Author Topic: A Trip to Kapadokya  (Read 20740 times)

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Offline Colwyn

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« on: October 05, 2008, 13:03:50 PM »
Introduction

On our holiday in Turkey this year we celebrated Hilary's retirement. We did this by going for a month and travelling about the country. We began with a week in peaceful and beautiful Akyaka, then set off for a tour of Kapadokya where we spent 7 nights. In addition we had 1 night our journey there and and another coming back to break our journey, 3 nights in Calis, and then back to Akyaka for another 9 nights. Some of our ideas for where to stay and what to do in Kapadokya came from CBF (special thanks to Tel and Rimms), so I thought I would repay this by posting a log of our trip. Might give you ideas about what to do - or more importantly what not to do!

In preparing for the trip we found the Turkey Travel Planner website a great resource. Most of the hotels and the airballoon flight were booked before we left the UK. Because it was such a special trip for us - we had been anticipating doing it for ten years - we spent more money than we would normally on holiday. But it was well worth it. I will try to post an episode each day, spell the nameplaces with Turkish lettering (tell me if this doesn't work), and to include maps and photographs. Hope you enjoy it.



Offline pookie

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2008, 13:34:19 PM »
Great -  Look forward to it,   we are planning a trip in June, so your pictures and comments will be really useful.  Thank you :)

Offline Colwyn

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2008, 13:41:43 PM »
Kapadokya

Kapadoka is in Central Anatolia. It is bounded by the cities of Aksaray (to the west), Kirsehir (north), Kayseri (east), and Ni&gde (south). In the middle is Nevsehir and nearby are Göreme and Ürgüp.

MAP OF KAPADOKYA




The geology has been shaped by a number of volcanoes in the region with the largest being Erciyes Da&gi (3916m/12,850ft) in the east and Hasan Da&gi (3268m/10,720ft) in the west. These spewed out many layers of soft ash . Over the years this ash has been compressed into tufa. Water erosion cuts channels into the tufa and swirling winds wrap around them and convert them into peri - fairy chimneys thus producing a weird landscape and also the very fertile tufa soil. Elsewhere deep canyons cut into the landscape - a famous one being the Ihlara Canyon near Aksaray. It is an extraordinary and magical place - and has been reputed as such since Hittite times. The word Cappadocia is Persian and means Land of Beautiful Horses.

FOREGROUND - PERI IN THE MAKING
AND BEHIND THEM COMPLETED FAIRY CHIMNEYS
AND UÇHISAR ON THE HORIZON




« Last Edit: October 05, 2008, 13:45:57 PM by Colwyn »

Offline julesbob0303

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2008, 16:55:22 PM »
What a superb photo.  Look forward to reading and seeing more.   :)

Offline tel

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2008, 18:38:23 PM »
wot some credit!!!!!LOL
Really pleased that you enjoyed your trip Colwyn.
Look forward to reading more.

Offline Colwyn

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2008, 12:23:35 PM »
Day 1

Having stayed a week in Akyaka we left, on the first day of Ramazan, for our tour of Kapadokya. We set off in our little Fiat Albea heading for Egirdir as our stop on the way to - a journey of 235 miles/5 hours. In driving from Çalis I guess the journey would be slight shorter. You would probably, like us, approach Egirdir by travelling through the pleasant town of Isparta. The council here has clearly made efforts to prettify the municipality and it has worked rather well. We then travelled over mountains before descending steeply with spectacular views of Lake Egirdir.

We stayed on Yesilada (Green Island) which is now joined to the mainland by an artificial causeway. This is where all the pensions are located. The lake is large and beautiful and, when we arrived late that afernoon it was swept by gale force wind. The town of Egirdir itself is rather disappointing. Its two main features of interest are the castle and the world's only walk-through minaret. The castle turned out to have only one wall standing, and the minaret area was being renovated (or perhaps destructed, it was difficult to tell) so you couldn't walk through. The other notable feature were the old wooden houses which I guess are of Greek origin. The island itself was rather more interesting and, had we time, we could have probably enjoyed ourselves exploring rather more of it.

Our pension, which I had booked in advance via its extremely good website, was probably the poorest hotel we have ever stayed at in Turkey, even the breakfast was not up to standard. They charged us 40 Euro for the night; it was worth 10. Many of the restaurants on the island were not serving alcohol because of Ramazan, but we eventually got a drink and then found a restaurant. We arrived this close to dusk. A car pulled up and the boot was loaded with a vast quantity of take-away food and drove off. Diners started to arrive. Then the muezzin sounded from the mosque, two canons were fired, and the feasting was off. People had obviously ordered in advance and, at the first sound from the minaret, waiters started to run (quite literally) from the kitchen to the tables inside the restaurant and those across the road at the lakeside. We ate the same as everyone else - but I am sure we didn't pay the same price; it was unexpectedly expensive, we even got charged for salad. In the early hours of the morning we were woken by sounds with which we would become familiar over the next few weeks - the pre-dawn drumming to rouse folk to eat breakfast before the break of day. This drummer was of the BANG-BANG-BANG-pause, BANG-BANG-BANG-pause style which, in my view, is the most tedious of all.

