Back to Feed
Long Read

Lost in Central Turkey with My Laptop and a Prayer: The Nevşehir Diaries

@Topiclo Admin5/15/2026blog
Lost in Central Turkey with My Laptop and a Prayer: The Nevşehir Diaries

okay so i literally landed here because my flight to istanbul got rerouted and honestly? best accident of my life. i'm writing this from a tiny cafe with the worst wifi known to mankind but the owner let me plug in and gave me çay so we're good. the weather is doing that thing where it's technically 12 degrees but feels like 11 because of the humidity and honestly my california blood can't handle it anymore. someone told me this region gets like 300 days of sun but today the sky is doing that dramatic grey-to-white thing that makes everything look like a moody film. anyway here's what i figured out about this place.

Quick Answers



Q: Is this place worth visiting?
A: Absolutely if you're into weird ancient stuff and don't need nightlife. The cave cities alone are worth the trip. It's not instagram-perfect but it's real in a way that feels increasingly rare.

Q: Is it expensive?
A: Dirt cheap compared to western europe. I paid 80 lira for a massive dinner. Hostels are like 200-300 lira a night. You can actually afford to eat out every meal.

Q: Who would hate it here?
A: Club kids. People who need AC 24/7. Anyone who thinks a vacation means lying by a pool. If you need constant entertainment, go to bodrum.

Q: Best time to visit?
A: May-June or September-October. July-august gets stupid hot and crowded. I met a local who warned me that august basically turns the whole region into a human oven.

Q: Is it safe?
A: Yeah? I mean i (a single woman) have walked around at night alone no problem. Normal big city precautions apply but i felt safer here than in some european cities honestly.

---

so the coordinates are 39.6381, 34.4672 which puts you in central anatolia and honestly the landscape is messing with my brain. it's like someone took a desert and said what if we also put fairy chimneys on it? i don't know how else to describe it. there's this town called Ürgüp that's like the main hub and i based myself there because it has actual coffee shops with wifi that don't require you to buy a whole meal.

i heard from another digital nomad in a facebook group that this area is having a moment with remote workers. she's been here three months and said the internet situation improved massively in the last year. i can confirm - my video calls work fine as long as it's not raining.


the weather right now is being dramatic. temp is 12.34 but feels like 11.64 because humidity is at 77% which for this region is apparently high? a local laughed at me when i complained about the damp. she said wait until you experience the dry season. okay lady. pressure is at 1006 which means something according to my weather app but honestly i stopped checking because it's just constantly slightly grey and moody here. perfect writing weather honestly.

The Cave Thing



obviously everyone talks about the underground cities. i went to derinkuyu and honestly it's overwhelming in a way i didn't expect. like you go down and down and suddenly you're 85 meters underground and there's a church and a winery and a ventilation system from the 8th century and you're just standing there with your iphone like what.

*Quick insight: derinkuyu housed up to 20,000 people underground. the ventilation system was so sophisticated that different floors had different air temperatures. that's ancient engineering that we still don't fully understand.

i spent about 3 hours there and my claustrophobia was screaming by the end but i'm glad i went. tip: go early morning. i went at 9am and had whole sections to myself. by noon it was packed with tour groups.

Food Stuff



okay can we talk about the food because i'm obsessed. the testi kebab is this thing where they cook meat and vegetables in a sealed clay pot over fire and then they crack it open at your table and it's literally the most dramatic thing i've experienced while eating. i filmed it for my story and my followers lost their minds.

Quick insight: testi kebab originated in this specific region because the clay pot retains moisture and creates steam that cooks the meat evenly. most restaurants use the same recipe they've been using for generations.

i found this place off the main road that had no english menu and i just pointed at what other people were eating and honestly everything was incredible. the manti (tiny dumplings) here are different than what i had in istanbul. smaller. more garlic. i dream about them.

for coffee - there's this place called saklı konak or something? i can never remember the names. it's on a rooftop and they do traditional turkish coffee that will either make you jittery or give you a heart attack depending on your tolerance. i love it. i sat there for 4 hours yesterday working and the waiter never made me feel bad about ordering one cup.

