Goreme Ottoman House Hotel

... this dedication? Well... during this summer while we stayed with Brian and Dana and girls... we decided to pick up some mountain bikes so we could bring them to Turkey with us... Brian took the time to bring us around to many, many bike shops so we could find a good bike for a great deal... his unending knowledge on mountain ...

... It tasted almost like the top of an apple crumble, and no one could decide if they liked it or not. <br><br>We went to bed early that night because we were very excited about our activity for the next morning. We woke up at 5, all excited and ready to go on a balloon. As we walked out of our cave we soon realized that our dreams of ballooning were probably going to be shattered because it was pouring down rain. We remained hopeful and optimistic and waited out the weather ...

... mean they didn't even do that. They were so nice about it."<br><br>Well yeah, they were nice about it...they thought they were on a double date! Ugg! <br><br>"And I mean, one of them tried to kiss me, but I just told him no, and he was totally fine with that. He was so nice."<br><br>Yeah, I'm sure he was totally fine with it. If he weren't fine with it he probably would have raped you or hit you or something that would have landed him in jail for the rest of his life ...

... see all this mapped out below us - supposedly it is the 2nd best area to balloon after the Serengeti plain in Africa. Even though there were loads of other balloons up there with us it didn't feel over-touristy,instead they enhanced the spectacular views. At the end of the trip the balloon pilot attempted to land the basket on the back of the waiting trailor - no mean feat when he didn't have any steering or brakes - he only just missed as well! Getting back to the hostel ...

... at its warmest and we are sweating a great deal as we head towards the end of the trail. Finally reaching the end, here is Faruk waiting with his van to take us back to the hotel. After a bottle of water and cups of hot Turkish tea at the trail's end, Faruk takes us back to the hotel. We have a short rest and take off on foot again, this time in search of food. Fortunately the hotel is only a 5 minute walk from the center of ...

... in Pide, which is basically a football shaped Pizza cooked in an old brick oven. The ingredients are fresh and the bread is out of this world, YUM! With full stomachs, we head back to the pension for some computer time as we wait for night bus that will take us to the Mediterranean coast. We can&#8217;t wait since good weather is predicted in the south. It&#8217;s hard to believe since at this moment since we are surrounded by snow.

... houses had been carved into. If you have seen Star Wars it is very similar to the landscape that Luke grows up in (see pics) After this was a trip to The Underground City. A whole city carved from rock reaching down about 100m under. It was home to 5000 people and had in built wells, air chambers etc which were so good that they could burn fires underground without being smoked out. You can only actually go down about 40 metres at the ...

... we went back to the hostel and went to sleep The next day I woke up at 4am and was picked up at the hostel at 5am for the balloon ride!! It was really awesome.... I was the only one from my group to go but that's ok I got to see the sunrise from way up high in a balloon and all of cappadocia And afterwards we got champagne and a flight certificatewhich was cute. Also the pilot of my balloon was the first female balloon pilot in Turkey! Pretty ...

... for people. The oginal vast cave networks including complete underground cities were build by early christians as a place of escape from invading armies. The room we stayed in at Cappadocia had been carved out of the hillside. The walls are solid rough volcanic stone. If you rub it with your hand very course sand will come off. Here are the photo's more test later

... through one of these doors one discovers rooms, stairways and channels down to deeper levels. Some of them contain churches complete with rock alters and wall frescoes. They are like alien dwellings. Outside again, some of the tufa chimneys are home to scores of pigeons. Holes are cut into them the pigeons sit on ledges, the only animate things in this surreal landscape apart from the occasional tortoise plodding slowly amongst the spherical pumpkins. In addition to the chimneys ...