YESILADA




LAKE EGIRDIR




CASTLE





MINARET





OLD HOUSE


« Last Edit: January 10, 2012, 19:00:00 PM by Colwyn »

Offline Colwyn

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2008, 16:11:55 PM »
Day 2

MAP OF DAY 2




Early next morning we were up and ready for our journey to Kapadokya (that would be 285miles/5.5 hours). The wind of the previous evening was gone and the huge lake was calm and beautiful. We began by driving northwards along the eastern side of the lake through apple orchards and lovely scenery. The favoured means of rural transport here (apart from the ubiquitous tractor and trailer) was the donkey - laden with crops, carrying a rider, or pulling a cart. We had intended to travel by what my map told me was the "panoramic route" to Yalvaç but we missed the turn-off (retrospectively we realized it was in the middle of some huge roadworks) and found ourselves unexpectedly heading into Sarki Karaa&gac. So we replanned our route and continued. This was a serendipitous choice because we saw a sight we would otherwise have missed; two large flocks of storks flying high over the hills with at least 50 birds in each. Then we cut eastwards through Hüyük on a small country road that took us over rolling hills that rose slowly until they were quite high, mountains really. We crested the top and saw below us the Central Anatolian Plain spread out below us. Swooping down the steep escarpment we came to Konya.

Konya is a city of some 1 million citizens and is an ugly urban sprawl across the flat plain. It is known as the most devout city in Turkey (so I was surprised to see women without headscarves during Ramazan) and home to the Mevlani, the Sufi Muslim sect that is famous for its Whirling Dervishes. We began to circle Konya via its ring road but were eventually diverted (due to roadworks) through backstreets, an industrial estate, and various derelict areas on a single track potholed road following the optimistic signs "Ankara". That such a route would connect a major Turkish city with its capital seemed odd - if not disgraceful. Finally we rejoined the normal highway and headed for Aksaray.

It is difficult to convey the sheer tedium of this part of the route. The Central Anatolian Plain is almost dead flat - like the Great Plains of the United States when you see then on films. The single-carriageway road is rifle-barrel straight. The plain is, apparently, a major supplier of wheat and barley in Turkey. But, by the time we were there in September, this had long since been harvested. What remained was a parched stubble in vast dusty expanses. There are no features; no trees or bushes; there are few people and fewer animals. In short there is almost nothing of interest. Passing a petrol station every 20 minutes is a major excitement. When we were there were roadworks in progress - another two-lane highway being built in parallel to the existing road. Gravel moving lorries were constantly depositing new heaps of dusty roadcovering on this side of the road travelling across from quarries or depots on the other side and throwing up huge clouds of dust through which you had to slow to a crawl to navigate. There being nothing to give perspective, no benchmark for comparison, distances were difficult to judge. The dot in front on the road might be a car 300 metres in front, or a lorry 1 kilometre away. Actually it was always a lorry that seemed to be spaced at one per kilometre all along this awful road. This - coupled with the white haziness of the sky, the whiteness of the road, the whiteness of the dust clouds, and the parched beige of the fields - made the journey across the plain a hard one. Pity we hadn't taken some CDs to help us along it. The only thing to be said in its favour is, that since few other people other than lorry drivers were travelling that way, it took only an hour and a quarter to cross with accelerator hard to the floorboards.

The end of the Anatolian Plain is marked by Aksaray. Immediately driving became easier and more pleasurable. The relentless plain was replaced by rolling hills, a road dual-carriageway road with broad sweeping curves, and even some vegetation. This improved even more on approaching Nevsehir. This city marks the eastern edge of Kapadoka and after here the landscape changed dramatically. Within minutes we began to feel the magic of the country we had entered. We drove up to the commanding heights of Uçhisar and then down the valley towards Göreme. We stopped at the ‘Panorama View' over Pigeon Valley - and were left speechless. And then down into Göreme to find our hotel.

I had selected this place very carefully on the internet before going to Turkey as we were going to stay for four nights; it was the Kelebek Pension. This little hotel is on top of a small hill in the centre of Göreme and most of the rooms are caves dug from the peri (fairy chimneys) that characterize this part of Kapadokoya. The rooms are great, breakfast/drinking/lounging terraces are great, the views are great, the breakfasts are great. Is the hotel great? You bet it is. We had booked a "Junior Suite" (= big room) at 65 Euro a night. It was right by the swimming pool.  Just marvellous. You can get a standard room for 35 Euro which, at an hotel like this, seems to me to be a bargain. We settled into the hotel with smiles on our faces. We were in Kapadoka and it was going to be ............................... well ............................ great.

KELEBEK HOTEL
(our room behind the two windows to right of rear entrance)




WELCOME TO OUR CAVE




COME INSIDE


Photograph by Kelebek Pension


Photograph by Kelebek Pension


VIEW UP PIGEON VALLEY TO UCHISAR
(from outside our room)


« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 19:16:16 PM by Colwyn »

Offline Anne

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2008, 18:38:06 PM »
It sounds wonderful Colwyn:D I'm hooked and can't wait for the next instalment.

Offline STEVErx

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2008, 19:13:15 PM »
brillent colwyn

Offline Colwyn

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A Trip to Kapadokya
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2008, 08:45:03 AM »
Hi folks
I can promise many more lovely photos on their way. Not because I am much good as a photographer but because many of the sights we saw were just so marvellous all I had to do was point and click.




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