Cappadocia

Well this travel experience just keeps continuing to enrich our lives. After an all night bus ride from Istanbul we now find ourselves in Cappadocia. We initially wanted to come by train but unlike mainland Europe, the trains here stop in every station along the way and the time commitment would have been too huge. The bus turned out to be fine, but I must admit I (Ronato) personally find it hard to sleep on a bus. The kids were fine though and slept for most of the journey.

The time in the journey when it was not dark revealed some stunning landscapes and we were left with the feeling that we could be here for a much longer stretch of time. In the short time we had on the bus, the countryside boasted vast expanses of open land with beautiful rolling grasslands, large lakes, snowy mountains and amazing looking arid zones. Given the size of the country we can only imagine how much more varied Turkey must be. Then we arrived in this lovely place. It is very much like we would have expected the Middle East to look -- ancient buildings set in a stunning badlands type of landscape; a place where people have been living off the land for thousands of years. Kai and Pippin were initially quite dumbstruck by the wild homes cut into the sandstone mountains, especially because many of them are still inhabited by the local population. Even better to them was that our own accommodations are set in one of these crazy sandstone rocks. Here is Skye and Ian in our room when we first arrived, some what blurry-eyed after a long night on the bus.
This next image shows the view down into the town of Goreme where we are staying. The outlook is from our hotel. Notice all the clothes - it was actually very cool on first arrival. Not what we expected of Turkey at all. The cool weather has not in the least damped our spirits though - it is just too beautiful to not be loving this place. The other great thing is that the living quarters all have fire places and water radiators making them very cozy inside.
This is our breakfast nook overlooking the valley. A very respectable way to start the day soaking in the rays of sunshine.
There are very much two generations represented in this town and valley. There is the older "traditional" farming generation and then there is the newer bohemian set that have come here (or grown up here) and opened cool hotels, restaurants and businesses to cater to the tourists. All the development has been very much in keeping with the style of old Goreme and it is hard to distinguish the old housing from the new thanks to the use of the same building materials. There are many stunning characterful people doing their day to day chores, but I have to be very subtle in my photo taking. This women is cleaning pumpkin/squash seeds after they have been dried.
Here is one of the local women sweeping the walkways between the rooms at our accommodations. I love the organic ways in which the walls are integrated with the landscape.
This morning we went on a lovely walk through the valley to take in some of the views. Here is his highness, Ian soaking up the sun with a little kitty on his back.
Being springtime, the whole landscape is filled with gorgeous scented wild flowers. It is so nice to be here at this time of year. The fall would also be amazing with all the food being harvested!
Many of the local houses and accomodations have these amazing verandahs looking over the town. This one really struck our fancy, so we snuck in to take a closer look.
Despite every attempt to buy nothing and be frugal, Ian insisted that we look at some more of the local ware. We came a way with a beautiful camel bag of Kurdish origin that will make a beautiful pillow. I am sure when we are home it will make for a lovely memory. Pippin was here sitting while we looked at all the different bags from different areas in the Middle East.
The next image shows one of the typical homes here with the sunny terrace and the lovely arched areas below that were once most likely stables for animals. We could keep showing you tonnes of photographs because of all the beauty but will end off here soon. Time to go kick back with my book and take in the late afternoon views of the valley.
We will leave you with some more spring flowers to enjoy.
Until next time

Skye, Ronato, Kai and Pippin