I have to say, Cappadocia must be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. But yesterday I was a zombie.

 
After our flight from Izmir to Istanbul, we caught another flight from Istanbul to Kayseri at 1155am.

Arrived at Kayseri airport at 1am followed by a one hour and a half drive to icy Goreme – so we finally checked into the hotel at 230am. #zombified   

 Upon arrival to the hotel, Kadir our host reminded us that we booked a balloon trip and I asked will it fly today? He said YES! 

It’s not windy, there are no clouds and a flight is happening, we need to get ready by 530am.

SAY WHAT? 530am is in 2 hours time! 

Ok nevermind. We tried to get some sleep and got ready by 530am.

It was so worth it!

    
   
    
    
   
  
Nothing nothing nothing nothing in this world is like Cappadocia when covered in white fluffy ice! It is seriously the most awesome thing I have ever seen and this is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had!!!

My fingers and feet were icy and numb but I dont even realise! Hahaha! I cannot exaggerate the cold.

The flight lasted 45 minutes and because this is winter, it costed us €110 only ❤️

By the way winter travel is a low season and everything is heavily discounted. 

   
    
 
When we come down we have champagne because we are still alive. This is a tradition. To our delight it’s sparkling grape juice instead of real wine. Haha. Though too cold to drink cause I was FROZEN TO THE ASS!!!

Needless to say, after that balloon ride all of us were on a high, and don’t know what was wrong with us, instead of resting first, we decided to forge ahead and agreed to join a tour at 9am. 

But first, breakfast.  

But then all the operating tours are full so our host Kadir, who runs the hotel said he’d become our guide. So yahoo! Private tour!!! 

We went to the following:

1.  Panoramic view of Goreme. 

Goreme is the town where we are staying, and home to plenty of cave hotels. Our guide Kadir was born and raised here, and he said, most of the cave houses here were converted to a hotel. Once that happens, the government will provide another house outside of Goreme. This is because construction within Goreme is prohibited due to its UNESCO World Heritage Site status.  
   
2.  Underground city of Derinkuyu

This is similar to the Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam. The locals built it, to shelter themselves from enemies, and the city actually connects to other underground cities via tunnels.

  

It is definitely not for the claustrophobic.

  
    

It stretches down up to 8 floors down and families live there sometimes for 3 months or 6 months.
   
 

Some doors and stairs were so narrow I had to double down.

We clocked in about 3000 steps on the Fitbit so the place is actualy huuuuge. 

3. Cave Church near Belisirma

   
   
Don’t remember much but this was created before the Christians were expelled to Greece. It’s now abandoned.

4. Lunch at Belisirma

Belisirma is a village and the Melendiz River goes through it. The men there caught the fish that morning, to serve to us. Eeee nyaman!

Btw we’re supposed to hike down here from the cave church buttttt it was freezing and well, we’d rather drive hahaha.

 P  
Line caught trout! So yumm!

    
    
 Mercimek Corbasi (Lentil soup haha!)

5. Panoramic view of Ihlara Valley 

   

   

   
   
Kadir told us that George Lucas came here. Wanted to make one Star Wars movie here but was turned down by the Turkish Government.

Anyway, at this point the snowing just stopped so we played around a bit in the snow. Haha sakai.

6. Nars Crater Lake

  
So beautiful! This was a volcano but it erupted leaving this crater and became a lake. 

By the way there are no more active volcanoes in Turkey.

7. Panoramic view of Pigeon Valley

Pigeons are an important part of Cappadocian culture. As they are an agricultural economy, they rely on pigeon droppings to provide them with fertiliser. This is why it is considered  bad luck to eat them.

 So many pigeon houses here! It is said that the evil eye design is based on pigeon’s eyes.  
    
   

8.  Uchisar Castle

   
This is the highest point in Cappadocia- u can hike up too. Kami inda.

That was the end of our tour.

At night, Kadir helped us to book a treatment at the hammam. Bear in mind we were awake since 5am. Another great thing about winter time, there isn’t a lot of people so our hosts were happy to send us here and there hahaha.

Anyway the hammam was fabulous!

I was scrubbed and cleaned and followed by a massage and by the time it was over, I was ready for bed!

   
 
Sorry no photos inside haha.

For dinner we enjoyed this pottery kebab made by Kadir’s wife! Soooo good!!!

     

 
Slept finally at almost 10pm and now here I am! 

We are going for another tour today but later at 1030am. Now it’s almost 9am but none of my travel mates are awake. Hungry!