Beautiful Cappadocia

On our way to Cappadocia we visited the Mevlan Museum, the mausoleum of a Sufi mystic and also the lodge of the Mevlevi order, better know as the whirling dervishes. Next it was on to the Sultanhani Caravanserai - a roadside inn, where travellers could rest for the night. We were supposed to pay an entrance fee to see this place, but there was no one guarding the door...

Mevlan Museum

Caravanserai

We were supposed to visit an underground city that afternoon, but got there too late and it was closed. We did go and visit Uchisar Castle, which is carved out of the rocks in Cappadocia's highest point. That night we went out for dinner to a restaurant that cooked the food in clay pots, from the clay that is famous in the region. The dinner was delicious, but I was stuffed by the end of it, as they gave us HUGE amounts of complimentary Turkish bread - about 1 metre long loafs between 4 of us. On top of that I also had dessert :P The next morning it was amazing to see all the balloons. Breakfast at the hotel- which had been built into the rock caves, and had beautifully decorated rooms - was also good. We had lots of fresh and dried fruits YUM!

\

We continued our tour of the Cappadocia region by see the phallic-like structures that have formed naturally from various volcanic eruptions and erosion from wind and water. Funnily enough they are commonly called fairy chimneys! Next we went and saw the Goreme open air museum. As the fairy chimneys are formed of soft rocks, they have been carved into houses, churches and ministries. In the afternoon we went to a pottery shop and had a demonstration on how a piece of pottery is made from the clay. It was amazing how quickly an item is made - about 5 minutes for a teapot!

Some of the group had fun taking pics of this one :P

A carved out dining table

From this...

.. to this

Add caption

That evening we met up with a couple who had been on the 8 day tour, but since then had been doing their won thing. It was really great catching up with - it was like catching up with old friends. We went to the same restaurant for dinner, but did not get nearly as much bread. It was then back to the hotel for an earlyish night, as we had an early morning the next day for HOT AIR BALLOONING!!