Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia is a semi-arid region in central Turkey. It is known for its distinctive "fairy chimneys." These tall, cone-shaped rock formations cover the landscape. What makes an already incredible location even more out of this world is that most of these Fairy Chimneys have cave homes carved into them. The history of this place is so unbelievable that the origins are still disputed by historians.

We left Antalya on another full-day cross-country bus. Along the way, as we wound our way through a mountain range, we noticed the surrounding mountains were covered in a dusting of snow. We arrived in Goreme just after dark and as we wound down into the town it was like a fairy tale! The lights of the town were interspersed around silhouettes of the rock formations. Each with lights of their own coming from the windows of the cave homes within them. What a wild place!

From our research, we found that most of the sights around the area were easy hikes from Goreme so were excited for the next 5 days here.

In the last decade Cappadocia has become one of the top 3 destinations for tourists in Turkey. The ironic thing is that the mysterious history of the area isn’t the reason for the recent influx of visitors. The area become famous for the incredible sight of hot air balloons that take advantage of the wide spaces and incredible photo opportunities.

With only one day forecast to be sunny we knew the conditions would be a bit varied. Yet despite the next day forecast being overcast we woke up to a stunning morning and got out for our first 12km loop. About halfway through the day the wind whipped up a dust storm and a cool change and then the following day we woke up to the whole area covered in snow. At least we could finally justify carrying all the additional cold-weather gear!

They say there are three must-dos for visitors in Cappadocia:

1. Hot air balloons- which are very dependent on the weather. Which we scored on the one calm sunny day! Even just watching them was great to see the stereotypical view of the region in its full glory. (Despite it being -2°C!)

2. Göreme open air museum- a collection of medieval age churches that occupied a number of the caves in a specific valley. All uniquely decorated in catholic styled paintings.

3. The underground cities - a truely unbelievable wonder that to this day haven’t been able to be explained.

Overall our time here was incredible! By far the greatest experience of our trip so far.Read more