Türkiye: Ballooning through Cappadocia

Nikita, once again! Cappadocia was our last stop in Turkey, and then we are making our way back to Europe to Greece. Turkey has been an interesting bonus country we had to include to stretch out our visa, and while we're glad we did it, we're also glad to be moving on. Three weeks is a long time to dedicate to a country, and like Chester mentioned in his last post, it felt like we were filling time for a much busier September that we're excited to share more on soon. The last time I was in Turkey was for a extended layover in Istanbul before heading to India for wedding shopping. The airport was heavily advertising the rest of the country, and I was curious about what it had to offer. Two years later I was able to itch that curiosity, and our last stop in Cappadocia was definitely my favorite.

Initially, when we were sketching out Turkey, we were going to stay in the western part of Turkey. We had grown comfortable with trains, cars, and buses and honestly forgot we could go somewhere easily by plane. I floated the idea of getting out of western Turkey to Cappadocia since we didn't really know what else to do, and we didn't have a desire to return to Istanbul again in this trip. Chester was skeptical, based on all the social media hype surrounding the region, but I pushed on, and he reluctantly agreed. Fast forward to our 4 days in the region, and he proclaimed that it was in his top 3 favorite places of Turkey. Huge win in my book!

Let's be real, I found about Cappadocia like most people had, through Instagram. I was in my early 20s and was following a lot of travel accounts with wide eyes at the possibilities the world could offer now that I was earning big girl money. The hot air balloons over the desert landscape were breathtaking, and I knew it would be a dream if I could make it out there. But middle of Turkey seemed so far way at the time, and I just left it in the back of my head as a pipe dream. If only 22-year old Nikita could see me now at 31 achieving that dream I never thought was possible for myself. I made it! And it was everything I could have wanted and more.

We arrived in the town of Göerme Wednesday evening, and I was on a mission to book a hot air ballon ride. We had gone back and forth on whether we wanted to do it, but we had a couple friends share their experience and insisted that it was 100% worth it. When in Rome, right? Advice we had received is to wait until we got there in person to book, as prices online were a lot more expensive. While not affordable, we did find that the prices were about 50% cheaper in person. Now, Chester and I have had bad luck with hot air balloons in the past, as we had to try four different times before we were able to do it. In my mind, I didn't want to lose our chance in Cappadocia due to weather conditions and wanted to try from the first morning on. The stat they gave us is that they run 200 days out of the year. Luckily, we got on and managed to get into the air the next day! It was magical. 

We were picked up by a white shuttle at 5 AM to make it to our launch spot. It's pretty hysterical how at that time the streets are filled with these vans picking up hundreds of people for their balloon ride. It seems that everyone was up. Making it to the launch spot as the sky was starting to lighten, we could see many balloons preparing for takeoff. We hopped into ours around 5:45 AM right before sunrise, and we were on our way. It was a gentle lift into the air, and next thing we knew we were 100 feet off the ground. All in all it was a serene, peaceful experience. We were sharing the sky with 100 other balloons all navigating and dancing in the sky like a performance. We traveled over the major valleys in the region like Love Valley and Red Valley and saw the sun peer out over the plateau in the distance. We could see a few major proposals on the ridge too. My camera is filled with balloon pictures, as I was exclaiming how beautiful it all was. That desert glow is something else, and we haven't experienced anything like that on this trip. It reminded us of the American Southwest. We landed after an hour in the sky with some celebratory sparkling juice and a certificate of completion. We came back to our hotel for some breakfast and then crashed for few hours.

I'm giddy, and Chester is waking up haha

Before sunrise

Right after sunrise

Sheer number of balloons in the sky

Certificate of completion

While the balloons were what I was the most excited about, the region has a lot of history and interesting landmarks. There had been 10 different civilizations living here with the Byzantines, Romans, Ottomans, and Persians as examples that influenced the region. What makes this area particularly unique is the soft volcanic rock in which homes and churches were carved into. With that being said, there were some of the earliest practices of Christianity within rock cut churches and monasteries. We went to the Göerme Open Air Museum to see some of these churches. The frescos are incredibly well preserved, and we learned that the greater community supported the monks who chose to live here. Frustratingly and one of our gripes with tourism in Turkey is that the most famous church, the Dark Church, was an additional 6€ per person on top of a hefty 30€ per person entry fee. We opted out, since we've felt burned with the heavy fees in a lot of the sites we had already been to. 

Churches

Fresco in one of the churches

Golden hour hitting one of the churches

On our second full day, we did what was known as the Green Tour. With Cappadocia being a more remote area, there's not a lot of ways to get around without a car. The tour would get us out of the town to visit the underground city of Derinkuyu, which was a multilevel city that was used in times of attack. The city could hold 20,000 people and had 8 floors. We were able to explore 4 levels and saw that it was pretty sophisticated for being almost 3000 years old. There was a church, two vineyards, food storage, and a kitchen area built in. You can't be locked in an underground city without man's greatest drink, wine. 

Looking over the valley

Model representation of the underground city

What one of the rooms looked like

On the third day, we woke up again right at sunrise at 6 AM to do a fun hike through Love Valley which is notably known for their fairy chimneys (phallic rocks). We used this early start time not only to beat the heat but also to see the balloons from the ground. We literally walked out of our hotel to see them in the sky. That view will never get old. Our hike through Love Valley was filled with deep dust and steep slopes up and down the chimneys that proved to be more challenging than I expected. I slip and slide on normal hikes, so I was particularly anxious about hurting myself here. In addition, what we have noticed and appreciated is that the U.S. has a robust parks program that does a lot of work to maintain trails. Shout out to the Parks Service! We haven't found that robustness in some of the places we have hiked in. The only place that beats that is Switzerland. Our 7 mile hike was rewarded with a huge breakfast, a swim in our hotel's pool, and Indian food for dinner (thanks Saumya for the recommendation!).

Fairy chimneys

More fairy chimneys with a rogue balloon

Finding some hidey-holes along the way

Our final morning we went to Uçhisar Castle, the highest point in the region. We were able to see the whole region from the top and spent some time exploring the cave rooms. It's incredible how many of the "buildings" in Cappadocia are just carved from volcanic stone. It also shows the longevity and durability of theses buildings as a lot of them can be traced back to the Byzantine era. Our time in Cappadocia ended on a high note, literally. We were ready to wrap up Turkey with one final doner kebab (no pun intended) and make our way to Greece, a destination we've been dreaming of!

Uçhisar Castle

View from one of the rooms in the castle