After all the historical sights I travel on, heading south. Ihave in mind to relax a couple of days at the coast of south Turkey. I had already been there quite some years ago but didn't remember how many hotels and resorts had been built along the coast. Some of them directly at the beach, some of them separated through the highway. But these resorts had an extra tunnel which connected the resort with the beach. Huge resorts, some of them absolutely kitschy. I don't want to know how it is here during high season.
The weather is really ok - mainly when I compare it with the weather in Switzerland right now - but for sunbathing still a little too fresh and too windy.
Instead of going to the beach I relax a bit different and make a short hike through a small, pretty canyon near Alanya. The road going there twisty, exactly what I like.
And I decide that I don't "need" more of this region. I prefer to travel towards Cappadokia. Again I find tremendous mountain roads, leading up to almost 6000fasl.
It looks as if the road should be renewed but they stopped somehow. Means that part of the road is either gravel or really bad tarmac. And you never know wthat to expect coming around a bend ;-)
But there is still enough time to look around and admire the wonderful landscape.
Exactly what I like: twisty mountain roads, beautiful scenery and because of the changing road conditions never boring. To add there is a sometimes voilent sidewind that forces me to stay alert all the time.
The Turkish language has words that are astonishingly quite similar to German, like: Kuaför, Kahve, Otogar..... but my asbolut favourit Turkish word is ..... (drumroll)......TÜNELI: that's like perfect Swiss German ;-)
On my way to Cappadokia I reach Karaman as inbetween stop. For a change I do not stay in a hotel or hostel but I'm couchsurfing. The traveling in a country I do not speak the language makes me feel a bit lonely. So I decid that I need some company. I can stay at Carmen's and Laura's place.Two Romanian students and for the time being studying one semester in Karaman.
Because it's Ramadan meanwhile most of the restaurants and even shops are closed during the day. The Turkish life has a complete different "groove" now. Only after sunset the villages get alive again and the streets and restaurants are full of people.
Carmen and Laura show me their favourite restaurants and we eat typical Turkish dishes like: Gözleme, Krumpir, Günefer and we drink Ayran (a Turkish joghurtdrink)....hmmm..... very tasty..... and because all of it with almost no calories absolutely perfect for my slim bodyline ;-)
We have lots of fun together and they ask me very interested about the political system in Switzerland. But that's all I'm allowed to contribute to my stay. They had been really nice and it was a great time with them.
From now on no more detours but I drive on the highway directly to Göreme, the main touristic village around Cappadokia. I'll stay at "Ali's Guesthouse", a cozy, simple little hostel with some private double/triple rooms and two dormitories. And as most of the hotels here part of it carved into the rock: a so-called cave hostel. A place I really can recommend as the two hosts Orkan and Carlos are absolutely kind and helpful. That they are also family of a cat with 8 (!!) babies makes it just perfect (for me at least). After a short walk through the village I go to bed early as I'll have to get up already at 4.30 in the morning.
The next morning then I can enjoy one of the highlights of my journey. A drive with a balloon at sunrise. Expensive but absolutely worth the money. Together with appr. 3000 other tourists in appr. 150 balloons. But this time I don't care to be part of the "touristic machine". The night has been clear and so we have a spectacular sunrise that paints the scenery in incredible colours. Absolutely magic. But no more words now; I'll let the pictures speak:
As the weatherforcast for tomorrow is not that good I use the rest of the day hiking and exploring the near valleys. Means about 15km walking but thinking of the great Turkish cuisine that can only be healthy ;-)
Of course I did read a bit about the histoy of Cappadokia before. To know a little about the reasons for all these makes all the caves, hidden churches and really special carved rock formations even more impressing and interesting.
The first caves have been "built" about 300BC and had been mainly used as a shelter and protection against enemies. Some of these underground cities could host up to 20'000 people and went up to 8 floors deep into the underground!
Friday now I meet Jürgen, a motorbike friend from Belgium. We had met in 2017 when I was traveling up to the Northkap and we had decided to travel some time together now as Jürgen intended to travel at least until Usbekistan quite the same direction.
There are just some harmless clouds and we want to explore the surrounding valleys - away from all the tourists. And this time of course with our bikes. We take mainly little country roads, most of them gravel. After about 100km we have seen some really special valleys and plateaus. Some parts of the paths have been really sandy.... an underground I really do not like and is quite exhausting to drive. But it was great to drive some offroad as I will for sure find some similar roads in all the "stan"-countries.
And of course we had some water crossings.... not really what I like most!!
Today now I really relax. Wash my clothes, go to the Hamam. Tomorrow we will head direction east/southeast. So far I really like to be in Turkey. It's a huge, interesting country with absolut different sceneries. Although of course people sort of stare at me when I drive through the little villages in the countryside. There people really still live quite traditional. But all the encounters so far absolutely friendly and interested (and astonished). Even to the he regularly call to prayer of the Muezzin I'm getting used to meanwhile:-)
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