Magical Cappadocia, Turkey
If you ever are anywhere in the world even close to Turkey, Cappadocia is a MUST! It had been tied as my number one bucket list item for as long as I can remember….along with Mt Everest. It was so surreal to experience such beauty every single morning. There were a few negatives, but our time there was for the most part, wonderful. I will say, hindsight is always 50/50. I will never again plan or go on another vacation without making sure there are good medical facilities somewhat nearby if taking my child anywhere in the world ever again. Jack had a 104-105 fever almost all three days we were there. There is a clinic in town that we finally found after 2 hours of searching, but they wouldn’t help us. Luckily, the amazing staff at Sultan Cave Suites was super helpful and kind, especially Gurkan. They got us a taxi to the nearest hospital. Our cab driver/translator/Savior named Ahmed took us to this sketchy Turkish hospital where again no one wanted to (or was required to) help us since their healthcare was standardized for their citizens and we clearly weren’t Turkish citizens. Anyways, I won’t get into every detail of how awful it was or how I cried every single day or that we paid more than $2000 to fly home one day earlier….which brings up a 2nd super important take-away. ALWAYS GET TRAVEL INSURANCE…..ugh! It was literally the one thing we totally forgot to do. And the international flights we had such a good deal on were non-refundable.
Cappadocia, Turkey
Absolute Must See...
But back to the point, even for being as sick and miserable as he was, Jack LOVED Cappadocia. He still begs to go back at least once a week and its been almost a year already. We flew into Nevsehir Kapadokya Airport which was about a 45 minute to an hour drive from Göreme. I read a lot of reviews about shuttle services and busses, but honestly cabs are pretty cheap and I didn’t want to sit on a hot bus with a sick kid and 20 other people for an hour. I would recommend to stay at the Sultan Cave Suites, mostly because the location is perfect and the staff there is super kind. The one thing I definitely did not realize though was that no one else staying there had a child. When I woke Jack up to go out onto the roof at 5 am, we were in our pajamas, he was barefoot and just wanted to play with the dog. However, there were already probably 20 or so “Instagram girls” in huge ballgowns and heels with full make-up and hair, already spread out on every section of the entire roof, while their boyfriends/husbands/photographers clicked away or used tripods and remotes. It was kind of bizarre since I just wanted to enjoy the sunrise with my child, but luckily the owner shooed a few of them off after about an hour of posing and Jack and I were able to sit down and watch the balloons go by. The restaurant at the hotel has great food, but the 2nd night we ate in town (which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel) at a place called Pumpkin. I’m not kidding when I say it was THE BEST FOOD WE HAVE EVER HAD IN OUR WHOLE LIVES. It was seriously so delicious. There were little kittens on the patio next to us, and a potted plant next to our table for Jack to dig in with all of his mini construction vehicles so we actually got to have a nice, un-rushed, relaxing meal for once. It was just perfect in every way.
After dinner we popped into the Ikman Galerie next door to look at some rugs. The owner was the nicest person. It was him who we had met the day before–he was the one who gave us directions to the clinic and gave jack a free t-shirt and sunglasses to cheer him up. I immediately found a carpet I LOVED, but we decided to wait and come back the next morning so I could sleep on it. I hate making big pricey purchases because I can never make up my mind. The following day we hiked through Love Valley and Pasabag where Jack got to see and pet some camels and we explored Goreme a bit more. It was pretty hot and since he was still under the weather we decided to just relax and go back to the hotel after we got our new rug. Since the owner was so wonderful to us I went a bit overboard shopping there and we ended up having to ship everything home directly from his store (there was no way it would fit in our bags). We gave him our money and he promised us he would send it all the next day…..sure enough, all of our lamps/gifts/tablecloths etc arrived home before we even did. So they were not only friendly, but actually honest too!
Joseph scheduled his balloon ride the 2nd day with Butterfly Balloons and had the best time. They even offered to have someone babysit so I could go too, but I’m not a huge fan of flying in general so Jack and I stayed back to watch. We flew out the following day to Antalya but we departed from Kayseri. It was about 15 minutes faster than the other airport, but a lot cheaper! I definitely could have stayed in Cappadocia another day or so to explore more, but 3 days is still plenty of time to see and do most things. It was so relaxing after the hustle and bustle and noise of Istanbul, listening to the calls for prayer and eating dinner watching the sunset was just pure magic. I hope we can go back again one day soon!
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