Cappadocia/Kapadokya: we explored an underground cave city, saw hot air balloon over the beautiful stone valleys and made Turkish wine with a local restaurant.
Watch the vlog video above and read below for more information about the incredible fairytale town of Goreme in the Cappadocia region.
This video is episode 7 of Roxanne Taylor Media’s Travel Turkey GoPro Series with Hannah Buck and Roxanne Taylor. Keep reading for more interesting facts.
Kaymakli underground cave city in Turkey
There are 36 underground cave cities in Cappadocia and Kaymakli is the widest one! We took a local bus there and spent about an hour and half exploring all the nooks and crannies in the caves.
The caves were used to hide from the invading Roman Empire forces and had stables, food storage pantries, kitchens, bar, a church and living quarters.
The tunnels get smaller and tighter the deeper you venture which I was told was a tactic to slow down any attackers.
You can get a tour guide but we opted for the imaginative tour with eyes and minds so we could move away from the crowds.
Watching the hot air balloons in Cappadocia
Hannah went up for a hot air balloon ride in Goreme, Cappadocia while I stayed on land in search of the best vantage points for taking photos.
I found a vacant rooftop next to our accomodation Shoestring Cave House so I climbed a rickety ladder and set up my tripod for some Instagram photos that we’re the typical balloons above rooftop photos – I was surrounded by weeds!
The next day we ventured into the rocky valley for a photoshoot. We just walked past the horse stables and followed our intuition until we found a cool area surrounded by large limestone boulders and an abandoned cave house.
It was such a beautiful backdrop for photographs. But lo and behold there was too much wind that day for the balloons to take off so we just enjoyed the sunrise and took some fun photos sans balloons!
Do you have pants? Making Turkish wine
This was one of those funny experiences that arise when you just say ‘yes’ to random opportunities that pop up.
A friend we’d made at our previous location was a few days ahead of us and had recommended us to a local restaurant owner preparing to make his annual homemade wine batch with help from volunteer grape stompers.
So we pedicured our feet and off we went! I was imagining fun photos in a beautiful vineyard with colourful grapes and glasses of wine. But we arrived to the limestone courtyard and soon realised we were in for a hard day’s work when we saw the rows of crates lines up full of grapes.
Hannah donned the yellow gum boots, declining the suggestion that pants would be more appropriate wine stomping attire than a leopard print mini skirt! Haha…
We actually had a really fun four hours chatting with the owner of RetroCappadocia and listening to his amazing travel stories around the world and how he built up his business.
And he invited us back to his restaurant that even as a thank you for helping with next year’s vintage. Ahh the things you end up doing when you have no plans and an optimistic outlook.
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My name is Roxanne Taylor and I’m a video journalist from Australia and my friend Hannah Buck is an Australian TV producer who became the best travel buddy anyone could ask for.
We spent three weeks travelling Turkey and I vlogged the whole thing on my GoPro Hero 6, editing this seven-part Travel Turkey GoPro series for YouTube so make sure you subscribe to my channel!
You can also follow me on Instagram for daily photos from around the world!
