Magical and mystical Cappadocia!

Welcome to my first post at Steem! As a non stop traveler, I wanted dedicate my first post to my special place.

Have you ever been in a place where you get goosebumps as soon as you walk in? Cappadocia was one of the few places that made me feel that way. Even though I've been there three times, every time I go there, it still amazes me.

Let me tell you how I spent a day in my favorite place. As soon as I arrived in Cappadocia, I went to my cave hotel. I searched for the perfect and affordable hotel where I can see the balloons at 5AM and don't overpay for the view. This was important for me as I was not courageous enough to travel with the balloons.

When the sun rose, that was the view! Balloons with their colorful dresses started their show trying to impress us with their beauty. Once the balloon rush hour was over, I jumped off to start my busy day and head out to see the fairy chimneys up close.

There are a lot of tours in Cappadocia but I like to travel at my own pace seeing whatever I want and whenever I want. First day, I made a plan to see Goreme and Zelve open air museums. I put my map in my bag, tied my hiking shoes and started walking. My first stop was Goreme open air museum where I spent almost 3 hours. I downloaded an app called Piri and started listening every single history of Byzantine churches. All of them were remarkable but one is still remembered today, the Buckle Church. Buckle Church is outside of the Goreme museum, therefore can be easily passed. This church was one of the most mesmerizing churches I've ever seen. You can see how the mural paintings are still so bright that I couldn't stop but wonder how they preserved it that well. I won't post its photo here to ruin the surprise. Go there and see with your own eyes!

My second stop was Zelve. Like many others, Zelve was home to many fairy chimneys. The most interesting fact about Zelve is that people lived in these caves and fairy chimneys until 1960s! When it became dangerous due to falling rocks and erosions, the local residents moved to close by areas. 1960s is very close to our day, I tried to imagine what did they do in the freezing cold and how did they find food.

Goreme and Zelve were enough to see in a day. I was tired but super happy of what I've seen. I went back to my hotel, had a dinner and wine at Sedef restaurant and went immediately back to sleep.

Cappadocia has many more stories, many more mystical tales and amazing food and wine culture. If you liked my post, I'll write in a separate post how to go to underground cities, how to pottery and where to eat and what to drink!

I invite @travel777, @bambuka and @ozenozge to write about their own favorite destinations!