Cappadocia Part Deux

I have had such terrible bloggers block. I don't know what's wrong with me and now posts from here at home and from my recent trip to Italy are piling up and getting later and later! So let's get started!

The same day we arrived, after crawling around Rose Valley for a little while, we hiked in the opposite direction to Görkündere Valley. Unlike the last time I was in Cappadocia when there were no penises for me, this trip they abounded. Geologically speaking. Over the few days of our trip we saw rocks of all shapes and sizes: the infamous penis shaped rocks in Görkündere Valley and Big Love Valley, camels in Imagination Valley, and mushrooms in Ağçaltı Valley.

Görkündere Valley

Imagination Valley

Ağçaltı Valley

Despite the up and down weather we had all weekend it was a great trip. We managed to mostly avoid rain and while the temperature ended up dropping somewhat significantly during our last tour day we were able to go back to the hotel and warm up. Because I wanted to give us as much time as possible in Cappadocia I booked the early morning flight in on Friday and the last flight out Sunday night-which leaves at 11:30 PM. Luckily for us, the owners at Emily's Cave House were awesome and let us keep our room, free of charge, until the shuttle arrived to pick us up.

Puppy in Ağçaltı

Big Love Valley

Aside from a few hiccups it was a great trip. I loved showing my brother Turkey. He liked Istanbul okay, I think really enjoyed Ephesus, but loved Cappadocia. I wish my work schedule would have allowed us to stay longer but I suppose leaving him wanting more is a good way to get him to visit again! He took some amazing pictures and you should visit his Igknight Photography Facebook page to see them.

That's big love alright

The Three Beauties

It was also an exhausting visit. We crammed a lot into two and a half weeks and those side trips to Ephesus and Cappadocia come with early wake up calls. I think we got up at 4:30-5:00 am for both of those. His flight home also came with a pretty early wake up call. We got up at 4:00 am and headed to Ataturk where I happily was able to get him an emergency exit row seat. After all our airport trips during this visit I learned really fast how to ask in Turkish if there were any emergency row seats available! After I saw him through passport control my plan was to come home, do some errands/work for a few hours then take a nap. Well the nap never happened but around 7:30 am I looked up from cleaning to see that dawn had happened so I grabbed my camera and ran up to the terrace to capture this gorgeous Istanbul sunrise.

I prefer to not be awake at this time of the day but seeing the pinks and purples of dawn over the Bosphorus and Sultanahmet reminds me of the magic this city has and what drew me to it.