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After a long day of traveling, here’s the final part of the adventure in Turkey, as promised! The day began like every other: with breakfast and preparing a packed lunch. After breakfast, we got our suitcases ready for the flight and then drove to Antalya. Along the way, we made one last stop in Side.
Today we had a hotel with breakfast included, so we didn’t have to prepare anything ourselves or make sandwiches for lunch. After a tasty breakfast, we packed our suitcases and drove to Alanya, a well-known tourist resort, via a beautiful mountain road lined with a lot of huge banana plantations.
After breakfast, we prepared some sandwiches for lunch. Then it was time to leave Mersin behind and drive to Anamur, making a stop along the way at a gas station for coffee, a simit (= a ring-shaped bread with sesame), and a restroom break.
Slowly but surely, the holiday is unfortunately coming to an end. Today we started the return journey towards Antalya. We left Ortahisar (and thus Cappadocia) behind us and drove to Mersin. On the way, we first made a stop at an ancient underground city. It’s similar to the cave houses we had seen the past few days, but this time as a complete underground city. It very much resembles the nest-like architecture of ants, with tunnels and chambers going in all directions and spread across several levels. We walked through it twice; the first round we ended up behind a bus load of tourists, which caused traffic jams in the narrow tunnels. The second round was much calmer and allowed us to explore and look around at our own pace. After this morning exercise, the drive to Mersin could begin!
This morning we got up early to see the hot-air balloons that Cappadocia is so famous for. We quickly got dressed and jumped in the car to drive to a good spot with a clear view of the balloons.
Our first full day in Cappadocia, in Ortahisar, started as always with breakfast and preparing sandwiches for lunch. After breakfast, we drove to Sword Valley to enjoy the views, where we came across a flock of turkeys (in Turkey!). From there, we continued to Love Valley, which offered an even more spectacular panorama of the valley filled with countless rock pillars made of tuff stone and basalt.
The second half of our holiday started, as always, with breakfast and preparing sandwiches for lunch. After that, it was time to pack our suitcases, load the car, and begin our journey to Ortahisar, in the Cappadocia region. Along the way, we made a few stops.
Today we spent the whole day in Konya, so there was no need to prepare a packed lunch. Of course, we still started the day with breakfast. After breakfast, we walked to the nearby city center, where we first stopped at the tourist information office to find out where we needed to go for the whirling dervish ritual (a branch of Islam) and to ask about the main highlights of Konya. The staff member marked three spots on a map for us.
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