Cappadocia – Day 9

Early for a vacation, but not really early, we packed up a couple of bags and headed down to the parking lot where we waited for our tour bus to come and pick us up. As we were only the second stop, the girls were thrilled to have their pick of seats! The bus then proceeded to the Bilkent Hotel to pick up the rest of the folks for the tour. It took a long time to get everyone loaded but then we were off on a two day trip with all of my mom’s crazy friends.

The highway south to Cappadocia was worse than the highways in Louisiana and Detroit! We stopped at two different “travel plazas” for a toilet break. Junkies, snacks, ice cream and more were for sale in the stores. The fields along the highway were full of squashes, potatoes and sunflowers. Lots and lots of sunflowers. We also drove by a huge salt lake, where people collect salt to sell.

In the midafternoon, we arrived in Cappadocia, a land of fairy chimneys. Spectacular! We ate lunch inside the cave of one of these cones in Goreme. The menu was fixed, but the girls and I were able to get a vegetarian entree. After lunch, we visited some fairy chimneys and then a “castle” before heading to the underground city of Kaymakli. The tunnels and passageways were so small, even Chloe had to duck to get through them!

The hotel was a bit of a ride back; we had time to check in and have a little dinner before we headed out with a small subset of the group to go see a Whirling Dervish ceremony. Chloe was so tired that she fell asleep sitting up in her chair in the front row. We got back to the hotel around 11pm and went right to sleep.