2 Nights in a Cave

Adam in Cappadocia

Ballooning in Cappadocia

We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Cappadocia, a region of Turkey about 3 hours south of Ankara.  Though it was further south, it was no warmer, with about 4 inches of new snow, high daily temps around freezing, and night temps in the teens.  Despite these balmy conditions, it was truly a peak experience and a “must do” in Turkey.  To start with, Cappadocia has amazing natural rock formations, resulting from 3 volcanoes thousands of years ago.  Winds have made all kinds of interesting indentations in the rock, resulting in hundreds of fairy chimneys and other unusual sights.  Along with the winds, humans realized how soft the rock was, so they built homes in the formations.  In fact, there are amazing underground cities which go on for many stories and kilometers.  The early Christians built little churches in the rocks, and there are beautiful religious picture painted on the walls – some still remarkably colorful.  Cappadocia is a region, so it takes a car to go from area to area to see everything.  Alternatively, one can tour by air, which is just what we did yesterday at dawn – by hot air balloon!  Despite freezing temps, the balloon fire provided a lot of warmth (except for the feet), and we had amazing views of valleys and snow-covered formations. 

 

Our Cave

Hamam

Now the real pièce de résistance was living in a cave.  We stayed in Kale Konak, a cave hotel.  This hotel was probably someone’s ancient abode and is literally carved in the rock.  Our cave room had no windows, but 2 holes in the ceiling that were probably for ventilation in ancient times (but now provided a small bit of light during the day).  Our cave was warm and toasty, but even better was the hamam, or Turkish bath, located just below our cave.  In the old days, folks would go to the hamam for their weekly baths (and this may still be the case in some villages), where they would first sit in a very humid wet sauna type of room to work up a good sweat.  Then they would scrub (or be scrubbed) to remove all the dead skin, followed by soaping and cleaning.  We went to our hamam every day while in Cappadocia, and it is truly one of the most relaxing experiences ever.  Fred and Wilma never had it so good!