Cappadocia

So nice and early we rolled into cappadocia.. upon waking from my last 15 min nap, i saw the coolest valley fillled with hot air balloons.. i just smiled, said cool.. and passed out for another 20 before rolling into goreme.. o but how could i forget to mention the first stop in nevishir.. ha i knew it was coming.. i was warned.. and i pretty much expected it actually.. what happens is before we roll into the city where basically everyone on the bus is staying, we stop in the main city just outside so the locals can jump on and scare the tourists off the bus and chase them into the travel agencies so they haveta buy tours and whatnot.. i watched as the canadian couple i talked to pre- bus boarding got snatched right up, as well as the other clueless tourists that believed the guys saying they had to get off the bus and hurry..in their defense, these dudes are pretty believable, but i knew better to just chuckle and roll over..then this big old turkish lady came and sat next to me and kinda slapped me..thanks. she started yellin at me i thinkk because i was wearing short sleeves.. it was freakin hot next to the heater!! we waited a few more minutes for the locals to dispute thier arguments about who took whose seat as they naturally filled into the ones left empty by the tourists who got off the bus too soon... suckers. i bet thats half the game in getting them off the bus so the locals can jack thier seats. anyway, most of us made it directly to goreme...as we were dropped off i found 3 aussies looking a bit lost at the station.. i got a map and showed them the two different places i was thinkin of stayin and they joined me at the nomad cave hotel..their only requirements were sleeping in a cave..mine was too be cheap..and so i did a tiny barter and we were all happy with our sardine style cave dorm :)

we had some turkish breakfast and headed out ambitiously to see as many canyons as possible by foot.. first we had to stroll through town past the carpet shops... new just in like 10 mins ago, antique carpets start around 500 lira for little baby size ones.. aka a big fat joke if they think ill actually buy one...maybe ill shop a bit in istanbul.. a little free apple tea and interesting fake conversations about my life never hurt anyone :)

so we headed down the road past these cool old trees.. apparently this pottery one is famous..and right next to it is this one tied up with garbage? equally interesting.. not to mention the backdrop! wow! we rolled up to the open air museum.. and then turned it down for 15 lira.. especially after the guy was at a loss of words to tell us what was in tehre that we couldnt find on our own in teh canyons... plus the church that is worth seeing inside is another 8 lira too.. hmm glad my new friends were on a similar budget! so we headed out into the great unknown, following painted signs that kept saying "red rose 2km" every km.. red and rose were apparently two different canyons.. but we actually never figured out the difference either.. the canyons are cool.. and i learned in my tour on the last day they formed from compressed volcanic ash.. the different colors are different minerals.. iron is the yellow? or maybe it was pink.. aluminum was .. ah. i forgot already... and sulfate? the white? anyway, the fluffy pillow, whipcream like ones are the ones that havent erroded yet.. and apparently what i saw is not anything what it will look like in 15 years... the fluffy ones will look more like the weiner ones we found in other canyons! ha.. so we prolly hiked a decent 10 km at least.. plus the up and down of discovering all the little nooks and abonded old houses and churches and crazy paths that were once carved into these strange "fairy chimneys" as they are called.. we were literally the only ones out htere for ages.. only after about an hour or two of walking did we come across 2 americans families travelling together... then we let the kids run up the steep cliffs to check out if there was anything in the fairy chimneys so we didnt haveta do the work! different ppl say different things.. maybe ppl actually really lived in these for real life.. we liked to make up our own stories about the hermits that were still alive and well and just out to kidnap the tourists and the stuff in their bags! we also had a few theories about the craaazy rock formations.. i thought there was water in the canyon because of the different color layers of stone that formed perfectly straight lines if you looked across teh rocks over a vast distance.. maybe i was wrong..it was just a layer of volcanoness... but it was a good theory for 2 days..



