Day 3 (March 16, 2015): Cappadocia did not disappoint!

So Today was our day to explore Cappadocia and its famous rock formations;  and explore, we did!

It's pretty hard to land in a place after a 35-hour trip and five-hour time change and try to adjust your body clock so that you can immediately jump into high gear. Although we went to bed at midnight local time, I didn't drift off until 5:00AM, such was the jetlag effect. Equipped with one hour of sleep (Pam slept all night, I should note!), we were up early and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Our tour guide, a young Muslim woman named Mensure, and our driver, showed up at 9:45AM. There was only one other person on the tour, which made things more personalized and efficient. 

Our first stop was the Monastery Village of Goreme (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), essentially a village built into the rock formations - which the locals call "fairy chimneys".  The village is filled with tiny churches with carved ceilings and frescoes.

From there, we visited a vista offering a beautiful panoramic view of the valley.

Next it was on to Uchisar, known for a massive structure called the rock-castle of Uchisar. Inside it's a labyrinth of tunnels and caves that were used to ward off attacks from enemies waaaay back when. 

Our fourth stop was truly the highlight for us: Pasabag. These rock formations are best described as mushrooms, and the pictures will show why. Not since our visit to Petra in Jordan have we seen anything so unique and impressive.

Our last stop on the geological portion of the tour was Derbent. The structures there have shapes that have been identified as camels, dolphins, even the Virgin Mary. If you ever tire of finding identifiable shapes in the clouds, Derbent provides lots of similar fun with rock formations. 

Almost every organized tour you purchase in this part of the world ultimately forces you into an end-of-day visit to a carpet cooperative, a pottery factory, or an onyx shop, where you are forced to hear about the trade and then are subjected to high pressure sales tactics. We were taken to a carpet cooperative. A 45-minute lesson on spinning silk fibers, double knots, and everything about the handmade carpet industry, left us nodding off. Fortunately the other guy on the tour with us was a doctor from Chicago who had just bought a new house and was looking to drop a few thousand on a fancy rug.  So he took the sales heat and we slipped out. 

Two quirky notes from today. First, the name of this small market amidst the souvenir stands in Derbent....  

Second, the common presence of these blue charms ("nazars") used to ward off the "Evil Eye", as demonstrated by this tree decorated with them. 

Back at our hotel by 4:15PM, we had a snooze, made some tea, and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Our taxi arrives at 4:30AM to take us to the Kayseri airport for our flight back to Istanbul and on to Cyprus. So from Cappadocia, which means "land of the beautiful horses", we bid you good night. 

Day 2 (March 15, 2015): From Point A to Point B, with stops along the way

Today was a travel day. A LONG travel

day. We took off from Boston Logan at 12:05AM aboard a packed Airbus A340. The impeccable service of Turkish Airlines started immediately as they went through the cabin serving Turkish Delight. 

Within the first hour, they served a dinner in economy class that would put an Air Canada Business Class meal to shame. And the hot breakfast before landing was just as impressive.  Fortunately, we ended up sleeping for a few hours on the 10-hour flight. 

Ataturk Aiport in Istanbul has become a major crossroads for the world. Passport control there is like seeing a smattering of every race on the planet. We couldn't help but wonder if some people there were fresh ISIS recruits making their way to Syria via Istanbul. 

After formalities, we hopped a taxi for a 75-minute ride from Ataturk to Sobiha Gocken Airport across the city, for our flight to Nevshir in south-central Turkey, our point of exploration for Cappadocia and the reason for our stop in Turkey.

Although we had been to Istanbul before, we had never crossed the bridge over the Bosphorus River that links Europe and Asia. Kind of a neat thing!

The trip from airport to airport made us realize how huge Istanbul is, how dense it is, how prolific the new high rise condo-apartment construction, and how many mosques there are. 

Our Pegasus Airlines 737 left on time at 8:30PM and arrived early at 9:30PM.  

A temperature of only 5 Celsius greeted us at Nevshir Airport. Brrr.  We got a taxi to the nearby town of Avanos, where our DoubleTree Hilton Hotel greeted us with their signature hot chocolate chip cookies and a room with wonderful Turkish design features, including this alcove.  

It has been a long day, but we made it safely. And we are all ready for a long-awaited day of exploring Cappadocia tomorrow.  Good night from Turkey. 

Day 1 (March 14, 2015): And so begins another March Break!

The alarm started beeping at 5:00AM.  And so began another March Break!

By 6:15AM, we were in a cab with our friends, Lorna and Jim, enroute to Halifax Airport.  As they were heading to Florida, we all agreed to share a cab to the airport.  Our trip overseas started with an over-the-local-ocean flight to Boston at 8:30AM. 

The plane was packed with people heading to the Boston Seafood Show, but we were heading to Boston to connect with our Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.  The only problem is that we had a 15-hour layover to fill.  But that was not really a problem.  More on that in a second.

First things first:  I got a Tim Horton's coffee at the airport using a  Roll-Up-The-Rim winning tab.  Somewhere between Halifax and Boston, I rolled up the edge of the cup to find I had won $100.  Now:  isn't that a sweet way to start a vacation?

We landed on time at 9:05AM, picked up our bags, got an Enterprise rental car, and headed into downtown Boston.  OK, so we got a little lost on the I-90 and lost some time.  But everthing is fixable!  We eventually made it to downtown and found a meter next to the Boston Common, and set out to find the "T" -- as the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority is known.  

First stop: Prudential Tower, the tallest observatory in Boston at 52-stories high.

Fortunately we chose not to pay the $30 USD admission, as the fog was thick as pea soup.  Rather, we chose to have lunch at the Top of the Hub Restaurant (also on the 52nd floor) with the same foggy view, just minus the admission fee. 

Back on the T, we found the historic Old South Meeting Place (where the Boston Tea Party had its start), Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, and the Old State House, where the American Revolution was born.

The rain was pouring all day, so having seen those sights, we took the T back to the snowy Boston Common, 

took in the architecture of Beacon Hill and its hyper-expensive historic town homes,

jumped in the car, and headed north to Wakefield, where we had a Sheraton room reserved for a few hours of rest.

I did a workout at a local gym, we got a bite in the hotel restaurant, and by 9:00PM, we were back in the rental car, enroute to Logan Airport for our 11:55PM Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.  Boarding will commence soon, so I will sign off from the departure lounge.  God willing, I will pick this up again tomorrow night from Turkey.  (Oh, this is our Turkish Airlines Airbus A340, in case the Bermuda Triangle gobbles us up as we fly through it and we are never heard from again!)