Cappadocia

Took the night bus to Kayseri. Pretty uneventful, aside for having to plough through 30 cm of snow at 20km/ph in the mountains. The bus for Göreme was waiting upon arrival. Inside were two backpackers. Thought I'd met the girl in Budapest but with a different boyfriend, yet that was only deja vu.

We all ended up at the same hostel together, then ended up shopping and cooking together for the next two days. Vanesa and Reiner had both come up through Egypt and were heading to Germany. Great people. I really enjoyed their stories of South America and the Middle East. Oh, and I didn't think I'd be listening to a casette radio with Tom Waits whilst cooking Belarussian food in Turkey.

As the weather was good (cold but sunny), I took my cura and went to find a cliff overlooking Göreme to sit and play songs. The landscape is pretty surreal. Volcanic eruptions and erosion have left valleys of bizarre stone cones in their wake. Thought I'd stroll down a valley, but I came to a 3 metre cliff. Jumped down that cliff, then another, then came to a 5 metre cliff. No jumping. But shit, I was stuck in the valley. Had to climb back up the two cliffs, which I managed after falling off one and tearing my hand in the process.

The following day I took a tour, since the region is a pain for those using public transport. The underground city was pretty impressive, with seven levels of rooms. There are around 200 such cities in Cappadocia. Most were built by the Christians there to hide from various marauders. Ihlara Canyon was also beautiful, with some churches there containing well-preserved frescoes.

The third day was spent hiking around Göreme. Whilst the town itself is a strange mix of tourist dive and Turkish village, the surrounding landscape is unspoilt. Joined up with Jun, a Japanese maths student, and Lynne, a Canadian and went off to explore the various valleys and caves. Ironically, the 'find' of the day was something that a small group of senior Canadians (the only tourists we'd met) told us about:

You go through a small door into what seems like an ordinary cave house and find another door and a stairwell. Above is a (pre-)Byzantine cathedral with a 20 metre ceiling. All in the middle of nowhere.

Thanks to Jun and Lynne, I had some people to share cooking dinner with. Jun was hilarious - 'Why do you cook so well?' - one of those people who will die unless he finds a wife to attend to his bodily needs. There were some other cool Japanese people there, including a guy who'd come from India, and a weird medicine student who spent 30 minutes brushing his teeth.