Continuing Day 6 - Leaving Cappadocia
After the hot air balloon, we slept for many hours in the dark cave :) We awoke refreshed and with a free afternoon. One of my fave things when travelling is to go to a grocery store. We went to one in Istanbul (tiny with not so fresh produce), visited fresh produce markets in Kadikoy, and then we popped into a little one in Goreme. I picked up a resealable bag of nuts for a healthy snack. Alex bought several kinds of candy and Turkish twinkies, LOL.
We sought the highest restaurant nearby for lunch. Ended up at a place called Marmara Restaurant, with a very good view. It was very warm (warmer than it has been the past few weeks, even), and few people were out in the sun. We sat in the shade and listened to a mix of Toni Braxton (touristy area!). We had a good debate about whether Unbreak My Heart is a good song or not. We decided it is, but that I still don't like it.
Lunch was a typical Anatolian soup (tomato based, and tastes a little like the borscht we had at Lisa's wedding), a great fresh salad with pucker-your-face sour vinaigrette, and bread with yogurt that had mint and garlic mixed in. That's it! We figured we would be snacking a lot later as we walked around - hard not to try new foods / street foods when we see them.
Wandering with no itinerary other than our 9:30PM flight to Izmir, we decided to rent a car. We rented from a super nice guy (sometimes it feels so scummy when you are haggling for things as a tourist), who gave us the car for the day for 110tl. He was renting mopeds, ATVs and jeeps for 500tl, ironically. We had a brand new mini SUV with a/c, phone charger, bluetooth music sync. Ha!
We got a map, drove to the underground city in nearby (Derinkuyu). The city is ancient multi-level underground city that was built for battle/wartime protection. It goes down 60 m, it is large enough to have sheltered approximately 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It had bedrooms, kitchens, horse stalls, very narrow communication tunnels that echoed sound very far and between cells. I think they were down there for months at a time when they needed to use it. Really ingenious design. They had an isolated water source to prevent the enemy from poisoning their water. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. Alex said he just read somewhere that they just discovered one more of these - there are several across the region.
Then, I wanted to practice driving a stickshift, so I drove us most of the way back to the Cave Suites so Alex could enjoy the scenic Nevsiher district. It was much greener, very agricultural - women in scarves, fully covered, hoeing the fields; men on tractors; women an dchildren on tractors; cows grazing roadside; every field neatly manicured. We passed through three very small towns - Kaymakli, Cardak, and Uchisar. Not really caves in those areas - mostly flat, "one-stoplight" kind of towns. I did well but had to give up the driver's seat when we hit Uchisar because I got nervous about the stop-and-go-traffic and also we were driving on roads under construction, just sort of making up our way (so was everyone else - driving was very laid back).
We shopped a little with no luck (I want evil-eye earrings) and got an ice cream. By the time we returned the car and got back up the hill to Cave Suites, Selvac already had our bags in the back of the van and the A/C on. "Hi, Selvac!" "I'm waiting for you, my friends!" He was SOOO friendly; we really liked him. On the way to the Kayseri Airport, we stared at the giant mountain straight ahead of us (wow!) and chatted about our day. I asked him where he likes to vacation - he is a tour guide all over Turkey and knows the country inside out. Didn't sound like he gets to vacation too much, but would like to go to Bodrum. He has never left Turkey before and would like to go Greece. "Insha'Allah," God willing, he'd like to go next year. We parted at the airport. He wished us a good life together. That makes me smile.
We did the quick and easy Turkish check-in, and had dinner right at the break the fast hour (yesterday was the first day of Ramazan). The flight was quick; we planned our Izmir leg of the trip on the place (spoiler alert: driving from Izmir to Selcuk, seeing Ephesus/Efes, driving up the coast to Canakkale stopping at little beach villages!!). And then we cabbed it through modern (very modern) Izmir to our hotel, Otel Karaca. We will be leaving the hotel to walk around the city (3rd largest in Turkey) and then rent a car and drive to Selcuk so we can do an 8AM Efes tour tomorrow morning. Yeehaw!
