Kemal's Guest House Goreme

... Carsten jumps on every day after school to cruise the campus... hopping over curbs, climbing up steep hills and running the straights all the way to the bottom... So..... A BIG HEARTY THANK YOU BRIAN... <br><br>The next dedication goes to Brent Hulme, the owner of the SLC Bicycle Company... for helping us find perfect bikes that ...

... the rest of the potential balloonist. We waited an half hour and there was a phone call which perked us all up, but they told us to wait. so we waited an hour and a man showed up and again we all perked up but he told us to wait. We waited again, others gave up and went to bed but we stayed strong determined to ride our balloon. Another man showed up this time telling us our balloon would fly but then once again shattering our dreams and hearts when only 3 people from ...

... just so happy the guys were being "nice," blowing their paychecks on a couple of annoying Aussie girls. I feel bad for those guys, I really do.<br><br>Lesson from the Aussie girls: do not talk non-stop about your trip. Do not never shut up about how amazing you are as a travelar. As we left lunch, which was in an idyllic spot where we ate on little raised platforms in the middle of the river, Kristen said, "Let's that be a lesson not to talk too much about the trip ...

... 7.30am we still had a full day ahead of us. Cesca ventured out with Jess and Becky to wander around the northern side of town in the Rose Valley whilst I did some admin. That afternoon with Kerry, Jess and Becky we ventured down to the horse dart competitions. This is an ancient Ottoman game played twice a year where 16 horsemen split into two teams play on a field about the size of a football field. They take it in turns to approach the other team and launch a 'dart' - a ...

... and we quickly find the highly regarded Araturk Restaurant. Actually the restaurant was not difficult to find as Goreme is a small village with the commercial area only about 6 blocks long. Surrounding the village are tall monolithic formations, into most of which have been carved dwellings or small hotels. It is a visual pleasure just to walk into town, often times passed by a small cart, driven by a local villager and his ...

... into a 100 person conga line which led us outside into the car park dancing around a fire then back in for more entertainment. Was a messy messy affair which resulted in Chad passing out from sheer drunkenness and the heavies having to carry him out to the taxi. The show finished and we headed back home most a lot worst for wear. From here we went into town which resulted in Goose flagging down a scooter and getting a lift down the road ...

... Afterwards I went back to the hostel and we all went on a tour of south cappadocia We went to the underground city, saw the fairy caves, saw some cool views of cappadocia, went to an onyx factory which had really beautiful but really expensive jewelry, and also went to the ihlara valley which has churches cut into the sides of the valley and has nice frescoes it also included a little bit of a hike so that was fun We got dinner on the bank of ...

... leaving behind this alien-like landscape that is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I don't even think I can accurately describe it. You just have to see it. Hopefully my pictures will do an ok job of conveying the landscape. One of the most interesting parts of Cappadocia is that when it was inhabited, the residents didn't just build their own separate dwellings, but utilized the surroundings to their fullest ...

... a smoke. A few minutes later the guy next to me started chatting and the next thing I knew the bar was closing. A few hours had passed and I really hadn't realized it. Mr. Turk was a local (I never could pronounce his name correctly so I'm not going to butcher it here), 28 years old, an economist by education but owned a local bookstore and was gay. Who knew? Go to a tourist bar in Fethiye &amp; meet what appeared to be a "normal" gay guy. We were basically kicked out of the ...

... the churches. It was convenient material for them to make houses of worship and, in times of persecution, they could retreat to their underground cities. The rocks carved to house pigeons were chiselled out as giant compost bins. Pigeon 'guano' would be collected from inside the cones where it would be spread on the fields as a natural fertiliser.<br><br>The village of Goreme itself is a strange place. An uneasy mix of backpackers and conservative Islamic villagers has apparently led ...