The Village Cave Hotel Goreme

... cool.<br>we did a few hikes, the caves were awesome. throughout the whole town there are cave hotels that you can stay in, cave buildings, and caves you can explore in. we went into an open air museum that showed churches that were carved into caves, complete with elaborate drawings and decorations and stuff. one day we rented a scooter to explore further out, chris drove and i hopped on the back and after some severe ...

... town in the middle of Cappadocia with a lot of history, reaching back to the early 6th century BC!<br> We loved it here. We didn't want to be tourists and do a tour (that everyone does) so we took some local transport around. Information people said it was impossible but Brian read about taking it in Lonely Planet and it was actually VERY easy. The day we arrived we went to the Open Air Museum which was an old Nunnery (Kizlar Manastiri) and churches cut out of rock ...

... real food in forever. We spent 12 hours in the Istanbul airport playing Bananagrams (thanks to Grammy), Yuker and other card games. We eventually got on the 11 pm flight, scheduled to land in Cairo at 1 am. We were not excited to arrive in a new city at such a late hour...<br><br>Glums (Besides not Hot Air Ballooning!) and Glows<br><br>Tom<br>Glum: The guy who made us get off the bus to Goreme to try and sell us tour packages<br>Glow: Being a cave man in the underground ...

... where you sit on the floor around very low tables.<br><br>Like clockwork all of our friends started showing up. Jennifer and Catherine were introduced to Jessica and Phoenix, our Aussie friends became friends.<br><br>A middle aged Brit at the table next to ours overheard that I was American and joined us for a bit. Clive and his buddies were riding motorcycles from London around the world... The whole way. They were soon taking their cycles across all the "stans ...

... bus to Istanbul. As they left the next Fez bus came in and we got to catch up with Zac for dinner - we had been a whole day apart from each other, the first time in 13! After a kebab we headed back to the cave for a quick internet catchup and then packed for our departure in the morning. That evening we found out that the girls had got themselves on the wrong bus somehow - this is all we knew so we hoped and prayed that theywere ok and they made it to Instanbul in one piece!

... pýcture ýs complete. Spent a mornýng greetýng the day from a hot aýr balloon. Thýs was a treat from my parents and a magýcal way to welcome the day. Today we are goýng our seperate ways. We wýll hýke the Ilhara valley lookýng for ancýent coýns and artý,facts whýle my parent,s wýll výsýt the coast. We wýll both make our way to Fethýye where we wýll board a saýlboat and saýl the ancýents Agean coast.

... way down to the canyon without success. We finally met a man who offered us tea and guided us back to the normal path. Of course, he wa expecting baksheesh to feed mutton to his dogs, but we pretended we didn't understand. So we ended up back to where I had started the day before and walked back to Goreme. We then took another bus to see more fairy chimneys. This spot is very popular and was loaded with tourist buses! I must say the fairy chimneys ...

... hard to capture with the sun glistening on the water. Back in the car we got to Bodrum about 3pm. Dilara (my former student)and her family invited us to stay with them and we even had our own house to stay in. Went for a swim in the beautiful pool. Changed and went for tea with Dilara and Elif (another student) on top of a restaurant overlooking the marina. It was very windy and extremely unusual for Bodrum. Back to the house for Karen's first ...

We are ending our time in Turkey back in Istanbul, haggling in the Bazaars for a few things to bring home. Simple things such as a few objects with the hazar and some kebap spice. What fun! Our five final thoughts on Turkey would have to be summed up as follows: 1. Without a doubt our first thought is Turkish hospitality! Everyone has been incredibly friendly and helpful. 2. Food! We knew it would be ...

... He led us around a corner where a large truck was waiting and indicated that we should climb into the cab. The driver and his mate looked a bit surprised to see us but nevertheless agreed to take us to Nevsehir.<br><br>We talked for the first couple of minutes of the journey, or until our Turkish ran out. We didn't find out what their load was but it must have been heavy as the truck could only manage a little more than walking pace when it wasn't travelling downhill. Strangely, or ...