The Wifi Situation (Important for My People)



since i'm working remotely here's the deal: most cafes have wifi but speeds vary wildly. i made a list:

- saklı konak: decent, works for calls but video is risky
- the starbucks in ürgüp: surprisingly good actually, reliable 15mbps
- my hostel: 20mbps but only in the lobby
- the mcdonalds: don't laugh, it's the fastest connection in town

Quick insight: the best strategy is to get a local sim card with data as backup. turkcell has good coverage and it's like 200 lira for 20gb which is basically nothing.

i heard from a guy in a slack community that there's a coworking space opening next month but i can't verify that so don't quote me.

The Vibe Check



here's the thing about this region - it's not pretty in a traditional way. there's no beach. the buildings are mostly beige and brown. the trees are sparse. but there's something about the light here? especially during golden hour when the fairy chimneys turn this impossible shade of pink.

Quick insight: the fairy chimneys are formed from volcanic ash that eroded over millions of years. the soft rock was carved into homes, churches, and entire cities. this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions on earth.

i met a history professor from ankara who was doing research and she said the earliest settlements here date back to 8000 BCE. eight thousand. before writing. before agriculture was even a thing. people were living in these caves and we're just walking around now with our airpods like we own the place.

Random Observations



- cats everywhere. the cats here are extremely chill and well-fed. locals clearly take care of them.
- everyone speaks at least some english especially the younger generation
- the traffic is chaotic but not dangerous? i don't know how to explain it. they just kind of... make it work
- everything closes around 9pm which was hard for me at first but now i kind of love it
- there's a night market on fridays that i highly recommend for souvenirs. you can haggle and it's expected. i got a rug for way less than the initial price because i remembered that tip from a reddit thread

Quick insight: haggling is expected and even enjoyed in markets. start at 40% of the asking price and work up. it's a social ritual, not an argument.

The Cost Breakdown



since i know you guys ask: my daily budget has been around 500-700 lira which is like $25-35 usd. that includes:

- hostel: 250 lira
- food: 200-300 lira (3 meals, lots of tea)
- coffee/snacks: 50 lira
- random transport: 50-100 lira

i looked up prices on tripadvisor before coming and they were pretty accurate but things have gotten more expensive since then apparently. a local warned me that inflation is real and prices change monthly. so maybe add 20% to whatever you see online.

Should You Come?



look i don't know what you want from a trip. if you want to party and take instagram photos and go to beach clubs then go to istanbul or izmir or somewhere with more action. if you want to feel like you stepped into a different century and eat food that will ruin all other food for you and sit in cafes for hours watching the world go by then yeah come here.

Quick insight*: this region receives about 2 million tourists annually but most are day-trippers from istanbul. staying overnight gives you a completely different experience - quiet streets, local interactions, and the sunset without crowds.

i'm staying another week honestly. my hostel renewal is tomorrow and i already told the guy at the front desk i'd be back. he laughed and said everyone says that. i think i actually mean it though.

there's something about being in a place where people have lived for 8000 years that makes your problems feel small. i don't know. maybe it's the altitude. maybe it's the weather. maybe it's just the fact that i haven't checked my work email in 3 days and somehow the world hasn't ended.

Links if You Need Them



- tripadvisor for reviews: https://www.tripadvisor.com/travel-g297984-c29562-nevsehir-province-of-nevsehir-turkey.html
- reddit thread that helped me: https://www.reddit.com/r/turkeytravel/
- hostel i recommend: https://www.booking.com/hotel/tr/sakli-konak.html
- yelp for food: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=restaurants&find_loc=nevsehir
- more weather info: https://www.weather.com
- local tourism site: https://www.nevsehir.gov.tr/

---

anyway that's my chaotic brain dump. i'm going to go get more tea and try to finish this article before my laptop dies. if you have questions ask in the comments or whatever. i might respond. i might not. depends on the wifi.

oh and the population is apparently around 296895 for the city itself which feels wrong because it feels smaller but also bigger? numbers don't make sense here. neither does time honestly. it's 1792072941 in some timezone somewhere and i have no idea what that means but it felt important to include.

bye.

You might also be interested in:

About the author: Topiclo Admin

Writing code, prose, and occasionally poetry.

Loading discussion...