Making Each Day Count

Day 2 of our short but memorable trip to Cappadocia, Turkiye started off early. We braced ourselves for a long day with watching the ballons at sunrise, and embarking our private tour after breakfast. I’ve seen videos and posts about the ballons so I knew it was going to be spectacular. As for our private tour, we found our guide from AirBnB Experiences. He was highly rated and we had been communicating beforehand for our customised trip.

We woke to the sound of our alarms set at 5 o’clock in the morning. While I am the type of person who snoozes setting multiple alarms because I have a hard time getting up, this day was different because we were quite excited to see the ballons with our own eyes.

Cameras, GoPro, and a thin jacket in tow we left our cave room and headed up to a strategic viewpoint on the hotel’s terrace. The balloons’ lights sparkled down the valley below, as the sky was starting to light up as well. We held our breath as the first couple of balloons soared. The air was cool and a few birds were chirping as they were up and about. The scene before us – the valley and the balloons, the birds and the sunrise – was absolutely dramatic and fascinating. D and I quietly took it all in, thankful for having the chance to go to Cappadocia for this spectacular experience.

A couple of hours later we had our breakfast at the hotel. It consisted of cheese, omelette, dried fruit and nuts, freshly baked bread, and the variety of spreads and dips that came with them. Two words describe our breakfast: absolutely delicious. We are usually light breakfast eaters but we could not resist this feast.

At 10 o’clock our guide Mehmet, met us at the hotel lobby. The tour he customised for us had a mix of the popular Red and Green tours of Cappadocia. En route to our first stop we had a quick pause at the base of the hill where Uchisar Castle sits. It has several caves and burrows and Mehmet said that the hike down from the castle to that location would take a lot of stamina and skill to do so, and that only the locals knew the path.

To get to our first destination, the Kaymakli Underground City, we drove for about 30 minutes from Uchisar. It was an interesting place: the air inside was cool, and I was amazed by its natural venting system. It gave us insight on how life was centuries ago. There were a few tight spaces and D and I had to bend low so as not to bump our heads. I liked that place even though there were a couple of times I mustered up my courage to descend some tight spaces.

Our next destination was the Goreme Open Air Museum. En route to it we passed by the more touristy area of Goreme. I saw the big difference of the area with ours at Uchisar. Initially I booked a hotel at Goreme’s center, and decided to switch to Uchisar as I read reviews of the sunrise views from our hotel’s location. Before heading out to the Goreme Open Air Museum, I reapplied my sunscreen and put on my wide brimmed hat. It was already quite hot so we scurried for the few shaded areas we could find. We had multiple stops under the trees and inside the caves as we learned more about the historical background of the place, appreciated the paintings inside the chapels, or the landscape before us.

The trip to the Goreme Open Air Museum was educational, albeit tiring due to the sun’s heat. The next order of business was lunch, and we drove to Avanos to a doner restaurant. At lunch, after our doners, Mehmet introduced a popular yogurt drink to us and we liked it.

After lunch we went to an optional tour – a pottery workshop. We watched artists create and paint different pottery. Amazing how they molded a vase in less than five minutes. During the hands on activity D happily tried it out. For a first timer his work came out nice.

After the pottery workshop, we drove to various locations to view the Love Valley, Red Valley, Zelve Open Air Museum, Three Beauties, and the Devrent Valley.

On our way to The Three Beauties, Mehmet set the scene with a folklore. His story goes like this: in ancient times, there was a princess who fell in love with a shepherd. The princess’ father, the king, was vehemently against this. The princess ran off with the shepherd and in time they had a child. Thinking that the king would soften his heart seeing his grandchild, the family visited him. Sadly the king remained adamant and ordered his soldiers to seize the family resulting to them running off towards the wilderness. When the soldiers caught up with them, the pricess prayed that she and her family would stay together forever. The gods heeded and the three chimney fairies were formed, shaped like a family. The mother had the child seemingly protected behind her, and the father was next to them.

The Devrent Valley, also known as Imagination Valley, is known for the uniquely shaped rock formations. It is up to the viewer’s imagination on what they make out of these rocks’ shapes. We saw one that looked like a camel, and another one that looked like a seal.

We did not go in the Zelve Open Air Museum and just had a few minutes to gaze at it and take some photos. I read good reviews about this place so maybe if we get a chance to ever visit Cappadocia again, we shall check it out.

Our last stop was at a vantage point to view the second biggest castle in Cappadocia second to the Uchisar Castle, the Ortahisar Castle. Mehmet said for the last couple of years Ortahisar was closed off as it needed to be reinforced. We enjoyed a cup of Turkish coffee and a pastry while we gazed at it, and thanked Mehmet for a fantastic tour.