It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Needs An Eyepatch - A Dec TR Complete 8/31

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Around 5pm we decided to head across the street to the ruins of the Basilica of St. John which is the believed burial place of the apostle John. Access to the fort on the hill is also gained from these ruins.













The burial spot of St. John







What the basilica looked like once upon a time



We walked up to the fort only to find out it was closed for the day. Doh! We assumed that the same hours for the basilica applied to the fort since admission covered both sites. That was a little disappointing.







I loved this tree that was near the fort. I called it my Winnie-the-Pooh tree as it reminded me of the tree Piglet lived in.







When we left the site there was a guy lurking around outside that tried to sell us "ancient" coins that he found in the site. This is a common scam in Turkey so we just walked away. Not to mention, if they were in fact ancient coins we could have been arrested for trying to take antiquities out of the country...

After dinner we packed up our room as we would be heading out in the morning. We would be flying to Cappadocia for a few days of hiking and hopefully a hot air balloon ride.

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow, what a great market! Those eggplant looked great - my staycation goal is to try to cook eggplant parmigiana. I would have loved touring the basilica too. How nice that there was a model of what it had once looked like.

All the fresh produce looked great! Good luck with the cooking experiment!

 

[Steppesister]

This one is particularly stunning. Love it.

So glad you didn't fall for that crap. So. Many. Scams! Cappodocia should be a nice report!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

This one is particularly stunning. Love it.

So glad you didn't fall for that crap. So. Many. Scams! Cappodocia should be a nice report!

Scams are the number one thing I hate about travelling/life. I find it unfortunate that people try to make a living off of taking advantage of the ignorance/naivety/good will of people. I wish it was possible to travel without having to read up on the latest scams that are pulled on tourists.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

April 24 - Turkey

We had a lazy last morning in Selcuk. After breakfast we went down to our room to pack our last few items and did the final scan of the hotel room and then we went downstairs to check out where I made ABSOLUTELY SURE that I returned the room key! lol

Bags loaded into the car we were off to the Izmir airport where we hoped we would have a much smoother time getting in than we did getting out. Remember that oh so fun encounter at the military installation? lol

The drive was easy as it is a straight shot north on the highway. There was one interesting part of the drive though....

Off on the side of the highway somebody had been pulled over by the police. Well the man they had pulled over decided to try and make a run for it across the highway!!!! We were horrified!! The man bolted into the traffic and a quick thinking officer soon had him pinned down and back on the side of the road. That could have ended so badly. We wondered what he had done that would cause him to risk his life like that...

Arrival at the airport was luckily very smooth. We had to drive around the parking garage a bit to find where to leave the rental car as we seemed to drive by every rental agent other than Avis. We did eventually find them though and the car was returned in one peace. Even though the driving portion of our vacation went fairly well Dad said he was glad to be rid of the responsibility and he could now relax.

We went through Security to get into the departure lobby and then found the Pegasus Airlines check-in which had a short line. Then we cleared through Security again to get into the gated area where we now had a 2 1/2 hour wait because we were so early. Better to be waiting calmly in the airport than stressed out worrying about making it to the airport on time.

The flight to Cappadocia was smooth and lasted just over an hour. We were served a meal as I had paid $10 extra a person to reserve our seats and get the meal. Pretty good deal in my opinion. When we got close to Kayseri which was the airport we would be landing at we started to see an enormous volcano looming on the horizon. This volcano pretty much dominated the skyline all around Cappadocia. I took a picture from my window once we landed. It does not even come close to giving you the true impression of how large it is.



The airport in Kayseri is TINY and so it did not take long to get our bags. I think this airport can only handle 1-2 planes at a time. I had arranged a driver to pick us up at the airport and drive us the hour to our hotel in Goreme.

I was so excited for this part of the trip as this region of Turkey is so different from everywhere else we were going and had such a unique landscape. We would be staying in a Cave Hotel, hopefully be taking a hot air balloon ride and hiking amongst the valleys and fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.

I was glued to my window the entire drive eagerly keeping a lookout for my first glimpse of a fairy chimney. Surprisingly I didn't see one until we were nearly in Goreme.

Our driver took us up a windy cobble-stone road to our hotel for the next three nights: The Kelebek Special Cave Hotel. We were greeted outside by several hotel staff members. Two of them took our bags to our room while another gave us a tour around the hotel. She showed us the terraces, the breakfast room/lounge, the spa/hammam, the pool and rose garden and then finally our room. She told us to settle in and then to come over to reception and she would give us information on the area and discuss our plans for our visit.

