Cappadoccia is Cool!

The view from our cave hotel!  It looked like we landed on another planet!

The streets were steep and paved with cobblestones.  I learned not to run on them pretty quickly!

The view from the top of Pigeon Valley.

The stone is very soft... people carved caves out of the mountainsides with their bare hands...

There were caves EVERYWHERE!

Some people still live in the caves... but most of them are pigeon houses.  People use the pigeon poop for fuel.

She was still smiling... so this was probably the beginning of our hike!

Hiking in the gorgeous Pigeon Valley...

The rock formations were SUPER cool!

.... and super HUGE!

So pretty!!

Posing for a pretty pic with Mommy!

She wasn't too sure about walking through the cave tunnel!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!  It was a little on the cool side... but the sun kept us warm!!

Hikers!

A rock tunnel!

We liked the echoes in the tunnel -- we screamed as loud as we could!

No grumpy old trolls under this bridge!

The cave houses in the distance were amazing!! 

This stream fills up in the winter time... 

Danni and I were SO surprised to wake up in Cappadoccia after our late night flight!!  (We slept through most of our midnight flight and through the entire cab ride from the airport to our hotel!)  When we opened out hotel room window in the morning, we could hardly believe our eyes!  The landscape was just gorgeous... and filled with all sorts of strange rock formations with caves carved into them!!  It was like we had landed on another planet!!  Danni and I wanted to stay at the hotel and play in our cave room... but Mommy and Daddy had other plans for us!  They took us on a loooong hike (about 6 miles!) through the Pigeon Valley.  (It is called that because a lot of the caves in this valley are used as pigeon houses... workers will climb up into the little cave nests and collect pigeon poop which is a fantastic fertilizer!)  The hike was pretty... but too long for Danni and I!!  Danni refused to wear her hiking shoes... so her little feet were tired (and dirty) by the end of the day... and she slipped all over the trails (which made the hike even more "fun" for our family!)  Luckily, we didn't have to hike back up the valley... we took a dolmus (the local shared bus) back to our hotel at the end of the day!  We complained a lot... but we really did enjoy being outdoors and enjoying some nature on our first day in Cappadoccia!