Deer Homicide - Cap A Doe Ýn The Head
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2007
1
23
41
Trip End
May 19, 2007
Goreme (Cappadocia),
Turkey
Sunday, April 1, 2007
After stopping off at a paranomic vıew of the landscape and a bit of a walk through a valley which would prove to offer a good prelude to whats on offer in Cappadocia - I reached Goreme and found my cave pension - Shoestring - apt for those on a shoestring. Its 2 converted cave houses with lots of private rooms and dorm a/c. İm staying in the dorm - about US7 dollars - ıncludes bfast and free internet.
I signed up for a tour of the area on Monday - an underground city, gorge, viewpoints and more. Let someone else do the driving for a change! Hopefully the weather will be good. Anyway yesterday afternoon I went for a stroll around the village itself - "bizarre" doesnt do it justice. Buildings carved out of caves or is it the other way round? In the evening after dinner at the hostel, the friendly hostel owner, İsaa, and his brother - back from Japan on a holiday - who fancied themselves as a sort of Paul Newmann / Tom Cruise combo! - took a few of us (A french couple and a Japanese girl) out to the local pool hall. Me and the Frenchie put up a valiant fight but eventually succumbed 3-2. Id forgotten how much u have to concentrate in pool - I was shocking. I couldnt finish me dinner hardly. Staggered back in at 2am
Up this morning at 9am and it was looking like a dreary day with constant drizzle but after bfast and a cup of tea to fortify myself against the elements i headed out to the Goreme Open Air Musuem - 1km out of town. Its a highly concenrated example of the ancient rock churches to be found all over the area. And the bonus was that it stopped raining after 45mın there! Lots of the churches have colourful frescoes ınside and motifs on the outside - well worth the 7US dollars admission. All up I spent about 3 hours there just wandering around though in truth u could have wrapped things up in about an hour. Its plenty popular with the busloads of tourists too so u have to be a bit selective about which church u visit at any one time. And of course I took far too many photos.
Then I got a bit of lunch before going on a walk thru one of the numerous valleys that dot the Goreme area - Zemi valley in my case. Although the weather improved İ wasnt that impressed with Zemi. The track was incredibly squelchy and the gorge was far too narrow to allow a vista of what u were walking thru and also the formations werent a tad on what Id seen at the museum.
Far better was when I left Zemi and climbed up a ridge offering a view of the valley I should have opted for - Swords Valley - perhaps on Tuesday - and of the whole Open Air Museum itself. Tremendous. Then back down into Goreme as the sun fell away and it started to lash - just like Ireland. A spot of dınner in town and back to the pension and Travelpod. I hope it clears up for the tour tommorow.
Ok chow Wadirunner.
BTW TİPO had a rest day today and İll probably give him a day off tommmorow as well!!
