Come and knock on my door...

It might have come to your attention that I am staying conspicuously silent on the matter of recent interesting events occurring in Istanbul.  I've received several touching emails or messages from friends, and just want to say that I am fine; I've been staying well out of it and fully intend to continue to do so.  But regarding my thoughts or silence thereof, this is not a political blog, and frankly there are more than enough opinions on this situation that are percolating and circulating around the internets already.  I want to ask only that -- no matter what your political opinion, that you please just stay calm and smart about the whole thing.  Spreading information is good.  Re-sharing obviously photoshopped images, photos from a completely different conflict altogether, mis-translated quotations, or posting some histrionic version of "ZOMG THIS HAPPENED TEAR GAS!" is not helpful.  The internet makes it all too easy for people to be idiots.  Don't fall into the trap!  Check your sources, take a breath, and don't be part of sensationalism.  Because if nothing else, you better believe that someone on your friendslist is going to notice that photoshop or be able to speak Turkish and translate that quote correctly, and they are going to call you out and you will feel stupid.

Ahem.

Now back to the good part.

Cappadocia was incredible, but even with the several hours I spent deliberately Relaxing, I was still pretty much exhausted by the time I got home Monday night.  That was just too bad for me, because there was a night event at my school Tuesday, and then I had just two days to plow through laundry and get the apartment presentable before my friend Sarah came to visit!

She got in late Friday evening; I met her at Ataturk and we came back together to the lovely borough of Sirinevler.  Just long enough for us to change and brace ourselves for the long ride into Taksim, because Rachel's parents had come for the weekend and they were taking us out to dinner!  We ate at a traditional Turkish place, on floor cushions.  I had one of my Turkish faves, iskender, and it was quite tasty.

Sarah, me, and Rachel

There is no way I can tackle all of this in my typical narrative chronological style, so here are the highlights of Sarah's 10-day Istanbul Adventure.

Saturday was a full day.  We conquered the "Rick Steves Back Streets Istanbul Walk," which included four mosques and two giant bazaars among other things.  It was my first visit to the Suleymaniye Mosque, as well as the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar.  I am definitively not a Bazaar Person.  I found the constant haggling, wheedling, catcalling, and simpering to be positively abrasive.  The massive crowds didn't help either.  But the clincher came at the Spice Bazaar, where I saw a tiny box of Turkish Delight offered at the staggering price of 40 lira.  You have got to be fucking kidding me.  Found the exact same box elsewhere for 10 lira.  I have pretty much zero respect for anyone trying to take such disgusting advantage of people who just plain don't know any better.

Grand Bazaar

Inside the Suleymaniye Mosque

 We crossed the Galata and had an excellently refreshing respite with some fried calamari, stuffed mussels, and beer (for me).  Then we took the tram back up to Sultanahmet to see something that's been on the top of my Istanbul Must-See list since I got here -- A Whirling Dervish show!

The show was great, but I knew that I was paying for a Tourist Spectacle.  After the dervishes, a freaking belly dancer came out.  Seriously?  Not exactly two great tastes that taste great together.  I'd plunked down my 40 lira to see dervishes, and would have been completely happy if that was all there was to see.  Awkward solo belly dancer shaking her stuff to a half-full room of mostly couples and/or older women... did not really add much to the evening.

We got a late start on Sunday, and went to see the Archaeological Museum.  A bit dry but worth a look around.  Interestingly, Rick Steves advised that, if pressed for time, you skip the Museum of the Ancient Orient, which was my favorite part of the whole affair.  The Kadesh Treaty is here, which is the world's oldest surviving peace accord, as well as friezes of Babylonian dragons and some cool Egyptian artifacts.  Ah well, each to his own, Rick Steves!

Kadesh Treaty

Inside the main museum, the highlight for me was this incredibly creepy poor guy on display.  They called him a mummy but there sure didn't seem to be much mummified stuff left.

I also really liked this guy, a giant statue of the god Bes, who apparently is sometimes mistaken for Hercules.

The third building, the Tiled Kiosk, has some beautiful ceramics and examples of Iznik tiles.  Unmistakably the prettiest, but possibly the least interesting, from a historical point of view at least.

Door into the Tiled Kiosk

After the museum, we got ourselves some fresh air and did a Bosphorus Cruise.  I'd done one before and this was pretty much exactly the same, but the weather was nice and there were no Turkish teenage boys being douchebags on this go-round, so it was enjoyable enough. :)

Sarah with Europe behind her

On Monday, we decided to foray off the beaten path a bit, and find Chora Church.  We got a little lost attempting to do this, and ended up making our own road through a Muslim graveyard.