There were three types of room you could book at this hotel: a fairy chimney room, a cave room, or a stone room. A fairy chimney room would have been perfect but there were none available that would fit us. A stone room was just a room in a building made out of stone so while nicely decorated not a unique experience so I booked a cave room. I will let the pictures show you what it was like!























They had even left us some Turkish Delight in the room!



Covered patio outside our room



Area near our room





As I was waiting outside for Alek and Erich the people staying in the room next to ours showed up and we knew them!!!! Staying next to us were the two Asian girls that had also been staying at the Hotel Bella in Selcuk and that we had met at Ephesus. We laughed about what a small world it was and how strange that we would run into each other again out of all the places in Turkey. We chatted for a few minutes and it turns out they had arrived the day before. They had been scheduled to go on a hot air balloon ride that morning but it had been cancelled due to wind so they were rescheduled for the next morning which is when we were booked for our flight as well. We were all keeping our fingers crossed that we would be able to go up.

We struggled to get our door locked but finally figured it out and then made our way to reception where we were given maps of the area and some restaurant recommendations. We were also given information on how things would proceed the next morning with the hot air balloon ride. I had booked with Butterfly Balloons which is the safest and top rated balloon company in the area and it also happened to be owned by the same family/organization that ran our hotel. We were told that at the moment it was a 50/50 chance with the balloon ride the next morning due to the weather forecast and that it would likely be a last minute decision in the morning about whether it would be safe to go up. So that meant we would be picked up around 5am and shuttled to the balloon company's main office where we would be served a light breakfast and await the decision. I was crossing all my fingers and toes as this was the number one thing that i had wanted to do on the trip... Dad and Alek were ambivalent and said they would be happy to save the 450 euro should the flight be cancelled.

No time to sit around and worry about that though, we had some sight seeing to do!

It was late afternoon/evening so we couldn't do too much so I suggested that we walk over to Sunset Point to get a view of the surrounding valleys and the town.

Continued in next post...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sunset Point was on the other side of town so we strolled through the town checking out restaurant menus and just looking around.





Already I was loving Cappadocia and all we had done was stroll through town. It was just so unique!! I loved seeing the homes and businesses carved into the fair chimneys.

It was a bit of a hike getting up to Sunset Point but not too bad and couldn't complain as that is why we came to Cappadocia, to hike! There were a bunch of people up at Sunset Point checking out the view. From here you looked out over the town and Love Valley and in the distance you could see Red Valley and Rose Valley.









That is Red and Rose Valley off in the distance





I made a friend up on Sunset Point. Alek thought she was an ugly little dog but I thought that she was sweet.



She followed me around for a good 20 minutes before another family stole her attention away.



Looking into Love Valley





We made our way back into town





Almost every fair chimney had pigeon holes carved into them



We stopped for dinner at a restaurant on the main drag and then it was back to the hotel as we had an early wakeup, alarm set for 4am.

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[tazdev3225]

I am finally home and all caught up. I love your brothers attempting the kitchen sink. My brothers definitely would have done that. I love ice cream but sadly it doesn't always love me.

The other trip is amazing. I never even thought of Turkey as a place to visit now I would put it on my list of maybe one day trips.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow, I could comfortably live in the cave hotel - reminds me of a luxurious blend of castle and swankiness! You really did excellent research and planning on this trip Lessa. It's obviously my poor worldly education, but I didn't even know these places existed! Of course, one can never know everything. And are you due some Happy Birthdays?

Yes, my birthday was last week but i didn't really do much for it. Worked the day of and a co-worker got me cupcakes. Had dinner with Mom and Erich a few days after the fact and met with some friends for an ice cream treat. =)

You are right, it is impossible to know about everything. I didn't even know about Cappadocia until I started researching the trip and then I just KNEW I HAD to go there! That is one of the reasons I love reading trip reports and travel blogs, a wonderful way to learn about places I never even knew about. If you ever see the Lottomax commercial on tv there is a scene with hot air balloons, that is Cappadocia! I remember seeing the commercial all the time before my trip and I would get excited every single time! That commercial still gets me excited because it has so many of my bucket list items. If only I could actually win the lottery!

I am finally home and all caught up. I love your brothers attempting the kitchen sink. My brothers definitely would have done that. I love ice cream but sadly it doesn't always love me.

