Cappadocia it’s not just the ballooning.

Monday, April 23, 2018
Ürgüp, Nevşehir, Turkey
First off many people think Cappadocia is a city it’s not. Cappadocia is a historical region. We stayed at the lovely Magic Cave House Hotel in Ürgüp a town and district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is located in the historical region of Cappadocia, and near the cave Churches of Göreme. Yes, the Call to Prayer woke us up and it seemed longer than what had heard on previous mornings. Even though we had a domestic flight we still had to be check in 90 minutes before departure. Istanbul airport is huge had to get a bus to the plane. We then had to wait in queue for 25 minutes before takeoff. Smooth flight of 80 minutes to Kayseri & a nice sunny day. 
We were met at Kayseri airport by our guide for the next couple of days Derya. Derya has been a guide for 14 years after first completing a 4 year degree course. You can do a 6 month, 2 year or 4 year degree to become  a tourist guide. Archeology, religion, ecology, geology, art, plants, geography and history is covered. You need to be able to speak Turkish, English and a third language. Derya learnt German but finds German and the Germans too hard. You have to be a a Turkish citizen to be a guide. Chinese is the growth area so guides who know Mandarin are on a good wicket - except a Chinese tour groups are not easy.  Last year she went to South America ( I think Costa Rica or Guatemala ) to do an intensive immersion course in a Spanish, which she loves and is now fluent. Derya guides over all Turkey both small and large groups in both short and long tours. She lives in Goreme one of the 5 cities in and we were staying in the nearby Ürgüp.
Cappadocia in particular, was one of the hideouts of often-oppressed early Christians, who established underground cities and hidden churches to avoid persecution. Byzantines kept the tradition of turning natural landscape of Cappadocia into a religious one, with gorgeously painted churches chipped into naturally-occuring "fairy chimneys” Myra and Rose our travel companions who are both nurses think they are better described as Penises! They have seen a few during their time as Nurses.  
The road travels through an area which is a bit like being on the Desert Rd in New Zealand but bigger. We see a lot of the fairy chimneys made from the volcanic ash. The Cappadocia region is a Historical National Park in which towns and cities the size of buildings limited to 5 stories and the region is protected by UNESCO - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.The region is generally 1000m above sea level with the highest mountain being Mount Erciyes at 3916m. Due to its altitude the region has snow for 4 months of the year. We stop at Imagination valley where we see natural formations formed by wind and rain erosion next we head to Monks Valley where the Fairy Chimmeys are more like mushroom shaped rocks. We stop by the St Simon Church but we cannot enter as they have taken the ladder away as a lady fell down last year. Derya shows us how lichen / moss grows on the Volcanic Ash and protects the rock from erosion. The moss covered side is fine whereas the uncovered side is pitted by erosion. As today is a public holiday Children’s Day there are more Turkish tourists about. After visiting Monks Valley it’s time to go and throw a bowl ( it’s a pottery term ) at  Kapadokya Seramik in the town of Avanos. We watch a demonstration of how easy it is to make a bowl or a shoulder wine carafe so of Simon has to have a go. He will not change professions.  They use a Kick wheel to make for pottery it is the same method that has been used  for 4000 years - yes 4000! The demonstration was using Red clay but they also use white clay &  quartz clay. It is with the quartz clay that the ceramics are made. The is a family business, with lots of cousins. Historically  men learnt to make pottery and women to make carpets. Back then you could not marry unless you knew how to throw or sew. After the demonstration we then went to the showroom which was massive and full of lovely Ceramics and some not so nice. It was like a Briscoes sale today only - to honour Childrens Day blah blah blah. So after looking and talking we decided that we would honour our children and Skied!
It was now lunchtime or actually closer to afternoon teatime as it was 3pm. Derya took us to Dibek in her home town if Goreme where we had a lovely Turkish lunch. The next stop was to the Göreme Open Air Museum the ladies rested while a Simon went with his notebook and Derya for a walk through the museum It contains the finest of the rock-cut churches, with beautiful frescoes. It also presents unique examples of rock hewn architecture and fresco technique. The area covered by this Open Air Museum forms a coherent geographical entity and represents historical unity. There are eleven refectories within the Museum, with rock-cut churches tables and benches. Each is associated with a church. Most of the churches in Goreme Open Air Museum belong to the 10th, 11th and 12. ( Simons note taking is not that good. This is copied and pasted from Museum website ). The area was occupied until by 1952. Inside some of the caves you could see how they lived with dining tables and benchs carved out of the stone. You could tell which was the kitchen as the ceilings were burnt black and the oven was in the floor. They had been makin wine for over 5000 years and one Cave was the winery with a pit to crush the grapes with a narrow channel for the juice to flow into another smaller pit. The grapes do not grow as vines rather as small shrubs and apparently the roots go down a long way to find water so they do not need additional watering. We could see many Pigeon holes made int9 the rock where the Pigeons lived and understandably left Pigeon poo which was collected by man to fertilise the ground especially the grape plants. The Pigeon poo is still collected.