It wasn't really Rick's fault but we needed someone to blame in the moment.

Eventually, we found it.  The Chora Church is famous because of the marvelous mosaics that have survived inside.  Rick says to take an hour scrutinizing them all?  Yeah... we made sure to take absolutely as long as we could because it had been such a bitch to find, and pretty much ran out of stuff to stare at after 15 minutes.  Undeniably beautiful though, even if I couldn't manage to fill the hour!

Chora Church

Chora Church is right next to the Old City Walls, built by Constantine when this place was still Constantinople.  So we got out our rock-climbing skills and checked them out.

Stairway to heaven?  Also, crazy freaking steep.

I still had to work my standard Tuesday through Friday, but we managed to have some fun in the evenings anyway.  On Tuesday, we ventured all the was over to Asia and had dinner in Kadikoy.  On Wednesday, we went out to Aksaray and did a traditional Turkish hamam.  Pretty identical to my hammam experience in Trabzon, except this time I was able to communicate that I didn't want buckets of water poured over my face or soap covering my eyes.

When Saturday rolled around again, it was time for another full day.  Sarah had seen a lot of the Tourist Must-Sees on the days when I was working, but she hadn't caught the Blue Mosque yet, so we started with that.  And holy crap, the line.  When I visited in February I was able to walk right in!  Istanbul in June is... engorged.

Line snaking around the inner courtyard

Specifically because I knew I'd be going to a mosque, I wore a pair of capri shorts that covered my knees.  But apparently this was not good enough, and they made me wear this ridiculous blue skirt/wrap thing.  Oh well.  As I kept saying to Sarah throughout the week, "When in Constantinople..."

Sarah, me, the Blue Mosque, and my skirt

After the Blue Mosque, we wandered through the peaceful Arasta Bazaar, which is where I will be doing all my shopping when it comes time for it, and did a quick spin through the Mosaic Museum.  Small but quite interesting; I liked the prevalence of mythological creatures in the mosaic art.  The Green Man, a winged unicorn, a griffin... very cool.

Green Man

We wanted to tour the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, but it's closed for renovation.  So we walked across the Galata again because I'd finally convinced Sarah to try one of the awesome vendor cart fish sandwiches!  It was just as good as I remembered. :)  Then up to the Istanbul Modern, which is discretely tucked away along the Bosphorus and a welcome soothing balm to the bustle (and hustle!) of Sultahahmet.  Sadly, no photos inside, but a very interesting collection of often provocative pieces and installations.

I loved the juxtaposition of all the conflicting styles in this shot.

We walked up to Taksim for a bit, and saw some riot police who apparently got the memo one week too early.

And finally, Sarah took me out for an amazing dinner of Thai food!  I have been seriously missing my Asian fix, and this could not have been more perfect.  Spring rolls and extra-spicy (requested!) red curry, followed by poached pear and ginger ice cream with lemon and ginger tea.  100% HEAVEN.  Thank you again, Sarah!!

On Sunday, I accompanied her to the airport on Sunday morning and then had the No Pants Day of my LIFE.

It was awesome to have a friend from home here, to be able to experience Istanbul from a different perspective.  The days went by too quickly, but I don't see how we could have crammed anything more into them!  I got to check almost everything off my Istanbul Bucket List though -- I think only the Aquaduct and maybe the Dolmabache Palace are left.  And I very much hope that things quiet down here soon.  I have presents to buy for folks.

Cappadocia: Weird and Wonderful

Back in that first Cappadocia post, I mentioned a possible concussion as one of the memorable highlights of the trip.  Well.  As you may have guessed from its name, Shoestring Cave House boasts "cave rooms" for its guests.  I'm not sure exactly how natural or authentic these cave rooms are, but the dormitory consisted of three dark alcoves connected by doorways that were... somewhat lower than a normal doorway.  Compounding this interesting situation is the fact that you don't exactly get much light in a cave, even a man-made one.  My room was in the second alcove, and the only light from outside came from that which managed to filter around the curtain covering the small window way up in the first room.  It got kind of pitch black at night.

My third night there, I woke up at some predawn hour and really had to pee, so I groped my way along in the darkness towards the door.

