One of the 'big' sights in Turkey is Cappadocia, a place of weird and wonderful rock formations. It was out of our way though, so earlier on we had decided not to go there. John loves a Lebanese singer called Yasmine Hamdan, and one day he saw on Facebook that she was performing at a music festival in Cappadocia! We changed our plans and decided to go there.
The way the timing worked we had to spend 8 days there which is a long time in one spot for us. The area was packed with people for the long weekend festival and accommodation was scarce so we had to split our time across two different towns, not far apart.
We caught a bus to the first town, called Goreme. The views of one of the mountains through the bus window was superb.
As we drove into the area, our jaws hit the floor. We were surrounded by the most amazing rock formations we have ever seen. The soft volcanic tufa in the area has been weathered over the years to form weird and wonderful shapes. For thousands of years, people have carved rooms out of some of these formations to live or worship in. They often used them to hide from enemies. Many of the formations form large conical shapes nicknamed fairy chimneys which is exactly what some of them are like! They are magical. You can almost imagine fairies and gnomes living in these.
This one was at our hotel. They build the hotels around the fairy chimneys. They use the similar stone for the buildings so everything blends in very well.
This old abandoned village was nearby. You can just walk through and explore the old rooms and caves. Unfortunately, the places are privately owned here, which means that people can sell them! The sign below says "For Sale"!
Larger complexes had kitchens. You can see the old fireplace here.
A traditional meal of this area is a stew that's cooked in a sealed pottery urn. You have to knock the top off the urn then pour the stew onto your plate. The owner of the restaurant showed us how to do the first one. It didn't break properly and bits of pottery fell into the stew. It wasn't pleasant eating it & then crunching into a piece of pottery! I had a go at knocking the top off the second pot and it worked beautifully. I think some just get a bit stuck. We had two more of these pottery dishes over the next week, one of which was inedible due the large amounts of pottery that fell into it. After that we gave up. Every time we walked into a restaurant they would try to convince us to have the pottery dish because it's a local speciality. If they didn't speak English we had trouble trying to explain why we didn't want it!
We spent the next dew days exploring the valleys in the area. Each valley had different types of amazing rock formations.
The huge expanses of incredible landscapes were stunning!
Most of the buildings that were carved out of the soft stone were houses but there were also numerous churches as many of the previous inhabitants were Byzantines. This one was breathtaking for its sheer size and simplicity.
The thing to do in Cappadocia is to take a dawn balloon flight. We didn't do it - I'd rather keep my feet on the ground - but John got up early one morning and took this awesome photo.
We later caught this lot flying on a much mistier morning. I loved the way they lit up when the gas was opened up.
One day we hired a car and drove to a few places further afield. First we went to an old underground city. At one stage 5,000 people lived here, spread over 8 levels, hiding from their enemies (Persians, Arabs, Mongols, etc, etc) for up to 6 months at a time. There were large communal kitchens, bathrooms, laundries and bedrooms. You wouldn't want to be claustrophobic!
We then drove to a place that had an entire monastery carved into a mountain.
There were a few churches here, all impressive.
We then began a walk down a stunning valley. It started with more fairy chimneys.
Much of the walk was along a lush valley floor which was being farmed around us. Donkeys still rule here.
We hadn't seen many goats in this part of the country. All the animals around her are in good condition as the country is so much more fertile than further south.
Aww, how cute is he?
One part of this valley is famous for having many churches cut into the cliff walls. Some of them have gorgeous artwork in them.
Shockingly, graffiti is rife in some places. The public can access all of these churches and vandals have run amok, ruining paintings that are up to a thousand years old. I can't totally blame modern tourists and locals though - much of the damage has been done over the centuries by invading races that desecrate artwork that is against their own religion.
We loved just exploring the old cliff dwellings.
We moved to the next town, called Uchisar, which was built around an old castle on a hill.
We explored another series of churches cut into the cliffs and fairy chimneys. These are better protected than the ones we had seen previously and the artwork in some of them was amazing.
Until a few years ago, there were heaps of Aussies in Turkey. I just had to photograph this sign! Media reports of terrorist attacks and political unrest have kept people away in droves but there actually haven't been any issues for quite some time now. Attacks in Manchester, Paris and elsewhere show that nowhere is safe these days.
We had four days in Uchisar and three of them had terrible weather! We copped thunder, lightening, hail, mist and rain. And it was so cold!
At last it was time for the Cappadox Music Festival! This was a huge event - we heard there were about 5,000 people in attendance. Unfortunately, this was when the terrible weather struck!
We went looking for the action but there wasn't a lot to be seen. Either people were staying inside trying to keep warm or they were at music events. We found a little bit of a street party happening outside a small store. The very clever owner had set up a few fires and people could walk into his shop, buy alcohol from his shelves, then walk outside and drink it! We didn't expect this in a Muslim country!
At last it was time for the Yasmine Hamdan concert! It was held in a beautiful small sheltered area - outdoors! To our amazement when they opened the gates everyone waltzed in then politely formed rows in front of the stage and sat down, leaving space right in front of the stage for people to pass. That would never happen at home! We were near the start of the line and managed to sit right in front of her in the second row. Awesome! For most of the concert, people remained sitting until Yasmine encouraged them to get up and dance. Thank goodness - we were struggling to sit on the cold grass for that long!
The next day we climbed up the castle that perches on top of the town. The castle was built in and around a couple of huge fairy chimneys.
Everywhere we go we see selfie sticks. I feel somewhat behind the times without one!
The views from the top were superb!
We had one clear day and suddenly the mountain appeared. Wow!
Another day we walked down Pigeon Valley, so named for all the pigeons that live there.
WARNING - RUDE BITS AHEAD!!!
Next we walked down Love Valley. Why is it named Love Valley I hear you ask?
Would you like your love short and stumpy?
Or maybe long and skinny?
Perhaps a bit of both?
Anyway, this has been a most incredible part of the country. We have never seen anything like it. The landscapes, the fairy chimneys, the homes in caves and cliffs and the history were all incredible. We are both so glad that we came to Cappadocia. It was worth the long bus ride.
Hooroo!
Heather
