Quality Time in Cappadocia: Part 1

Joe and I awoke bright and early to finish cleaning (well- I finished cleaning, but I am more particular to the return to a clean house than he is), finished the remnants of the fridge, got ourselves organized and headed to the bus station.  We arrived with a half an hour to spare, stowed our bags on the bus and went for a walk to wait.  Luckily Mom had brought me some crossword puzzles from home and they helped kill the time quite nicely (more than once this trip).  The first couple hours of the journey were lovely, although the last few dragged a bit, but all in all we made it to Kayseri (our first stop) in good time, and called Jason- as he had the token phone for the journey- to inform them we were approaching our final bus leg.  After asking three different people where to catch a bus to Goreme- and being sent in three different directions- we finally managed to find a mini-bus to Urgup (close to Goreme) that was leaving in ten minutes, so we hopped on. This bus wasn’t nearly as pleasant, but we made it in good spirits, and after a couple of quick calls, located Emily and Jason (who were picking us up in the rental car to take us to the house in Avanos), picked up some beer and headed to the house to meet up with the rest of the clan. 

The walk to the Open Air Museum

The accommodation Mom and Emily had picked far exceeded my expectations.  It was in a fantastic location, spacious and rustic with a very authentic Cappadocian feeling to it.  We drank beer and played a couple games before heading out to dinner at a lovely local restaurant, followed by grocery shopping for breakfast the next morning and an early-ish night.

I surprised myself by being the first person out of bed, so I tidied the beer bottles and put the kettle on for coffee as the rest of the family slowly roused.  I cooked eggs for everyone as we got ready in shifts (the frying pan couldn’t accommodate everyone at once) and we shuttled our way out the door in shifts, courtesy of Jason and our handy Ford Fiesta.  Jason drove in group the fifteen minutes to Goreme, and when we all arrived, we walked the winding road about a kilometre to get to the Open Air Museum.  We paid 20TL to get in and wandered around the beautiful cave houses and churches (some still with skeletons in them) in the blustering winds, posing for many a  photo. 

Once we had finished, we headed to the fairy chimneys and open fields across the way and spent a lovely hour frolicking through the fields and up the chimneys.  In some ways it was more fun than the actual museum, as we were the only ones there, and I can easily see how just walking through the chimneys could take up your whole vacation.

By this time, however, the winds were really zipping along, and the cold was setting in, so we decided to head back into the town to find lunch.  The ambiance was so-so, the service not so good, but the price was right and the food was good, but still cold, we headed for a coffee shop and a little perusing of the tourist stalls before heading out.  We left in shifts again, and headed for more fairy chimneys on the way back to Avanos, with an hour or so spent climbing rock stacks and taking more photos.  We spent the evening in with games and food and beer, and in anticipation of our early balloon ride the next morning, we went to bed early.