Welcome to Cappadocia

We took an overnight bus from Denizli last night which dropped us off in the center of Göreme at 6am. That's before sunrise. Which in Göreme, is actually a good thing. Göreme is the most popular town in the Turkish region of Cappadocia, and Cappadocia is popular because of its crazy terrain, and the best way and best time to see that crazy terrain is in a hot air balloon at sunrise.

We wandered up from the bus to our hotel, but apparently 6am is a little early to check in. They told us we could possibly check in at 10am though, and that's MUCH earlier than we thought, so we were happy about that. They let us drop our bags off and hang out on the restaurant balcony, which they said is the best place to view the balloons. It's not, but we didn't know any better. Yet.

Really only Butterfly balloons start up the valley where the Göreme Kaya Hotel is at. The rest start somewhere else. So after about 30 minutes we wandered back down into the center of town and then off to the right side looking for elevated points to get a good view. Eventually we found a road (we'd learn later, it's the road to the Göreme Open Air Museum) and off that road we found a path that you can get up to see great views (here's the lat/long if you're curious: 38.643872, 34.835599).

This is where I took this cool video...

A video posted by Brian Ciccotelli (@perfectlittleplanet) on Oct 9, 2015 at 12:04pm PDT

By the time the balloons had landed, it was still another 2 hours until we could check in. So we went back into town and found a coffee shop and ordered some hot chocolate.

It was nice to sit in the sun and warm up a bit. And that was some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had. It was hazelnut. Yeah, Nutella flavored hot chocolate.

Sipping hot cocoa killed off about another hour, so we slowly moseyed back to the hotel and got back around 9:30am and asked on the off chance if our room was ready.

"Yes. And we gave you a free upgrade."

What?! Yes please!

The only thing we wanted was to stay in a cave room - literally a room that was carved out of a rock. And boy did they deliver! And then some!

We walk in and this is what we see:

Yeah. We're not even in the bedroom yet! So we enter the living room/sitting area and Isa and I are trying to hide our excitement - we don't book hotels with more than one room. This is amazing. Down the stairs to our right is the bedroom. IN A CAVE!

So the sitting area is a stone room, but the bedroom is actually inside the cave.

How cool is that?! Obviously, WAY more room than we need, as this is bigger than our apartment in New York. But we are loving the luxury and space! Thank you Göreme Kaya Hotel!

As you may be able to gather from the above picture, I was tired. I didn't sleep well on the overnight bus, and frankly haven't been sleeping well this entire trip. And now I'm sick. So I needed to take a nap for a little bit.

[a little later]

When I woke up, Isa was watching Harry Potter. In a cave. I just can't get over that. We're staying in a comfy cave. :)

We decided to go to the Göreme Open Air Museum, which is a collection of cave churches. On our way over there, we ran into some Aussie friends we had met in Selçuk, so we teamed up and went together. Ollie (8 years old) and I (let's face it, I act like I'm 8) got distracted on the way.

The dogs here are fun. They follow you around and later, even act as tour guides. :)

You know how in Provo there are churches every few blocks? Well that's what this part of town was for the early Christians. There were tons of churches built into lots of the fairy chimneys. So you get in and walk along this large path and just check out each one of them.

The insides of the churches are painted beautifully and carved out with domes and naves and apses and arches. Most of them don't allow photography or video. But the less-cool ones do. Like this:

Or the ones that are outside because half of it fell down.

Among the churches are a few homes as well. Those aren't painted and decorated as much (at all), but they were still interesting. Here's us at a dining room table made of stone.

Isa, Hayley, Brian, and Ollie (Wayne is taking the picture)

Here's a banquet table.

And one with some art. Can you tell I was fascinated by these stone tables?

There's Wayne and Hayley chatting with Isa

After we toured through here, we cut up off the road and went exploring the abandoned fairy chimney homes.

There are SO MANY of these homes. This place must have been a pretty big city! We explored for over two hours in just one section and we didn't even come close to checking them all out.

Doesn't this house look like the Flintstones' house?

At one point, a dog found us and led me up to a sweet viewpoint.

I love hiking. I love exploring. This was FUN!

We watched the sunset over the Uchisar Castle (that's another fairy chimney - a giant one - full of carved out houses connected by stairs, tunnels, and passages).

And then we found some good food and went home. Bed. Yay! Another great day. :) (Even though I'm getting sick from lack of sleep.) :(

San Francisco Weekend Getaway Part 2

(Part 1 of our SF Trip is here)

The AirBnb we stayed at in Walnut Creek was just a few blocks from the LDS church, so we walked over for the 9 o'clock ward in this super cool old-school building.

After church, we headed to downtown Walnut Creek to find breakfast. Lucky for us, there was a farmers market going on. Most of the booths had free samples and it was ALL AMAZING. Such fresh fruits, they put the farmers markets in New York to shame. Like, this farmer's market was professional baseball and New York's farmers markets are trying to figure out t-ball.

Needless to say, we bought some fruit. Even though we almost filled up on all the samples. It was like Costco on a Saturday afternoon, but with delicious free fruit.