Side note: With the Greek population exchange 1924 1.5m Greek people went from Turkey to Greece. They were not accepted hence by the Greeks in Greece so they moved further on which is why so many Greeks in Aussie.
We now headed to the Magic Cave House Hotel for some R&R as we had to set the alarm to get up at 4.15 for a balloon ride. After another lovely sunset Simon walked into town to get some Turkish takeways - beef mince wrap - rather tasty.
4.15 a beautiful morning so the Balloon ride was on. With the weather in the last year 1 out of 3 days have been no fly days. Rose, Susan and Simon were picked up on time and headed to the launch site picking up more people on the way. We arrived at the launch site and it was all go. 18 passengers per ballon with 1 pilot and 5 helpers x 100  balloons = a lot of people. Our launch site had probably 30 balloons. They plan to fly 365 days of the year. We sign our name and climb into the basket. It’s a high basket so a ladder is needed even for people Simons height. We were away - 1 of the first - it was surreal so quiet, no wind, magic. Waiting for the sunrise we looked across at all the other balloons in flight. Sunrise was ( choose your own adjective ) amazing..... After an hour we then landed again this was pinpoint as the ballon basket lands onto its trailer. Which moves backwards and forwards to the right position. Once we are back on Terra Firma we have a glass of bubbles and then it’s back to our hotel for a shower and breakfast. 
Derya picks us up at 10am and it’s time to now go underground at one of the Underground Cities of Cappadocia. They are not the easiest to go through so it was just Simon and Derya who went below. Simon took his backpack off to put his hat in and get his water bottle with the intention of then giving the bag to Susan to hold but being blonde he put automatically back on his back and went bugger fairly early on as bending down through one of the narrow caves it was catching the tunnel roof. The 1st underground city was discovered in 1964. 39 have been found so far and they believe there could be as many as 200. The 39 that have been found are all connected by the labyrinth of tunnels. The caves are at a constant temperature all year round. They first started as storage places then for safety. Connecting tunnels were built to link to neighbours a The tunnels are  4000 years old. If they required more space they dug down. The biggest cave found so far has 8 levels and could hold about 5000 people. They had amazing ventilation so they could still have fires. The volcanic stone absorbed smoke plus they often cooked at night so any smoke escaping could not be seen by the enemy. They used Linseed oil for light as it needed only a small amount of oxygen and did not generate much smoke. The ingenuity of the inhabitants was amazing to protect themselves they made Wheel Doors out of the rock which could be rolled into place isolate themselves. The wheel could only be rolled back from the inside. It was so cleverly done. The animals lived on the first level and human waste was stored in pottery urns and taken up to the real world when it was safe. From remains from some of these urns archaeologists could determine what the ate! A fairly balanced diet. No fries though. While Simon had been underground the ladies had visited some if the many stalls and found some lovely Ski equipment. 
We drove around looking at more of the breathtaking scenery before stopping for lunch at the Museum Hotel which had splendid views over the Pigeon Valley and Red Valley. After lunch it was time for another hill climb to visit a Mosque and higher up church in Cavusin part of the town had been destroyed by falling boulders  - not an Earthquake in 1968. We climb to the Church or St John the Bapist. The frescoes were in great condition. Well worth the climb. On our climb we passed the new Fairyland Cave hotel which Simon thought was in a rather dodgy area - Derya agreed. The days touring was over so it was back to the Magic Cave House for delivered Pizza and another early night but we did have a sleep in as the alarm was set for 6am for our flight to Izmar. 
Cappadocia means land of wild horses but we didn’t see that many. 
Photos: Simon  says he will do the summary when he gets back to New Zealand before publication.
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Comments

Anne
2018-04-30

Another detailed history lesson. I imagine that you have now more luggage than when you left NZ as there have been so many must haves. Keep on skiing!!!! x

Sonia
2018-04-30

Very impressed you ride in the balloon Sue. Well done. Looks epic

Leanne
2018-05-03

A-m-a-z-i-n-g! Loving your witty comments Simon. Love the photo of Susan in the balloon - says a lot! Keep on adventuring xx

2025-02-12

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