More Cappadocia

Other highlights of the time in Cappadocia...
Snow
I had expected snow on the mountains, as on the mountain near Ilhara. The high mountains in this area are volcanic.


There was also a fair bit of snow on the ground on the shady slopes:

On the day we walked across the ridges to several villages, there was quite deep snow on the tops:

Villages

Our walks lead us through many of the different villages in the area. Some were formally Greek until the population exchange in 1924, and there are ornate decorations on the houses as at Mustafapasa:

Orthisar is clustered around a crag of hard rock: 

I was really surprised by how many houses had solar water heaters - it must be very affordable in Turkey, so I wonder why it is so expensive in NZ.

Goreme itself is half regular houses and the rest are built into the rocks, so that many houses and restaurants are in caves. For some reason I have no photos of Goreme!  It is a fairly touristy town with lots of souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. It's one of the few places we saw other tourists and there are a couple of quite flash hotels in town. At the Goreme open air museum rows of buses were lined up and after having seen so many churches out in the valleys, I wasn't inclined to line up in a queue to see some of the larger ones. 

Food

Our tour guide, Firat, took us to many great places to eat and I am enjoying Turkish food.  On the walks things were sometimes quite simple, like the fresh juice stands we would come across:

Or the little coffee shop in the Ilhara Valley:

We had two picnics, one in a cave and the other on a grassy slope looking out over the valley we had climbed into and out of:

We also went to several restaurants, with one in Goreme having outstanding local food of great variety. We tried pide, fish from the river, lots of lentil soup, and excellent meat and vege dishes.  Cappadocian wine proved to be a great accompaniment - we had seen the small grape fields on our walks.

In between and around there was Turkish tea, apple tea, coffee, pancakes, dried fruit, Turkish delight, rice pudding, and the best chicken burger and chips I have had in ages. It was definitely not junk food and I am sure I had to have the chips to try the local potatoes.

Good company

Above all there was great company.  I haven't done a tour or guided walk before so I was a bit worried about who else would be on the tour.  Surprise, surprise, they were people like me who loved being outdoors, seeing new places, walking, and eating good food. There were even people who could be arm twisted to go to the local bar, where I discovered that one raki was pleasant, two was one too many.  

Several of us went to the local hamam for a sweaty, soapy experience and to be scrubbed of every last bit of dirt followed by an oil massage.

We had memorable discussions and friendly arguments about politics, heard about other places that people had been and generally always had someone to chat too.  I am feeling quite lonely now in Egirdir without the rest of the group!!