Our day started with a Turkish breakfast in the beautiful courtyard of our hotel. It was a great way to wake up in the fresh air, and beautiful surroundings.
Goreme Open Air Museum
From there we visited the Goreme Open Air Museum. This was a large set of structures that were carved into the rock forming a community of sorts. Many of these buildings were churches and we got to explore a few of them. What an interesting way to live, hopping from one “rock apartment” to another.
Uchisar Castle
After the Open Air Museum, Ibo gave us a little time at the foot of Uchisar Castle, this is one of the largest carved out rock structures. We didn’t get a chance to hike to the top, but it was still very impressive to see up close.
Pigeon Valley
From Uchisar Castle we drove a short while to Pigeon Valley. Pigeon houses were carved into the the sides of the cliffs. Pigeon droppings was used to fertilize the land and now the remnants of the houses are a popular sight to see. We spent some time on one side of the valley looking over the valley and hiking down part way to get some shots of the landscape.
Fat Boys
Our next stop was lunch. Ibo, took us to a local restaurant called Fatboys. I ordered something called Manti which is a Turkish ravioli. I’ve had this before at an afghan restaurant before and loved it so I was excited to try it here. I was happy to see it didn’t differ too much to what I was expecting and was pretty tasty.
Love Valley
After Lunch we headed to Love Valley which, depending on where your mind is at full of phallic looking rock structures. Our group had a good chuckle and regardless of what you think they look like, its a unique landscape that is fun to explore. We spent a little time moving through the various canyons, and taking a few photos and taking in the scenery.
Avanos
We had the afternoon free and our tour had two optional activities available to us. One was to visit a pottery master who would show how the pottery that is popular in the region is made. The second is to visit a school for dervishes and learn a little about the dervish religion. Because Gimpy and I had already seen a dervish performance in Dubai, and we weren’t all that keen on pottery, we opted to do our own thing. We returned to our hotel where we spent a little time to relax .
We wanted to explore the city that our hotel was in, Avanos. So after an hour of rest, we set out to explore this small and quaint city. We walked along the river, and through some of the streets.
We found a very elaborate MacDonald’s that had a very unique garden. Throughout it all we were enjoying the small town vibe and are glad we made the decision to explore rather than the optional activities.
Seyyah Han
As evening approached, we reunited with our group and headed for dinner. Dinner tonight would be at a restaurant called Seyyah Han that did a local specialty well.
The chef would cook a stew inside a clay pot for a few hours, and when it was ready to eat, the server would crack open the clay pot and pour out its contents. We’d seen this in Istanbul, but was told to wait until here to get it. I decided to give it a try and when it was my turn to open my pot I was given a metal rod and told to smack the pot.
I suspect (for sustainability and tourist reasons) people no longer actually break the pots. Instead after a few good taps, the waiter unscrews the top and pours out the contents of the stew. While it was super gimmicky (it was more over the top in Istanbul with a flaming tray…) the stew itself was very good. There was a log of flavour in the meat and adding it with rice made for a very tasty meal.
Our group enjoyed dinner together, before heading back to our hotel for the day ahead. Unfortunately, we were given the bad news again that our hot air balloon ride would be cancelled due to weather. Our opportunity to do this bucket list item was now in jeopardy. We were all pretty bummed, especially Gimpy and a few others who had come to Turkey with this as the number one thing on their list. Our guide had put out a few feelers with his balloon friends to see what could be done so there was a little hope. So with that sliver of hope we all went to bed praying there would be good news tomorrow.