Two up Cappadocia

January 5, 2025 · 16 min · 3315 words

Introduction

We had been daydreaming a trip to Cappadocia for months, Yiannoula and I started drafting a route from early 2024. When Christos and I were doing part of the Balkan TET, we would spend our evenings planning Cappadocia. Funny to say the least. We didn’t know where we would spend the night, but apparently, we were concerned about how many luggage liters would be suitable for two up all the way to Cappadocia. Cilia would be Christos pillion—she needed little to none persuasion to join us.

We would enter and leave Turkey from Çeşme. It made no sense to drive all the way to Alexandroupoli to cross the border when we could just hop on the ferry and sleep the whole way there. Our plan was to go to Cappadocia through Isparta and Konya, continue north to Ankara, drive by the Black Sea to İstanbul, and eventually make our way south by the Aegean, where we would again board a boat at Çeşme.

The story

Athens -> Chios -> Çeşme

We boarded the ferry on Sunday night, and after a short delay, the journey had officially started! We arrived at Chios after eight gruelling hours on the ship’s deck, around six in the morning. The next ferry would leave at eight, so we took a stroll down the marina while waiting.

As luck would have it, mishaps would start soon enough.

Before you board the ferry to Turkey, you have to go through Greek customs, bikes included, and when you arrive in Turkey, you have to go through their customs as well. It was moments before the boarding when Christos remembered that he forgot to issue a new green card for his bike.

The green card is a certificate of international insurance and is necessary when traveling to countries outside the European Economic Zone.

We decided to go forth with it and try to get through, which, of course, did not work out. Apparently, the custom authorities are pretty strict on things like that. Who would have guessed. After some back and forth with the Greek authorities, they decided to let us through and let their Turkish counterparts deal with us. If we did not have the right paperwork, we would be sent straight back to Chios with the next ferry. We rushed to the ship and hopped on at the last possible moment.

Our plan was simple enough, we had about 45 minutes to contact the insurance company and get the green card issued. Small problem. It was eight in the morning. On a Monday. After placing a few phone calls, we managed to get hold of Christos agent, who unfortunately was sick and on leave. Luckily, he was kind enough to call the right person at the insurance company and get him to issue us a green card as fast as possible.

Should my technologically illiterate friend have had an online insurance, we could have done this ourselves and almost instantly.

Waiting for the insurance company to issue the green card whilst on the ferry.

Once the green card was emailed to us, we went through the Turkish side of the customs. I was part of a random check, where they even passed the bike through an X-ray scanner. Our first stop would be Pamukkale, about 350 kilometers away.

Çeşme -> Pamukkale

Pamukkale in Turkish means ‘cotton castle’. The city is surrounded by cotton fields, and the hills surrounding Pamukkale are white as snow from the sediment (travertine) that has been deposited over the years.

The travertine that emerges from the hot springs.

We found the entrance to the Unesco world heritage site to be ridiculously expensive, and in combination with the large crowds on the hills, we decided to skip it. We would soon realize that all the popular attractions had high ticket prices for the tourists, whereas natives would pay a tenth of the price.

On our way out from Pamukkale, we had a quick stop at Red Springs, where most of the locals would hang out.

The hot waters of the springs, which are believed to have healing properties.

That would wrap our short visit to Pamukkale; unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype.

Pamukkale -> Eğirdir

The day after we would drive to the Isparta region through a collection of salty lakes, with no particular destination in mind.

Salda Gölü, one of the many lakes we encountered.

One of the first glimpses we would get of the Turkish countryside.

The night caught us at Eğirdir, which is located alongside the homonymous lake, the second-biggest fresh water lake in Turkey. We would have an awful stay at one of the few (last-minute) hotel options of the city.

The busy street market alleys were completely empty at night.

Turkey has the highest per capita tea consumption in the world! With over 3kgs consumed annually per person, you will find tea houses everywhere. They are mostly visited by men and called kiraathane.

The owner of the tea house where he treated us like home.

Despite both the Greek and the Turkish governments being lousy and having a long history of conflicts and bad diplomatic relationships , we people know better than that. Anywhere we went, we would be greeted with excitement, and more often than not, we would be treated to chai (their local tea). A true testament to the kindness and hospitality of the Turkish people.

Eğirdir -> Konya

An uneventful and boring trip led us to Konya. We decided to treat ourselves after the misfortune of the previous night and stayed at a boutique hotel slightly over our budget.

If ever in the area, definitely consider Araf for your stay.

Turkey and Palestine have a deep-rooted shared history, the former also the top provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza. During our stay at Konya, we saw many joint flags decorating public spaces.

We also had the chance to watch the Dervish whirling dance. Dervishes are members of a Tariqa -a religious order of Sufism- and more specifically, the Mevleni Order were the ones we saw at Konya. Whirling is considered a customary meditation practice, that is through listening to music that one abandons ego or personal desires to achieve a closer connection with Allah.

Men and women in Turkey do not have the same rights, and that is prominent in every aspect of their everyday life. For example, mosques have a restricted and much smaller area to pray at the back of the building, and no eye contact is possible between the two sexes.