I don't think I've ever in my life hit my head as hard as it connected with the top of this stone doorframe.  I mean, I seriously rang my bell.  I got the whole flash of light and nausea and everything.  It was really quite impressive.  I staggered on outside and peed successfully, then dragged myself back in and swallowed a bunch of advil.  (My roommates must have just loved me that night.)  The entire left side of my skull, from my forehead to the nape of my neck, was screaming in protest.  And as I lay there, praying for the advil to start working, it did cross my mind that maybe sleep was not precisely the thing to be trying to achieve right at that exact moment.  But at any rate, I appear to have survived.  Yay for me.

But seriously, Shoestring.  People are not five feet tall anymore.  Some glow-in-the-dark tape, or a night light or freaking something, would be appreciated.  Sincerely, me and the left side of my skull.

A few hours later, I woke up with blessedly less headache, and packed up for checkout, which was at 10:00 AM.  I hadn't had a chance to grab breakfast at the hostel yet, what with my early touring mornings, but made it up there on the last day.  The breakfast was pretty good, and definitively Turkish.  I didn't have to leave for the airport until 4:45, which meant I had practically a whole day to kill.  I decided to do a hike around Honey Valley, but first had to wait for a threatening thunderstorm to come and go, which took longer than I thought it had any right to.  At least I had an excuse for a pleasant slow morning in the courtyard, drinking tea and reading my novel.

And finally around noon I set out for Honey Valley.

Honey Valley has the prestige of boasting the most phallic fairy chimneys I'd seen thus far.  It also had literally about a dozen criscrossing paths, and I did not at all find it easy to figure out the right one, if even a right one was to be found.  There was one time when I decided I was for sure on the wrong path, backtracked, and chose another one which I followed for 20 minutes, only to find myself in practically exactly the same spot where I had turned around before.  Also, it was persistently thundering, and at least half the sky looked like that last picture there.  (While the other half looked like the rest of the photos at exactly the same time, go figure.)  I didn't want to be caught out in any untimely inclement weather, so after maybe two hours I turned around.  I feel like I got my money's worth from Honey Valley.

Back in Goreme, I got some manti for lunch at another Lonely Planet-sanctioned spot, then retreated once more to the comforts of Shoestring's roof terrace (and shady courtyard when the sun got hot).  My shuttle, flight, and short mass-transit journey back to my comfy apartment in Sirinevler went about as well as anyone ever hopes, and I wasted no time crawling into bed because tomorrow was going to prove a very long working day indeed.  Vacation is officially over, boys and girls!

I loved Cappadocia.  I had been so unsure as to whether it would prove to be worth it, because for sure this was not the simplest nor the cheapest trip I have ever booked.  But once everything was in place it just went beautifully.  And was it worth the money?  Unquestionably.  The jewel in the crown of my Turkish adventure, without a doubt.  I think a weekend would have been too short and a whole week too long, but four days was just about perfect.  I have definitely joined the ranks of the happy few singing Cappadocia's praises to al who might find themselves wandering through Turkey.

Cappadocia: Merits of the Guided Tour

I've never been a "guided tour" kind of person.  To me, a guided tour means you spend way too much time listening to someone talk about something you don't quite care about, while never having quite enough time to explore whatever it is you do care about.  Hell, I don't even like audioguides.

But, as it happens, Cappadocia is big.  It's a whole region, and if I wanted to see what awesomeness lay beyond the limits of my own two feet, I was going to have to sign up for a tour.  (I guess I could have rented a car, but... yikes.)

And hey, the fact that I needed to be on a minibus at 9:30 AM was really helpful in ensuring that I did not spend half of the day in bed.

There seem to be a couple standard tours offered by various companies, that all pretty much follow the same routes.  I booked through my hostel, and signed up for the South Cappadocia Tour, or "Green" tour.  It looked to be a pretty solidly full day.

We started off at the Goreme Panorama, which I was really glad I hadn't hiked to the day before as that would have been a tad redundant.  (I originally booked this tour a couple weeks ago and honestly did not remember exactly what all was on it.)  Just a quick talk from our tour guide, Vedat, about Cappadocia's history, a couple photos to show the boys back home, and it was back onto the bus.

One of the many little vendor stalls.  I WILL have one of these lamps!

I instantly liked Vedat, our tour guide.  He was friendly and young, down-to-earth and not the least bit saccharine or fake.  We had a couple fun conversations during the longer rides between stops.  He teased me about being a teacher, saying he hated hearing about how teachers worked so hard when they had so much time off.  I returned fire with a few of my better stories (and Rachel's), and asked if anyone from his tour groups had ever peed on his feet.

