strange and unusual - Goreme, Turkey
4 Stars This place was Great visited Nov 5, 2005
The end of Ramadan meant both Kate and I had a few days off school and uni, so, again after much last minute discussion, we decided to fly to Kapadokya (in English it's spelt 'Capadoccia' for some reason) which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Turkey (after Istanbul and the beaches that is). Kapadokya is a region right in the middle of Turkey that is famous for its bizarre landscape and cave cities - both above and below ground level. Both of these phenomena are caused by the thick layer of incredibly soft yellow rock that covers the whole region. The ease of carving rooms and passages through this rock has been exploited for millenia and there are whole villages that consist of cave-houses and whole 'cities' dug underground where hundreds, even thousands of people could live for months and months at a time in times of danger. Göreme is the main town in the most interesting area, but we stayed about 2km away in a tiny village called Cavusin. We were the only guests in the little hotel, and the only foreigners in town (apart from the busloads that arrived every morning to see the local cave village and church) and so the evenings were very quiet. It was grey the whole time we were there - and freezing - so staying out after dark (about 4.30pm) wasn'tt too appealing. We had dinner in the hotel (the guy who ran it cooked, just for us!) and spent the evenings drinking apple tea and playing backgammon! During the days we explored what we could of the area. It would have been marvelous to have been there a little earlier in the year when it was warmer and the days were longer, as there are dozens of walking tracks to follow. AS it was we didn't have time to walk more than a short way along any of them. The tracks lead through valleys of bizarre luna landscapes and the almost-ubiquitous Fairy Chimneys (see the photo when I get around to loading it), and often lead through caves and tunnels and other exciting things.