Goreme (Cappadocia) and Antalya, Turkey, Stops 32 and 33

Sept 25

Our flight is a quick hop from Istanbul to Kayseri and then we have a bit of a drive to the town we are staying in, Goreme.

***Dmitri: Kayseri is a sprawling landscape of isolated apartment towers. It looks like a planned community, but one planned by a kid with a giant LEGO board and only one design. It's deeply weird, and although part of me wants to jump in with some analysis of urban design and its impact on culture and social mobility, I'm going to STFU because we're just catching a bus out of here and heading somewhere fun and exotic, which Kayseri definitely is not!***

At first glance, I think this area looks a lot like Joshua Tree without the Joshua trees. We are SO excited to be in Cappadocia. Mia has been looking forward to the hot air balloons for the better part of a year. And Dmitri has been wanting to come for the better part of three decades.

***Dmitri: I've been stoked to come here ever since reading about Romans invading the area in Colleen McCullough's Master's of Rome series. (Highly recommended, it's a great read of sex, war, politics and intrigue and is the most fun possible way to learn about the ancient world). I imagine legions trooping across this weird and alien landscape, and can in some ways relate. This place just does not look like anything else I've seen before. As we learn from guides, this is all volcanic ash and rock, which isn't that unusual. What is unusual is that the wind and water has eroded that ash and rock so that it leaves curved indentations in the lower levels where the material is often softer. When that happens all around the material, you get the funky towers that eventually appear.

That same soft rock has lead to the locals digging out caves and tunnels over time. Nearly every hotel in Goreme is a "cave" hotel, and most are from older repurposed spaces. Ours, for example, used to have a stables, granary, etc., that were later outfitted with plumbing and electricity. The result is that the entire town has an above-ground aspect you'll see in the photos, with lots of fun shapes, etc., as well as a honeycomb of below-ground spaces, passageways, caves, etc. It's so cool.***

We are putting a whole lot of pressure on Cappadocia and, spoiler alert, it does not disappoint. Cappadocia is fantastic. We love it here and definitely could have stayed longer. But back to Goreme. We are SO excited to be staying in a cave hotel. We are staying at the Aydinli Cave Hotel and it is amazing.

It's this funny, quirky little boutique hotel built into the hill. They show us the terrace and it's perfect for watching the balloons in the morning. They have a tunnel running under the street to a restaurant called Turkish Ravioli.

For the tunnel alone, I would have stayed at this hotel!! We are here for five nights and so we settle in and unpack a bit. Our room is huge and the kids each have their own little cozy nooks.

We decide to venture through the tunnel and have dinner at Turkish Ravioli and it is DELISH! I have never heard of Turkish ravioli.

Who knew it was a thing! But it is SO good. After dinner, we head to bed early since we are being picked up at 5:30 am for our balloon ride.

Sept 26

We wake in the dark and fumble around as we get ready to go on our balloon ride. Our hotel has booked us with Turquaz Balloons and the van is picking us up at 5:30 am. They take us to a check-in desk and feed us breakfast before driving us out to the balloon. The very windy road takes forever and ever. We pass many areas with many other balloons launching and we are getting very antsy to get up in the air. Finally we get to our launch site! We meet our pilot, Vural, and climb aboard. We have booked the balloon flight for the first morning we are in Cappadocia. This is a highlight of our trip so we want to make sure that if there is too much wind, we have plenty of back up days. Vural tells us that in the past 9 days the balloons have only gone up 3 times. Many people extended their stays in Cappadocia and still weren't able to go up! We are feeling lucky. We are also feeling lucky with Vural and the company--it seems the reason we had a longer drive out to the balloon launch is so that we can stay up longer and spend more time covering more areas than the balloons that went up closer to town. Score! Vural makes the flight so fun. He laughs and jokes and takes us down into valleys and as high as 500 meters. GULP. We prefer being quite a bit lower. Mia gets some amazing video so look for that in her vlog! It's all perfect. The sun coming up, the fairy chimneys we see, the town below. It's an amazing experience.

While waiting to head out to the balloons, Jack makes a friend.

