We set off from Ankara on Friday afternoon by a Kamil Koç bus. Although we bought the tickets from Ankara to Göreme, the bus didn’t go to Göreme but a shuttle bus took us there from Nevşehir. The journey took 5.5 hour which is at least one hour longer than it should have been. Later the manager of our hotel told us that there are express buses by Nevşehir Seyahat from Ankara. Next time we’ll try that.
We had our (latish) dinner at Topdeck Restaurant. We ordered a small meze plate and a lamb shank; they served complimentary sütlaç after the meal. The food was delicious; the restaurant was authentic and cosy. The staff was fluent in English.
We stayed at Tekkaya Cave Hotel. We enjoyed our stay in the cave room decorated with wooden objects and local carpets. The only misfortune was the chilly weather during the night despite it was already June. I was cold while sleeping on our first night but the manager kindly provided an extra duvet for the second night.
On Saturday, our first stop was Göreme Open Air Museum where we spent around 2 hours in and out of churches carved into mountains. Most of the frescos were still intact and quite fascinating. Photoshoot was not allowed in the churches even without flash, which did not make sense to us. We thought perhaps it was banned not only to preserve the paintings but also the mystery of the area for future visitors. The Museum has one the best museum shops I have ever seen in Turkey with a wide range of products and helpful staff.
We walked back to the central Göreme for lunch and ate at Jiao Zi Queen Chinese Restaurant. The food was good but it was difficult to communicate the Asian staff who did not speak English or Turkish!
We went back to the Landscape Travel Agency for the quadbike ride we booked in the morning on our way to Göreme Open Air Museum. The man in the office took us to the parking spot by an automobile and filled the back row with four passengers one on the top of the other! When we arrived at the parking spot they handed us helmets but said they were out of bonnets. I didn’t feel very enthusiastic to wear the dingy helmet without a bonnet! They gave me a bonnet secretly saying that was the last one they had. They didn’t ask for any kind of licence or didn’t check IDs for the age of the drivers. They gave a quick introduction about how to use the quadbike and we set off with about 30 other people. I don’t know how to drive a car and although this is not a proper car, I wouldn’t have dared to drive it if my companion was not driving. The journey lasted about 2.5 hours with 15 minutes breaks at Göreme Panorama, Çavuşin and Rose Valley; and costed 150 TL. It was my first time on a quadbike, so the experience was interesting but I neither liked the attitude of the staff or the noise of the bike. And it was not easy to connect with the nature on a quadbike. I think if I ever do it again it will be for the fun of driving itself, not to explore an area.
At the end of the day we ate the Indian food cooked by the Indian chef of our hotel. The food was delicious and abundant. It costed 75 TL excluding the drinks.
The final day of our weekend getaway started at 9.30 a.m.. We wanted to see Ihlara Valley and the manager of our hotel arranged us a Green Tour which covers visits to an underground city, an open air cathedral, lunch and Ihlara Valley. The minibus of the Gorgeous Turkey Tours Travel Agency took us from the hotel. We were together with visitors from USA, Korea, Philippine, Jordan and Italia. The guide, Azad Arpaci, was very friendly and professional and the tour was well-organized. It costed 35 Euros each covering the guided tour, museum tickets and lunch –excluding drinks-. The first stop of the tour was Derinkuyu Underground City. After going down for 7 storeys and learning about the history, construction methods, social order, chimneys/sliding doors and ventilation systems of this shelter city we came up again and got going for the next stop, Selime Cathedral. A grandiose structure carved into mountain, Selime Cathedral has served as a church, a cathedral, a caravansary and now a museum. After a short ride we arrived at the lunch place next to Melendiz River. The restaurant set the tables for the tour groups beforehand and the passengers of our minibus took their places around a long table to eat the dishes they chose while on the road. The food was delicious, nicely served and again well-organized without any chaos. We rode to Ihlara Valley after lunch and after visiting Ağaçlı Church and finally taking some photos of 9th-11th century frescos, we walked about 3 kilometres by the river. The valley was deep, covered with the shades of various trees and plants and had a delightful breeze adding to the joy of hike.
There were 2 more stops of the tour which we couldn’t take because of the timing of our bus back to Ankara. Our guide kindly arranged a car to take us to Göreme Otogar where we took Kamil Koç shuttle to Nevşehir Otogar and after another unexpectedly long journey (6 hours) returned home.
In a nutshell, my favourites of this trip were Topdeck Restaurant and Ihlara Valley.
