Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a region in south central Turkey that I was originally not planning on visiting. However, while I was in Istanbul I had many locals tell me that I need to go check out Cappadocia, so after probably the 10th recommendation I booked a plane ticket there only a few hours before take off. There are a few different small towns within the region of Cappadocia and to get to any of them, you fly into a city called Kayseri and immediately I was a little thrown off upon landing. As soon as you step off the plane onto the runway of this small airport, you see an empty expanse of desert to one side, and a huge snow capped volcano looking mountain to the right and you can't help but think "where the hell am I?" After somehow finding a shuttle to the town I needed to get to 40 miles away by using hand signals and not a word of English, I was cruising through the city of Kayseri passing hundreds of buildings that all looked like identical 10 story apartment buildings built in the 1960s. I found out from trusty Google that the city actually has over 1 million inhabitants, yet the airport was smaller than the one in Bismarck, ND and furthermore, the city was just a ghost town. No one was walking around, no stores or shops open, barely any street lights, and abandoned buildings and trash everywhere. It was extremely eerie and odd.
Turkish people are some of the nicest people I have ever met in all my travels. From the restaurant waiters and hotel staff to the guy on the street, everyone is genuinely friendly and helpful (besides the police - that's a story for another day). This friendliness was particularly evident when I arrived in the town I was staying at in Cappadocia - Urgup. Although it was later than the normal office hours of the small boutique hotel I was staying in when I arrived, the owner stayed there to welcome me. After chatting for some time he asked if I was hungry and instead of taking no for an answer, he had one of the other workers go prepare a cup of tea and a whole tray of food for me.
Next, after finding out that I was unfamiliar with the town, he took me on a walk to show me around as well as teach me about the culture there. During this walk, we ran into a friend of his who immediately found three chairs to put on the sidewalk and also ordered us all cups of tea from some old guy wandering the street. We talked about anything and everything over many cups of tea for a few hours that night, and it was just great to talk to locals about life and Turkey and teach them a little bit about America. When I got back to the hotel the owner gave me a free upgraded room where his only reason for doing this was that he wanted my first trip to Urgup to be memorable. The room actually used to be a 500 year old Greek Orthodox church...definitely one of the more unique sleeping arrangements I've ever had. This kind of hospitality just doesn't really exist in the Western world and if it does, you will somehow be charged for it.
Most people have probably seen pictures of Cappadocia without even realizing it. The region is famous for its otherworldly landscape and the hundreds of hot air balloons that take off every single morning at sunrise. Photos of these balloons with this landscape are all over travel guides and Instagram so I had to see it for myself. I've sky dived in Dubai, paraglided off the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, dove with sharks in Hawaii, the list goes on, but I think that this hot air balloon ride was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. The pictures just do not it justice.
Originally I planned on heading back to Istanbul a few hours after the hot air balloon ride, but it was such an amazing experience that for the first time of my life I completely blew off my plane ticket and decided to stay there for an extra day to explore more areas of this oddly beautiful area.
As if the landscape was not Martian enough, hidden in all the natural rock formations are some of the world's earliest Christian settlements that are still preserved. Christians hiding from the Romans came to this area and carved caves into the already odd rock formations creating entire underground cities so that no traces of their settlement would be seen above ground.
I wish I had planned to spend more time in Cappadocia (and all of Turkey in general) as there was just so much to see (with so little tourists). I definitely cannot wait to get back to explore more of Cappadocia and more of that beautiful country.
