Cappadocia has been one wonderful surprise after another. On our first full day here, we hiked from our cave hotel above the village of Goreme to the Open Air Museum. From a distance, the museum looks like a ordinary hillside punctuated by the rock fairy chimneys typical of this region. Many of the chimneys in town and in the countryside show evidence of caves, and some have even been converted into homes. The amazing difference at the museum is that the caves house churches. Not just little hollows in the ground but stunning repositories of early Christian art. The churches and the community that created them go back as early as the second century AD. The colorful frescoes were painted about a thousand years ago and depict scenes from the life of Jesus and the Hebrew scriptures.
Yesterday morning we were up before dawn to be whisked away at five o'clock a.m. A van dropped us off near a field filled with partially inflated hot air balloons. We sipped tea and watched while the balloons came to life and began to pull at their tethers. Another short van ride took us to our very own balloon which we shared with twenty other people! I managed to negotiate a deal the day before for a balloon with a "small" basket. Most hold twenty-five to thirty riders. We climbed in to the wicker basket and stood next to the engine that periodically emitted flames with a loud
whoosh to keep the balloon inflated.
We were given instructions on landing (hold on to the basket, duck down, and brace yourself) and gently lifted off from the ground. As the ropes were untied, we glided peacefully upward with the whole of Cappadocia spreading out below us. The early morning light illuminated the rock formations and the hundred or so colorful balloons that surrounded us. Most of the folks sharing the basket with us were part of a tour group from France. As we rose in the sky, they began exclaiming
"Ooo la la! Ooo la la!!" When the pilot maneuvered the balloon close to the fairy chimneys and we glided by without colliding into them, the French passengers shouted
"touche!"
We reached an altitude of fifteen hundred feet and then descended into rocky canyons only to shoot high into the sky again. At points I came so close to the ground that I took photos of individual flowers with my telephoto lens. A few moments later I was shooting aerial views of our hotel. We floated for about an hour before a gentle landing on our target which was a trailer behind a pick up truck. We all scrambled out of the basket and celebrated our success as balloon travelers with champaigne toasts (and the French national anthem!) The ride was a thrilling experience and an exhilarating start to another day in Cappadocia!
At nine a.m. we joined a group from our hotel for another adventure. This time we climbed into a wagon constructed out of old whiskey barrels. The owner of the hotel was our personal guide as we were pulled by a farm tractor through the narrow lanes of Goreme and up into the hills above the hotel. The hotel itself was the owner's ancestral home, and we were heading to the family's garden for an organic breakfast. We listened to history and stories of the family and their community while riding. When we reached the top of a hill, we got out and walked down a winding stairway cut into the face of a massive rock formation (no handrails!) We emerged in a deep gorge and were presented with a massive banquet table overflowing with local fruits and vegetables and cheese and yogurt. Warm bread was pulled out of the wood-fired oven, and omelets were made on an outdoor stove. The chickens who produced the eggs squawked at us from a nearby pen. After eating our fill and hearing more stories, we returned to the hotel.
Yesterday afternoon, the weather turned cold and by evening we received a soaking rain (extremely unsual in a place that receives almost all its annual precipitation through winter snow.) We dodged raindrops to walk uphill to a small local restaurant attached to a family's home. We were the only guests for dinner, and we sat cross-legged around the low table on cushions arranged on the floor. There was no menu, and the very gracious cook and server (wife and husband) spoke little English. So we just waited to see what would happen. The local specialty here is call "Testi Kebap" It's a meat and vegetable stew cooked in a closed ceramic pot that is broken open and poured onto a plate when served up. We were given generous portions of beef and lamb stew, along with soup that had simmered all day in an underground oven, grape leaf-wrapped bulgar, and some other items that are harder to decribe but were delicious!
Leroy and I rented a car last evening, and today we are off for some far-flung adventures throughout Cappadocia.
