After a hectic last month, zooming from a holiday with friends to a holiday with my family to Istanbul with my brother (such a hard life I know…), I felt like I needed some downtime in a place with nature. I decided to skip western Turkey, being beached out after spending the whole summer in the heat and by the sea, and caught an overnight bus to the centre of the country, to Cappadocia. It’s a place famous for its hot air balloons, and these are why it was on my radar, but after researching a bit more I found it’s also a place with amazing hikes through strange valleys and with towns cut into rocks. I found a lovely looking hostel in Goreme (the main town in the area) and booked myself in for four nights. Cappadocia gave me everything I had hoped for.
Each morning I woke up at 5:30am and went to watch the balloons fly for sunrise. We went to several different spots over the few days, getting all of the different perspectives. They fly at sunrise because the wind conditions are best. This is an experience that can’t be given justice through pictures or words, but there’s a reason I got up each morning to watch them despite being tired! Afterwards I’d return to the hostel and either sleep for a bit longer, or do some yoga depending on how tired I was, before eating the breakfast provided. During the days I spent a lot of time in cafes catching up on blog writing and general travel planning, either alone or with the wonderful people I met at the hostel here. I did several amazing hikes through Pigeon Valley, Love Valley and Red Rose Valley. They have a lot of valleys here. Pigeon Valley is named after the pigeons the inhabitants would keep, using their poo as fertiliser. Love Valley is named after the penis-shaped rocks that loom over you as you walk (not even making that up!). Red Rose Valley after the red rocks. All had strange rock formations throughout, and evidence of houses that had been cut into the soft rock. Red Rose Valley in particular had several plots of vegetation scattered within, with fruit trees and chilli plants and other crops growing. I visited the open air museum and explored a town made up of dwellings cut into the rock. There were three valleys, but I only explored one, deciding that after one lot of cave houses they all looked the same. Unlike most historic things I go to see what made this one cool was not how ancient it was but how recently it was inhabited, with people living there until 1952.
The hot air balloons were the reason I came to Cappadocia, but are not the reason I loved my time there as much as I did. The reason for this is firstly the people I met. After being off the travelling road for a while I was looking forward to meeting more people, but I couldn’t have wished for a better group to meet. Everyone was so lovely and also inspiring, with such cool lifestyles and insights. Watching the balloons, hiking, working in cafes, and eating dinner would not have been anywhere near as wonderful without them (so thank you Emily, Jeff, Nick and Thalia!). The second reason is the insane geology of the place - the rock formations (called fairy chimneys), the valleys and the houses cut into the rocks. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and doubt I will again. It was like Tatooine from Star Wars. The final reason is the delicious Indian restaurant we ate at, with it being my first curry since leaving England and a meal I had really missed.
Keeping it real: the level of instagrammers at the balloons was insane. We saw people in the most dramatic dresses removing their big coats to flounce around on vintage convertible cars, posing for photos. One site was particularly busy, with off-road vehicles zooming around us and ruining the peace. The road quality was very bad in Cappadocia, perhaps because of how soft the rock is and how sandy it is? Unsure, but the roads were literally rubble or sand. When visiting a carpet shop with decadent displays, famous for being a great spot for pictures, we saw that you had to pay 12$ to take a photo there! We looked around the shop anyway. The owner then became quite rude to Emily when she was haggling for an item. Somehow, thanks to Emily’s insane bargaining and general people skills, this turned into the owner giving us food, inviting us to take photos for free, and giving us a lesson on the carpets. A less perfect experience that became something really special and enjoyable!