Cappadocia, Turkey
To be open and ready to explore is one of the most precious freedoms. I met a wonderful girl, Julie, while in Kaş who we ended up spending a lot of time together. Another encounter sparked from Olça's openness to accept and get to know people who walk into her shop. After Julie left Kaş to persue another adventure for a week or so, we decided to meet up again in Antayla and take a trip to Cappadocia. After 4 hour bus ride, and an evening spent exploring Antayla and the ancient city Kaleiçi - we met at Otogar to embark on the 10 hour night bus to Göreme.
It was so good to see Julie again. We had only been apart for a week but had so much to catch up on! It's so great to meet other travelers on the road. I find so much comfort in their insights, personalities and ability to share experiences with one another. There is an openness that can't be explained but only shared.
The bus ride was quite long, waking up every couple of hours or when I could feel the bus speeding down some mountain and turning corners abruptly. Everything was so dark so it was difficult to place what was happening in the delusion of my tired mind. In these moments, there is no point of worrying, you've already chosen your path and you have to sit back and relax.
Arriving in Cappadoccia was amazing. An experience on its own. We approached the park around 6:00am. The sun was just rising, illuminating the gentle hills. Off in the distance the sky was filled with hot air balloons, floating effortlessly. The site was memorizing, watching the lightness and hearing only the sounds of the amazed Japanese travelers behind me... "Ohhhh my god, ohhhh my god" and them ruffling through their bags to find their cameras.
Stepping off the bus into the cool, damp morning air was so refreshing. Watching the balloons above while waiting for Aydın, our Couchsurfing host. After we spent our time getting to know eachother a bit, Julie and I headed back to Göreme to explore some of the area. We spent a lot of time walking around, climbing, talking and drinking çay. Cappadocia is quite a magical place that needs to be experienced to fully understand the vastness and ever-changing formations.
DAY ONE
We took it easy, exploring the main areas and the town itself. Everyday we seemed to find ourselves in some extreme situation. This day was ignited by our sleep deprivation. We wandered around aimlessly, admiring the views and confusing locals with our slurred speech. People asking "are you guys okay?", then our response being a delusional laugh and subtle exchange in words that left everyone more confused. We drank so much çay, trying to warm up. We officially left the warm sea weather to central Turkey where the seasons became apparent that they were changing.
We spent so much time admiring a camel eat, watching a fashion shoot in the rocks (where we merely got ran over by a horse on the loose), walking, walking, and walking... Oh, and a little hitch hiking.
Sword Valley, Cappadocia
Photoshoot
DAY TWO
"The adventure to find Rose and Red Valley!" Dun, dun, dunnnn.
Lessons learned:
1. Every trail map looks different and says different things
2. Everyone here is terrible with directions. Person: "Yeah, it's just up there." Us: "But where is there ? ", Person: (starts to get frustrated and points at a map), "it's THERE". Us: "but you're not pointing at anything", Person: "THERE, THERE, THERE!" ... Okay we go to the next person, same thing but different map. This makes no sense. Julie and I consider ourselves to be pretty smart and savvy hikers, something is just weird here.
3. There is a delusional man that has a pomegranate and orange stand off the main trail. He is the man responsible for spray painting fake arrows leading in every which direction, chiseling out signage direction and trying to lure ladies into the "damsel in distress".
4. Pays to know someone. Everyone knew and respected our Couchsuring host, Aydın. After revealing this to the crazy pomegranate man, he finally pointed us in the right direction. Ah-ha, we knew it. Also found ourselves at the top of Red Valley having a coffee. After visiting with the owner and learning he knew Aydın, we stayed for some more çay, more conversations and more warmth. He helped get us back on track and organized our pickup at the end.
5. Sunset point is amazing at sunset. Go-Figure. Aydın was an amazing host and shared some beautiful places with us.
Rose Valley, Cappadocia
Watching the sun go down at Sunset Point
Enjoying a hot cup of tea over this view
DAY THREE
This day was a long, funny, "how did we get here" kind of a day. We woke early and walked to a nice look out point to watch the sunrise and all of the balloons in the sky. The weather was so cold, and dogs were out in the streets, but we managed. After, we started to walk into the town but get picked up by a couple people who saved us from the cold walk. Hitchhiking is so easy in this area, everyone is constantly moving from one of the towns to the next. Even if you don't ask, people will stop and offer a ride.
We wanted to hike Love Valley this day. We found that we arrived so early in the town that everything was closed.. We managed to find some bread and sat on a bench, shivering, eating bread waiting to talk again to our friend at the bus station. We've spent a lot of time at the Otogar, bugging the poor man working at Kamil Koç trying to figure out ALL of route options and prices. Julie and I were planning to split up after this trip, her to Istanbul, me to Bodrum.
Once the buses were up and running, we took a Dolmuş to a neighboring town to start our hike...but... We were so distracted in our conversations that we ended up in Nevşeheir (just a little detour that turned into buying some of the best bread made with tahini paste). The detour didn't stop, this was a day of detours. We got dropped off at an onyx shop where we visited with the owner, he showed us where he carves the stone, then ended up walking another long bit to the trail. But of course, before starting we met another person working at a stone shop that Julie was able to talk to for a long time in French. With all of these detours I learned so much about food, stone, alchemy, and more. The trail was amazing. We sat and had a nice picnic where an older lady emerged from the trees offering us apples. So many tasty apples.
Love Valley, Cappadocia
Eating apples along the hikes