A catalyst to modernizing Turkey was Kemal Atatürk. He reformed the country’s political, economic, and cultural sectors. The alphabet was changed from the Ottoman to a Latin-based one. Women received equal civil and political rights and a right to vote. The list goes on. He is commemorated through Turkey, and even today, at the time of his death (09:05 on the 10th of November), vehicles and people stop for one minute in remembrance.

Despite the former improvements pointing Turkey in the right direction, it has gotten worse in the last decades. Human rights violations, lack of freedom of speech, imprisonments, a huge gap between the formal rights and the social position of women, and a high percentage of raping and murdering of women. That only scratches the surface of a problematic state.

Konya -> Göreme

After five days of travel we would arrive at Göreme, our peak destination, and the furthest we would venture into Turkey. We did not choose the fastest road there but rather planned a little detour to see Tuz Golu, one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world! Unfortunately, we did not go through the lake from a dirt road the locals use, as I deemed it too risky given the fact it rained the night before.

The locals would dip their feet in the small puddles that formed.

The back country road that led us to Cappadocia.

The region of Cappadocia is truly magnificent, with a rich history, unique geological features, and full of Unesco world heritage sites. We chose to stay at Göreme, a popular town in Nevşehir. The houses there are carved out of cone-shaped rocks that populate the area. Little is known about its early history and origins as it was not located on any major travel roads.

Göreme has flourished economically after the tourist boom of the 00s.

We stayed at a cave house (Kismet—also highly recommended), a little outside the city center. We really enjoyed the cozy feeling they give you, but unfortunately, there is no natural light coming in. For our short stay, we enjoyed it and would definitely choose it again. After a good nights sleep, we started our day by visiting the open air museum.

This used to be a monastery for early christians.

There are numerous churches inside the open-air museum, all of them of great historical importance. Cappadocia was considered a sanctuary for early Christians, and under the guiding hand of Saint Basil is when most of the churches in the area were built.

Many of the wall paintings were destroyed and are now under restoration.

After a quick tour of the open air museum, we hopped on the bikes and visited the most famous valleys around Göreme.

The region has unique geological features.

These have formed over thousands of years through erosion.

You can’t truly apprehend the size of fairy chimneys,

To wrap the day, we decided to watch the sunset from the top of the Uchisar castle. It is riddled with tunnels, has been used as a defensive stronghold for centuries, and the summit has a panoramic view of the whole region! We were lucky (🤷) because it was freezing cold, so there were just a handful of people on its summit.

Once the sun was out, the whole valley turned red.

When we woke up the second day at Göreme, we were greeted by freezing cold weather. Unfortunately, we had to ride to Derinkuyu, an underground city an hours’ drive away. The Cappadocia region has many underground cities, which were first built in the 8th-7th century BC by the phrygians.

Derinkuyu, as we see it today, was largely developed in the Byzantine era when it served as a defensive stronghold during the Arab-Byzantine war. It was used until the 20th century when Cappadocian Greek and Armenians took refuge to escape the massacres at Adana. After the population exchange between the Greeks and the Turks in 1923, the city was abandoned and rediscovered by accident in the 1960s.

The tunnels were so narrow that you had to bend your knees and pull your shoulders together!

The city has a depth of 85 meters and spans across 8 floors, with a housing capacity of 20.000 people with their livestock. It’s truly astonishing how such large populations managed to live underground for long periods of time.

Just behind the touristic facade, half-demolished buildings are where the unfortunate live…

We then visited the Soğanlı valley, where we drove through a beautiful twisty countryside road that sits in a canyon. Soğanlı is an ancient settlement of similar historical significance to Göreme, with numerous churches, an abandoned village, and astonishing views.

The abandoned (and ancient) village of about 20 houses.

The bright-coloured doors and windows are believed to protect from ’evil eyes'.

When back at the hotel, we checked the weather for the next day, and unfortunately, we would have to change our route as the upper part of Turkey had intense thunderstorms. We decided to skip Samsun, Sinop, and the coastal route along the Black Sea, and instead head straight to Istanbul, through Eskişehir and Bursa.

Once the sun was out, the balloons filled the sky.

Göreme -> Eskişehir

Eskişehir is estimated to be more than 4000 years old. We stayed in Odunpazarı, the oldest settlement in Eskişehir, and a Unesco world heritage site, which has houses dating back to the Ottoman empire.

All of the houses have similar architectural style,

and different pastel colors that give the old city center a unique feeling.

The Porsuk river splits the city in two.

Eskişehir -> Bursa

Bursa is another historic city that first appeared about 5200BC and the first capital of the Ottoman empire. Unfortunately, Christos and I did not see Bursa at all, despite us staying two days there. We had a bad case of food poisoning from yogurt we ate at Eskişehir, and the moment we arrived at Bursa, our suffering started. Luckily, the girls did not eat from that delicious yogurt and granola we had at that espresso house, and they did their best to help us.

Bursa -> Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest and arguably the most important city in Turkey and the history of humankind. It is the most populous city in Europe and the most visited city in the world! It has a rich and turbulent history that spans centuries.

