Now that we were settled in Göreme, it was time to explore the surrounding area. Fortunately, we’d booked a Green Tour, which is one of the few types of excursions tourists can book in Cappadocia.

After breakfast our tourbus came for us just after 9:30, and we joined a nearly-full group, which attested to how popular these excursions are. We didn’t immediately embark to our first destination as we had to pick up a couple at their hotel, on the outskirts of the city. Once that was taken care of, we headed off to a nearby valley. Cappadocia is a region full of this kind of terrain, and despite seeing a ton of it, it still was endearing. As we were pulling into the parking lot, it started to rain, so our opportunity to snap pics was cut short. There was a small gift shop that people took refuge under, but as I had my handy sweatshirt’s hood to keep me dry, I didn’t mind. Plus, there was something a bit more beautiful seeing the rugged land with the grey, rainy sky! After a while though, it was time to move on.

We then made a quick detour to a local jewellry store, as the local stone, zultanite, is quite unique. Basically, the color changes based on the light source, so the gem could be yellow-green, light gold, or even purplish-pink. It was legitimately fascinating to see the colors change, but for the prices being offered, I wasn’t about to spend my cash on it. After the quick explanation, we walked around the surprisingly large gallery to see other types of jewerllry. One woman there even asked me if I was mixed race, then correctly guessed that my mom is Han Chinese, which was a bit of a surprise! That was it for this stop, and it was time to see one of the region’s special sites.

Next up was a trip to the Derinkuyu underground city, which was originally built back in Roman times. The idea for the city was that it was a haven for the local Christian populace, as they could lose themselves deep underground from any invading army. And, since there was a lot of upheaval during those times, it was quite handy. To give you an idea of how expansive it was, roughly 20,000 people were alleged to have lived there. Can you imagine that? It was hard to, but seeing it with our own eyes did kind of shed light on that.

In terms of the place, it obviously was very narrow. Our guide warned us ahead of time that if you’re claustrophobic or have a bad heart, this wouldn’t be for you, and while it seemed a bit clear on the bus, inside was a whole different thing. I’m not one to get overly paranoid, but I could imagine that back in the day, some people might have suffocated in there due to how cramped things were. I mean, there were times where we were essentially crawling in the narrow corridors. Plus, we also had to make sure other tour groups weren’t coming up, which made you wonder how a city with a large population would’ve handled things. At times our guide had to go slightly ahead to ensure there wasn’t congestion, but that was easily achieved by yelling “is anybody ahead?”. What surprised me was how relatively quickly it took us to get from the top to the bottom, and it was surreal. Like, you don’t expect to cover 280 feet straight down, but the stairs weren’t dauntingly steep, and we did kind of wrap around. Along the way we were shown some storage space as well as secure (the citizens could roll massive wheels to block off the doors) spaces, which were neat, if not bit claustrophobia-inducing. Fortunately, our walk up to the top was super short, and that fresh air hit the spot. We loitered around a bit, fending off the odd enterprising local, but it was time to move on to our next destination.

Moving on, our next spot on the tour took us about 40-60 minutes to reach, and most of the people took time to take some naps. Shame, as there was a lot of gorgeous scenery around us, in the form of the plains. We drove over to a small valley, housing some abandoned villages. Our guide informed us that due to the volatile location, the government moved the locals to safer places. Not everybody opted to take the offer, as there were one or two houses left; the sign they were occupied were the solar panels on top. Everybody took some quick pictures of the valley in the drizzle, and then we headed into the remnants of the small church nearby. As with the underground city, the region offers plenty of opportunities to build remote-ish settlements in the rock, and this church wasn’t different. There wasn’t much left to see, but there’s still something unique seeing how ornate the paintings were, and one could easily imagine the bustling lives of the people who lived there centuries ago. Once we were all satisfied, we then moved down, settling in for a quick hike. Up until that point, we hadn’t seen a lot of greenery, so it was nice to be by a small river and seeing some grass around. After maybe twenty or so minutes, we reached our destination for lunch. It wasn’t the fanciest place, but the fresh fish was oh so good, especially how it came in a hot plate. Everybody was satisfied, and I honestly was happy to have something fresh that wasn’t meat or chicken for once. We all happily chatted and swapped travel stories before it was time to head out, thankfully back in the van.

Next up was a trip to more caves, but this time they were by the road. As you can see below, they kind of looked like they’d be out of a movie, and you’d also be somewhat right. Our guide told us that initially, George Lucas was inspired to film in Cappadocia due to the etheral landscape, only to have political instability in the 70’s ruin that. It’s neat thinking that we were close to having Star Wars be set in Turkey! Anyways, we climbed up and got a sterling view from this. We didn’t linger for very long as by now this unique topography was becoming too similar to what we’d had around us the entire day.

Our tour wasn’t quite over. On the way back into one of many of Cappdocia’s towns, we headed over to a local store that specialized in Turkish delight. Was it touristy? Absolutely. Did that stop us from enjoying it? Nope! There was a huge selection of spices and, well, Turkish delight, which a helpful host told us about the latter. There was a large sample platter of the various specialties, and we had a field day sampling them! In the end, I opted to buy two boxes of the multi-flavored treat, and I was happy. While they didn’t have the color, the best way I could describe the ones I bought was like having Christmas in your mouth: lots of sweet, but not too much, flavor that melted in your mouth. I walked around some more and I got to witness my mom buying some spices to bring back home. All in all this stop was the perfect reset as our tour was coming to an end. However, there was one more destination: Pigeon Valley, which, surprise surprise, involved more gorgeous scenery. There’s not much to say here since we’d seen a lot of the nature, but hey, it looked nice. Sadly it was starting to pour, so it was a brief stop for us before heading back into Göreme to be dropped off at our hotel. What a day we had, and it was time to take it easy! It’s said a lot, but taking a Green Tour is 100% worth it!