Cappadoccia Rock Valley Pension Goreme

... 8211; WOW! <br><br><br><br><br>Speaking of moving on it was soon time<br>for us to go &#8211; and we head for the town square's bus station. <br>There was one last moment of of light relief before the 16 hour,<br>three stage bus ride south to Alleppo &#8211; the guy from the bus<br>company who was running about getting ever more confused and agitated<br>decided to relax himself with a few light exercises. This started<br ...

... de la famille.<br><br>Je suis resté dans ce coin 2 jours à me promener et visiter les environs. Un chauffeur de taxi qui parlait anglais comme une vache espagnole m'a proposé pour seulement 15YTL (7,5Eur) de me m'emmener hors du village pour aller voir un aqueduc romain et des grottes naturelles. Je ne me suis pas méfié au début mais j'ai commencé à me douter de quelque chose sur le chemin du retour. La confirmation est arrivée en même temps que nous au ...

... auld bugger! We went to catch the bus to Urgup just a few miles away. A much bigger and modern town, I was hoping to catch sight of the &#8216;fairy&#8217; chimneys there &#8211; only two of them stand high on a hill above the town. The bus buzzed past them so had to get photos on way back! We walked up the Temanni Hill for views over the whole area, and at the top too, the Tomb of Kilicarstan. Then we wandered further up to the old town area, before heading back into town for ...

... And they are spectacular. We got really lucky in there because there was an English speaking tour guide explaining the various paintings all over the ceiling.<br><br>I don't think I can properly put into words how incredible the ceilings look, except to say think of the many shapes and arches created in the top of a church or cathedral or other inticrately created building. They are all there inside each of the churches of Goreme...only you are looking at rock ...

... It's just great. <br><br>We had a group of 6, the four "passengers" and two "guides," and we headed to Turkish Nights at around 8:30. It was very pretty to be above Goreme around twilight...so pretty that Aleem decided that while driving he would attempt to take a picture out of the front of the bus...We tried to figure out how to tell him that A: it wouldn't come out if the flash was on, and B: That probably wasn't the best idea while moving...<br><br>The food ...

... them while we are here. Immediately upon arriving in Cappadocia, we were impressed by the landscape, which is unlike anything either of us have ever seen before. It actually sort of feels like you are on another planet, or the moon perhaps. It's hard to explain and the pictures really don't do it justice, but the landscape is covered with large rock formations as well as tall, narrow ones (called fairy chimneys), many of which have caves within them. The landscape is ...

This place is amazing! It was a last minute decision to take the 12-hour overnight bus ride (each way) but soooo worth it. We arrived around 9am at the Cappadocia Cave Suites and could not believe were actually sleeping in a cave! It was very cool until the ceiling started slowly falling on the floors, counters and then directly on our heads! Strange, but all part of the ...

... slow down any attackers. The lowest floor, the 8th floor, was as deep as 85 meters. This Underground City was connected to another underground city over 9km away. It was quite large and had a church, schoolhouse, a graveyard, a place for animals, a winery and all kinds of large spaces that were all burrowed out of the ground. The people who built the underground city also blocked doorways with large boulders to prevent enemies from entering ...

... they made a mean cheese sandwich and served Saqara - a beer we havent seen since Egypt and the only beer &#304; really like - so &#304; was content. The best things about Aleppo were the abundance of fresh fruit and all the smoothie stalls that came with it, the proper Turkish-style kebabs that were about 50p, the absence of felafel and the Daiqiris at the new 5-star Sheraton hotel. Apart from the culinary delights, there was also a crazy souk with street ...

... her English at us: "Iyam dreenking meelk", over and over.<br><br>After hours of travelling through a lifeless terrain of crumpled hills in a yellow landscape, we found ourselves looking down on Ankara. Like the early stages of a game of 'Sim City 2000', we saw hills that were bristling with tower blocks and roads running between them carrying little roller-skate cars. Tidy white mosques popped up here and there, as though constructed from Homebase flat-packs. After all, Ankara was ...