(from inside a fairy chimney)

along the way we often stopped to chow down on whatever fruit we could find.. it happened to be quite a bit.. grapes, apples, pumpkin patches galore, and those weird apple pear fuzzy things that we saw in switzerland... so we hiked and hiked, stopped for a little waterbreak in the middle of nowhere.. hiked and admired the scenery some more..and even had a run in with a local..we were sure he was originally a hermit..and eihter it was death if we walked down the path.. there was a cross of sticks, or not possible to enter.. so we took a new route.. we got to see a church with some painting from the byzantine era ..like 11th or 12th century in a little church out in the red valley.. or was it the rose valley?




we saw the clouds starting to darken.. and our feet were gettin pretty tired.. so from teh top of the valleys we could spot the main and only road a km or so out.. so we headed for it.. picked up a stray doggie friend and walked the last two km back into goreme... we found the "kebab corner," which became our only source of meals other than the free breakfast for the rest of our time, and sat and enjoyed the delicousness of a good durum...(or kebab or gyro.. depends where you are). we headed back to the nomad and had a little rest... while i was outside i ran into erik..one of my american friends from olympos walkin down the road to his place.. he was tellin me how cool it was so i haddd to go check it out.. he was stayin in a pigeon house.. a pigeon house is basically a fairy chimney carved with little squares for pigeons to sit in.. pigeons were sacred animals... good luck to have around.. .and their poop was even better for growing plants.. so i guess eating pigeon poop isnt all that weird afterall.. these ppl did it to survive 1000 years ago!? ha... its digusting...not gonna lie! but the pigeon house is at the veryy top of this little hotel.. you climb a rickity ladder and scale a small amount of white ash rock and hop carefully through a window to get into the room.. the room is an even more legit cave than our dorm...but a bit more pricey... i got to hang out there a bit anyway! so erik came out with me and the aussies.. we were all a bit slow and tired and just wanted to chill out by the fire inside the flinestone bar.. on the way there, we met a local who was standing out by a little stove in the middle of the road.. hannah and i ran up to get heat.. we chatted with "john," im sure thats not his name.. and eventually he had us all convinced to come up to his restaurant.. so everyone got a beer..hannah got the clay pot specialty.. they only use the pot to cook one meal and then you break it open! crazy!

and we all got a new local turkish friend.. he explained to us a bit of hte corruption in the turkish government and police system.. and how they dont usually put all the bills on paper because the taxes are so high.. but you haveta have them all on paper when a cop walks in.. except for his.. because his is free..and if you accidently hand him a check... your shit outta luck.. wow. and apparently this corruption is one of the things keeping turkey outta the EU... who knew we were gettin a free political science crash course as well.. anyway.. he took us to the flinestone bar.. apparently we had picked the most happenin place by chance..you know.. playin rounds of backgammon and whatnot...and then later it was to panchas for some pool and a lonnng crazy night that we had not planned for!

The next morning was a bit slow.. but i was up at 9 anyway because i suck at sleeping in.. so first i made um aquaintances with this english crazy old hippy man.. i was using the computer in teh common room and told me he needed my help to check his plane flight... fine... i did it in like 12 seconds after he gave me the info..but then i had to follow him down to the internet cafe and do it all over and print it out for him..because my tutorial wasnt good enough.. because he refused to learn to use the internet ever.. and cell phones were unnecessary to life as well.. but here he is pleaing for my help to type in the web address, his last name, and confirmation code.. i told him he prolly would haveta embrace technology soon..but he went off on how it was the devil. fine. so explaining my major to him probably made me more of the devil over my "thank you tea time" between all the locals at teh backgammon boards at 10 am.. one dude pulled up a chair to listen to our convo.. well it was really all his convo.. he was preaching ot me about something.. how he was allowed to go travel through iran because he changed the window in his house for his wife.. but travelling now is rough because all these damn young kids use the internet to reserve hostel beds and then they arent available when he rolls up at midnight.. yea. weve all been there.. so youre eihter with them or against them... and he would never ever consider looking up a hostel or reserving it online.. its the devil.. i guess he woulda been on the streets a few times had he ventured into western europe in the high season.. the whole time i was just thinkin...why am i still sitting here?! so i told him i had to go.. why does he want me to sit here if he is just bashin young travellers in and out? o he had a field day when we came in late that night... ha. he had been at our hostel a few years ago and knew where the dorm room was..adn the fact that the door is never really locked..so he crawled into the bed next to me and decided hed just crash teh hostel and then complain about us in the morning.. sorry. we were here first..and thats the beauty of a dorm.. maybe you should find a place thats at least 40 years closer to your age group.. aye yaye yaye... so i left him.. and the aussies were still passed out.. so i went for a walk into another valley.. i wondered up to a church that wanted 8 lira to go in.. mm im in the middle of the desert and this little dude wants me to give him 8 lira. no way... i told him i didnt have any money.. and he said ok, you my good friend...come come..and i got in for free..i thought he was gonna lock me in the tiny little fairy chimney church.. he showed me baby jesus.. mary.. the 12 apossstals, and the confession room which now had a metal gate and lock.. NO im not going in there.. i took a picture in someones tomb too and was ready to get out of hte little building.. i was soo glad i didnt pay for that.. then i sat for some tea and a little bread biscuit and listened to his speal on cappadocia..and how i need to do the tours.. i dont have any money.. remember? so he offered his own personal tour... i told him i had to go get my friends before i made any decisions but we would all come back in a little bit together..and he should me a real pigeon house.. up a ladder..cool.. but nothing new i didnt see the first day..and thennn it was time to go.. the other more beautiful churches that he would open just for me would haveta wait til i got my friends/never...