***Dmitri: There are about 150 balloons going up every morning, so the skies become a big part of the scenery to complement the fantastical landscape below. It'd hard to find a bad place to look.***

***Jack-- Being scared of heights this was very nerve racking, but the view was amazing.***

Thumbs up for a safe landing!

After the balloon ride we head back to to the hotel for second breakfast. It's 9 am and we have already had a half day of activity! We climb back to bed and nap until lunchtime. We wake around lunchtime and head off to a Chinese restaurant and then walk around the small town. It's very walkable and cute. We get pomegranate juice that is squeezed right in front of us. Sooooooo delicious. Over the next few days, Mia and I become quite obsessed with it and pretty much visit this one guy's juice stand every day. Dmitri and Jack do the same with the local Turkish ice cream, dondurma.

***Jack--This may have been one of the best ice creams I've ever had.***

***Dmitri: it's sticky and thick, being made out of orchid stalks or something. Whatever, it's so thick that they do the Blizzard test and hold it upside down for show a lot. It's basically chewy when you eat it, yet it tastes like ice cream. Fantastic stuff.***

Sept 27

We are sad to say that the call to prayer has followed us to Cappadocia. I am up early anyway, to see the balloons from the terrace of our hotel. And it's just amazing. Just as good as being up in the balloons. I wake early every morning we are in Cappadocia to see the balloons and it never gets old. The balloons are so close that from our cozy cave room we can hear the blasts of fire.

This picture is from our hotel's roof terrace, and you can see everyone at all of the dozens of other hotels enjoying the same views.

In Cappadocia, there are 3 main tours around the area--the Red, Blue, and Green tours. We have opted for the Green Tour and off we go. The first stop is Panoramic Point--they call it that--and it's beautiful. We have been seeing lots of people gathered there in the morning to watch the balloons and we can see why it's a perfect spot. Our next stop is Pigeon Valley and from the chattering of the birds, we can see why it's called that.

It turns out there are houses in the rocks especially for the pigeons, as they are very important to the region, first for delivering messages hundreds of years ago and more recently as their poop is a very valuable fertilizer for the soil and local crops. We have an obligatory stop at a jewelry place but we don't buy anything. I see a GORGEOUS blue opal but it's not local--it's from Australia--and it's too expensive anyway.

Next up is the underground city and omg is it SO cool! There are tunnels and rooms all over Cappadocia that have been found and there are a few underground cities. We visit Kaymakli. Dmitri's knees and back take a beating going up and down and all around narrow tunnels.

***Dmitri: The caves in the underground city were used to hide Christians fleeing from Roman persecution. They had elaborate entire cities down there, and apparently they were all four feet tall. This is a little bit like the Cu-Chi tunnels in Vietnam, but larger and actually much easier to get through. These cities have water systems, defensive systems, storage, mills, and all kinds of stuff.***

This is a rolling stone doorway to trap invaders inside passages.***

Next, we are on to the Ihlara Valley and a lovely walk. We walk along and think that we could just as easily be walking along in Colorado--that's what the terrain is like. We walk about a km or so and find ourselves at this little cafe on the river. It's just lovely. We stop and have pomegranate juice. Then it's on again another km or so and stop again for lunch.

***Dmitri: This rest stop has these platforms you see for relaxing and eating. They are over a stream that's maybe 2 feet deep, with little bridges and ducks quacking about. I think this would be a huge hit in LA! It's a gimmick that is cheap and makes a huge difference in how relaxed and happy you are while getting your food and drink.***

Our last stop is the Selime Monastery. The cave rooms are interesting and we can spot some interesting fairy chimneys here.

On the way back to town, the tour guide, Turgay announces that he needs to make a quick stop to pick up some strawberries. Well, we want in so when he stops at this little roadside stand, the tour group climbs out of the van and goes to get some too. I get 2 kilos for 30 Turkish lira--which turns out to be $3.39 US. Yummy.

***Jack--I later snacked on these strawberries for days; very good strawberries.***

Sept. 28

We are up early again to see the balloons going up. After breakfast, we wander the town and browse the shops and get some Christmas shopping done. We have lunch at a different Chinese place and get our daily pomegranate juice. Dmitri finds a little coffee shop and declares that they have the best chai latte he has ever had. The new Chinese place is also a hit. Jack says it's the best sweet and sour chicken he has ever had.

