Anatolya's famous pottery- at Avanos Kapadokya

The previous post in this series is here..

Our next stop on the tour was a short drive away to Avanos. We crossed a river and saw a lot of brick makers on the way. Then we came to a rock gallery that was pretty much cut into a cave. The video says it all.. the have some amazing artists who have been hand painting these pieces for 30 to 40 years and it is fascinating to watch their hands play with that brush. “You get good at what you practice” is something we hear in yoga class.. that came to mind.

Not a single false step and with a lot of imagination! We walked through the gallery, then got a little pottery demo, and finally it was time to say bye. Our fellow tourists bought stuff, but given we were traveling without check in bags, just had to be content with watching. They do ship to the US but that was for larger pieces.

Right outside this place Ali Baba was selling butta .. there was a heated debate on having that before lunch. Again by a 3:1 veto the ladies decided to go for it. My logic vs. Ali Baba’s silent marketing where he gave them a look and roasted the corn with such care… I had no chance!

Then we stopped by a large rest stop place that had a buffet. All the tour buses stopped here. There were plenty of vegetarian options. Our guide had lunch tickets. Anything else like bottled water or juices were extra. (so keep some Euro or Turkish currency handy!). After lunch we were off to see more rock formations ..

Here are a few pictures of our Avanos experience..

and a video highlights reel..

Learned a lot in this segment. Tulips came from Turkey! Tulips were the symbol for god in ancient Islam. The tree of life which we had seen just two days back in Topkapi palace but had not connected as a “tree of life”, etc.

First we thought this was a marketing stop. Turned out to be one of the highlights of the tour! The artwork in this place is amazing.. just be careful when walking around. You break it, you bought it and most of the pieces are in the few hundred dollar range!

Goreme Open Air Museum - Kapadokya

The previous post in this trip series is here..

After watching the balloons rise and having a nice breakfast we were picked up at the lobby by our tourguide and driver for a Viator all day tour of Kapadokya. She was a very nice person trying to manage the time between giving us history and trying to have fun. She did an excellent job.

To thank her we participated in her promo reels!

Our first stop in the tour was the Goreme open air museum. This place has some amazing history during post crucifixion times when Christianity was a forbidden religion. The cave monastries and the paintings inside that date back to 700 AD were amazing. Unfortunately no pictures in most places allowed, understandably as the flash might damage what is left of the pigments.

Here are the pictures.. the first one was by Jr. who was trying to get the sun flare to land on us.. I got to teach her geometrical optics during this process! She was temporarily impressed with daddy for a good 30 seconds.

There is also a lot of history on St. George here that I found fascinating.

and here is the short video highlight reel..

On the whole this was an amazing place. It was good we started the trip here because by the time we got out to the exit, temperatures were already in the 90’s! We were glad to get back to air conditioning for a while..

Hot air balloons of Kapadokya, Turkey

The previous post in this trip to Turkey and Italy is here..

After we finished the Hammam and lunch in Istanbul, we took a one our drive to Istanbul airport and after waiting there for a few hours flew into Nevshehir airport. We had arranged transport through the hotel (we were to pay per person and were told to pay in Turkish currency but the total was in Euro!). Had to have it ready when we we entered the van. The van guy waited till he could find some last minute unplanned passengers to fill and finally after 35 minutes started towards Kapadokya. A middle aged woman who was flirty decided to sit in the front set next to the driver. It was dark and windy roads with no lights and she kept showing him her phone and making conversation. The driver was obviously taken in with this and was not focusing on the road. The rest of us got very nervous after the driver swerved a few times. So as a collective we spoke up and asked her to stop talking to him or distracting him while driving. The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. Finally after dropping off 80% of the folks we got our turn.

The staff at the cave hotels were nice. The manager gave us a crash course on what to expect and what to do in the morning. Will write a separate post on the cave hotels. The rooms are carved from the rocks. They are all on a hill. We were all tired but I decided to see the balloons rise at 5AM. Turns out they went up only closer to 6! It was beautiful to see. San joined me on the roof for some photos and decided to go dress up and come back for more photos!

Once the sunrise was done, we went back woke up the kids and had a nice breakfast wtih the view of the last few balloons coming down. Then it was time to go on our all day package tour of Kapadokya. There are a thousand odd photos of all the places we visited in the next 8 hours.. so will create mini blogs of each place over the next few days..

We were booked to go on the balloons the next morning and San, myself and Jr. did wake up really early and go to the balloon starting place. Heavy winds made them cancel the rides for the day. So balloon away while the sun shines , is the moral of the story. We were returned to our hotels after sitting in a van for an hour and our money refunded. If we want to be on the balloons, we have to make another trip! Decided that watching them with chai in hand was as good an experience.

A lot of those photos were taken before the balloons started.. (you will see it in the video). The night sky was so clear inspite of the lights from the cave hotels. Got to see so many constellations, planets with just the iPhone!

A video highlights reel including some time lapses, some slow motions…

Book every morning you are there… you never know which way the wind blows!