Modern Cave Men and More Apple Tea
After Istanbul, we took an overnight bus to Cappadocia, specifically to the town of Goreme. Cappadocia is a region of central Turkey where people, many moons ago, dug into the limestone hills and mountains and made cave homes; even an entire underground cities! The entire area surrounding Goreme is littered with little holes in the sides a hills. When you peek inside, you’re amazed to see that the space opens up and is a proper home with sectioned off rooms and chimneys.
They offer tours for the two main loops to see the sights but Paula and I found that one loop was a good length for a bike tour and the other good for a moto-bike tour. So, we went down and talked to the bike rental guy and off we went on our bikes! The small loop was great for a bike tour. We had lunch in a small town named Ergup, and were able to bypass the tour company stops as there were so many places to stop and explore that you could probably spend a lifetime exploring! We even found one that was clearly where the local kids like to party… a few bottle caps and a bit of litter. Although, to be fair, we also saw a couple kids (maybe 10-12 years old) while we were on a hike that saw some graffiti on the ground and took it upon themselves to clean it up. They took pebbles and some sand and used it to grind down the graffiti. We smiled and gave them an approving nod as we passed by.
When we returned the bikes after a long day (25-30 miles), the bike rental guy told us to relax and offered us some apple tea…. so nice after being in the cold all day!
The following day we went back to the rental guy to rent a moto-bike. He wasn’t there yet, but his assistant was there and offered us more apple tea and a bit of conversation while we waited a few minutes. When we took the scooter out, it wasn’t as cold as we had feared so we were happy. Then it started hailing… we were surprised that we were more happy that we weren’t wet than upset that the hail was stinging us as we scooted along! It stopped after 10 minutes or so and then cleared up for the rest of the day. We saw the underground city. It goes 8 levels down and housed nearly 4 thousand people. It is amazingly complex and very impressive. When we returned the bike, we chatted and enjoyed more apple tea. It turns out that he was born in a cave, grew up and still lives in a cave. He is a ‘Cave man’ as he proudly says.
We stayed in a cave hotel. After arriving from the overnight bus at 7:30am, we were happy that they came to pick us up from the bus station, gave us breakfast, and let us check in very early (8am), all at no charge. The internet had a price as well but people don’t seem to charge you. Turkey is not a country for nickel/diming people which we appreciate.
Tags: Cappadocia, Goreme, Turkey, Underground City
admin