Our next stop was the Derinkuyu Underground City, but apparently the line to get in was astronomical, so Vedat took us instead to visit Selime Rock Monastery, promising we'd be back to Derinkuyu at the end of the day.

I LOVED Selime.  It reminded me so much of Uplistsikhe, the Georgian cave city I visited with Chris just about a year ago that day!  Vedat was going to give us 20 puny minutes to explore, but I gave him the hard sell and got us bumped up to 35.  Go me.  And I did need every second of that, believe me.  This place was so cool!

Right as we got back on the bus, it started to rain.  Perfect time to stop for lunch on a covered wooden porch overlooking a river!  The food was really good and my fellow tour-goers quite friendly.  An excellent lunch.  Then it was just a short drive to Ihlara Valley for a short hike.

It rained on us, but hooray for North Face rain jacket and quick-dry pants!

And then, we drove back to Derinkuyu and this time there was practically no line at all.  Vedat was hilarious as he tried to get us all ticketed and shepherded in ahead of this massive group of Chinese tourists.  We made it, yay. :)

Derinkuyu was mind-blowingly impressive.  I forget how many levels there are in total, but the first eight are open to the public.  Contrary to some popular belief, the people didn't live in the underground cities all the time, only when threatened by invading armies.  When that happened, they slipped quietly away to hang out underground for a couple months until the baddies up above got bored and went away.

Unfortunately, the cave city was the first time during the day that I felt that Vedat was kind of rushing us through.  I made sure to ask about every opening and passage that I saw, and he was pretty good about letting me explore, but I still would have liked some more time.  Oh well.

Finally, for our last stop we had one more "photo opportunity" overlooking the aptly-named Pigeon Valley.

It was here that the group became acquainted with Turkish Viagra.

I bought some naturally dried apricots and some peanuts that had been rolled in honey and sesame seeds.  Delish.  The vendor also managed to sell a tiny pot of "Turkish Viagra" to a very nice Indonesian man traveling with his family.  "Is like a BOMB!" the vendor promised.  One can only hope.

Back in Goreme, I found Fat Boy's, a Lonely Panet-recommended restaurant and pub, and had some  hummus.  After my huge lunch on the tour, I couldn't have handled anything more!  Then I went to find the also-Lonely Planet-recommended Red Red Wine House, specializing in local Cappadocian wine.  It was adorable but I was the only tourist there, and the only wines he had by the glass were house red and house white.  One of those things that would have been spectacular if I'd had a travel buddy to share it with, but on my own it only ended up being slightly awkward.  Proprietor was incredibly nice though.

I'd had such a good time with Vedat on the Green Tour that I decided to go ahead and sign up for the Red Tour the following day.  This was sort of the "lighter" tour, and would be even lighter than usual for me because it included a trip to the Goreme Open Air Museum, which of course I had already seen and convinced them to give me the tour minus the price of the museum ticket, and to drop me back at the hotel before visiting the museum at the end of the trip.  Considering the museum was supposed to start the tour, I thought this was incredibly nice of them.

The Red Tour (North Tour) started off in Cavusin, which was home to an old Greek cave settlement.  Abandoned after WWI, these cave homes were much newer than those from the Byzantine era, and so in places still looked very much like the shells of houses.  They were all built into the side of a cliff, and like everywhere else you could just climb and romp and explore to your heart's content, and if you fell to your death, well, on your own head be it.

The allotted half-hour was not enough time.  I wanted to poke my head into every alcove and investigate every hidden turn.  Every time I visit a place like this, I think about how great it would be to be able to see an artist's rendition of what it might have looked like at its peak.  Obviously those doorways in the last photo were at one time much more grand.  And how did the people move about?  Were they part mountain goat?  Or were there ladders and pulleys and such that obviously could never make it to present day?

Anyway, even if you don't do the guided tour, I highly recommend checking out Cavusin!

But for us, it was back on the bus and over to Pasabag, or Monk's Valley.  Yet another awesome weird alien landscape for me to fall in love with.  The rock here was practically alabaster white and eroded away to a fine grit almost like talcum.  It made for fun moments when the wind picked up.  The valley is named for St. Simeon, who apparently retreated here when he got too famous.

Bright white!

Love the pathway of steps worn into the soft rock.

