Cappadocia

We were still pretty weak and unwell when we arrived in Cappadocia on the bus from Kayseri, but as much as Goreme is a very touristy place and a bit of a disneyland, it is very well set up for guests and we had the comfiest hotel we've had in some time, which was an immense relief. We had a quiet couple of days of mostly recouping and trying to eat something while our skin slowly dried out in the cold deserty landscape. It was so dry that our synthetic bedsheets constantly gave us static shocks - not a problem we've ever faced before!

On the third day Elli decided it was time to tick one of the big ones off the bucket list and got us a sweet deal on a hot air balloon ride through her usual special tactic of spamming people on WhatsApp. We were picked up at 6.30 and went to the take off site, where they blasted air into the balloon with a big fan, lit the propane heaters and up it went. We all got in, practiced the landing position and nearly lost Elli's phone when the balloon decided to gently ascend without any great fanfare. It is a very peaceful way to travel. The sun came up when we were up there and apart from the blasting noise of the propane when the pilot was turning the burners on, it was all very gentle with the occasional surprise rapid ascent. We went up and down a few times, around, had a near miss with an orchard, and dropped into some of the valleys to see the caves more closely.

That knackered us for the day, and the next day we did a hike into one of the nearby valleys to see some of the cave churches. Amazing structures and lots of little surprise caves everywhere that are all open to be explored- nothing fenced off to visitors. We were still absolutely knackered after only half the walk we planned though!

And next day we took the dolmus out to Kaymakli underground city, which is a cave complex that at various times people have lived in, mostly to defend themselves from someone (the Mongols, the Ottomans) and is an amazingly preserved honeycomb of passages, rooms and storage spaces. Again the whole thing is just open to explore - mostly very well lit but with a few passages open to people feeling brave. We tried a few and one went on seemingly forever, so we turned back in the end.

Worth it for the huge amazing playground and the comfortable beds, wouldn't recommend the Disneyland of the town, and worth going when you have no appetite because the food is extravagantly expensive.Читать далее