Cappadocia

After our first day in Istanbul, the next day, Sunday we headed off to cappadocia in central turkey which is actually part of Asia. It was a full big day driving and took us about 11 hours. We stopped a few times but it was great to just finally get there.

Cappadocia was originally started by Christians thousands of years ago an known for it's amazing natural beauty of rock formations.
Our first full day was full on. Thousands of years ago the people used to live in caves carved out into the rocks. They were pretty cool and u could see what the rooms were meant to be, a kitchen, bedroom, dining room etc. It's amazing they were able to create these awesome places with such limited resources.

During the day we visited an open air museum which generally holds a number of churches. Back in the day they had to hide Christianity so built underground churches which are still
mostly preserved today. They used natural products, leaves, chestnuts etc to create paint and there are still preserved paintings on the Walls of the churches of Jesus and the disciples. It's amazing.

We also visited a Turkish rug factory where we learnt about how the rugs are made. We all thought it was going to be really boring and weren't that into it but they showed us how they are made and then showed us many examples of rugs it was actually really cool. I now the difference between a hand made rug and a machine made rug, If the rug is made from wool on wool or wool on silk. Haha such a geek.

After the first day we went to a Turkish night. We saw tradition dances and had drinks and nibbles. We tried the local drink Raki which you mix with water. It taste like licorice and it was so horrible. Im not a fan!! After the night we all didn't want to go back to our hotel so our tour leader barish took us to a local bar and it was so fun. I even busted out my thriller moves haha.

Our second day in cappadocia wasn't as full on as the first. We visited an underground city which was really amazing. Many of the people had to hide and so built a massive 'city' underground. The part we saw had 7 levels and we had to basically crawl through passages to get to other levels. It was so amazing that people thousands of years ago actually built these places and lived there for months at a time. It's no 5 star resort so I dont think I could do it. haha.

Our last night in Cappadocia we had a turkish bath which I loved. All of us girls were in bikinis as we were told to do but when we walked into the area we were instantly confronted with the sight of a few naked woman just walking around or getting soaped up. definitely caught off guard and it made it slightly awkward...
They separate the girls and boys and we all get clay face masks first. Then we had to sit in the sauna for a little while. some of the girls got a good view of  the naked ladies which made it a good talking point haha.
After the sauna they exfoliate you. The lady was pretty rushed and she sort of hurt me with the exfoliating glove, but afterwards she did tell me she thought i was beautiful... i think the steam fogged up her glasses personally...
The soap massage was the best bit. They use this bag/netting type thing that is soaked in soapy water , they fill it with air and then crush it over you to make the foam. pretty cool. the lady massaging me was pretty good and she gave a good massage. i was very very relaxed. just thinking about it now i'd like to go back and have another one haha.

So Cappadocia was definitely a highlight. I loved it there.