Cappadocia Green Tour

Nazar Tree at Pigeon Valley

The next morning we woke up early to enjoy our complementary breakfast provided by the hostel. Finally it was our chance to have a real Turkish Breakfast. Turkish breakfast usually consists of some variation of bread, eggs, a meat, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Çay (tea) of course! We were just happy to have something to put in our bellies. 

Since the day before we had explored Goreme, we wanted to go a bit further away to see some of the cool places in the surrounding areas. The issue is that everything can be really spread out and difficult to find on your own. After looking at all of the different tour packages we thought that it would make sense it we splurged for what is called the Green Tour. We choose this tour because it covered a very large area and took you to places that we thought would be too challenging to find. Also, it included a tour guide, entrance fees into all of the sites, lunch, and all transportation. The tour cost 100 TL (around $40) and we figured that it was a pretty reasonable price considering the tour lasted the entire day. Plus, we knew that we were going to splurge a little bit in Cappadocia anyways.

Pigeon Valley 

The tour started out at a scenic overlook of  what is called the Pigeon Valley. They call it pigeon valley because supposedly the ancient people used pigeon droppings as fertilizer. Besides this fact I don't remember much of what the guide said about this place. To be honest, I kind of space out during these types of tours so I don't really recall much of what the guide said about the area. I do remember that Cappadocia means "Land of Many Horses" or "Beautiful Horses" and that information conveniently came in handy later on. 

Underground City

After getting some scenic pictures we hopped on the bus and traveled 30 minutes out to explore one of Cappadocia's underground cities. The tour guide kept asking us if we were claustrophobic or had any heart conditions which we thought was kind of interesting. After spending about 10 minutes in the underground city we realized why he was asking those questions. The place was really cool and there were lots of enclosed small spaces and tons of steep narrow steps and tunnels. I was feeling a bit claustrophobic & out of breath myself, but don't get me wrong, we had fun!

At one point the tour guide stopped at one tunnel and was trying to be goofy so he kept asking us who wants to be lucky so of course Sam volunteered. There was two entrances to the tunnel and he had Sam stand in the middle of them. He said that if Sam went through the right side he would come out the other side as a women but if he went through the left side he would come out the other as gay. Sam chuckled and exclaimed: "Well, I have always wanted to be beautiful!" as he went through the right side. I don't really think his statement had any historical significance but I guess the guy gets bored doing the same tour everyday so why trying to spice it up. Regardless, it was a humorous moment. 

Also, when Sam was going through the tunnel the tour guide was calling for me to come to the front of the group. When I did he stated, "So what will you think of your husband now!" Ug. It was an awkward moment when I had to explain that Sam is actually my brother. The tour guide was certainly embarrassed but said it wasn't the worst mistake he made. One time as he was taking a picture for a mother and son and kept proclaiming that they should kiss for the camera. Of course he thought they were a couple and not mother & son. Thank god he didn't say that to us!

Selime Monastery

After the underground city we got back onto the bus to head to the famous Selime Monastery, one of the biggest religious sites in the area. Selime Monastery had to be my favorite site in all of Cappadocia, it was absolutely gorgeous and there were so many cool things to explore inside. Again, I was so distracted by the beauty of this place that I didn't pay much attention to what the tour guide was saying about it (sorry guys!) Well, I do remember one thing. Apparently from the top of the Monastery you get a nice vantage point of the area which George Lucas looked at thinking that he may film the Star Wars movies there. A lot of the tour companies will tell you that Star Wars was filmed there but that is actually a lie because it was filmed in Tunisia.

Exploring Selime

But yeah these ruins were the most intact that we have seen and there were so many small chambers that you could get lost in. I think I could have spent the whole day exploring every inch of this place. Well, that is the down side of doing a tour, you have to stick to the schedule. So alas, we were on to the next thing.

Thank goodness the next thing happened to be lunch! Seriously, what a step up after just eating bread for the past few lunches. They brought us salads, bread, soup, the main course of fish & rice, and then finished it with some freshly picked clementines. Our stomachs were very very happy :)

Sweet Ruins

After the lunch we went check out this cool trail in Ihlara Valley. The valley is basically a large gorge that runs between the volcanic rock formations. The guide kept referring to the valley as a canyon and was saying that it is the second largest canyon (next to the Grand Canyon).... but I am a bit skeptical about this. I am noticing that people in Turkey are always claiming that things are the biggest, best, or that they originated here. For example, brunch was supposedly invented in Adana. Indeed, the concept did not exist before the Turks! We were all in hysterics one morning discussing this in Adana. Anyways, back to the Green Tour.

Loving the Monestary

The valley was great! Beautiful scenery of course, just this is the part that also kind of sucked being apart of a tour. There were some many little trails we saw jetting off across the river that I wished we could have explored but we had to follow the pack. We "hiked' (leisurely walked) the trail for a little under 3 km then headed back to the bus.

On the way back we stopped at a swanky jewelery store where were given an onyx demonstration and shown different gems of the area. I mean, of course at the end of the tour that had to try and sell us stuff right! At the end of the onyx demonstration they stated that if someone in the audience could answer their question then they would win the onyx egg that they had made during the demonstration. The question was, what does Capedoccia mean? Hmmm, that sounds familiar. Sam was the lucky one who shouted it out and won the onyx egg! It was only half polished but still it was pretty cool.

View of Ihlara Valley

That demonstration ended our tour and we were brought back to Goreme. Although we were pretty exhausted we decided to try to hike up to a good look out spot to wake up the next morning to see the famous Capedoccia balloons take off. We walked up and up and up until we reached an awesome look out spot which provided a nice view of Goreme.

I am too embarrassed to even write about our dining experience for that night. There were two restaurants in Goreme that we had been joking about basically the entire time. The first one was this random Korean place that just did not make sense in this town. But every time we wandered around Goreme it would just suddenly pop up. So almost every time we were looking for a place Sam would shout out "There it is!" I would get really excited & then realize that it was just that random Korean place.

River in the Valley

The second one was this place called Fat Boys which also tended to be sort of in our faces. We joked about how they must have definitely made this place 100% for the western tourists. Anyways, after looking up different reviews it turns out that Fat Boys is one of the best places to eat in Goreme if you are on a budget. I thought it was ridiculous & am wondering who the heck wrote the reviews, but we decided to go anyways just because it seemed like something we had to do. The food was just alright and actually kind of upset my stomach afterward. So for me Fat Boys = epic fail but an experience nonetheless.

Overlook of Goreme

After eating it was around almost 9 pm and we were utterly exhausted & ready to again crawl into those nice warm beds. The next day we were planning to hike for sunrise to see the balloons so it was best to go to bed early to fully enjoy our last full day in Cappadocia. 

Well, that last day was certainly not what we expected. More stories to come!

xoxo,

Becca