Day 04 (28.10.2023) Safranbolu - Ankara - Cappadocia

After breakfast at the hotel, we departed for our next stop, the Atufuk Museum in Ankara, the Capital of Türkiye -  it's a museum dedicated to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Türkiye.  

Unfortunately, it was 28 October, Turkey National Day (29 Oct) holiday long weekend.  The line up outside the museum was unreal, so, by majority vote, we decided to skip it and go straight to Cappadocia, where we will be staying two nights in the cave hotel.  

I was holding the group flag while Alex and Hiko checking out what's the chance of getting in the museum.

On the way there we made a brief stop at Lake Tuz (Tuz Gölü meaning salt lake) second largest lake in Türkiye and one of the largest hyper saline lakes in the world.  It's fed by small streams and several underground salt springs but no outlet.  During the summer the lake dries up exposing an average of 30 cm thick salt layer in August. This mechanism is used as a basis for the process of the salt mines in the lake. The three mines operating in the lake produce 63% of the salt consumed in Türkiye. The salt mining generates industrial activity in the region, mainly related to salt processing and refining.

From here it was almost two hours drive to our cave hotel, Kalsedon Cave Suites, we got there before sunset.  Speaking of these long bus rides, they didn't seem long to me at all...the sceneries were beautiful, the group was amazing (by now, only Day 4, I already got to know many of them by their first names).  Besides, we had Hiko and Alex telling us about the fascinating Turkish history and culture; and Winnie, one of our group members, singing some beautiful songs; making the bus rides quite enjoyable.

 My Suite

Exterior

Dinner buffet

To Day 5👉