Initially named Byzantium when it was founded by Greek settlers in the seventh century BCE, then renamed to Constantinople in 330, and finally renamed again in 1930 to what we know it as today, Istanbul. The city also greatly advanced Christianity, before its transformation to the center of the Islamic world after the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

After battling for two hours in the traffic, we left our bikes at the hotel and started venturing into the city. Having arrived at noon and without a whole day to explore, we decided to walk to Galatás to get a first impression of Istanbul.

The imposing entrance to the Istanbul university from Beyazıt Square.

Galatás tower sits on top of the hill, higher than anything else.

The following day we visited Hagia Sophia as early as possible, as to avoid large crowds. Sadly, Erdoğan annulled Hagia Sophia’s status as a museum and reverted it into a mosque. Visitors are only allowed on the top floor, which is a short 15-minute tour. The visit was poor compared to what had been described to us by people who visited before the annulation.

Despite that, Hagia Sophia is an architectural masterpiece, and we could not leave without visiting. Initially a church, it was converted to a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and has influenced the history of architecture. When transitioned to a mosque, any Christian symbols and architectural points were removed, and the iconography was destroyed or plastered over.

The highest point of the dome of Hagia Sophia stands at 55.6 meters!

The detail in the (unfortunately destroyed) mosaics is incredible.

We also visited the Hagia Sophia history & experience museum, where you go through a series of dark rooms with vivid animations on the walls with the 1700-year-old history of Hagia Sophia. At the end of the museum you are greeted by an exhibition filled with artifacts. The museum should definitely be visited alongside the Hagia Sophia.

We then headed towards Balat and Fener to grab a coffee and explore the picturesque backstreets.

The grand bazaar is not for the agoraphobic.

Balat has a distinctive feel due to the colorful houses and their architecture.

Again and again, behind the facade, patched walls and torn shoes would prevail.

The public boat transfer system is probably the fastest way to move from one side of the Bosporus to the other.

On the morning of the third day at Istanbul, I learned that the night before Christos lost his wallet that contained his driving license, ID, and some money. No biggie, except he could not prove his driving ability. After some discussing, we decided to ignore this incident since he still had a passport and the motorcycle registration.

Christos had a little tantrum saying how all the bad situations follow me around. And that bad things always happen when I am present. And some other nonsense of how I bring bad luck. Despite recent events (and pretty much everything including me) suggesting he is correct, I prefer to think of the upside. You get to tell cool stories.

Never store important documents in one place, always split them up. If one is lost, you should still be able to identify yourself.

We decided to ride up the Bosporus strait and have a chill day outside the city center, zigzagging between the European and Asian sides.

The side entrance to Dolmabahçe was a true work of art.

They stopped us at a roadblock, where they asked for our driving license 🙂.

We spent our last day in Istanbul revisiting Galatás and the bazaars in the that hope we would find interesting gifts. Unfortunately, the big bazaars are a tourist scam. The price inequality with the shops outside the bazaars was huge. You are supposed to negotiate the prices, but you are never going to come out on top. The same way you wouldn’t if you fought a UFC pro. It’s their job.

We liked Beyoğlu quite a lot, so we visited a second time.

Overall, we like Istanbul a lot. The locals also take great care of the stray cats and dogs that roam freely around the city streets. We could learn a lot from them.

Istanbul -> Kavala

Our plan was to stay at Xánthi, but due to a national holiday, we could not find any last-minute accommodation. We decided to stay at Kavála, about 45 minutes away. Kavála pleasantly surprised us, as it was located next to the sea with a cared-for city center.

A hipster observed in his natural habitat. We got as close as we could without disturbing him.

Kavala -> Athens

The last stretch was 650 km of highway. It is an absolute nightmare to drive at 130–140 km/hr on such boring roads. I have concluded that these kinds of kilometers should be done either by car at the same speed or by 160+ hp bikes at 240 km/hr. No exception. No compromise.

There was a BMW group ride in the rest area, so we chose to stay away from them, just in case.

Ride Stats

The trip info as recorded from the 790s dashboard.

Trip: 3376.0 kilometers
Trip Time: 41:30 hours
Average consumption: 4.7 L/100km
Average speed: 81 km/h

Wrap up

That wraps up Cappadocia! Despite any mishaps and mistakes made in planning or execution, we all had a great time our first time in Anatolia.

What we learned:

When off the bike, each couple should be completely independent. Sharing things (e.x. mobile data) is not practical, as you will eventually want to split up.
A single large duffel bag is better than two smaller ones. Although a hustle to get things in and out when on the road, it sits lower on the bike, resulting in vastly improved handling.
It is better to carry more technical clothes than casuals. The weather will vary vastly when traveling for long in spring/autumn, so it is hard to predict how it is going to fare out throughout the days.
Passenger comfort is your priority. If you travel a lot solo, and especially in tough off-road conditions, you will develop some resilience to harsh conditions and the fatigue of long days. That is not the case with your pillion, and you ought to be considerate.

The upcoming trips are under discussion. Maybe Kosovo or Bulgaria for enduro and Tunisia for touring with a pillion.