6:00 PM
Göreme, Cappadocia
Already twenty-four hours to catch up on. This is going to be a long trip. Bullets for a tired brain:
- Found Gail immediately in Istanbul! I was running late (plane delayed), so I took a taxi from the airport to Sultanahmet. 25 lira, when the Metro is 2. Boo. Had fun chatting with the cabbie, literally looking up every word as I spoke it to him. We talked food, gas, Chicago Bulls, George Bush, and sunglasses. Not bad for my one-hour crash course in Turkish on the plane.
- My first Turkish dinner was Indian. The man with the fancy shoes from my plane was arriving as we left! (I may not have mentioned him.... On the short flight from Zurich, there was a very, very tall man sitting behind me who stretched his legs straight down the aisle, almost into my seat. He was wearing fancy shoes.)
View from the Indian restaurant
- We booked a hotel for our return to Istanbul in a week or so, then took the Metro back to the airport for our nighttime flight to Kayseri. Cappadocia! So excited. Didn't see much of Istanbul in my glorified layover, mostly out of choice. Want to save it for next week when I have time.
- We were super early to the airport. Us, and many Japanese tourists. Slept on the bench. By this point, I've been up for a day and a half. The plane ride was fine, not full so we had our own row. Ate a salad, at midnight. Stole the turquoise fleece Turkish Airlines blanket. There was a bit of a luggage scare upon landing in Kayseri. The airport divides luggage by citizenship.. How they know, I do not know.. We must have been marked at the airport. Anyway, we were waiting and waiting on the foreigners side 'til there was nothing more coming down the chute. Ours got sent to the locals.
- Our ride to the hotel was waiting for us when we finally emerged, with a sign, with my name spelled terribly wrong. After a speeding, swerving, star-studded, hour-long drive through pitch black darkness, we arrive at the cave hotel. It is crazy awesome. Like a fairy-tale tower, we had to march up what seemed like a thousand steps to me at that point. Adorable built-ins, fancy fixtures, weird but hot shower.
This is what we first saw of the Cappadocia landscape:
This is what we woke up to:
- Six hours of sleep to wake in time for breakfast. They had a great spread. Cheese, breads, borek, cereal, omelets, fruit, yogurt, olives if you're into that sort of thing. We took our time.
- Made all kinds of arrangements for tomorrow: Hot air balloon ride at 5 AM, followed almost immediately by a 9-hour tour of the whole region. Crazy tired already. It's a very touristy itinerary, but why not. Not like I'll be back here in a week. We also booked our overnight bus to Pamukkale. 35 lira, cheapest accommodations yet. Also got out hotel there for the following night, for 25 Euro! I am loving the cheap.
- From Kelebek, we walked to the Göreme Open Air Museum, which contains a series of Byzantine churches carved right in to the rock. Frescoes ranging from ehhh to amazing. Lots of tourist groups, French, German, Spanish, Japanese. Hot. Very hot. Climbed a lot.
- On the walk back, we went to the UFO Museum. (!) The man running the joint (and undoubtedly the man-behind-the-Martians) had to power-up the lights and spooky music for us. Quite possibly the best 3 lira I will spend on this trip.
- When we got back to the hotel, we moved rooms. Our first wasn't available for two nights. It's still very cute, fewer windows, but there's a weird smell. Hmm.
- We're now sitting out on the terrace, writing postcards (and journals). I really need a set up like this at home: raised platform, all cushioned and draped with rugs, billowing canopy, looking out over the mountains. Really good for napping...
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