The other trip is amazing. I never even thought of Turkey as a place to visit now I would put it on my list of maybe one day trips.

Welcome back! I would love to hear about your trip! I hope it was amazing!

 

[tazdev3225]

Yes, my birthday was last week but i didn't really do much for it. Worked the day of and a co-worker got me cupcakes. Had dinner with Mom and Erich a few days after the fact and met with some friends for an ice cream treat. =)

Welcome back! I would love to hear about your trip! I hope it was amazing!

Happy Birthday. When was it I celebrated my birthday last week also.

I am going to do a TR for my 3 Disney trips this year, the last one is in a few weeks, and am planning to add Scotland to the report too. I can do it as I saw Mickey and Minnie in Edinburgh.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Happy Birthday. When was it I celebrated my birthday last week also.

July 30. i guess my memory is a bit off, it was more like two weeks ago! Time flies!

 

[tazdev3225]

My birthday was last Saturday August 6th. It was a BIG "0" one so my family gave me a party. It was nice but I need to write out thank you cards this weekend.

 

[cajunfan]

That is so cool! Are they natural rock formations that they have built homes into?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

My birthday was last Saturday August 6th. It was a BIG "0" one so my family gave me a party. It was nice but I need to write out thank you cards this weekend.

Happy Belated!

That is so cool! Are they natural rock formations that they have built homes into?

Yes, the landscape was created by volcanic eruptions and over the centuries the people of the area carved their homes into the "fairy chimneys" and into the cliff walls of the valleys. They also built underground cities but that is another post...

 

[jelloarms]

How did you find your way around everywhere? Did you have GPS? And if so, were you using some sort of Pocket WiFi or do you have an international data plan on your phone?

That stone room looks SO COOL! Like living in a castle! Was it air conditioned though? Also, what is the tap water like in Turkey? Is it safe to drink?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

How did you find your way around everywhere? Did you have GPS? And if so, were you using some sort of Pocket WiFi or do you have an international data plan on your phone?

That stone room looks SO COOL! Like living in a castle! Was it air conditioned though? Also, what is the tap water like in Turkey? Is it safe to drink?

When driving we had a GPS, rented with the car, that we used although the highway signs were all really good and we didn't need to use the GPS much. I also had a small amount of data I could use on my phone if needed as I purchased an international bundle so we could make calls home. Walking around, I studied google maps a lot before leaving and I'm pretty good with direction so we always found our way. I also would preload maps/directions on my phone with the hotel wifi and that way we could access while walking around if needed without using data.

I don't remember if there was a/c, I don't think so. The caves sort of temperature regulate themselves.

Tap water, we brushed our teeth with it but never drank it. All the locals drank bottled water so that is what we did. No idea if that was absolutely necessary or just a custom.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

After this post I only have two more days to post about the Turkey trip and one more post about the Disney trip and then this TR will be complete!!


April 25 - Turkey


Our alarms were set for the terrible hour of 400am. Turns out I couldn't sleep well that night anyways as I was so full of nervous energy. We were scheduled for our balloon flight that morning and I was so hoping that the weather would cooperate. I had been dreaming of this for years. At 400 we started to get up and get ready and at 500 our phone rang and it was the front desk making sure that we were awake and ready for our pickup. A staff member even went around to the rooms of those scheduled to fly to make sure nobody missed the shuttle. There were several shuttle busses waiting at the front of the hotel to take us all down to the Butterfly Balloons office. We laughed as the office was pretty much located at the end of the street, we could have walked!

Once we arrived at the office we checked in and we were given a card that assigned our pilot for the morning. We were then taken into the breakfast room where we were offered tea, coffee, or water and a selection of fruits and bread to munch on while we waited to hear about the weather. The air seemed pretty still outside that morning so I was crossing my fingers and toes. The room was packed full of people as they were trying accommodate not only those originally booked to fly that day but also their customers whose flights had been cancelled the day before due to wind.

We had waited about an hour when the head pilot, Mike, came out and gave us the bad news. Although the weather seemed calm on the ground it was too windy to fly safely and the balloon flights had been cancelled for the morning. I was crushed. My hopes and dreams were shattered. The vacation was ruined!



