Cappadocia

Goreme

Goreme

From Almaty, Kazakhstan we flew into Kayseri airport via Istanbul, horrified when our luggage failed to arrive. It was actually at the “international terminal” so we strolled across the tarmac, picked up our packs and were on our way to Goreme, an hour’s drive away.

Cappadocia is known for “fairy chimneys,” cone-shaped rock formations with churches and houses carved out centuries ago. We didn’t spend all our 2 weeks just in Goreme; there’s lots of great walking. See the separate blog here and we went to Mount Nemrut – see here and here. We also went on an Intrepid Tour of nearby villages – here.

Goreme, a higgledy piggledy town built in, on and around the fairy chimneys

Our cave room – bed, fireplace and bath all stone

All these pictures were taken within a few minutes walk from the center of town:

 

A short stroll to this old locked church – stuck the camera through a hole; camera saw what we couldn’t

This Roman rock tomb is in the middle of Goreme

Balloons over Goreme

There are 150 balloons every day and they go low …

… like almost onto our balcony!

First stop – delicious Turkish ice cream made with goat’s milk
It gets its “stretchiness” from salep, powered orchid bulbs

Beef cooked for hours in a pottery jug & broken open at the table, with a carafe of homemade wine

Hot wine for sale on a cold night in Goreme


Cooking Class

Our cooking class was provided by Turkey Tour Organizer

It happened to be weekly market day at Avanos, about 10 km from Goreme so we called in to buy fresh produce for our cook. In a private home, we had an enjoyable day learning how to make some special Turkish salads, Turkish clay pot stew which has a unique smoky flavour and a sweet dessert whilst hearing about the traditions of Turkish foods, ingredients and recipes. There’s a lot more work in preparing what appears “simple” than we imagined and everything was fresh or homemade. It was all delicious and the local dry red wine, Kalecik Karasi, went perfectly.

Got the recipes, bought some pomegranate sauce and a clay pot to cook in so we are ready to go when we get home.

Fresh food in Avanos weekly market (4 Lira is $1 a kilo)

Cooking class in a local home – 3 salads and a clay pot stew with lentils and rice
Purslane Salad, Gavurdagi Salad and Kisir