When we came up with our itinerary, the idea was that we’d head outside of Istanbul for a few days, and Tuesday was when we flew out to the center of the country. This was my first time flying to another city within a country (I’d always gone by car, bus, or train), so it was a bit exciting.

After checking out, my mom and I decided to take the metro to get to the airport. While taking a taxi would’ve been arguably been a bit quicker, we decided that we had enough time to spare, plus we’d gotten our city transportation cards and thus wanted to get the most use out of them. I want to say that since we had our hotel receptionist write the correct way to navigate the metro that things went swimmingly, but there were a few brief moments of struggling to find the right direction to get to our change. I’ll save it for a post dedicated to it specifically, but even for me the Istanbul Metro is still quite massive; it didn’t help that we were going there at a relatively busy point in the morning. Some nice guys helped direct us to the right turnstiles, even escorting us down the elevator with our luggage, and man, the Turks are very hospitable when it comes to tourists! Other than that, the only other blip we faced was making the last transfer in the metro. Since the metro line to the airport had only been completed a few months before our trip, we had to leave the connecting station then walk a few minutes down the road to get to it. The wagons were super modern, though, and we enjoyed a quiet 45 minute journey to the airport. Checking in was super quick since we’d done so the night before, but what was interesting to note was seeing how many tourists were taking domestic flights. There’s not much else to report other than we enjoyed a quick 90 minute flight to Cappadocia!

Once we arrived at Kapadokya Airport, it was time to find our pre-arranged shuttle to our hotel, which was about a 40 minute drive. However, it wasn’t quite as simple: we’d be going with other passengers, so we’d be making several stops along the way. As we had also gotten out of the airport (having a simple carry-on made things incredibly easy) before most of our fellow passengers, there was some time to kill in the Mercedes van. Eventually, the van was full and we set off, allowing us to get a better appreciation for the rugged, somewhat isolated terrain of the region we were visiting. The ride was smooth, save for a moment when a pair of girls got dropped off at the wrong hotel (but the driver realized the mistake quickly), and we were soon at our lodging: the Cappadocia Caves Hotel.

Once we arrived and checked in, it was getting somewhat late. However, that didn’t stop us from checking out the area a bit, and we decided to head over to the edge of town. Göreme has a population of about 2,000 people and it really shows, since you can walk from the center (which is basically one strip of hotels and restaurants) to the outskirts. Our walk didn’t take us too far as it the size meant we didn’t need to, but we passed a few tour agencies (which offered both balloon rides and ATV excursions) to reach the limit. I guess it’s because I’m so used to places having very clear boundaries, but it was fascinating to see how quickly the town limits cedes to the beautiful nature around! Before we could go further, my mom ran into two Chinese guys, who were going to fly back to Istanbul before returning home. As it turns out, a lot of Chinese people were in the country, since flights were relatively cheap and they didn’t have to get visas to come. Unsurprisingly as well, these tourists were young and came from mid to upper-class families, and a few of them we encountered were studying abroad in Europe. Anyways, once the two of them walked back to their hotel, we continued on, and since we saw people on the hills around, we decided to emulate them. Walking up was a cinch, and as you can see below, we enjoyed some very solid views.

After we soaked in enough of the vistas, we headed back to get dinner. It feels very surreal to visit a Chinese restaurant in a small town in central Turkey, but that’s where we dined at. I’m normally skeptical about Chinese restaurants tucked away in the middle of relatively nowhere, but the food was fantastic! Even the Chinese students dining there enjoyed it, which is a sterling sign of quality. While we were there, there was a steady trickle of diners coming, both locals and tourists alike. All of that was affirmation of us picking a good place to eat at, and I cannot highly recommend it enough if you’re ever in town!

So, now that we’d gotten acquainted with the town itself, it was time to kick back and relax for the rest of the evening. The next day would involve a tour around the region, and boy, we were looking forward to it!

Restaurant:

Meihua Chinese Restaurant

Gerdiş Sk. 22-24, 50180 Göreme/Nevşehir Merkez/Nevşehir, Türkiye