Not that kind of a trip! We are on a road trip. First stop, Cappadocia, where the Fairy Chimneys live and magic happens.
Ok, it may not be called “Fairy Town” but the rock formations all over town have been nicknamed “Fairy Chimneys”. You don’t have to ask me twice, you had me at “Fairy”.
We left Istanbul and flew to a town an hour away from Goreme (where the “Fairies” live), so we rented a car and are now on a road trip.
As soon as I saw the Fairy Chimneys as we were on the outskirts of town, I got excited and emotional. They are amazing, not just as a weird freak of nature but they were carved out for people to live in, for churches and crazy enough to be tombs too. What is left is a town that now uses these places as businesses and hotels and restaurants. It is a magical place.
The area is called Cappadocia and it’s not only a world wide tourist spot, but people from Turkey come by the droves to see this cool natural thing and to maybe to stay inside a fairy chimney for the night as well. The Turkish people have been keeping a secret though, they come for the wine too. There is some good wine being produced in this area. So ending the day looking at Fairy Chimneys with a local red and white is the best thing we could do!
My photos do not do them justice. But it may get even better, because if weather permits there will be some colorful hot air balloons floating around the sky as well for even better picture taking!
The weather permitted one fine, but way early morning!
After we finally got up, we got back down, way down. We bent over and squatted our way down 8 floors below the surface into an Underground City! It’s amazing and a bit claustrophobic, but so worth it.
Like People lived in the Fairy Chimneys, People lived underground too. These particular Christian people were hiding from Arab Muslims a thousand years ago or so
Their cities were intricate and had everything, even wineries!
The Cappadocia magic didn’t end there, they have magic valleys as well. We danced through the Imagination Valley, with kissed through Love Valley, we were amazed through the Ihlara Valley and we passed through Pasabag Valley.
The Ihlara Valley
The Love Valley…
Can you tell why it’s named that?
Imagination Valley
The Pasabag Valley
The photos and my words do not relay just how magical this place was to me. Constant beauty everywhere you looked.
We left this morning along the Silk Road west. My next blog will be Silk Road Stops, Konya, Pamukkale and maybe Oludeniz…depending on my experiences, photos and the stories I want to tell.
Thank you for visiting
MY GNOME LITTLE WORLD
And come back soon for travel adventures, art exploring and all around mayhem.
Before your mind goes negative, read below. This is meant to give advice to future travels as well as sharing our experiences and photos. We loved Istanbul, the history, the textiles, the colors, the domed mosques and the people. Now we are off to see some Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia!
BEAUTIFUL, YET CONFUSING
Beautiful to the eyes in every direction! And there are many streets, alleys, and walkways in all directions, up hills, down hills, to the far right or just vere right, to the left and up the stairs! It is confusing to find places, the right entrances, the right lines, and/or the right information. Once you get your bearings down and good phone mapping system some of that can be solved, as for the right entrances and lines to go on…ask ask ask. Don’t be afraid to ask, sometimes it helps, sometimes you need to keep on asking.
Which ever way you look there is endless beauty inside and out. Here is some of the beauty my eyes saw.
HISTORIC BUT UNATTAINABLE
Let me start off, I love history. Historic doesn’t describe it, this city is ancient. Everything is beautiful, down to non ancient cats. Just on historic buildings alone, this city wins! You walk around in awe, reading these little info obliques, which are in several languages and free.
The unattainable issue is it costs a lot to explore inside said buildings. It is around $55US to get into the Topkapi Palace. It’s way less for Turkish people, but young International travelers on the cheap it’s a no go. The Haga Sophia, ancient church first then and now a still working mosque is $27US to get in and see it. Non-Muslim people can’t go to the first floor, so you see half of it for that much. They are both beautiful and important places in history if you can afford to see them. If not walk around them and just enjoy them from the outside with enough money to enjoy a pint at a cafe to people watch later.
Advice coming…please do not do what we did. We bought the Istanbul museum pass for 10 museums. The museums we wanted to go to were recently dropped from that pass, but nobody told us that when we bought it. Another museum was closed. We did not get our money’s worth at all, we spent more on that card than it would have cost to get in the 3 museums we did go to. And we had to pay extra for the other museum that was dropped. Lesson learned. Learn from us!
We learned lessons shopping too. Here are some photos from the wonderful busy colorful Bazaars!
