Ankara to Goreme, Cappadocia

After arriving in Ankara on our overnight train (had a blast, by the way), we loaded into our private van which took us to the small town of Goreme in Cappadocia. This interesting landscape was formed by wind and water erosion, much like the Grand Canyon. One main difference is that the local people carved caves into the rock, which left the landscape looking like something out of a Star Wars movie.



When we arrived in Goreme, we checked into our hotel and then went for lunch at a local restaurant, where we tried some local specialties. Very tasty! Then afterwards, we went to a carpet demonstration where we learned all about Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, and various other types of carpet, including different knotting types and design styles. I was very interested in the topic, as I was looking for carpets to lay on the floors of my new house in Louisiana! After looking at just about every carpet they had in the store, I fell in love with several pieces. Here are three of them:








After spending several hours shopping for carpets, I went to the hot air balloon place to get everything ready for tomorrow's early morning hot air balloon ride! Then I came back to the hotel for a little down time before our hike, where we climbed up to a look-out point to enjoy the sunset.








After the sun went down, we headed to dinner where we enjoyed more local cuisine. This evening we tried kabab that had been cooked slowly in clay pots for three hours. The result was a delicious, juicy meal, which we all enjoyed!


After dinner we headed back to the hotel since we have to be up and ready by 5am tomorrow for the hot air balloon ride!

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Location:Goreme, Turkey