We woke up at 3 am in Kusadasi and reached our final destination of Goreme (a town of Cappadocia) around noon - after a taxi from our hotel in Kusadasi to the bus station and a bus to the Izmir airport followed by two flights, Izmir to Istanbul and Istanbul to Kayseri followed by an hour long shuttle bus from Kayseri to Goreme. We are staying in a cave hotel - yes, it's built inside a cave formation. It's an ultimately cool experience and we are loving it!
After freshening up, we went to see the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's an impressive chain of connected caves that were inhabited by early Christians of this area. There are numerous churches inside the cave range and the wall murals carved on stone in all these churches are extremely fascinating. The best preserved of them is the so-called black church because of the predominant use of black in the murals. The black church was very impressive and the highlight of the entire museum. After spending about two hours exploring this museum with the aid of an audio guide, we walked back to Goreme and had a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant. We had their local specialties and everything tasted delicious. The highlight was pottery kabab - kabab baked inside a clay pot and then the pot broken in front of us at the table to reveal the food - and it tasted divine.
After that we walked back to our hotel and will go to sleep early tonight since we have to wake up at 4:30 am. Tomorrow, first we will take a hot air balloon flight and then take an all-day guided tour that includes a tour of an underground city, a tour of a monastery built inside caves and a hike through one of the several valleys in the area. Breakfast and lunch are also included. As soon as the tour ends, we'll set off for the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. We'll have dinner in Istanbul. Goodbye till tomorrow's update :)
After freshening up, we went to see the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's an impressive chain of connected caves that were inhabited by early Christians of this area. There are numerous churches inside the cave range and the wall murals carved on stone in all these churches are extremely fascinating. The best preserved of them is the so-called black church because of the predominant use of black in the murals. The black church was very impressive and the highlight of the entire museum. After spending about two hours exploring this museum with the aid of an audio guide, we walked back to Goreme and had a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant. We had their local specialties and everything tasted delicious. The highlight was pottery kabab - kabab baked inside a clay pot and then the pot broken in front of us at the table to reveal the food - and it tasted divine.
After that we walked back to our hotel and will go to sleep early tonight since we have to wake up at 4:30 am. Tomorrow, first we will take a hot air balloon flight and then take an all-day guided tour that includes a tour of an underground city, a tour of a monastery built inside caves and a hike through one of the several valleys in the area. Breakfast and lunch are also included. As soon as the tour ends, we'll set off for the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. We'll have dinner in Istanbul. Goodbye till tomorrow's update :)
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