Kapadokya

The day I spent there was one of the days where the moon is in the sky most of the day. I took photos in black and white… it looks like a moonscape in many of the pictures, except for this big beautiful full moon in the background.

The people here, and most places in Turkey are wonderful and very well versed in the history of the area. Don’t miss the underground cities.

Take batteries… they can be hard to find in areas this remote.

The naturally created houses appeal the people who been there!!Kapadokya has a interesting atmosphere ,especially in autumn(in y opinion) coz everywhere is covered in yellow,brown and orange..magnificient!!!

The landscape of Grand Canyon and Utah might be more colorful, but Cappadocia is simply amazing. Fully decorated churches, houses, stables and pigeon houses were carved out in every possible rock, and underground cities were built more than 4 levels down the ground where thousands of people could live for more than a month.

Take a hot air balloon ride if you can afford it. You won’t regret it.

There’s a really popular dish in every restaurant. It’s prepared in a pot, the neck of which is knocked off before serving. I don’t know if it’s a touristy thing, but every restaurant has a pile of broken pots outside the door…

I stayed at Kayadam cave house in Ürgüp and liked it a lot.

In Ürgüp: Alfina is a really nice cave hotel and Sofra is the restaurant with the best prices and the greatest food, and nice owners (but they are no interior decorators…)

Kapadokya is simply amazing. We went twice in 2006, once to see the eclipse of the sun, and later to show our Turkish ‘daughter’ one of the jewels of her country. The scenery is stunning, the history is absorbing, and the locals are fine, decent people. I’d go back there any time.

We did the balloon thing. A once-in-a-lifetime treat I wouldn’t have missed for anything. Wonderful place.

This is one of the most amazing places on earth. The natural beauty of the tufta formations and peaks, and the multi-colored canyons is nothing short of breathtaking. But add to this the fact that early Christians and others carved out thousands of “apartments” within these tufta formations connected by horizontal and vertical crawl spaces. Some even have underground escape tunnels of a mile or so. There are churches carved out of the tufta that have beautiful relief sculptures and frescoes on the walls and ceilings. And nearby there are underground cities dug several levels deep. This is no doubt one of the most amazing places on earth.

for my record – cave hotel!

http://www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com/Newsletters/Mar2005/TheUnusual.htm#Gamirasu

“Gamirasu is the name of an exquisitely restored eighteen-room cave house opened in 1999, in Ayvali Village near Urgup in the heart of Cappadocia , Turkey . The hotel is located in a restored one thousand year old Byzantine monastic retreat which offers modern conveniences without distracting from the spiritual feeling of the area which has been known to be inhabited for more than five thousand years. Gamirasu has eighteen rooms. Part of the hotel was used by Christian monks until recently. Some of the rooms were actually monk cells.”

this is irresistable… dreaming about the hot air balloon tour now…

My favorite spot during my “year off” round-the-world sojourn back in 1994. (Well, maybe a tie with the Hunza Valley in northern Pakistan.) I went in late September and had been thoroughly jaded with the crowd I ran into in Istanbul on the trail for Oktoberfest. This was a perfect break, as I could wander freely along gently meandering trails, through immaculate orchards and vineyards that seemed to take care of themselves. I simply couldn’t resist plucking some ripe grapes off the vines, and some fresh sun-dried raisins. I encountered a bizarre bush that had really spiky balls over it. Out of curiosity, I took a rock and smashed one open. Out popped an almond! It was one of the sweetest tastes I’d ever experienced.

Best of all were all the little hobbit houses. I only saw a few people about the whole day and I couldn’t help but wonder if life there hadn’t changed in thousands of years, except no one seemed to be carving homes out of soft rock anymore. After all, this is the oldest known civilization on earth.

(Y)