i walked back to round up the troops.. while they got ready i found a tiny little friend.. it fit in my hand and wouldnt let me go! and sat on my shoulder for a good 10 mins.. :)

we headed back to explore more of the same valley i had been in.. but found a new way back to town.. well we ended up on someone's tin roof.. and had to scale this crazy hill we pretty much slid down to prevent from ending up in their yard.. we attempted to head to hte castle which was in the horizon and apparently a walkable distance..but we clearly were not on the right route...o well.. of course i found some more food to munch on.. they asked if these were safe to eat.. i dunno! as i chopped away.. guess im still here so they were fine!

we went to get some bus tickets and then back to hostel so everyone could get ready for thier overnight bus back to istanbul... maybe i shoulda learned my lesson and went with them this time..but i reallly wanted to see the balloons in teh morning so i decided to stay one more day... what do ya know..it rained of course! shortly after they left, erik and steph came and found me and i went back to the pigeon cave for some wine and backgammon.. then i crashed kinda early since i only had about 4 hours of sleep..and i had to get up for the balloons!

i only got up around 6:30... and i was worried i missed them all as i saw 3 balloons decending in the horizon as i ran out in the morning.. they were just all dipping into the different canyons..and by the time i was out there wiht them.. there was sooo many! kinda glad i didnt pay the 150 euro for the balloon ride as teh sky was crap... and i feel like we had done a pretty good job exploring all those caves on our own.. im sure its an amazing experience though.. and i wouldnt mind adding a hot air balloon ride to the list of things ive done! watching from the ground was cool though.. cant complain for a free view! so i got myself together and decided that i might as well go on teh "green tour" for my last day.. the typical path that takes you to this canyon 110 km away to see more pigeon houses and a valley and underground city and whatnot... so i joined one like an hour before it left.. no problem.. didnt get the amazing rate that my american friends got who jumped off that bus into town early.. but eh.. guess they earned it for that.. so first up was a scenic spot adn then the underground city! kinda cool.. not too much to see.. this city was really old though.. i think 4th century status.. but christians only lived in it for 1-2 months while they were hiding from persecution from hte muslims all comin in.. the city had 8 floors down..and it was freakin cold in there..getting way colder with each level.. theres lots of tunnels that went to other connecting cities (they know of 128 in goreme that once existed..) and tunnels that were wells, conversation tubes, air, food storage, traps and so on.. it was a crazy network..with classrooms, churches and wineries...but i have noo idea how they knew where to go ever.. walking back up to the sunlight was ahhh! for like 2 minutes.. then the second morning prayer whipped me back into shape.. haha.. so apparently its only sometimes a recording.. often in small cities there is actually someone in the tower of the mosque sayin that beauuuuutiful song 5 times a day.. i guess most ppl get woken up by the 5 am one which is a little different..im yet to budge!

after the underground city, we saw the valley adn "hiked" 4 km of the 14 total for the valley.. it was the shortest easiest hike ive done on my trip.. some of the asians chose to sit it out and take the bus to the other end.. o gosh.. what a shame too because the valley was gorgeous.. the trees and river and fall just make you forget where you are... youre just in nature... its amazing how it all feels the same in a way no matter where you are in the world.. until theres some element of culture to remind you that you are in fact in a different country!
we explored a little church.. maybe even a pigeon church? taht was carved into the rock in the side of the valley.. its actually kinda nuts to see the sides of this pretty little valley all carved out into old houses.. this church was older than most.. no eyes painted on anyone because it was an era where people werent allowed ot paint..without eyes they couldnt see what was goin on.. there is still symbols of the roman eye ill call it.. that keeps away demeons and brings good luck.. its alllll over greece and turkey.. everywhere.. especially doorways. cool that it goes back a handful of centuries too..

