Konya, Türkiye

It was really quiet in our hotel in Cappadocia, I guess being carved out of rock provides decent sound insulation. The wifi signal was strong but their router lost internet access (and obviously the cellular network didn’t work too well in a cave either), so it was an offline night.

I woke up at 6:45am to see if the balloons made it out. There was high wind and rain forecast for the early morning when we went to bed, so figured the balloon rides would be cancelled. It was indeed rainy and cloudy and miserable, so went back to bed. It was too bad, as the balloons typically fly over our valley, which makes for great pics right from the hotel.

It was a blue sky and sunny when we made it down for breakfast at 9am. The valley was a nice background for another great Turkish breakfast.

We packed up and loaded up the car. First stop was a viewpoint of Love Valley, where the classic rock formations of Cappadocia are found. The weather had changed multiple times since breakfast, and it was slightly raining when we got to the viewpoint. Took some pics which didn’t turn out too well with the grey skies, and carried on our way.

Next stop was Derinkuyu underground city, about 45 minutes towards Konya. Derinkuyu is the largest discovered of several underground cities in the area, used as Christian refuge over the centuries from the Mongols and Ottomans, amongst others. It could supposedly hold up to 20,000 people and their livestock!

We bought our tickets and entered. Red arrows pointed the way down and in; later, blue arrows showed the way out. Derinkuyu goes to 85m deep, I’m not sure how far underground we went, but it was a lot of awkward climbing. Most of the tunnels required us to walk hunched over. There were also tour groups in the narrow tunnels and rooms, clogging it up.

Anyways we didn’t really enjoy it, although we were glad we went there to see it. We also checked out the next door Üzümlü Kilise, a 7th century church in disrepair.

So onto the next stop of the day, Selime Cathedral. It’s a complex of multiple rooms and buildings carved into the side of the rock near Selime. It’s well-marked and maintained, and cool to see. It was busy with tourists, likely on day trips from Cappadocia. We had to wait our turn for pics at the key sites. I didn’t find it as impressive as Derikli Kilise which we saw yesterday, but still worth the stop. Actually I found the view across the valley of the cute town of Selime itself to be more beautiful.

We had lunch at a little doner place just down the road, which we enjoyed. We’ve started ordering ayran as our drink, which is a yoghurt-like drink that reminded us of a salty lassi. It’s a common drink order with locals. The restaurateur broke into a smile when we asked for it. The weather was nice enough at this time that we ate outside on the patio.

We got back in the car for the final stretch of 2.5 hours to Konya. It was mostly a divided highway, two lanes each way, with a speed limit of 110 km/h. The limit drops to 90 around merges, and to 50 when going through towns. Our car mostly knows the speed limits (I’m not sure if it’s reading signs, or it’s a preloaded map), but occasionally would miss an end limit of 50. So we would be doing 50 while other cars and trucks passed us at 90. Eventually we just used our observations to determine the likely limit. There’s photo radar here, so maybe we’ll have a fine when we return the car, oh well.

We arrived at Konya city limits around 5:30pm. We passed through a police checkpoint. They asked to see my license, and by the time I fished it out of my backpack, he had looked up our plates and said “Eric D’Souza? You can go” and waved us through.

City traffic wasn’t too challenging now that I was familiar with the car. The hotel helped us with street parking (got a prime spot right outside the hotel!). The hotel is in an older building with lots of character. Our room overlooks the Mevlana Müzesi, which is one of the top tourist attractions in Konya.

We were tired from the day’s excursions, and long drive. The hotel guy had suggested a full itinerary for us for this evening; we just relaxed in the room. We have two full days here to sightsee :)