Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale, and Oludeniz!

We absolutely loved every minute of our time in Turkey!  From Istanbul we took a quick flight to Kayseri and a bus to our hotel in Goreme, the center of the Cappadocia region.  Our hotel was made up of cave rooms built into the side of a mountain, as most hotels in this area are.  We arrived after dark so we weren't sure what to expect for a view.  We had taken the suggestion of others to come here and really had no clue what we were in for but boy were we pleasantly surprised!  When we awoke in the morning we felt like we had landed on the moon.  The landscape was out of this world.  Check these pictures out...

The locals call this area "Love Valley" but are too shy to explain why...

 

Our cave room

This was a great spot for chilling out, calling home, blogging, etc.

On our first day in town we booked a guided tour of the area.  We hiked part of the Ilhara Valley to see centuries old cave churches and had lunch along the river, visited an underground city and pigeon valley where messenger pigeons were kept in carved mountainside nests, and explored nooks and crannies of Selime Cathedral.

Messenger pigeon nests

The Ilhara Valley is Turkey's Grand Canyon

Tables at a local restaurant built over the river.  Don't have too much wine with lunch!

A kitchen in a cave complex.  A Tandoori oven is in the floor and a Kebap grill along the wall.

The underground city was NOT for the claustrophobic!

The following morning we woke before sunrise for the most popular activity in Cappadocia....a hot air balloon ride!  It was AWESOME!  We watched sunrise from the hot air balloon (twice, thanks to the skills of a very creative pilot) and were back on the ground before 8am.  We landed and enjoyed a champagne toast then returned to our hotel to go back to bed.  We napped for a while and still managed to get up in time to enjoy breakfast outside overlooking Goreme town.  That afternoon we took a walk to the Open Air Museum and visited more churches and homes carved into caves.  During our time in Goreme we also took a hike in the Rose Valley which reminded us of Sedona, Arizona (one of our favorite places in the states).  We had a great and relaxing trip to Cappadocia and caught a quick flight to Izmir.

Cappadocia is one of the top places in the world for ballooning.

Yes, that is champagne...before 8am.  Who are we to break tradition right?

Looking back into Rose valley near sunset.

Watching a sunset from the rim of Rose valley.

After landing in Izmir, we waited at the baggage belt but the bags never came.  We had made a quick connection in Istanbul and apparently the bags didn't make it to the second flight.  So we continued on to the hotel in Selcuk without luggage and without the smiles we usually have when arriving in a new town.  Luckily our hotel was super helpful and by the next morning they had worked it all out with the airline directly.  We had arranged a tour of Ephesus and by the time we returned our bags were waiting for us in our room.  Apparently we were one of the lucky ones because we were told that often bags can take up to a week to get to you, yikes!

The ancient city of Ephesus was very impressive and you can easily see how incredible the city was among the ruins.  The Romans took their bathing very seriously as there are several entire complexes within the city that are dedicated to baths and associated facilities.  Anyone that has radiant heating in their floors owes the idea to the baths in Ephesus as theirs was supposedly the first.  The Celsus Library is in amazing condition for its age and the amphitheater could host some really great performances even today!  It was really warm and seriously crowded so we had our guide give us the express version to allow us to move on to other sights. (express meaning three hours instead of six!)  We also visited the House of the Virgin Mary, Temple of Artemis, and Basilica of St. John.  We were on a private tour so our guide was able to take us to a small local restaurant for lunch that the larger tours don't visit.  After almost two weeks in Turkey, we were finally able to find a good Gozleme!  The guide also recommended a wonderful place for dinner that had the best stuffed peppers, Adana kebab, and lamachun.  Having our bags delivered and a couple great meals put us back in the right frame of mind for sure.

Wow! Cruise ship crowds!

The Temple of Artemis.  Yup, that's all of it.  They take you here as more of a joke than anything.

The Library of Celsus

Theater where Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesians before he was imprisoned.  Cool no matter what your belief.

Creators of Gozleme happiness rolling out the dough and baking in a wood oven.

From Selcuk we took a bus to Pamukkale and spent a couple of hours enjoying the travertine pools and cliffs fed by hot springs and the stunning scenery around.  From Pamukkale we caught another bus in the evening to the coastal town of Oludeniz.  The drive was incredible and it reminded us of the scenery in New Zealand.

Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish.

The Denizli valley below Pamukkale.

Oludeniz was perfect for what we wanted, just a relaxing few days at the beach.  We hung out on the beach, enjoyed strolls along the water, and ate lots of kebabs.  It was the first stone beach either of us had ever been to and we really liked it because you don't get sand in all those places you don't want it!!  (it does make it a little difficult to get comfortable on your beach towel)

Paragliding is huge and until we read about several deaths here, we were thinking about trying it...

Oludeniz Beach

A Turkish shave includes flaming those pesky ear hairs away!

Sunsets around the world never get old.  Oludeniz was certainly no exception.

We loved Turkey and could've spent another month there but we both knew it was time to move on to Greece, so we caught a short ferry to Rhodes!  More to come from Greece soon....OPA!

**We have enjoyed our time in Greece and will fill you in soon but we wanted to tell you all that after Greece we are heading to Spain via Philadelphia!  Haha, yes we are heading home for Memorial Day to repack, plan our upcoming adventures, and catch up with family.**