Just kidding. I was very upset that the flight had been cancelled but it did not ruin the vacation. There were still plenty of things to see and do in Cappadocia aside from the balloon flight. There was still a chance that we might be able to fly the next day but I wasn't holding out hope as the weather forecast was calling for rain... I won't leave you in anticipation, the flight was cancelled the next day as well. Luckily they informed us of the cancellation in the afternoon so we didn't have to go through the early wake-up all over again. For those who are curious, here is Rick Steve's video about balloon flights in Cappadocia. You can see what I missed out on. The flight starts 1 minute into the video.

We were shuttled back to our hotel and we now had nothing to do for a few hours as it was still really early in the morning and far too early to head out and start the day. Well, we ended up Skyping with Erich. He was 10 hours behind us so while it was early morning for us it was still the evening of the day before for him. We had planned to Skype with him from Cappadocia anyways as it was his birthday! We told him all about our adventures since our last Skype session with him which was back towards the beginning of the trip when we had stayed at the wonderful Ece's place in Assos. We also gave him a little tour around our cool hotel and showed him the view from the hotel patios.

We ended the Skype call just before 7:30 when the hotel would start serving breakfast. I felt like a hobbit eating a second breakfast.

Early morning view of Uchisar Castle. This was located in a village about 5km from our hotel. I was in love with the zoom on my new camera.


The fairy chimney rooms at our hotel. Aren't they adorable?



Lovely lilacs outside our room



The cute breakfast room



Lounge off the breakfast room. Dad and I spent some time in here later that afternoon while Alek napped






The volcano near Kayseri looming over Cappadocia





After chowing down on second breakfast (we had to make sure our bellies were full as there would be nowhere to grab lunch this day) we went back to the room to brush our teeth etc and then we were off for our day of adventuring.

Originally I had booked a group tour of the region for this day but I ended up cancelling it right before our trip in favour of spending the day on our own exploring the town and hiking the surrounding valleys.

We set off towards the other side of town. We were going to start off the day hiking Love Valley and visiting the Open-Air Museum.

We found what I assumed was the start of the trail for Love Valley. The name of the valley was in Turkish so I had to consult the page from my guide book that I had taken a picture of (wasn't going to cart the book around with me) to make sure this was the right spot. The Turkish name for the valley translates into Honey Valley. It is the filthy minded English speakers that have dubbed it Love Valley. I will leave it to you to figure out why....



A few minutes into the valley and all of the sudden we were under attack!!!!




















An attack of cuteness!!!!!!

A family of puppies saw us and came running over accompanied by their momma and who we assumed was their poppa. They were so stinking adorable!!!! The whole canine family decided to accompany us on our walk of the valley.









This guy came running down the hill towards us and in adorable puppy fashion stumbled over his own paws. SO STINKING CUTE!









Eventually momma and the pups left us but poppa stayed with us for the whole hike and then some!!! We named him Bismark. We said he was the best guide of our whole trip. He would walk in front of us and when there were several different paths he would show us the way to go. The only payment he wanted was a pat on the head.





















Continued in next post

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Our wonderful tour guide Bismarck










Bismarck followed us right out of the valley and continued on with us as we walked down the road towards the Open-Air Museum. We were getting worried that he was going to stay with us all day. We liked him but we were concerned he was wandering too far away from his home, if he had a home that is.

He did eventually leave us. He ran across the road and we saw him running in the direction of this ranch. Maybe that is where he lived?



We continued on down the road and started huffing and puffing as the road started going uphill and it was starting to get HOT!

We eventually found the museum and gained entry with our handy Museum Passes. What a great investment they were!

The Goreme Open- Air Museum contains many churches and monastic facilities carved into the landscape. Some of the churches were astounding. The paintings on the walls were beautiful and so old! Photography was not allowed inside the churches.

The most famous of the churches and requiring separate admission (thanks again museum pass!) is the Dark Church. Here is a video I found. Hopefully they gained permission before filming!

Here are some pictures I took around the museum





A dark and narrow tunnel that we clambered through





A dining room for the monastery















After the museum it was time for the real adventure of the day. We were going to attempt hiking our way through some of the valley's outside of Goreme. This was an adventure as they are not well-marked and since it was not tourist season it was unlikely we would come across anybody else in the valleys. In the height of tourist season some locals set up little tea shops along the trails in the valleys so hikers can have a tea/juice break but we were not counting on any of those being around this day. We picked up some water bottles outside the museum and then we were off.

Before the trip I had read on a blog about a little known entrance to the valleys a few kilometres up the road from the Open-Air Museum so that is where I guided Dad and Alek.