As an aside: We have been reading about the shooting in South Carolina. It's getting a lot of international coverage, too. So sad and we are thinking about those families.
We sought the highest restaurant nearby for lunch. Ended up at a place called Marmara Restaurant, with a very good view. It was very warm (warmer than it has been the past few weeks, even), and few people were out in the sun. We sat in the shade and listened to a mix of Toni Braxton (touristy area!). We had a good debate about whether Unbreak My Heart is a good song or not. We decided it is, but that I still don't like it.
Lunch was a typical Anatolian soup (tomato based, and tastes a little like the borscht we had at Lisa's wedding), a great fresh salad with pucker-your-face sour vinaigrette, and bread with yogurt that had mint and garlic mixed in. That's it! We figured we would be snacking a lot later as we walked around - hard not to try new foods / street foods when we see them.
Wandering with no itinerary other than our 9:30PM flight to Izmir, we decided to rent a car. We rented from a super nice guy (sometimes it feels so scummy when you are haggling for things as a tourist), who gave us the car for the day for 110tl. He was renting mopeds, ATVs and jeeps for 500tl, ironically. We had a brand new mini SUV with a/c, phone charger, bluetooth music sync. Ha!
We got a map, drove to the underground city in nearby (Derinkuyu). The city is ancient multi-level underground city that was built for battle/wartime protection. It goes down 60 m, it is large enough to have sheltered approximately 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It had bedrooms, kitchens, horse stalls, very narrow communication tunnels that echoed sound very far and between cells. I think they were down there for months at a time when they needed to use it. Really ingenious design. They had an isolated water source to prevent the enemy from poisoning their water. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey. Alex said he just read somewhere that they just discovered one more of these - there are several across the region.
Then, I wanted to practice driving a stickshift, so I drove us most of the way back to the Cave Suites so Alex could enjoy the scenic Nevsiher district. It was much greener, very agricultural - women in scarves, fully covered, hoeing the fields; men on tractors; women an dchildren on tractors; cows grazing roadside; every field neatly manicured. We passed through three very small towns - Kaymakli, Cardak, and Uchisar. Not really caves in those areas - mostly flat, "one-stoplight" kind of towns. I did well but had to give up the driver's seat when we hit Uchisar because I got nervous about the stop-and-go-traffic and also we were driving on roads under construction, just sort of making up our way (so was everyone else - driving was very laid back).
We shopped a little with no luck (I want evil-eye earrings) and got an ice cream. By the time we returned the car and got back up the hill to Cave Suites, Selvac already had our bags in the back of the van and the A/C on. "Hi, Selvac!" "I'm waiting for you, my friends!" He was SOOO friendly; we really liked him. On the way to the Kayseri Airport, we stared at the giant mountain straight ahead of us (wow!) and chatted about our day. I asked him where he likes to vacation - he is a tour guide all over Turkey and knows the country inside out. Didn't sound like he gets to vacation too much, but would like to go to Bodrum. He has never left Turkey before and would like to go Greece. "Insha'Allah," God willing, he'd like to go next year. We parted at the airport. He wished us a good life together. That makes me smile.
We did the quick and easy Turkish check-in, and had dinner right at the break the fast hour (yesterday was the first day of Ramazan). The flight was quick; we planned our Izmir leg of the trip on the place (spoiler alert: driving from Izmir to Selcuk, seeing Ephesus/Efes, driving up the coast to Canakkale stopping at little beach villages!!). And then we cabbed it through modern (very modern) Izmir to our hotel, Otel Karaca. We will be leaving the hotel to walk around the city (3rd largest in Turkey) and then rent a car and drive to Selcuk so we can do an 8AM Efes tour tomorrow morning. Yeehaw!
As an aside: We have been reading about the shooting in South Carolina. It's getting a lot of international coverage, too. So sad and we are thinking about those families.
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