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Get the Cappadocian High!
So when nothing in our lives was working out and when we were down but not yet out…we decided to take a break! A new show had been sucking the life out of us and for the first time …in ever were the both of us tired and low about theatre! When life brings you downs….sometimes you have to create your own highs! And that’s what we did!
Emptying our bank accounts with no idea how we were going to figure the show or the sponsorships out- we escaped….to Turkey!
Our first stop was Cappadocia… a land of Fairy chimneys and tales untold. Magical and surreal we were looking for this short escape from life and this seemed the perfect stop!
To get to Cappadocia , you must fly to Kayseri. A small airport in the middle of nowhere, we were glad we’d arrange transport to our hotel! Getting outside, the landscape looked nothing like what was promised to us. Barren , flat and boring it was like luck was just not on our side! Infact as we headed off in the car, driving through what looked like dessert we saw the most incredible sight- Mc Donalds! Well that was as un-Turkish as the rest of this miserable trip ! The car ride took about 1 hour and suddenly in the final 15 minutes or so, everything changed! Chimneys appeared from almost nowhere and the land looked like a fairytale come to life! Rock formations in crazy shapes and the car now seemed to be going up and down hill and there was suddenly too much to see and not enough time!The incredible cave dwellings still had people living in them , we were told, and I was really excited now to see where we’d be staying!
And before we knew it we were at our hotel – the exquisite Museum Hotel. Now we had specifically chosen a Luxury Cave Hotel to get the real Cappadocian experience and wow we were in for a treat! Our room was gigantic and our bathroom even larger. We had a small , oddly shaped cave window and every possible luxury you could imagine. Traveling all night and most of the day we were exhausted and we decided to head to the pool to relax. The pool, perfectly placed on the edge of a Cliff almost melted into the blue sky and one quick dip and we were refreshed and relaxed! Suddenly we heard the pitter patter of little feet on the stone and there were two glorious pups frolicking in the hotel. They are the owners dogs we were later told, though they often commanded a great deal more attention than the owners did!
Dinner was pre set and I was worried. This hotel in the middle of nowhere may not really be able to cater to my very difficult tastebuds and I was FAMISHED! I was wrong! The chef was the winner of International food Awards and the food just melted in my mouth! The turkish cuisine was fabulous and I wished desperately that our 5 course meal would last forever! The meal ended with some fabulous Turkish apple tea and we called it a night!
Turkey is approximately 2.5 hours behind us so getting up the next morning at 5 am (equivalent of 7:30 am) worked out okay! I was even to have a quick wash to get ready for our champagne balloon ride above Cappadocia! Now in most cities I would warn against doing anything remotely touristy but in Cappadocia if you don’t do the balloon ride, you’ve really missed on quite an incredible experience! We watched as the balloons got fired up and then headed up, up and away above the
glorious Cappadocian landscape- taking hundreds of pictures and photographing what looked like Google map images of earth! So high in the sky all our troubles were forgotten and as we bobbed in the balloon looking at the tens of other balloons that dotted the sky…life had never felt more colorful and I felt the incredible lightness of being!
Back on ground as we finally got our land legs back we went back to the hotel to have the most sumptuous breakfast ever! Local cheeses, fruits and every possible breakfast delight with some bubbly made the morning perfect! After that Aditya and I decided to do some exploring of our own so off we headed via ATV. Now anyone who knows me or knows my driving knows that an All Terrain vehicle is probably the safest thing for me to drive except when your driving over cliffs and driving down steep roads. I almost lost balance of the heavy vehicle more than once trying to keep up with our enthusiastic guide…. but luckily for me that despite a few near misses and one where the ATV had a wheel over the edge…I survived! This was the coolest way to explore Cappadocia and after dropping our guide back to the town aditya and I continued exploring the narrow lanes and numerous caves ourselves! Stopping every so often for an incredible photograph this is the ONLY way to see Cappadocia and is an absolute MUST DO!
