Cappadocia Day 2

Yes as the husband said, I have been slacking. But hey, if you were in Cappadocia you would not be wasting any time in front of a computer either. We are back in Istanbul now so I will try to do slight justice to Cappadocia which really is the coolest place I have ever been.

The first pleasant surprise on our first full day was the view with our hotel breakfast:

Eh, this will do for breakfast

We chose our hotel for its relatively good prices, cave rooms (which were a must) and altitude since it is one of the highest up in Goreme and we were rewarded with an amazing view. We headed down into town after breakfast to find our new BFF, the Fiat.

Fi-Fi, the Fiat

Sam was OVERJOYED to drive a manual again. It convinced me that I do indeed need to relent and let him get another car....for his 30th birthday. (He is pushing for his 29th...oh lord). We hopped in the car with a fairly untrustworthy map and headed towards an old Greek town. The Greeks were moved out of Turkey in a population exchange in 1923 following the Greco-Turkish war and it was interesting to see the church and remains of the old town.

Lighting Candles in the Greek Church for loved ones

Next we headed up to a canyon that had lots of the hidden churches carved into the cave formations. I think this was my favorite part of the day because it was so out of the way (and quite a hike) that there was basically no one else there, only one other couple in one of the churches.

Sam and Elizabeth stoked on the cave church

Next we drove over to an underground city. There are TONS of them in Cappadocia and the people that lived there would get word that the Ottomans were invading/raiding yet again and they would just go down into their underground city and live there for months. Like 10,000 people. It was insane. they disguised vents as wells and the invaders were non the wiser.

Stone door. Get through this, invaders.

Looking up the well/vent

After our underground adventure I had a popsicle that was delicious. Just thought you should know. After that we drove to the Ilhara valley to climb down and hike through the valley which again had some incredible cave churches.

Valley behind us. We climbed all the way down through the valley and back up. Oy.

Whoo! made it back up (it was in the mid 90s folks, this was an achievement). And a note on the hat: no, I do not think I am a cowgirl (I wish) however this 5 Lira hat kept the sun off my face and has a special place in my heart for that service.

Next we visited an awesome caravan stop from WAY back when (pre-Ottoman empire). And then had an awesome dinner, but I gotta get out of here for more adventures so I will leave you with one more pic and then attempt to update on yesterday tomorrow. Got that? Me neither.

Sam in the Caravan stop