Church in Siem Reap

We looked on Mormon.org for the times and location of the church here in Siem Reap, and it had an address, but no meeting times. We didn't want to miss it, so we guessed 10am, but to be sure, we rode our bikes over at 9am. Fortunately, the building (which is actually just a rented house with a "chapel" sign by the front door) is only a 10 minute bike ride from our hotel.

It didn't start at 9.

So we rode back to our hotel and rested for a bit. Then we rode out again for 10am.

It didn't start at 10.

Back to the hotel, then back to church again.

Nope, not at 11.

When we got back to the hotel this time, Surf's Up was on, so we watched that and skipped noon because no church starts at noon, right? We rode back over for our final try at 1pm.

It didn't start at 12. Nor did it start at 1. 

So either the branch in Siem Reap has been dissolved or they moved to a different location and haven't updated the website yet. Either way, boo.

We took a picture to commemorate our efforts.

Then we went back to our hotel to rest for a little bit (we rode our bikes a lot today!) and when it got cooler, we set out to explore town.

We rode over to the river, found a wat with some monks, watched sunset, ate dinner, and went back home.

Church and a New Place

Up until today, we've been staying in a little hotel called the Marvin Suites. We were really pleased with the room; lots of space, nice shower, not far from the BTS, and walking distance to the river ferry.

But we decided to splurge for the rest of our time here and we got a private condo from AirBNB. This is how we spent our afternoon:

The condo itself is fantastic. It's a small junior bedroom/studio, but the layout is open and makes it seem more spacious. The building also allows access to the roof above the 25th floor, which gives awesome views of the surrounding area, including the Grand Palace on the river.

Needless to say, we're pretty happy with our current accommodations. :)

But before we got here, we went to church. We took a taxi from our hotel up to Asok, right by Soi Cowboy actually, where the church is located. 

We went to the international branch and we loved it! One of our favorite wards since Isle of Capri in Surfers Paradise. The people were so friendly and fun to be around. The spirit was strong and all three meetings were great.

When we got out, Isa put on her sunglasses that she bought in Seoul for $10, and they didn't fit quite right.

So it may be time for some new shades.

Leaving church, we took a taxi over to our new place and we've stayed here all day laying out by the pool and lounging around the apartment. Ah, life in the lap of luxury.

Church and Gangnam (Round 2)

We went to Church.

We were prepared to not understand a thing, but as luck would have it, one of the speakers was from the US, and he had a translator for the rest of the congregation. So we understood a third of it. :)

After church, we had lunch in a random nearby park, and then we decided to give Gangnam another try. We went to a different station and this time, we were more successful. (It's the one on the 2 line, NOT the 7.)

As far as I'm concerned, Seoul was a success.

Mormon Battalion Historical Site

This place is so cool!! If you’re in Old Town San Diego, whether or not you’re Mormon, you should check this place out:

To be honest, we weren’t really sure what we were in for. They said the tour was starting now and we sat down in the cute little waiting area looking at antique black and white pictures of people we assumed were in the Battalion.

Another couple sat down and two Mormon sister missionaries welcomed us, but their greeting was interrupted by the people in the black and white pictures behind them. In true Harry Potter style, the pictures came alive and started talking with the Sisters and joking around with each other. Before long, they wandered off into the next room, and the Sisters asked if we’d like to follow them. We still had no idea what we were in for, but how could you say no? We had to see what would happen next.

We found ourselves in the 1800’s, somewhere in the Midwest. The characters now danced around on three screens around the room, playing the fiddle and showing us what life was like back then. It was a lot of fun. Soon, the call came from the U.S. Army for 500 men to enlist to aid in the war. (I’m not really clear on history. I think we were fighting Mexico back then.) Regardless, that’s how the Mormon Battalion was formed, and we followed battalion to the next room, where we learned about military life and their uniforms:

Apparently, they wore sandals too.

They taught us all about the uniforms and conditions back then, and the characters continued to interact with us by knocking on a window outside the cabin (the one next to me in the pic above) and asking us questions. The whole design of the place was really fascinating and realistic too.

Next we went on the trail with the Battallion, learning about the miracles that took place and the trials and tribulations they went through. They really draw you in, with a campfire, and interesting storyline, and even seats that shake when we find ourselves “under attack.”

We ended up in the room below, where the characters gave us a sort of epilogue that tied everything together. This is that part I thought was the most interesting. I had heard of the Mormon Battalion, but I always thought it was a waste (they never fought a battle, they just hiked for 2000 miles and then played in San Diego for six months – or so I thought).

The Battalion was actually quite crucial to the settlement of San Diego and Salt Lake City. The six months they spent in San Diego, they built buildings and showed the locals how to use brick. Old Town, where we had just spent the afternoon, was in large part a result of their efforts and leadership. Salt Lake City, where the Mormons were starting to settle, was mostly desert and practically uninhabitable when the Saints arrived, but part of the Battalion (sick members of the group went to Puebla, Mexico to recover) had learned irrigation techniques that enabled the Mormons to grow crops to survive.

The final room had actual artifacts from the Battalion:

Many thanks to our tour guides for all their insight and cheerful dispositions. We had a great experience!

Yeah. So you should go. Click here to learn more.

Oh, and they take your picture: