The next stop on my nomad journey was one that had been on my bucket list for a while: Turkey. Before settling in the little climbing village Geyikbayiri, I was going to tick off a couple of must sees that I had been wanting to visit for a very, very long time.

My first stop was Cappadocia. I arrived here late at night and didn’t get a whole lot of sleep before my alarm went off. It was time to get picked up for my hot air balloon flight! These flights take off just before sunrise so that you can experience the sunrise and morning light from the air. I had pretty high expectations as this is obviously a very well-known activity and I had seen many photos of it. However, the actual experience was even better. It was just such an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime thing to do! We arrived at the launch site in the dark and were able to watch the balloons getting filled with hot air. Once our balloon was full enough, we were asked to climb into the basket and received a short welcome and briefing.

Then, we were off, floating slowly into the cool morning air… Around us hundreds of other balloons. A magical feeling. The flight lasted 1.5h and at times we went really close to the ground and in between the fairy chimneys, at other times we were high up in the air, having a stunning view of the landscape.

When the sun came up more and more, we had to land and there was a little celebration ceremony with champagne and certificates. Overall, a highly recommended activity and one that I will certainly remember forever!

The rest of my time in Cappadocia was spent exploring the region as much as possible next to my work. I was glad to have almost 5 days in Cappadocia, as it allowed me to see everything that I had wanted to see. I went on many different hikes, exploring places like the Love Valley, the Pigeon Valley and many more.

I also visited Göreme Open Air Museum, Cavusin, Zelve Open Air Museum and Uchisar Castle of which I enjoyed Zelve and Cavusin the most and both actually positively surprised me as the other places are more commonly visited. The nice thing about having a bit more time in a place is that you don’t just get to tick off the recommended highlights, but that you also get to see other places – which might actually end up being more stunning. I also went on a sunset horse riding tour which was so, so beautiful! I always like horse riding and especially when it is in beautiful nature like Cappadocia.

In the mornings, I made sure not to miss any sunrise – now watching the balloons from the ground; either from the roof terrace of my hotel or from one of the balloon viewpoints around Göreme. Even with lots of people around, it was just so beautiful and magical every single time!

My next stop on my Turkey itinerary was Ephesus or rather the town of Selcuk, which lays close to the Roman ruins of Ephesus. I spent only 2 nights here but really enjoyed my time. The ruins were nice to see, but nothing spectacular and too overrun by tourists for what they were. Selcuk itself was a nice little town though and I enjoyed walking around there.

From Selcuk, I took a train to Denizli and a quick minibus to Pamukkale. Pamukkale is famous for its travertines – little terrace pools – and translates into „cotton castle“ which I find a very fitting name. The snow-white pools – some filled with water, some empty – look surreal in the landscape. What made it even more spectacular were the dark clouds hanging in the sky on the day when I visited Pamukkale. A photographer’s paradise!

With the same ticket, you also get to visit the ruins of Hierapolis which were really nice, but a bit spread out. I hadn’t expected to be doing quite as much walking as I ended up doing that day – distances were large. Had I known about these ruins in advance, I probably would have skipped Ephesus as Hierapolis was just as cool, with Pamukkale a couple of meters away. In any case, a very, very worthwhile stop on any Turkey itinerary!

From Pamukkale, I went back to Denizli from where I took a bus to Antalya, the biggest city close to the climbing village Geyikbayiri, and a taxi from here to the campground Josito. I had finally arrived at my home for the next 5 weeks and was finally at a place again where I would stay, work remotely and climb as much as possible in my free time! And what an awesome place it was. I had my own little hut and there was a spacious common area, kitchen and co-working space. I was lucky to meet some really amazing people and climbing partners that I had a lot of fun with in those 5 weeks.

The climbing was great and for the first time, I found myself a proper 7a(+) project (Euro 7). I worked on it for about a week, but unfortunately had to leave without sending it. However, I learned so much in the process of projecting this hard route and I got super strong! So overall only positive take-aways. I also tried some other hard routes with my hardest send being Rüzgarli Bahce 6c+, a pumpy route with good rests that is only my 2nd ever 6c+ send! Overall, I gained a lot more confidence, got (a little?) over my fear of falling, got really into climbing shape again and thoroughly enjoyed my time in Geyik.

Here you can find some more photos of my time in Turkey.