***Dmitri: Honestly, this is some of the best Chinese food I've ever had. Go figure. Well, if you ever head to Cappadocia, here's the link.***

A bit after lunch we all head to a hamam for a scrub down and massage. It's not as nice as the one in Istanbul but it's still pretty great. And it's about 1/4 of the price. Later that night we go to a whirling dervish show. The kids and Dmitri are bored but I find it kind of mesmerizing and impressive. How on earth do they not get dizzy!

***Dmitri: The music is droning, the guys chanting sound like they couldn't get better work, and the whirling is more like relaxed rotating. I guess I was hoping to see some speaking in tongues, or Cirque-level spinning or something, but this was slow and stately and I nearly fell asleep.***

Today Dmitri and I have a little adventure of our own when we visit an ATM to get cash and the machine eats our card!

We just stand there, stunned, at first, until we realize that our card is not coming back out. There is a very nice Turkish man who was waiting to deposit some cash and he offered to let us use his phone to call the bank. Dmitri calls and finds out that the nearest branch is 60 km away in Nevsahir. And the very nice man offered to drive us there an hour from now when he has to go on an errand! Lemonade out of lemons. There are good people in the world and we are grateful we crossed paths with one. In the end we didn't take him up on his kind offer.

Sept. 29

The kids and Dmitri are NOT thrilled that we are up early AGAIN. However, I want to do a hike through Love Valley and Mustafa, our guide, advised us to get an early start. He picks us up at 6:30 and he was right! We start the hike and all around us are balloons going up. It's very cold at the start of the hike.

Mustafa tells us about the forming of the valley and points out and picks lots of fruit along the way--apples, grapes, dark plums, pears, quince. In the middle of the valley we come across a little cafe with a friendly dog named Tony. We stop and have fresh juice.

***Dmitri: This is me practicing my future angry old man face. Get off my lawn!***

As one does. The hike/walk is much longer than we thought it was going to be and I get a bit stressed about Dmitri's knees, but he is hanging in there.

We go back again to our new favorite Chinese restaurant and then it's time to pack up. Goreme has been a wonderful stop. The people in the hotel are very friendly and we will miss them. I truly hope I am able some day to come back to Goreme and Aydinli Cave Hotel.

Sept 30

Another early morning for the Williams family. We eat an early breakfast and watch the balloons one final time.

We head to the airport and it's the easiest check in and security check we have been through. It's easy, it's fast. There are only 2 gates and when it's time for the planes to go you just walk out and climb the stairs up to the plane. It's not far from Kayseri to Antalya and the drive to the resort from the airport is quick as well.

All luggage at baggage claim should come out of a shark's mouth!!!!

We are staying at the Lara Barut and it's an all-inclusive resort. We are here for a week and we want some chill time before an on-the-go two weeks through Egypt and Jordan. This place is perfect for it. There are lots of restaurants on the property and you can get food and drink 24-7. There are several pools and a spa and a gym. We are right on the beach and Mia goes to check out the beach volleyball court and is pleased. The weather is gorgeous. It's the perfect place to catch up on blogs, hit the gym, get some rest, and take care of some other busywork I have been putting off. And did I mention all-inclusive? I love not pulling out my wallet or dealing with money for the next week. And best of all, there is an area on the hotel's property where a man takes care of cats. Jack is in cat heaven! You can go and pet and play with all the cats and they are so friendly and affectionate.

We have dinner at the sushi restaurant and Jack tries sushi for the first time. He usually gets tempura or teriyaki chicken when we get sushi but this time he finds he likes tuna and salmon. Score!

Oct. 1

Happy 50th birthday to Dmitri!

We have a plan for the day but it's thrown off at breakfast when we run into a group of drinking Germans singing the birthday song to a member of their group. Dmitri goes over to wish a fellow birthday boy a happy day and he never makes it back because they have him sit down and join them and then they call over Mia and me and we drink and drink and drink. Mia and I get away a little bit later, but Dmitri is there for maybe 2 hours. It's not what we had planned for the day but oh well. In the afternoon Mia plays beach volleyball, I swim, and Dmitri goes to the gym and then gets a massage. We all meet back up for dinner at this restaurant where they have made a reservation for us. It's lovely and they have a cake and a balloon and flowers on the table. There is singing and we all leave full and happy.

