Local Cave Nevsehir

... make sure everyone was ok...I didn't want to but I felt guilty for having arrived late...So I, of course, got suck with the job... oh well.<br><br>The two and a half hour tour started with us doing a couple laps around town...Pretty boring and not really the off roading we'd been expecting.<br><br>Then we went off into the bottom of the Rose Valley though, looking up at the look out point we'd been to on our scooters earlier that day.<br><br>In a group of 9 you move quite ...

... down in the heavily overstaffed restaurant with many waiters buzzing around trying to figure out: A: what to do, since the place was pretty much empty, and B: who spoke good enough English to take our table.<br><br>Our waiter was very smily and a little pudgy. He arrived at our table looking like a kid on Christmas, excited to get a chance to show off his English. Though the menu was in both Turkish and English, he just began rattling off everything on the menu he ...

... that we gladly accepted the&#305;r offer&#305;ngs and went on our merry way. We could st&#305;ll hear them laugh&#305;ng a few hundred metres down the road&#8230;&#8230;.<br><br>The h&#305;ke was amaz&#305;ng (w&#305;th full stomachs and all) and although there were a few sketchy moments where we were sure we were lost &#305;n the valley, a few helpful h&#305;nts and d&#305;rect&#305;ons from locals got us back &#305;nto Goreme as the sun was sett&#305;ng and w&#305;th ...

... town adjacent to ancient Ephesus on the Agean coast. Tomorrow entails a drive of about 45 minutes to the airport here, a flight to Istanbul, a layover in Istanbul before a flight to Izmir. In Izmir I pick up a rental car and drive to Selcuk to check into the Hotel Bella. That will make for a full day of travel, I'm sure, but after a good night's sleep there, I'll be anxious to get to Ephesus and being exploring there.

... off for dinner. We decided that since we still had the car for the evening, we might as well get dinner in one of the other nearby villages. We went to Urgup, which we were surprised to find was a much larger and busier place than quaint Goreme. We went to a fantastic restaurant which was located on the first floor of a beautifully renovated ottoman mansion. DAY 4: On Saturday morning, we awoke to our usual delicious breakfast at Elif Star. We enjoyed a lazy morning before ...

... this summer we will get one??? Carsten pushed for us all to jump on four wheelers and take a tour around the many valleys and canyons that make up this fascinating area... We rented two and took off with a guide... exploring old churches, cruising by bizarre pinnacles, crawling through neatly tucked villages and squeezing through deep canyons through dry riverbeds... We all had a great time... it was Very Cool!!!  At one point in the trip we ...

... houses and churches could be viewed which are unusual in these parts. After some more bucolic countryside driving, including getting lost of course, we arrived at the seldom visited monastery complex of Kelcuk. Besides the caretaker guide we were the only ones here. They had some really fantastic mosaics from more recent time - the thirteenth century - showing typical Christian scenes but in a definitely unusual form. Unfortunately they had been a bit blackened by centuries of fires ...

... and scaled large boulders and rock faces making our way to the top overlookling all three valleys in the region. Once our path had disappeared, we only continued on thinking that the higher we get, the more likely we would see another pathway nearby. This was not to be. Instead two locals and their horse ...

... Some cliffs looked like mushroom houses (reminded me of a smurf home).... We came to Schlong Valley and all had a little giggle -- they were lined up like soldiers in the background... Out of the valley we made our way back into Goreme for a traditional Turkish meal - I had the vegie guvee (like a hot pot) and it was great! We continued on to a local pottery place to see how its made. The man explaining to us how things were done had nick-named ...

... provides a point of contact with this earth through which the divine blessings can flow. After the sema, verses from the Koran are read, the men put their black cloaks back on and leave. The music was, of course, mesmerizing, and the man who was singing had a beautiful voice. Nathan had a lot of trouble staying awake during the sema along with some others, but was still glad he went. All in all it was a long but wildly great day.