Göreme, Turkey / Erik Benediktson / Amsterdam

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Goreme

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Göreme, Turkey
38° 6' N 30° 38' E
May 13, 2006 09:04
Distance 354km

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Goreme

Text written in: English

Caught the night bus to Goreme, and will be checking out caves and rock formations for a couple of days. It is a very interesting landscape here where people carved homes out of the soft rock. The top layer of rock is hard (I think it is hardened lava) which prevents the entire formations from eroding, and the core of the cliffs you will see below is soft enough to be dug out, even with primitive tools. So people have been living here for a long time in the caves which are naturally cool in the summer (it gets quite hot here) and warm in the winter.

The first day I did a hike with several others and a guide from our Hostel for about 4 hours, and tooks us through 5 of the different valleys in the Goreme area. Each valley had either different formations or was made out of a different colour of rock, so it was ever varying. It is absolutely beautiful, and very peaceful...we hardly saw anyone all day. Everywhere you look there is a photo opp. Later that night I went out to a local bar and had a beer with some people, it was a semi-happening spot but I was pretty exhausted and didn't last all night.

Today I got up and had the best french toast I have ever had. Mmmm, and I had written french toast off. And it was free, included with the hostel room. The hostel I'm staying at is pretty cool by the way, it is actually one of the houses that is carved out of the stone, so it is like staying in a cave. I'll try to take a picture later. Anyhow, after that I went to the Open Air Museum with a fellow hosteller, which is just a series of churches and homes (in caves) that you can go and explore. To be honest it wasn't as great as the walking tour, but it is sort of interesting to see some of the churches and the Christian frescoes that were painted in the 12th century.

And of course, the UFO museum. It was pretty amazing as the photos will attest to that.

Got my ticket back to Istanbul for tomorrow morning and I think I'll relax for the rest of the day. I can't wait for all of these photos to upload, apparently there is no highspeed internet in Goreme, so I'll put the photos up back in Istanbul.