Turkey I - Cappadocia

In September 2023, I embarked on one of the longest and most rewarding international trips I've taken in quite some time. Usually I travel alone, but for this trip I met up with my mom in Istanbul and we flew on together to Kayseri to begin a 2.5 week journey through Turkey and Greece. We spent our first two days in Cappadocia... an incredibly beautiful and ancient region of central Turkey. This region has become a very popular tourist destination in recent years and it's fame is well - deserved. We stayed in a fantastic cave hotel in Cavusin, one of the smaller towns in the region. Our hotel was on the edge of the village with hiking trails up into the mountains -- the first morning we woke up to clouds of hot air balloons filling the sky all around us. Over the next two days we visited traditional local carpet and ceramic makers, and enjoyed beautiful and historic locations throughout the regions. We toured one of more than 200 underground cities here, and thoroughly enjoyed the Turkish cuisine.