***Dmitri: My goal for the day was to do very little and to evade all responsibility possible. I mostly accomplish this non-goal. The wildly drinking Germans throw off my time table, but they are good company. Later on I find out that the guy who they were singing happy birthday to is just a wild extrovert and it wasn't his birthday at all. He has them do this every day as an excuse to get smashed while on vacation. Oh, well.

Anyway, it's nice to stay in a slightly upscale place for a few days in between a lot of, well, not as nice places. I'm able to use a real gym for nearly a week straight, which is great. My knees need the therapy and my waistline is taking a beating with too much good food everywhere we go.

Antalya is a big city that I had never thought about before, but it's a huge draw for Europeans and Russians. The so-so beachfront is packed with tons of resorts and the town has theme parks, water parks, and many sights. I think it's kind of a Turkish Las Vegas. The resort two slots down from us is the Titanic Barut, which is not jut a big hotel. Oh no, it's actually a giant themed nautical hotel with a main building that looks like a giant steamer ship. You can't make that up. Check it out.***

Oct. 2

I have very little to write about today, as it is a very mellow day. We eat and head to the gym and catch up on emails and some tv shows we have fallen behind on.

Oct. 3

Another mellow, catch up day. Sensing a theme here for the stop at Antalya? ;) We go full force into travel planning. Dmitri books hotel and air for the next month. We are booked through November 3rd! Score! The kids are off doing various things around the resort and Dmitri goes to the gym while I swim. We have a very amazing couples' massage and it does not suck.

Oct. 4

We had planned to go into Old Town Antalya today but are feeling lazy about leaving the hotel. Nevertheless, it ends up being a productive day. We do some more travel planning, we book PCR tests so we can get into Egypt in a few days, and we deal with some other things that pop up. We also eat and sleep in late. We are taking chilling out at this resort very seriously. And we have a lovely view. Top floor, large deck with sun bed, hot tub on the balcony. Did we mention how we love how inexpensive Turkey is?????

Oct. 5

Another beautiful day here in Antalya at the Lara Barut. Dmitri and I have work to catch up on but our balcony is the perfect place to do it. Mia has a massage today and, most likely, more beach volleyball and hanging out with various Russians and Swiss and Germans. Jack will do some academic work to keep his mind going. And we have PCR tests today. Although we all feel fine, there’s always a slight worry that one of the tests come back positive and we are prevented from traveling.

Oct. 6

Over the course of Turkey, we have bought so much that we need to find a post office to mail a box back. There is one about a mile away so Dmitri and I head there. It's another chill day. We go back for sushi one last time and enjoy the conveyer belt of it all.

***Mia-- I LOVE Antalya. I've had good days, but this was one of my best and most fun consecutive 7 days in a row. I met tons of people my age and spent pretty much all of my time running around the resort with them. My crew for the week was 1 Russian guy, 5 German guys, 1 German girl, 6 Swiss guys and 1 Swiss girl. I settled into a daily routine of sleeping in, playing beach volleyball with everyone at 11am, then off to lunch and beach lounging, back to the volleyball courts at 4pm, followed by cleaning up and getting ready for dinner. After dinner we'd all head to the Beach Bar for the night. Some nights the resort would throw themed parties (Butterfly theme, Oktoberfest, etc.) Below is a picture of me with a few of the German guys at the Butterfly theme party and their moms who joined us that night! One afternoon I went Go-Karting in Antalya with the German girl and Swiss guys, but other than that we spent most of our time at the resort on the volleyball courts. I got a minor sunglasses tan from all the time spent outside in direct sunlight. Hanging out in a beach paradise is wonderful, but even better with great company.

Oct. 7

It's time to leave Antalya. We sleep in, have one more breakfast, one more swim, one more workout, one more lunch and then we head to the airport to fly to Cairo, where we will be meeting up with a group for a tour with G Adventures.

Yikes! Glad we didn't book with this travel agency in Goreme.

***Dmitri: You know, I want to mock this image but isn't this better for your colon?***