Cappadocia Day 2

Today was another terrific day. It had a good start though - a balloon ride! I didn't think I would do it - it's really expensive and I've already seen a lot of Cappadocia (and I cried on a Ferris wheel not even 3 years ago...) but after talking to a lot of people yesterday, they all gushed about it and said it was totally worth it. And it absolutely was. It was incredible - the light was perfect, the ride was smooth, the scenery was absolutely amazing. The balloons are HUGE and there is a basket with 5 compartments - one for the pilot and his instruments, and 4 others that can hold 4 people each, standing. The first 10 minutes I was like a statue as far away from the edge as possible, but I got more comfortable and by the end I was even able to lean over the edge. If you go to Cappadocia (which you really ought to do), you have to do this!



Look how big it is! And it isn't even fully inflated!



There were so many! It was such a beautiful sight!



We could get down into the valleys and look at where people used to live in the rocks as well as places for pigeons to live (to gather poop for fertilizer and maybe some eggs).









We got up pretty high!

We were in the air from about 6:30 to 7:30. I went back to the hotel, showered, ate some breakfast, and then the real tour started. Again, some of these photos might look familiar if you followed my other blog two years ago, but it certainly wasn't boring to go again. Today was also a gorgeous day - jeans and a 3/4 length shirt and definitely sunglasses.



We spent the morning looking at crazy geological formations, due to volcanic eruptions. I wish I could give you more of the details of how it happened, but it just did. I think it happened 2 million years ago? They call these rock formations "fairy chimneys". This is at the Devrent Imagination Valley.



Any guesses of what animal this looks like?





Next we went to the Zelve open air museum, which has more rocks that have been carved out to be homes and churches. I was shocked to hear a few people actually lived in these until 1952 until lack of water resources forced them to move out. These places are so amazing and old and must have taken so much work to carve out. This place is really fun to tromp around, lots of little paths and places to peek into.

After that it was to Pasabaglari for more examples of fairy chimneys, only really big (and even more phallic looking). People also lived in these and the entrances were carved into the back of the rocks (like facing the cliff) so that invaders would have a hard time seeing where the inhabitants were. Invasions and wars were frequent and much of Cappadocia is devoted to protecting themselves - underground cities, hidden entrances to the carved out rocks, churches and homes up so high it is nearly impossible to invade. It really is a ridiculous and weird place, it's so hard to describe and my pictures can't really do it justice. You'll just have to go visit! Here are some pictures from Pasabaglari:









A fresco in the church that you have to climb up the ladder to get to.

In the afternoon we did more of looking in carved out places. The Goreme Open Air Museum, which was a monastery during the Byzantine time, is also pretty impressive because the churches that were carved out were so well preserved.





This was actually the women's dormitory. Rumor has it there was a tunnel connecting it to the men's dormitory.





Inside of one of the churches the frescoes have been preserved unbelievably well. But, sometime (since Muslims have been living here), the eyes of the figures on the wall were scratched out because Muslims don't believe in the depiction of human beings in sacred places.



Pretty pretty.