must be less than 3 knots of wind for the balloons to go up. Out of the van, it was still and cold, and it looked like this might really happen today.
Our orange balloon had a rectangular wicker basket big enough for fourteen, sectioned off like an egg crate for two or three to stand in each part. When the balloon was finally inflated and they tipped the basket upright, it helped to have long legs for the climb in, but they brought out a ladder for the more vertically challenged.
Our pilot explained the landing drill - “Put down your phones; hold on tight to the basket; and bend your knees until you’re low down, just in case the basket doesn’t land flat.”
A few more bursts of propane, and we were lifting into the sky, with 99 more colorful balloons, just as the sunrise peaked over the mountain. Fifty more would ascend an hour later.
In the still dark sky we watched the balloons light up like giant lightning bugs. [That's southern for "fireflies."] The flight was completely calm, and except for the propane bursts, soundless. I am not a fan of heights, but the basket is chest high, and there was never any feeling of falling out. However I did have a death grip on my iPhone!
Flying over the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia!
Watching the sky change from pink to blue!
flying close to the jet trails!
Looking down on Vineyards like giant abstract paintings!
Flying in a balloon is amazing on its own, but over the scenery of Göreme is spectacular. This landscape of Cappadocia’s mountain ridges, valleys, and fairy chimneys was created by ancient volcanos and sculpted by erosion. This was one of the best travel experiences of my life!
I could have drifted up there for hours, but eventually we had to land. We could see all the trucks pulling trailers driving to their far flung landing areas. As we drifted closer to earth, we watched our truck on the dirt road in the vineyard, positioning for our landing. When we neared the ground, our pilot dropped ropes for the ground crew, and they helped guide us to the flatbed trailer.
When the pilot called out “Landing position!” we put away our phones, held on, and crouched down, and we landed perfectly on the trailer without even a bump. I think we all smiled for hours, definitely through our prosecco celebration and receiving our flight medals and certificates.
This experience cost about $200, probably a bargain rate for balloon flights compared to most of Europe. I felt very safe, and I think (hope) there are significant safety regulations in place. We were lucky to have perfect weather, but I have read other Rick Steves tour reviews where the guides rearranged schedules to make the balloon flights happen when weather nixed the first attempt. That would be a big plus for being with this tour.
A morning walk through our village, Mustafapaşa
Göreme and the Open Air Monastery Museum
We walked from our Upper Greek House lodgings, downhill through Mustafapaşa to the Old Greek House, our restaurant, passing ancient caves, almost ancient wooden doors, open-air shops, street dogs, and backgammon players. Our driver picked us up to show us parts of the Göreme National Park we saw earlier this morning from above.
Our destination was the Open Air Monastery Museum, a complex of ancient Christian churches carved into the rock walls of cliffs. The 12th century Dark Church had the best preserved frescos. It's called that because it gets very little light from the small window in the narthex, probably why the colors have remained so brilliant for over 800 years. They also managed to keep their faces partly because they are so high on the walls, they were out of reach of early defacers.
Down the path from this complex of churches, the Tokali Church has some of the best 10th century frescoes of the life of Christ. This entire complex of cave churches is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Lunch in Fahriye's Home
Back on the bus, back to Mustafapaşa, for something very special -- lunch for our group in a local villager’s home. Fahriye has become a friend of Taylan, and when the RS Istanbul tour comes to her town, she invites the group to her home and serves a lovely lunch.
To visit a private home, and to meet someone so welcoming, was memorable. She doesn't speak English, but Taylan translated. She needed no English to express her kindness. This was a highlight of the tour for many of us.
Kaymakli - the Underground City
This was a very full day. We boarded our bus again after lunch for the Underground City. This series of caves carved in soft volcanic rock may go back as far as the 8th century BC, but is primarily associated with early Christians in the Byzantine era who expanded the underground caverns and lived there for protection from Muslim Arabs during the wars. For this site we did have a local guide, an elderly but very spry gentleman who had played in these tunnels as a child.
I saw the first level of rooms accessible by a few steep stone steps and low overheads. To get to the second level down required duck-walking about twenty yards through a narrow one-way tunnel. We were forewarned.
I'm sure this guide was fascinating and the lower level rooms equally interesting. I do not know. The chance of a full-blown panic attack in an ancient tunnel outweighed all interest I had in seeing what was on the lower levels.
