Ciner Hotel Goreme

The departure and the travel through the Central Anatolian Highland was not very exciting as teh nature has not changes so much.

After many kilometers we have changed to a smaller road that travels behind Kayseri and the big mountain to Cappadokia.

This was at least not boring - though a little bit longer and we got a good ...

If you plan a trip to Turkey make sure you include a trip to Goreme in Cappadocia - it is an amazing area, full of the most incredible rock formations - a great area for hiking, biking, ballooning or just chilling out.

Nuff said on that for now, photos coming - definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

... we shot off early for the Open Air Museum. Saw the lone camel, who ferries tourists up the hill, grazing in the grass. Quite a few buses in the otopark already, and prospects of an easy stress-free visit decreased with queues at every church we visited in the park. Most tour groups were Far East Asian – Koreans, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese. The museum consists of mostly churches built into the strange rock steeples which are prevalent all over Cappadocia, but in these ...

... It is an art that Kristen and I have not yet perfected.

From the outside, the churches look like, well, rocks. On the inside though there are amazing frescos and arched ceilings and domes cut into the rocks. It's hard to think of the domes being put in today with modern tools, amazing still to think of them being created with chisels hundreds of years ago. The churches are all in the form of a cross imprint in the Byzantine style within the rocks.

When you ...

... really isn't on showing you "authentic Turkish dance," it's on showing you a good time. The tag line is "All The Food and Drinks You Can Handle." It's much more of a lively show than an attempt at an "authentic experience." Our hotel workers actually go every now and then just because the food is so good and the booze so plentiful.

And they get everyone dancing in a bunch of numbers. They did this one Turkish dance/improvization in which there is a princess ...

... it worked out ok! After our hike, we ended up back at our hotel, where we enjoyed a dinner of left-over pizza and Cappadocian wine. We then headed off to see a whirling dervish ceremony in a nearby village. Whirling dervishes are members of the Mevlevi order of the Sufi sect of Islam. They are known as whirling dervishes because of their practice of whirling as a form of remembrance of god. The show was an hour long, and the combination of the music and watching them whirl put ...

... inside the cave churches. When viewed from the cupolas of caves, early Christian depictions of familiar scenes (such as the ascension of Christ and the betrayal by Judas) take on a whole new air. In addition to frescos, the early worshippers carved columns and barreled ceilings in the familiar cruciform structure. We were in awe of the detail, beauty and lasting strength of these elaborate cave churches. From Goreme, we hiked through the Rose and Red valleys where there were ...

... a runway! Her sidekick, Blonde Ambition wandered closely beside her as the world obviously revolved around them. Two thumbs down. We began the day by piling in the minibus with 23 other people. (Boobs MacGilligy and Blonde Ambition 2 seats behind us). We drove for a while and stopped at a beautiful panaramic scene overlooking Goreme. Seeing all of the peeks and rocks from above was pretty spectacular. Our time limit there came quickly and we ...

Claire: Cappadocia is the most beautiful place on earth! We arrived here a couple of days ago and we're both still taking it in. However, first Ý'll catch you up on all the goings on between Damascus and here. Next stop after Damascus was Palmyra, a set of Roman Ruins on the road to Ýraq. Ý think we were about 100km from the border and a few more from Baghdad, so we all stopped for photos at the road signs pointing that direction. All felt quite intrepid ...

... deodorant.

We weren't the only foreigners in there. Tony and Pamela, from Basildon, are devoted to all things Turkish and Indian. They even told us they were planning to retire in Turkey ('You can buy a nice house for ten grand') in the not-too-distant future. Pamela, a devotee of the Hindu deity Shiva, told us to be careful in India. She said that one of their friends had been hit by a truck whilst motorcycling in a remote area and by the time his body was discovered the ...