The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia

Michael in the Shoestring Cave hotel
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We arrived to Goreme, located in the heart of Cappadocia, and were pleasantly surprised by the approach to the village from the dry lumpy landscape. Here there is a valley of the fantastic fairy chimneys (like the HooDoos of the Canadian Rockies). First nature carved these tall pinnacles and then humans carved churches, homes, and restaurants inside them. A great way to beat the heat as they maintain cool temperatures through out summer. Our hotel was built out of the soft tuft, and we kept cool in it.

In one of the cave churches of the Open Air Museum of Goreme.
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Goreme was a quiet place compared to Istanbul and Ankara, a peaceful village with no one hassling us. On the second day we visited the Open Air Museum, and saw numerous pigeon holes cut into the valley walls (for harvesting guano) as well as massive churches and monasteries with some frescoes still intact. Although subsequent inhabitants of the caves scratched out the eyes of most of the faces painted on the walls and ceilings.

A full day was spent on an organized tour of the underground city of Derinkuyu and of the Ilhara valley. The underground city was one of perhaps 200 that were built as temporary refuge from invaders. In Derinkuyu 2000 people could live for 2 weeks before they would have to surface and clean out the sewage and get some fresh air. Really neat cities, equipped with doors of heavy round stone that could be rolled into place if the invaders did happen to find an entrance, which was unlikely. In fact the underground cities were lost for hundreds of years after the original builders did not need them anymore. Walking through the Ilhara Valley was very peaceful, as there were olive, pistachio and poplar trees to shelter us from the heat, and a little stream that bubbled and cooled your feet along the way.

Erin walking in the underground city. People were really short back then!
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On the second to last day we did some carpet shopping at Sultan Carpets in Goreme, which had a good reputation. He sold his carpets at a fixed price instead of hyperinflated prices where you have to bargain and hope that you have come to a fair price, but you probably have not since the merchant agreed to it. We figured we could ask a few questions of him and find out more about Turkish carpets before we actually bought one down the road. We ended up falling in love with almost every carpet we were shown.  However we managed to show some restraint and decided to think about it before buying anything.  That afternoon we joined a hike from our caves to the neighboring valleys of Pigeon Valley (lots of pigeon holes for guano), Honey Valley (beautiful honey colored hills with gentle rain carved slopes), White Valley (same as the Honey Valley except a bone white color), Love Valley (hehe, you would have to guess why it's called that by looking at the strange rock formations), and Rose Valley with it's great pink colored walls.

Love Valley
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In addition to the wonderful surroundings of Goreme, this place also has some great food!  We tried so many wonderful dishes while we were here, such as gozleme (a sweet or savory crepe often filled with honey and banana, spinach, cheese, or potatos), borek (a flaky pastry parcel filled with meat, cheese, spinach, etc), and guvec (meat and vegatable stew in a clay dish). We also tried testi kebap, a local specialty of meat and vegetables cooked in a terracotta pot sealed with bread which is broken at the table.  However one of our favorite dishes had to be the imam bayildi, literally the imam fainted, which was eggplant stuffed with ground lamb, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. These great meals were often wrapped up with a baklava or some rice pudding. Yummy!

Erin enjoys testi kebap
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In our rush to leave for the tour 2 days previously, we filled a liter bottle with tap water instead of purchasing a new bottle. In the heat of the day I (Michael) drank the entire bottle of tap water. I paid for it by being sick all night the following night. We checked out of the hotel in the morning, but our bus did not leave until midnight so we wandered the town, staying close to bathrooms. We returned to our friendly carpet merchant, and this time we walked out of his store as proud owners of 4 carpets. We are quite pleased with them. He kept saying: "This carpet has so much character, you need to build your house around it." This suits us, since we do not have a house or furniture. But I hope we do not have to build 4 houses to match these 4 carpet personalities.

A view of Goreme
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Midnight rolled around and I took some immodium pills to cement my bowels before the 5 hour bus ride to Ankara to get our Indian visas. We could not sleep well on the bus though since the well meaning conductor kept waking us to offer tea and to rinse our hands with lemon water. And the bus driver kept stopping to wash the bus at gas truck stops. Funny that they should be so concerned about how the bus looks in the middle of the night.

We arrived to Ankara at 5am and tried to sleep on the metal benches in the bus station but the police recognized us as hobos right away. They shook me awake and wagged their fingers reproachfully. So we went to the Embassy to get a jump start on the line. Unfortunately they said we would have to wait until 5pm to collect the visa. So we slept in a couple different parks, I made frequent toilet trips, and we caught the best looking English movie showing, Ocean's 13. We thought we might be lucky and get the visas a little before 5pm and went back to the embassy at 3:30. But the bureaucrats got the best of us and we waited until 5:30 before getting them. We did not want to spend another night in Ankara, and so went to the bus station to catch another overnight bus, 8 hours, to Antalya and then on to Olympos. I took some more Immodiums and we set off on another bouncy bus ride, getting woken every hour or 2 to refuse tea or wander a rest stop while the driver washed the bus!

A cave church after years of weather have knocked out some of the walls and floors.
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Ah Goreme, we long to go back to your peaceful village and friendly people. We really enjoyed this village of caves and fairy chimneys.