Cappadocia: Land of underground cities

Trip Start Jun 13, 2008
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Trip End Aug 20, 2008


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Flag of Turkey  ,
Saturday, July 5, 2008

We had an early breakfast and headed out on a group tour of the Capadoccia region.  There are about 11 other members of the tour, our guide and driver.  We have many opportunities to stop and look at these crazy cone-looking formations in the area created by volcanoes millions of years ago.  You can still see the caves where people lived, as well as the pigeon homes built by the inhabitants hundreds of years ago.  (more on the pigeons later).  We also stopped at this amazing underground city, called Derinkuyu, that was used by the Christians to hide from invading Arabs starting in the 7th century.  It is several kilometers wide and 8-stories deep with extremely steep and narrow tunnels to get from one area to another.  We had a few close calls getting through these passages, especially with a backpack.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu_Underground_City
 
After Derinkuyu, we went for an hour-long hike through the Ihlara valley to our lunch spot at a floating restaurant Drinking the "purchasing serum"...
Drinking the "purchasing serum"...
 .  You can literally see fish swimming by, so I (Lauren) decide that fish on the menu must all be fresh, right?  Everyone else in the group had received some memo that the area was known for their meatballs.  Anyway, out come our meals, including my 100% whole cooked fish, eyes and all.  Surprisingly, it's easy to debone and was delicious.  Maybe it was the heat and exhaustion, but Andy and I thought it was pretty funny to debone the thing, the three very proper French girls at our table were not so amused.
 
After lunch, we head to the jewelry-making factory, conveniently outfitted for tourists.  We received an interesting spiel on how the jewels are created and then offered some tea - even though Apple tea is quite prevalent in Turkey (and really good), we're convinced it's some sort of serum to convince us to open our wallets.  Luckily, it did not work on the McElaney's and we walked away happily empty-handed. 
 
A quick stop at Pigeon Valley concludes our tour.  Pigeons are very sacred to this area because of their many uses, primarily their poop which is very good fertilizer.  In most of the cave areas you can see holes cut out everywhere as pigeon homes - prime real estate! 
 Dinner at a nice restaurant in the center of town rounds out a great day.  Matty, we even saw some sparklers on a birthday cake...you were right, they are always way more disappointing than what you would expect.
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