In the afternoon we headed to the Goreme Open Air Museum and visited some ancient 10th, 11th and 12 th century churches. This was fascinating as you could still see the paint on the walls and scenes from the nativity, crucifixion and the Last Supper were painted in glorious detail. Then we marveled at some astonishing rock formations. My personal favourite was the camel because it looked so incredibly natural!
And After that we were off for a quick cup of rich turkish coffee and a fabulous photograph under the Evil Eye Tree!
Dinner was glorious as usual and before we knew it our 3 days in Cappadocia were over! Lighter, happier and calmer we were ready to take on the world. Sometimes all you need in life is a little Fairy dust from Fairy chimneys perhaps to make the whole world seem bright again!
Now that you know what i’m writing about and I am getting such amazing feedback – I’m going to now make this a weekly blog and update it with a new destination, new hotel, airline review on Wednesdays! So mid week get ready to travel…. even if it’s only via a blog and only for a few minutes! after all any adventure starts first with a little dreaming!
Also please vote on what you’d like me to write about next!
Adventuring under the Santorinian sun!
So the Gemini part of my Gemini-Taurus cusp personality (yes that’s a scary combination) decided one fine Sunday that we should up and go to Greece!
Now the husband is the more sane among us but has a terrible weakness for traveling and when this was suggested on a particularly lazy Sunday, he thought it was a fabulous idea! I did not expect him to agree but nonetheless YAY!
So off we were to Santorini ! Katakies was our hotel of choice in Santorini In the beautiful village of Oia pronounced as “Ia,” this is in the northern part of Santorini and is known to have the most beautiful sunsets and we were looking forward to the romance the evening would bring! This is part of the Small Luxury Hotels and I was really looking forward to a quick, yet very much needed break!
Santorini is a short beautiful flight from Athens! With azure waters interspersed with lush green isles , it is a truly a vision to behold! Our hotel was the other side of the island and a good 30 minutes by car. The car ride was phenomenal with stunning views and picture-postcard scenes! And almost before we could take a breath we were at the hotel. the hotel like the majority of structures in Santorini was a fabulous cave like whitewashed structure reminiscent of hotels in Cappadocia!
On the side of a cliff , the hotel overlooked the Caldera, the cauldron like volcanic structure surrounded by the ocean!The rooms were tasteful, large and ours had the stunning view of the bluest, blue sea! It was perfect!-a quiet , serene getaway to nothingness!
The hotel had just a few rooms and fabulously personal service. Breakfast was in the room every day and with the cheeses and local fruits and produce, the food was light, delicious and supremely healthy! We could eat outside overlooking the glorious ocean and remain undisturbed in the privacy of our own space!
The hotel had 3 pools, each more glorious than the other but my personal favourite was the Cave Pool….something I had never seen before! But where swimming was concerned- when in Santorini head to the beaches! And that’s what we did! I’m a free spirit but I have never been the kind of girl who drives around a foreign location with absolutely no idea what she’s doing… but that’s EXACTLY what we did here! We rented an ATV with an International Drivers Licence that i had brought and we were off! They do take any license in Roman English though so I could have got by with my Indian driver’s license as well! And off we went….to well….EVERYWHERE! It was a day time of adventure. We stopped. We shopped. We got lost.And then we got found!
We found black sand beaches, white sand beaches, azure waters and great cafes! We stopped and swam everywhere! We took our postcard photographs and really explored the island. We visited the beautiful villages of Fira and Firostefani, walked on the black pebble (huge pebbles) beach of Kamari and I felt rejuvenated and alive! Sometimes you can find purpose in life by just losing your way and that’s what we did…we got lost all day- but found our sanity, our happiness and our peace!
The sunsets at Oia are fabulous and walking on the cobbled paths , avoiding donkeys and stopping to see the fabulous Greek wares peddled on the sides of the paths- you rediscover happiness! Staring at the sun and sets in Santorini, there is a sense of inner peace that I have never felt before.