We eventually came across the sign for a no longer used campground which I had read was the marker for the trail and it turns out I was right and it was! At this point we came across a group of five tourists who looked around Alek's and my age. They were looking to explore the same valley's as we were so we trekked with them for a little bit. We did get separated at one point as they were a bit slower (wearing flip flops!).

Looking toward the Red and Rose Valleys which we were hoping to find our way into..











We descended down into the valley to begin our exploring. The path going down was a bit slippery due to the nature of the sandy rock and I slipped into a lunge position. My rear end ached for the rest of the day as I pulled a muscle. This would not be my only fall....


Down in the valley we wandered to the right at first to see what we could find but we turned around after a few minutes as the trail was cut off by overgrown brush.









We continued along the main path taking in the beautiful valley. There were churches and homes carved into the valley walls but we could not see any entrances into them. Very clever and must have made these places easily defensible back in the day.







Cute little cafe not open yet for the season but clearly they were getting ready...




Continued in next post...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

As we continued on the trail got narrow in parts and wet and muddy. As I was trying to navigate around one of these areas I slipped and down I went into the muddy puddle, camera and all. My first instinct was not worry about any injury done to myself but to worry about my camera. I said a little prayer to anybody who might be listening to please spare the camera or at the very least the memory card... The camera was covered in mud. Once out of the puddle I wiped the camera off with my scarf that I thankfully had made a habit of carrying with me and then turned it on. It was working!! That was such a lucky save. I thought for sure it was a goner having gone for a swim in the mud puddle. I then examined myself. I had scraped some skin on my hand and it was caked in mud as were my lower legs and part of my arm. I also had a stinging ache on my knee. We sacrificed some of our drinking water to clean up the cut on my hand and I rolled up my jeans to take a look at my knee which had also been scrapped but was clean thanks to my jeans. I looked quite the sight. Since I was okay Dad and Alek had a good laugh at my expense.

We had no choice but to carry on with our hike as we were in the middle of the valley with no idea where the nearest exit was and besides a little dirt wasn't going to hurt me and why turn back and waste the day because of it?





We eventually ran into the same group from before and we walked with them for a bit. We were all confused as to how to get into Red and Rose Valley. There were conflicting signs. Some were actual signposts and others were spray painted onto rocks with arrows pointing down paths. Most of them led to dead ends.

The others decided to give up and made their way towards what was now clearly the exit to the valley but we decided to persevere a bit longer.





How on earth did they get in there?













We did eventually give up and so never found our way into Red and Rose Valley. We had a nice hike anyways and the areas we did see were beautiful but we were frustrated by the poor signage. This area is designated as a national park and I guess we are a bit spoiled by our national parks here in Canada which are well signed on the trails. Dad said they are missing a good opportunity here by not sign posting more clearly and by also allowing ATV's into the area which destroy the natural landscape...

We wandered in the direction that we had seen our friends go and where the ATV tracks clearly led and we eventually ended up back on the main road that leads into Goreme.













As we walked down the road we saw police all over the place blocking off the road and patrolling the area. We got rather nervous. Had something happened while we wandering around in the valleys? Had there been another attack? Was there a threat to the town??? As we entered the town we saw some locals lining the road clearly waiting for something and a few of them had Turkish flags. That made us feel better as they wouldn't be doing that if there was an attack or threat of some kind.

Turns out a major bike race was coming through town and that is why the road was closed and there was such a heavy police presence. The bikes came rolling through with a helicopter following their progress from above.



We had to wait for the race to pass before we could cross the street to get to our hotel. Once back I took a quick shower to try and get all the dirt that was encrusted on me off and then I took a nice long soak in the tub to try and give some relief to my poor battered body. While in the tub the front desk informed Dad and Alek that the balloon flight the next day was cancelled as well but they they would book us for the morning after that. They told them that wouldn't work as we had an early morning flight back to Istanbul. When I got out of the tub and they told me that I contacted the balloon company and asked them to please keep us scheduled as I was going to look into rescheduling the flight back to Istanbul. Well, that didn't work out as there were no other available flights for us so I had to call the balloon company back and tell them it didn't work out. I was crushed yet again.

Alek was napping in the room so Dad and I went and hung out in the hotel lounge for about an hour while Dad checked the news etc and I looked into changing flights.

We had an early dinner of donairs in town and then went to bed early as we had had a long and tiring day.