Cappadocia and other tourism: photo dump
Hello friends,
I haven’t been feeling the inspiration to write in the last while, but I’ve been wanting to and feeling like I should! I’m in full lockdown here and have been for the last couple weeks, but I wanted to share some photos from the one trip I’ve taken here, to Cappadocia/Kapadokya in Central Anatolia, two months ago (wow! time flies!). It’s a region known for its interesting rock formation, primarily its “fairy chimneys.” I went there by bus and met up with the two other Minnesotan Fulbrighters here, Clara and Connor. It was a short trip and not particularly well-planned, but it was cool to see a new place!
First view of Cappadocia, in the village of Göreme where we stayed.
Overlooking the village, which is built right into and around the fairy chimneys.
Preparations for a hot air balloon ride. Cappadocia is the most popular location in the world for hot air balloon rides—they launch dozens of balloons every day.
Views from the balloon! We skirted along some canyons and then went up just over a kilometer (too high if you ask me!). I know that every picture looks I stole it from a postcard but I swear, I was actually there, bundled up in a million layers for a chilly morning.
The people running the balloons are truly experts; they landed the balloon in the trailer of a pickup.
A typical Turkish breakfast at our hostel.
And a nice Turkish lunch.
After the balloon, we visited an open-air museum of Byzantine churches built into the rocks. Many of them have incredible paintings inside, which I was not supposed to take a picture of!
We went hiking around the area a little bit. It still never fails to amaze me that historic sites and monuments are just sitting out there, where you can walk right up to them (and on them, and in them).
Connor was very brave about walking right into dark Byzantine ruins. I let him go first.
We also stayed one night in a cave hotel—our room was a cave dug out some thousand years ago to house animals.
Connor and Clara took a trip to Izmir about a month later but I opted not to go because the COVID situation was becoming very bad and it felt irresponsible for me to travel. I’m sad I didn’t get the experience of going with them but I did get to see a few of the sites around Alanya:
The ruined city of Syedra, with my colleague and friend Mehmet. Amazing views and a herd of goats just hanging out (I got no pictures of the goats. I found out that I am afraid of goats when they started following us downhill).
On a rare Saturday without daytime curfew, my Canadian colleague and his wife took me to Manavgat, about an hour away, to see the ruins at Side.
The temples of Apollo and Athena:
And another day, they took me up to their neighborhood in the mountains to see Alanya from above.
And another day took me to the beach to run around with their dogs.
I’m really, really, no-words-for-it grateful for the people here who have welcomed me and been my guides! I absolutely lucked out to have incredible colleagues. Right now, the whole country has in the middle of a three-week 24/7 curfew, which is a bummer to say the least. So it’s actually been a wonderful reminder for me to look at these pictures!
The days before this lockdown period started, I went into the city center and walked around—treated myself to an ice cream by the marina and found another beautiful vista.
I even finally went swimming in the Mediterranean. It was a slightly cool morning so I had the beach to myself, and as soon as I walked into the water, I just started laughing and didn’t stop for five minutes. (I didn’t take my phone to the beach, but here’s a post-swim selfie back in my apartment.)
Since then, I’ve just been stuck at home, watching lots of Netflix with just the view from my balcony. (why is this photo upside down? who could say.)
Hopefully I will drum up the motivation to write more soon!
Love,
Netta