Just to the right of this ridge, I spotted an old wooded ladder and a hand-lettered sign inviting people down to see a "hobby garden".  So I went to check it out.  There was the nicest man waiting under a shade awning with a cup of apple tea for me!  He had a couple things for sale, like tea leaves and home-dried fruit, and bottles of his homemade wine, which I really really wanted but he was asking 40 lira!  So I regretfully declined.  Besides, to climb back up I needed hands at a few tricky parts, and wasn't exactly sure how a bottle of wine was going to work out.  I also had to sadly refuse his offer to tour the garden, as my bus was leaving soon.  He really did have a pretty sweet setup, and I wish I could have stayed longer.  Oh well.  Should you for some reason find yourself at Monk's Valley, look for this guy.  His English was excellent and his apple tea delicious.

After Pasabag, we stopped for lunch at this very fancy buffet!  I rather liked yesterday's casual lunch at the riverside better.  But the food was good, even if my second batch of tour companions were some of the quietest people I had ever met.  I tried to strike up conversation a couple times but to no avail.  It was a rather silent lunch.  After all that, we bussed to a pottery shop in Avanos, and got a quick tour followed by a demonstration on a kick wheel.  After we watched the master at work, our guide asked if any of us wanted to try.  Well, of course I did!

Tiny secret -- I took pottery lessons for a couple years in my early 20s.  I am by no means a talented or accomplished potter.  But I was kind of excited at getting to show off a little. :)

Not a bad effort, if I do say so myself!  However, any vase that I might have created is, of course, completely eclipsed by the EPIC PANTS I was given to wear during this particular adventure.  I wanted to take them home and they would not let me.  (Also, just want to make it clear that I did not leave the hostel like that.  Those are not my pants.  No, they really aren't.  Stop laughing.  Asshole.)

After all that, it was time for a couple more "photo opportunities" at Ugrup and Devrent Valley.

Camel

The "family" rock chimneys, the symbol of Cappadocia

And then the rest of my group went to the Open Air Museum and I went to enjoy a glass or two of Cappadocian white on the roof terrace.  I mean, I was on vacation.

View of Goreme from Shoestring's roof terrace

Cappadocia: First Impressions

WELL.  Internet friends and lovers -- this one is for YOU!  I logged on this morning to find I'd surpassed 22,222 hits on the blog!  Utterly awesome, and thank you.  (Trolls and snide anonymous comment-leavers still unwelcome, natch.  Just go elsewhere.  But thanks for your hit! :p)

And yet once again, it seems I must offer apologies for the tardiness of this post.  My trip to Cappadocia just so happened to fall right smack in the middle of certain busy events at my school, and immediately before a friend from the States came to stay for nine nights.  Plus, after avoiding it for weeks (due to terror), I finally got Egypt sorted!  A Nile River cruise is happening!!!  So yeah, lots to catch you up on.

But first:  phallic fairy chimneys, Turkish viagra, conquering claustrophobia, and a possible concussion.  Good times!

If there are precious few things for which I will stand in an hour-long line, there are even fewer for which I will willingly get up at 4:30 in the morning.

Apparently, Cappadocia makes the short list.

After being so mentally away from everything for so long, it was a welcome breath of air to pull out Sisyphus again, pack him full of crap, and sally forth into predawn darkness.  I live three easy metro stops from Ataturk, but I discovered that is less helpful at 5:00 in the morning, as the metro is very definitely still closed for the night then.  (WTH Istanbul?  Don't you know that 5:00 AM is a completely acceptable time to start commuting?  Just ask all those perfectly sane people living around DC.  They'll tell you.)  So I got a taxi.  It worked out fine.

I love airports.  I love the thrill of being about to go somewhere.  I love getting through security, boarding pass in hand, and finding my gate with enough time to take a seat at a nearby cafe and people-watch for a while, listening to all the different languages, taking a peek at all the countless stories happening all around.  Flight itself was smooth -- short and uneventful.  I'd flown into Kayseri, and had arranged a shuttle bus transfer to my hostel in Goreme, which also worked out with no problem.  Although apparently I was lucky it did, because at least three other people thought they'd booked the same bus and did not end up going to Goreme right just then.

My hostel, Shoestring Cave House, was not the fanciest accommodation in Goreme but it was pretty cute.  They weren't really a hostel though.  It was mostly private rooms, with one big dormitory (16 beds!!) tucked away on the ground floor.  Bathrooms were across the courtyard, which meant you had to actually go outside.  Not the greatest for a midnight pee, and just bummer for you if it happened to be thunderstorming.  In my travels, I've come to to the conclusion that a place really just needs to decide from the get-go whether it wants to be a hotel or a hostel, and then just bloody well pick one and stick to it.  I've never had truly stellar experiences at any accommodation that was attempting to straddle the fence.  To put it simply, hostel life and hotel life are really very different.  They attract very different types of travelers, who have very different and specific ideas as to what their stay should look like.  It's hard to make everyone happy in this kind of conflicting environment.  But the staff were (mostly) very friendly and helpful.  I checked in, claimed a bed, confirmed my tour for the following day, and signed up to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant at 7:00 that evening.  Time to explore!

