Cappadocia, Pamukkale and Ephesus

For the rest of the photos from this segment, follow this link:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5942301521058107937

In between our days in Istanbul, we flew out to spend a few days among the rock pinnacles of Cappadocia. I had high expectations for Cappadocia, especially after seeing pictures of hot air balloons drifting over strange rock formations.

Well, Cappadocia lived up to the hype. We did experience a sunrise hot air balloon ride, but Cappadocia had so much more to offer. For many centuries settlers (including early Christian religious refugees) have lived in cave dwellings carved out of the soft rocks. A lot of these are still intact and open for visitors to explore. The Byzantine Christian settlers also left remnants of many temples, some with well preserved wall paintings. There are also enormous underground cities left from this time. Some cities extended more than five stories underground, and were capable of housing thousands of residents for extended periods of time. In addition to all that, the region also offers countless walking trails through its valleys, each with different styles of rock formations and landscape.

We went for a walk in Rose Valley and found many abandoned houses. 

Dave and I at the viewpoint in Goreme

Sunrise hot air ballon ride. There were hundreds of ballons up at the same time!

Hot air balloons are huge! It took a whole team of professionals to get one up and running. The basket for this balloon fit about a dozen people. 

We also had our best meal in Turkey in Goreme, the town where we stayed in Cappadocia. An elderly woman made fresh turkish bread right in front of us in an outdoor oven. It was one of the most delicious breads I’ve ever had in my life - warm, chewy, soft, airy...all at the same time. It went perfectly with the hummus and eggplant salad that we ordered. My entree, eggplant with minced pork, was so simple but so tasty. We ate on gorgeous patio with eye-popping views of the Goreme valley.

Yummm...eggplant with minced pork. 

Then in two quick days, we saw two of the highlights of our trip - the white travertine pools of Pamukkale and the ancient ruins of Ephesus. Pamukkale, which literally means cotton castle,  is famous for its white terraced pools filled with hot spring water. Many tourists walk through them bare-footed, and some choose to bath in them. The pools were magical on the warm, sunny day that we were there, especially with the valleys and surrounding mountains in the background. There isn't too much else to do in Pamukkale though, so half a day there is about enough.

Tourists are allowed to walk through the cascade of pools, so I had to do it twice :) It takes about 40 minutes to walk its entire length. 

This gives you a sense of how large the terraces are!

Ephesus is the largest collection ancient Roman ruins in the world, even though it’s only about 15% excavated! Walking down the main street, you can really get a sense of how the city was laid out. It had everything from public baths, town halls, and theaters, to a central district where the upper class lived. The highlight for me was the recently excavated residential area, called the Terrace Houses. You can clearly see the various rooms of each house, and, in many places, decorative details on the floors and walls. These houses were nice! They had large rooms, tall ceilings, and beautiful artwork.

The main street of Ephesus

Initially I was worried about doing Cappadocia, Pamukkale, and Ephesus in five days, but we saw everything we wanted to see and didn't feel rushed at all. It did involve an early morning flight, an overnight bus, and a late night flight. I’m so glad we did it! And because we have a lot of bags with us on this trip, we choose to leave our extra bags at our hotel in Istanbul, and went back for them at the end of our trip in Turkey.