If old homes could speak, you wouldn't here your own voice here in Avanos. Fifty percent of the old town is literally made of ruins, who knows how old. I assume it is leftovers from the Ottoman era. Pretty cool building style to be honest, small and yet practically designed homes, to provide well needed shelter in summer and warm up quickly in winter.
Today one Londoner/Indian friend was joining me on our trip. We had little to no expectations on this one, as it was my last day in Cappadocia and I have ran out of options, Avanos was kind of the last place to go to. There is really nicer things to do and go in Cappa, so I would recommend this place only after you've checked all the other places and attractions I have mentioned in previous blogs...
As you can see, something is quite different here. There is a river in Avanos, wow in the desert-like landscape of this region that is a last thing you would expect. But hey, it fits. It is nice and refreshing moment to see this centuries old life force. Without rivers there would be half of our cities in existence right...
As we move forward and over to the other side, the real center of the town emerges. It is not too distant to other Turkish old towns. It keeps the same charm and style. Nowadays it is of course real retro. Little souvenir shops and what I call "shitshops" welcome us in the old town. I am usually skeptical and I don't want to buy bullshit things like that but here they had something different that attracted my attention.
It was these hard pressed, baked products made out of Kapadokyan dirt. A real bullshit garbage souvenir ripe of thing, that only makes ones backpack a whole lot heavier. But I've found this little ashtray... And the owner and his sons looked so eager to sell something, anything really, that I had to go for the deal. They have sold me two ashtrays for 5 TRY, do the math...in dollar cents it is about 30 cents or so. Pretty unreal price. I should have left them a tip at least, but on the other hand it is their business and at least I have supported them. Hopefully now, writing about their town, some more travelers will get lost in their workshop, based on my advice.
Next up is urbex in one of those abandoned old houses, where we try our best not to collapse with the ceiling, take pictures from the balcony and than we find ourselves high above the city, where I take off with my drone and capture some "gold" for my YouTube and blogs.
On the way back down to center, we spot this cat, which seemed to be waiting for a camera to arrive. Of course, she is shy as I pull my phone out rather quickly, but I was lucky and she is well positioned and this made it as the highlight of the post to the very cover of the article. Avanos was hell of a cool place, nothing crazy, it is still just random town in the middle of tucker but I think it is worthy mentioning and visiting.
If you're interested to find out about Cappadocia, you can find some of my drone videos and commentary in the video below.
All the best,
Global Local
