This may just be our favourite area yet. We stayed in Goreme, one of several small towns in Cappadocia best known for its cave dwellings. The majority of houses and hotels are caves carved into the valley walls. Ours was no exception -- a nice, cosy cave room with all the features of a normal hotel. The town is built amidst hundreds of "fairy chimneys", giant cylindrical rock formations with bulbous tips. Yes, giant dicks -- everywhere.
These geological phenomena are present throughout throughout Cappadocia and we explored it by hiking, horseback riding, hot-air ballooning, and driving it. We highly recommend the Rose and Red Valley routes for hiking and horseback riding. We were almost alone amidst the caves and chimneys, and many of the caves have incredible ancient churches and halls built into them, complete with stone columns and archways. It is surreal to stumble through a little, unimpressive cave opening to find a 2500-year old cathedral inside.
Another thing we did in Goreme is hamam, a traditional Turkish bath. I kept my bathing suit on since most other women in there were doing the same. They started the process by painting on a face mask and then ushered me and 2 other women starting the same time as me into the dry sauna for 15 minutes (Mike was over in the men's section). After the dry sauna, I rinsed the mask off in the shower and then headed into the next room, where it was time to begin the exfoliation process on a marble heated slab. Everyone lay down around the slab and the attendants put on exfoliating gloves and start the (sometimes painful) process of removing all your dead skin cells. Next, I got a bubble massage (imagine lying down in a bubble bath with someone massaging you with bubbles but finding each and every pressure point as your head knocks against the slab). The attendants were all wearing bathing suits too (I guess because they are continually getting soaked). I am definitely happy I tried this although I'm not in a rush to repeat since I was super sore for a couple of days afterward. I added a 10 minute oil massage at the end which was actually my favourite part. There were containers for tips on the way out and I noticed that the women only had one container, while the male attendants had a general container, plus individual ones for the masseurs with their pictures on them so that you could tip the male masseur specifically. Hmm...inequality.
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| The scene in the male section. (Courtesy Google Images.) |
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| Getting comfy in the cave hotel |
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| Clay pot meals are big here...they actually crack the clay pot open to serve it to you since the meal is baked in this. |
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| View of Goreme...you can make out some of the caves in the background. |
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| Cave house |
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| Anyone else nervous? I was but actually more nervous about having to pee up there than the actual ride. I don't always have my priorities straight. |
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| Balloon capital |
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| Relaxing a bit |
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| Sunrise |
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| The land of Giants -- our hike through the Rose and Red Valleys. You can find lots of cave house remnants here, along with old churches. This was one of my favourite days so far out of all of our travelling because it is such a unique place. |
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| What's inside this little cave? |
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| A full-scale cathedral! |
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| Even I have to duck! |
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| Nice nut stand on the hiking trail...what a great idea. He scooped some into a bag for us since it's done by weight. |
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| I actually caught Mike looking up cave houses for sale on the computer after seeing this...ahem, this would really be a fixer upper. |
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| Notice the little pigeon caves...the caves were closed off to provide shelter for pigeons (their poop helps fertilize the crops). They still serve their purpose today. |
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| Thought we'd try some exploration this way |
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| Cultural show... this is the belly dancer. |
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| Sheep are always trying to cross the road! |
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| Derinkuyu underground city - this place was surreal. They think it dates back to the 8-7 century BC although some scholars think even earlier and it could have potentially held 20,000 people. It has been used throughout history. It has 18 stories, although not all have been opened for visitors. |
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| One of the towers that I was talking about (see the megaphones on the sides). |