ENDEARING AND ANGERED
“Hi guys”, “Yes, please”, “Where are you from?” You will hear this from the streets, in the bazaars and it’s so kind of cute. They are trying to sell you something and there are hundreds of people selling the same thing, so they must work hard.
But stuff is so overpriced for tourists it hurts a bit. I don’t want to be rude, but some prices had me laughing to myself. I have bought less here than I normally would because of the pricing. Believe me I love a good negotiation, but if they start so freaking high I just walk on. But don’t give up, I did not and found the right things that were not in every booth with someone who did not start crazy high and negotiated with me! He even threw in a free magnet. He did ok, I did ok and we both walked off happy. Very endearing.
Another lesson. The taxi’s may quote you a price and try to tell you higher after you drive away. This could anger a person. You have to be strong and stick to your guns. Uber doesn’t really work here, it’s more of the taxi’s just trying to get cash from you. Don’t use it. Do get your hotel to order them for you with an agreed price beforehand.
The people, whether locals or from all over the world were beautiful to be around in Istanbul. Yes, some try to take advantage of you, but that happens everywhere. Be safe and enjoy all the sights.
SKILLED ALSO COPIED
There are lots of skilled artisans making leather goods, rugs, tiles and art…but they are all thrown into together in bazaars also selling lots and lots of similar faked items including fake designer stuff.
My hotel desk clerk kept on asking if we wanted to go to the rug and leather factories. We did not, but I feel if you wanted those items, the real ones, you should try it out.
But other than buying things and going into historic buildings, we enjoyed just being out and about in very busy old Istanbul.
WELCOMING CATS AND LAZY DOGS
See you thought I was going in a different direction…but the cats are really welcoming and the dogs napped.
Some were clean as a whistle, some not so clean, some healthy looking, some seen better days, but all of them were well fed. Some were even leaning to the heavy side. Some were fixed with their ears clipped, and some were pregnant. Some dogs had tags on their ears showing they were fixed too. Some were just babies and some were old. Some had collars, most did not. Lots of food dishes were left around. And some stores claimed cats as theirs. Some cats claimed humans as theirs. It’s a very copasetic situation.
I got a little frustrated at times here in Instanbul, but I more so loved being in a new place, seeing new things, being around all kinds of different people and seeing so much culture and art.
If you love travel, you know it’s not all easy peasy roses and daisies. People and places may do things differently than us, but if we want to see their country we better get in line and deal with whatever that comes. Off to new and maybe changes, wish us luck with that ferry we hoped we booked online!
We packed up whatever we wanted to keep, like kitchen stuff, tools and important stuff from our California Apartment, and Sold the Rest.
We sold a lot furniture, my projects, some of my art, and much of our beloved vintage stuff.
Then we moved, again, by airline with just 5 suitcases and some boxes.
Although, we were lucky enough to go on many adventures with family while living nearby, this move was really hard, emotionally.
All the other moves were just pains in our asses, but this one tore our hearts. We moved away from family. It’s weird, we want to be close to our families, but we also want to explore and go on adventures. Our married life has been all “This” and almost nothing but “This”. We have accepted it is Who We Are now. We.Are.Gnomads.
If it were any other place, I probably would have said no, but I couldn’t say no to where we are now. We live on an island, an island in the Caribbean. I could not say, “No” to that opportunity and the work is important to Jim. We moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico so Jim could work on the project to rebuild the power system here, which is dearly needed.
We have explored some of the island, and I am learning tons about it’s electrical system along the way. And Jim is making his way around bureaucracy, island time and the government to get his project rolling. I am proud of him. He really wants to do this job, it is what the residents of this island really want and need. Below is a photo of damaged windmills 18 months after Hurricane Maria which shut all the islands of Puerto Rico down.
We have been living here fully since the end of February. We got our apartment the 1st of March and we are well on our way of settling into City Island Life.
Old San Juan
Our Beach, Ocean Beach
Colorful Calle Loiza, Our Neighbor to the East.
The Evening View to the West.
We live on the 8th floor of 10 story building with a view west of the sunset over the neighborhood, and with a bit of a view of the Caribbean Sea to the North. We get great sunset.
We have explored a fair amount around the main island (as they call it here).
We have also been lucky enough to have already gone to a small island off the East Coast of Puerto Rico, Vieques.
We are just plain lucky and We.Are.Gnomads. And This Is OUR Gnome Little World.
My Gnome Little World 