Thought it a better plan to go visit the cat.
dinner and Dancing at the Old Greek House
This was a really good day and we ended it back at the Old Greek House with a barbecue dinner and music and dancing!
Tour Day 6: Cappadocia
Ürgüp's Weekly Market
Everyone was in good spirits today. Three nights in one hotel is great; we don't have to pack up until tomorrow. And now we have clean clothes, laundered and folded neatly by the hotel.
First stop was the colorful weekly market in Ürgüp. We struck out on our own, and I quickly discovered anyone I was brave enough to engage in conversation seemed happy to talk with me. Despite Taylan's continuous efforts to teach us more, I have exactly two reliable words of Turkish - Merhaba (hello) and Günaydın (good morning) - but they were my entree to plenty of conversation in English.
First was a young vegetable seller with fluent English, who told me he was in university in Iran until the economy forced him to leave. Next I met two young men selling fish. Both were from Afghanistan, and one has a brother in N.C. The man selling long strings of tiny dried baby okra didn’t have as much English, but he patiently tried to explain his mysterious product to me.
Finally there was the flag seller with the rugged smiling face. He spoke no English, but I tried "Merhaba" and "Günaydın" and "Photo, please?" He selected a large red Turkish flag featuring the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and graciously posed for my picture. I think this is my favorite photograph from Turkey because of his dignified face and obvious pride in his country.
In addition to all the friendly people, the stacks of artistically arranged fruits and vegetables were beautiful and photogenic. Loved this hour long stop!
Göreme National Park
Leaving the market we drove about an hour to reach another part of Göreme Natonal Park, this one with wide vistas of peaks and valleys of more eroded rock formations and trails for some short hikes. Passed through a herd of cattle with their Turkish cowboys crossing the road on our way to the carpet factory.
The Carpet Lecture/Factory
I liked the carpet factory much more than I expected to. The owner first showed us several rugs in progress and asked the weavers to demonstrate their techniques on their looms. We then moved to the room with a vat of silkworm cocoons, and he showed us how a single silk thread is unwound from a cocoon onto a spindle..
The longest part of the demo was in the large room where dozens of rugs were unrolled for us. He spent a lot of time educating us about the differences between silk and wool rugs, and different backings and tying techniques.
He made a point of saying there was no pressure to buy, and at the end of his demo when the cadre of salesmen descended, they really did seem to be trying to be more helpful than insistent. They had spent so much time with us I was relieved that a number of our tour members did actually purchase smaller rugs.
I was also relieved that my brain kicked in before I made an impulsive purchase of a beautiful, expensive rug that I neither needed nor knew if it would work with my existing rugs. Ten minutes down the road on the bus and I had pretty much forgotten about it, so I know I made the right call.
A new part of Göreme on the way back to Mustafapaşa.
a visit to a master potter. he made it look so easy!
Tour Day 7: Cappadocia to Konya
We left Mustafapaşa after breakfast on our way to the small town of Güzelyurt to meet the Imam. Landscape has changed a little — a few green trees and a crater lake, both different from the dusty landscape we left behind in Göreme
Güzelyurt's mosque
In Güzelyurt we walked downhill along a rough path, passing caves cut into the cliff face and abandoned houses of stacked stones. The small historic mosque is at the end of the path, and standing at the front door was a youngish man in jeans and a black leather jacket. I’m not sure what I expected an imam to look like, but probably not like him.
He welcomed us to sit on the turquoise carpet of the mosque, and with Taylan as his translator, explained what he does and answered our questions for almost an hour. He primarily takes care of his Muslim congregation, not unlike a Christian pastor, and "preaches" at a Friday service. Whenever Taylan talked to us about Islam and Turkey, he emphasized that although Turkey is 99% Muslim, Turkey is a secular country. Atatürk ended the madrassas, the religious schools, so no rogue clerics can promote radical Islam.
The Imam ended our visit by singing a scripture from the Quran. This was much more melodic than what we heard blasted through scratchy loudspeakers in Istanbul. I don’t know a lot about Islam, but I think it shares many ideas of compassion and faithfulness that Christians also believe. I appreciated his taking the time to share with us.
Caravanserai
After Güzelyurt we headed for Konya, making a short stop at a medieval Caravanserai, a roadside compound for Silk Road travelers. This one was well preserved, or restored, but quite empty, so it took some imagination to picture it filled with dusty travelers and camels.