We were awoken by the sound of the burner needed to keep a hot air balloon flying!! I dressed and went out on the balcony and there were dozens and more hot air balloons above Goreme/Cappadocia. The view of them has me thinking, or rethinking, taking a ride in one. It will be early and it will be cold. TBD.
We had some in-room aeropress/Turkish coffee as we waited for breakfast to start at 800. Once there, the spread was remarkable. Cereals, many dried fruits, fresh fruits, French toast, hard boiled eggs (omelets/fried to order), jams, jellies, honey, honey in honeycomb, many cheeses, breads, sliced meats, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and more. It’s so easy to eat too much.
We sorted ourselves and our stuff for a walk to the Goreme Open Air Museum. It was more than imagined. Primarily a number of churches built into the caves but given they are2000+ years old, and several have fairly intact and exceedingly colorful frescoes, no wonder it’s a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s amazing.
We spent more than an hour wandering in and out of the caves before stopping for a rest and fresh squeezed pomegranate juice. It’s delicious and surprisingly not as sour as you might expect. I’m guessing there are 3-4 pomegranates squeezed for each cup of juice. And for $4, not bad.
We headed back towards town with the hope of finding a trail to the top of the high ridge we’d sign from the hotel. Nothing’s very clear and we wandered along hoping for some sign. Just to make sure we didn’t miss anything we took a left at the “Tourist” hotel and were lucky to find what looked to be a trail as it had pole mounted lights. We followed it up a bit, and past a corral of horses that seemed to be part of the hotel’s offerings. (lots of opportunities to rent a horse here).
As we continued upward we saw what looked to be a way up to the top of the ridge that we now knew to be where we wanted to be. It was just quite substantially steeply above us! We pondered a possible climb up location when a voice called to us. The young man’s voice in fairly good English said the route we were looking at was very hard. “more hard” than it needed to be. He would show us a better route. Just 50 yards along we saw the better route up. It was a bit steep and a bit of a scramble but we were soon up on the high ridge with unbelievable views in all directions. We could barely make out the hotel though we had clearly seen the ridge and people on top from our hotel balcony.
We walked along the top of the ridge which was very narrow until we found a place to rest and enjoy the views in all directions. It felt like one of the highest points around. We than found the road down and wandered into town to get some more water. We found a good little market!! A 5L bottle of spring water was 3tL or $1. We also found a little tonic and juice to go with our vodka and Cuban rum. I figured out how to pop the top on the tonic bottle with a carabiner!! Thought that was clever….
It’s still early today, so off to find a restaurant for dinner shortly. Hoping to find basic, local fare. Last night’s dinner was really yummy but we think was not the sort of place the locals enjoy; it’s clearly more upscale and for the tourist set.
We may head out in the car tomorrow to look for an underground city. Or possibly, as recommended, go to one of these: http://www.goreme.com/caravanserais.php
Otherwise we’ll pick one of the several valleys that ring the area and go out for a long hike. I may schedule a balloon ride, not sure yet.