2 km down the road was a rest stop where these little turkish ladies were brewin up some gozereme.. a hugge tortilla with cheezish stuff in it..sometimes they are reffered to as pancakes and have spinach or meat in them too.. so i watched them much and make.. ithink they ate more than they were actually producing..


at the end of our "stenuous"walk.. it was lunch time literally on the river... i sat with the korean boys and old aussie lady.. haha its funny how the turkish ppl judge you..they thought the boys were japanese.. since there are so many japanese ppl who come through turkey..and they always think im german.. so they whip out thier japanese and german for us.. and we look at each other.. and were like.. uh again?! kinda makes you realize what ppl haveta do for survival.. most americans are too lazy to care to learn another language... if you dont speak english.. well go to another country.. but here.. these people are lucky to have half the education we do.. adn yet they all speak at least 5 languages... need to work on the targeting a bit..but they know so much more than us in that sense.. interesting..

next was the best stop.. this old monestary that was first built by the egyptians, and then details and rooms and columns and whatnot were added on by the byzantine, romans, anddd the other guys..more christains? i forget who.. but there were 4 differetn groups of ppl that took advantage of htis monestary carved in these crazy rocks just out here in teh middle of nowhere.. they were reallly cool!





and we saw a few more look out sights.. and either our tour guide was lazy, or something with the rain..but we missed the onyx demonstration at the end of our tour where they try desperately to sell us all stuff at 400% rates.. bummer.. o well.. ive seen enough of those in egypt and thailand.. so right as i get back to the hostel, erik rides by on one of the scooters they rented for the day.. he had 40 more mins to drive it around so we went for a little ride.. i was gonna show him the road the aussies and i had found the afternoon before..but it was dark.. dumb idea.. but luckily we came across another pumpkin patch..and in the spirit of halloween, we jacked the only orange, big, and rightfully pumpkin looking pumkin from a patch and brought it back to the pigeon hole to carve up and bring halloween to turkey! we decided to stick with a pretty traditional jack-o-lantern... hopefully someone around here has seen an american movie with halloween in it.. i was soo excited to do smoething halloweeny in turkey! didnt think that was gonna happen! whoo! if you look closely in the pic..you can see the tower next to the mosque lit up through the door/window of the pigeon room...we set it outside for all of goreme to see.. i explained to one inquisitive turk.. he asked if it was something to do with christmas.. not quite..but he was on the right track i guess...

ooo and then time for my night bus... the promised 2009 model that was top of the line with a full refund from his friend if it wasnt up to what i hoped it to be.. these guys are magical liars.. its sooo frustrating. you have no idea who to believe and what to believe when they all get going.. you just haveta learn through trial and error... or talking to others who have made the mistakes first.. gah.. unfortunately i fell for this dumb bus twice.. they promised me wifi on the bus..adn our bus was the only one without wifi i figured out at a bus stop.. and naturally.. i had the burning heater on my left leg again..and the driver that lights up ocassionally while driving and smokes out the bus. gah. and who was i going to complain to? the guy waay back in goreme? he knew he wouldnt be on work when i got on that bus... and even better.. we had to take a shuttle to nevershir to get on teh bus so i couldnt even complain until i was almost 30 mins out.. so the bus that was supposed to get in at 6:30 after 10 hours was going ot get in at 9:00 now after a solid 12 hours and 45 mins.. ahhhhh! of course. before i got on the bus.. i wanted to be sure i was going to get the "free"shuttle from the istanbul bus station to my suburb where my hostel was... i knew my ticket needed to say the final destination.. ive learned that one.. so the ticket kid.. he was like 18.. took my ticket and ripped it up and said there was no bus for me tongiht.. i would haveta stay another night in goreme.. thanks... this is the first town in turkey i almost got out of without someone trying to make me stay another night.. there was free accomidation at his house..and hewould personally get me to istanbul in 5 hours the next morning..hahaha. yea right.. but he wouldnt write me a new ticket.. so i started to get a little mad.. adn he kept smiling telling me that i get to stay with him for the night.. i went and found a new bus dude who was like cmon kid give her her ticket back.. and only after everyone was in the minibus shuttle did i get my ticket rewritten for istanbul... still not sultanahmed.. aye yaye.. at least i got to get on my bus i paid for! so in my stressed out over nothing that i could really control state.. i made freinds with some morracans who were used to the system of it all.. and then a pakastinian couple that was on their honeymoon and was used to it all too.. and i just had to laugh..ooo turkey. you got me again..