Day two in Cappadocia: Exploring the underground

Day two, my compatriots had decided to go dawn air ballooning. I, in a fit of romanticism, decided to save air ballooning for another day . . . thinking that it might be nice to have a few things up my sleeve to look forward to. But, nobody said I couldn't get up and watch, so at 5:15am my alarm went off, and I was off trekking up the hill to find a good location to hopefully watch my friends come over the horizon, bringing the morning sun with them. Three large stray dogs decided to accompany me, and I warily enjoyed their presence, so long as they kept their distance.  Not only did my friends arrive (I presume--it was hard to see more than large patterns on the balloons) . . . but dozens of balloons filled the sky, lit pink with early morning rays. Mount Erciyes also looked beautiful, pale purple in the distance.

After sitting on the hilltop, enjoying the dawn, I decided to go back to the fancy hotel, have a bubble bath and a nap before my friends arrived back for breakfast. This is definitely the most swanky place I've stayed in so far, and probably will stay in for many years. Cut into the hillside, it was partially cave dwelling and partially beautiful new hotel designed to match the stone of the original portions. With a massive bed, and dark wood furniture, all to myself, I felt like a princess. I even wore those ridiculous slippers you get.

After my friends returned, and we had a lovely breakfast on the terrace, we had more sightseeing to do. With only two days to pack all of this into, there was very little time to just sit, so breakfast was pretty special. And we were off, exploring a valley that had been used for raising pigeons. The pigeon houses are cut into the rock faces in massive numbers, and were raised as a source of food and fertilizer. Some roosts are still maintained, but with the rise of mass production of chemical fertilizers, many have since been abandoned. The hike was lovely, although a little hot, and with the sky an incredible blue, there were beautiful contrasts against the rock outcrops. As usual, we stopped for tea, sitting under the shade of a rock wall, on beautifully coloured cushions.

After exploring the outside, it was on to my favourite experience in Cappadocia. The underground cities. While talked about as cities, they were actually most likely used as short-term (a month?) shelters during moments of invasion, warfare, and strife. Passageways twisted and turned, and the only link to above ground were these narrow vertical shafts, aerating the vast network of tunnels. The "city" that we went to was called Kaymakli, and our guide informed us that it is probable that the Hittites first dug out caves here at about 1200BC. However, our lovely guide tended to talk in couched terms, using "in my opinion" far more often than made me comfortable. Perhaps something to read up on. There was some consensus on the main use and time period of these caves, however, being used by Christians to escape the Arab invasions in the 7th and 8th centuries.

On our tour we went down four levels of chambers and tunnels before re-emerging. There are 8 floors dug into the ground, but tourists only have access to the top four. We got to see living quarters, cooking areas, storage rooms, an air shaft, and many many passageways. Katie, Michelle, and I enjoyed being the young'uns on this tour (unusual for us these days), and may or may not have gotten into "trouble" for being slow, wandering off, giggling, and taking too many pictures. The tour was a mite frustrating at this stage, because I would have enjoyed spending much more time at this location, and felt quite rushed and constrained by the group. Recommendation: do this tour on your own, or with a private tour guide who can give you the personalized experience you wish for.

As usual, on the way out of a tour, they lead you past the shops. One last opportunity to buy scarfs or jewellery or carvings or those ever-present Turkish Evil Eyes (they call them this, but they're really to ward off evil spirits, however they kind of creep me out). There was even an Evil Eye tree.

One last look out over the city, and we were finished with our tour and off to the airport.

And then we were on the plane, whirlwind over. Back to France for me, and on to the States for my friends. What a great trip. Thanks, Katie and Michelle (and Steve!).

ps. Skaar, have you emailed that hot air balloon guide yet? :)

Exploring Cappadocia with former residents of 806C.

After Mandy and Figo's lovely wedding, I joined Katie and Michelle in a two-day adventure exploring Cappadocia. The three of us are a good trio . . . at some time each of us lived in 806c in Eastern Market in DC, and they both went to High School with Mandy in Minnesota. Michelle's dad runs a travel agency, so suffice to say we got a great deal on a tour (thanks, Steve!). My first legitimate tour on this trip, it was nice to leave all of the sticky details in another's hands.

On arrival, it was go go go. We got a taste of the amazing rock formations, Katie "riding the camel" and then we were off wandering around the fairy chimneys, which look more like mushrooms to me.

 We toured a pottery-making family business, and got to try our hand at throwing a pot (although highly supervised). There was even a little sing-a-long/dance party with some of the workers. I toyed with not leaving, and staying to learn the family business. They gave me their card and told me if I wanted to come back and work with them (starting as someone who coloured in others' designs), I was more than welcome. Hmmmm.

We then went off to another area cut into the hillsides with a plethora of ancient churches and dwellings. The early christian cave art was really interesting to see. Unfortunately there will be no photographs of those here, as in order to preserve the paintings, no photography was allowed.

And, leaving the tour for the night, we went and explored the city around where we were staying, climbing a hill to look out over a beautiful sunset, while sipping our cups of tea.

There also may have been a little clowning around.

Hell's bells, those are zebras.

Hell's Gate is found northwest of Kenya. It is a small National Park, with a variety of animals and landscapes. I spent a half a day there with a group on an "active" safari, meaning that we biked and walked our way through the park. On a paved surface, it would have been a beautiful ride, as it was, we struggled over gravel, chunks of obsidian left over from ancient eruptions, and fluvial outwash from a prehistoric river. The bike ride there was lovely, but the bike ride back left me wondering what the heck I am thinking (re: biking across Europe). This might be more pain than I'm interested in.

We were assured that the big cats are rarely seen in this area, which was less reassuring than you would think. Chances are my biking abilities would not save me from a hungry lion, no matter how rare.

The landscape was fairly flat, thankfully, but flanked by dramatic rock outcrops. . . red volcanic cliffs and currently inactive plugs. There were some rock climbers taking advantage of these formations. Looked like fun :)

As this was my first big foray out into Africa, I got overly excited. It's funny to look back at your photographs, and see how at first you'd take a picture of a zebra so far away that it really only looks like a spec, and then further along the road, you realize that they come close enough to nearly touch. Suffice to say, I exhausted my memory card this day, and needed to do some heavy photo editing work back at Diana's.

Throughout the bike ride we saw zebras, warthogs, Thomson's Gazelles, giraffes, and monkeys. It's so amazing to be so close to such grand animals. Charismatic megafauna, that they are. There were also some birds that were in the midst of constructing some awesome nests, remniscent of Eero Arnio's Globe Chair.

We lunched above the Hell's Gate gorge, keeping an eye out for cheeky baboons. It was a fun group of people, many working for NGO's in Kenya. Amongst us were Kenyans, an American, a couple Germans, and me.

Then, deciding we had enough energy to add it into our day's plans, we took a quick walk down into the gorge, exploring the different canyons and feeling hot spring water, and cold spring waterfalls. The signs about flash floods, and the fact that this is Kenya's rainy season was a little worrying, but the strata of the canyon walls (carved by said water) were enough to distract me from this one small fact. This gorge is the result of a prehistoric tributary that fed into a lake in the Great Rift Valley, feeding early humans and animals alike.

And finally back to the start, for a drink and a rest in the shade.