Kapadokya!

Göreme, Turkey

The guy on the bus told us that because of snow, the bus was not going to Göreme as usual. We could get off in Nevşehir, and then try to get from Göreme from there. The bus ride was long - with two half hour stops, that were mostly useless. We got to Nevşehir at about 7 in the morning, and had our first real experience with the extremely over friendly stranger. Oh, there are no buses to Göreme. About 20 minutes later though, a dolmuş went. I can see why the bus didn't go down that road. There was too much downhill, with turns and snow for a big bus. We got there safely, and after investigating the three places with dorms, settled on one called Rock Valley. As we wandered, snow was falling and we were befriended by a street dog. Kapadokya covered in snow looks magical!

After eating some breakfast and sleeping for an hour, Ingo and I put on lots of layers, and then headed out into the snow. As we walked down the road out of town we collected dogs. There was the dog from earlier in the morning, then another english setter looking dog, and later, two more. After a bit, we turned off the main road to follow some tire tracks, in hopes of finding one of the two love valleys - complete with fairy chimneys (very phallic looking rock formations). The track was beautiful, but we found no fairy chimneys, and so, we decided to go off roading. In the shallow places, the snow covered my feet, in the deepest places, it went up to my knees. There were also about four times that I ended up sitting down in the snow after loosing my balance. I have to say, snow shoes would have been useful, and walking in the snow is hard work. By the end, my jeans (which are cuffed because they are too long) were full of snow and frozen. We did find the fairy chimneys.

Thinking to go to the Göreme open air museum, we went back to the main road, stopping near the entrance for some gozleme and sahlep. Most of the cafe was unheated, but the guy took pity on us, and brought us into the office, where we took off our shoes and socks and put them in front of the wood stove, in hopes that they would dry. I think it was a completely different experience than you would have in the summer. Guys came in for tea, chatted, and mostly ignored us, except for making concerned comments about how we were wet and going to get sick. In the summer, everyone would be in tourist mode, and we would never have been allowed back stage, so to say.

We decided not to go inside the museaum due to the enterance fee, but on the way down the hill spotted a sign. Reading it, we discovered it was for a church. But upon trying to enter we were asked for our tickets. We have no tickets I told the guy in Turkish. I guess we must have looked pittiful, covered in snow, trying to peer in through the doorway, and so the guy motioned us in. It was amazing! The church is carved out of the rock, with walls completely covered in paintings, and is from the 12th century

We returned to the hostel, and went to the restaurant/common room, where they have moved the couches and chairs to form a circle around the wood stove. And it was there that I sat until I went to sleep. The guys in the hostel had cooked, so we stayed there for dinner. It's very cozy, and at the same time has windows show an amazing view of kapadokya. There is also a cat named Kaplan (tiger), although I think he looks more like a lion than a tiger.

The next day was similar to the first. And I had french toast for breakfast! Best french toast in Turkey, the guy had told me when we looked at the hostel. And it was indeed delicious. It was ingo's first time eating french toast, and he is already planning to make it, as well as the variations he could make. "What if you added cheese?" he asked Something I had never thought of.

We retraced our way along the road to the open air museum, picking up another street dog there that I named Barney (after the flintstones character), and then continued up the hill to Ortahisar, or middle castle. The castle thing is a huge stone, that has been carved out with many caves.
Unfortunately, signs in 3 languages proclaimed that it was dangerous and we were not allowed to enter. So we walked around it, and then went in search of a way to get down into the valley behind. We didn't find one, but really liked Ortahisar. It's a much more real place than Göreme.

Cold and hungry, we caught a bus to Ügrüp, a city whose name I still can't pronounce. There we had pide, more sahlep (it's like liquid sütlaç, says Ingo), and found a bank. Much as I love my bank card, it only seems to have parnerships with a few of the banks in Turkey, and machines of other banks will not give me money. We had thought to go to mustafapaşa, but instead went back to the hostel, to sit in the nice warm chairs around the wood stove.