Goreme is really cute, but years of subsisting almost purely on tourism has turned it into a bit of a Cappadocia Disneyland.  No exaggeration, there are probably at least 200 different "cave hotels", and about as many tour operators nestled in between "authentic" Turkish restaurants and souvenir shops selling "authentic" kitsch.  I walked around town a little, got some mezzes for lunch at one of those aforementioned restaurants, and walked north out of town to find the Goreme Open Air Museum.  On my way I got my first real glimpses of this very justifiably famous landscape.  Never seen anything like it -- because there is nothing like it.  In the whole world, Cappadocia is the only known region to have geological phenomena like this, the affectionately-named Fairy Chimneys.

On my way to the museum, I took a quick side trip down a dirt path to see El Nazar Kilise, a 10th-century church.  I was somehow expecting something more church-shaped, but this is what I got.  My first foray into a Cappadocian cave structure!

El Nazar Kilise (Church of the Evil Eye)

Frescoes inside, sadly quite damaged

 The Goreme Open Air Museum is not really a museum.  It's a monastic settlement that dates from the Byzantine era, and is an impressive cluster of churches and monasteries all carved into stone.  Special bonus for me!  Right as I arrived it started to absolutely monsoon, so I waited under cover chatting with a very nice older couple from California.  When the rain stopped 20 minutes later, the place had emptied out and wasn't nearly as crowded as I'd been warned to expect.  Hooray!

They let you climb about pretty liberally, which of course I adore, but wouldn't allow photos inside the churches where all the truly impressive and gorgeous frescoes are.  The very best frescoes are in the Karanlik Kilise, which naturally they make you pay an additional 8 lira for.  Lonely Planet advised me not to skip it, and I have to agree with them.  Breathtaking.

I was able to do a good circuit and leave the museum right as the place began to once again reach Critical Tourist Mass.  It was still only mid-afternoon, and I thought I might follow some pray-painted arrows and do a little hiking in Rose Valley.  Only I'd been up since 4:30 AM and my body was beginning to protest.  I stopped at a little cart and  got a cup of freshly squeezed (as in, squeezed right there in front of me) orange and pomegranate juice.  The vendor was utterly charmed at my Turkish, and the big hit of natural sugar and vitamins was exactly what I needed. :)  Onward!

After the crowds at the Open Air Museum, the nearly deserted Rose Valley was blessedly still.  I put my pepper spray in my front pocket though.  No sense being unprepared.  Rose Valley was incredible.  It was hard to believe all these weird giant towers of rock were actually completely natural.  I also quickly realized how easy it would be to become very very lost in this weird landscape full of criscrossing paths, and made sure to take notice of landmarks so I could find my way back.

Something completely awesome about Cappadocia:  there are literally the remains of caves and cave settlements everywhere.  I do mean everywhere.  It is completely awesome.  And they're all just sort of there.  Completely open and just begging to be explored.  For someone like me, this is just about the best thing.... well, ever. :)

Tatooine.  I half expected Jawas to jump out and zap me.

Amazing multi-storey house I found.  This was the upper room,

Tiny cave church, with remains of frescoes on the walls.

I hiked for maybe 2.5 hours total, out and back.  I would have liked to have gone farther, but you can see from the Tatooine picture that rain remained a threateningly real possibility, and my high from the orange and pomegranate juice was fading.  I stumped back towards town, stopping along the side of the road for a fortifying beer and chat with a lovely Canadian woman who'd happened to find herself in this strange land these past 20 years.

Unquestionably the best thing about Shoestring Cave House is that they have a rooftop pool.  Even if it was too chilly for swimming, the roof terrace offered a spectacular view of Goreme and was unbeatable for chilling after a long and satisfying day.  I had a glass of Cappadocian white and met a cool Australian girl.  At 7:00 I went down for dinner and was very pleasantly surprised!  Soup, salad, and then a main course of chicken and rice, served on this sort of personal Mongolian barbecue apparatus.  With real fire!  I love it when food gets served to me on fire.  (Technically, I guess, the fire was below the food.  Whatever.)  Everything was quite tasty.  Had a lovely quiet night and retreated to bed around midnight.  A very satisfying first day in Cappadocia!