Palaces, rock castles and fairy chimneys

Yesterday was our last day in Istanbul, and we tried to take it easy by only going to two places - the Topkapi Palace and the Archeological Museum. Of course we still ended up spending all day roaming around both and we were extremely exhausted by the end of the day. Topkapi Palace was immense and there were hoards of tourists and school children roaming around. We started at the harem, which was well worth the extra ticket price. The tiles inside were amazing and weren't found as abundantly in the rest of the palace due to "upgrades" made over the years (rococo was especially visible). The palace was officially turned into a museum in 1924 and while impressive, it certainly needs the touch of a museum studies person! The treasure room held beautiful things, but it was too hard to see them because the crowds just went amuck. The weapons display, however, was stunning. Next stop, more museum stuff! The Archeological Museum had an amazing collection which was brilliantly put together on the first floor - the quality and condition of all of the pieces were amazing. However, the second floor was obviously the remnants of the old, poorly lit display cases as they only had enough funding to finish the first floor. At this point we were to tired to appreciate anything else, so we were headed back to our hotel when mom got the brilliant idea to stop into a leather shop and pick out a new jacket. Her reasoning was that if it was this chilly in Istanbul, it would only be colder in Cappadocia, our next stop. Somehow we both got black leather jackets, and I must say they look good! We stopped for a quick bite (I tried Turkish pizza, not as good as italian style) and headed back to the hotel to paCk for our early flight out.

Cappadocia (kap-ah-doe-key-ah) is located in central Turkey and is renowned for its unique geological features. It is definitely chilly, so the new jackets came in handy. We are part of a tour group with two sisters traveling from India, and a very funny tour guide named Ramzi. We were shuttled around several places in the valley, starting with the open air museum in Goreme. It was founded as a monestary and was carved into the rock. The caves served as living quarters, food storage areas, dining halls and kitchens. There are over 1,000 churches located in the complex, which dates back to the 8th century. Next we went to view the fairy chimneys, or rock columns, that pepper the lunar looking landscape. They're all over the valley and have been incorporated into the modern cities. Many of the caves were inhabited up until the 1950s, and now people are trying to restore them as there is a booming tourist industry in the area. We encountered many other large tours, but were surprised that many of them were Turkish-the students were especially keen to practice their English! We also saw a rock castle-each town carved dwellings out of the rock to be used in times of danger. Turkey has a long history of conflicts and as a central point along the silk road, the people were plagued with bandits. So, they would live in their regular homes, and retreat to the caves when necessary. Our next stop was the hotel, which is out in the middle of nowhere, but is absolutely fantastic! It's a cave hotel, and our room, the Sultan Suite, is über delux! We have our own sitting area with two divans, a huge bathroom with jet tub (yea!) and a separate bedroom with two beds. I am so excited to test them out I'm going to end here, plus we have an early day tomorrow with a sunrise (ick) balloon tour (hooray).