Cappadocia

Remind me never to take an organized tour! I took one yesterday and I hate to be shuttle around with a bunch of people - most of whom I don't particularly like.

I didn't know if I was coming to Cappadocia. I missed it 11 years ago. Still I didn't make a decision until I got to Antalya, where I've been before. When I arrived at 5 pm from Fethiye I discovered that the bus to Goreme didn't leave until 9 pm and would take 10 hours. Maybe I'll fly to Van, I told myself. But I saw a fellow San Franciscan I'd met earlier and he was taking the night bus. I told him I was going to tag along. I'd save money by sleeping on the bus. Well, that has never happened - sleeping on an overnight bus. But this time I had two seats to myself and the row across from me where I put my feet. If the bus stewards, which all long distance Turkish buses have - you know like airline stewards - if they didn't keep moving my feet I could have slept great.

We got to Goreme so early the pension wasn't open, which BTW is called Ufuk. We walked around and looked at the hot air balloons floating in the air. When the pension opened we dropped our bags and because Yung was taking an organized tour I tagged along some more. We left at 9 am and didn't return until 6:30 pm. Every chance the tour operator had involved shopping. I didn't buy a thing and I've now seen enough iconic symbols to last me the rest of my life.

I would have left Goreme today but my clothes are so dirty. I have the wrong plug for the sink to wash them myself. My pension has to do it for me, so I went to the open air museam which is on the World Heritage site. It was jammed packed with tourists. I got claustrophobic. Let me out of here! I took a hike literally through the Red Valley and on through the Rose Valley. I loved it. I'll show pictures instead of descibing. I walked all the way to Cavusin, where I bargained down the cafe owner for some fresh orange juice. He gave it to me for a lira cheaper since I wasn't French. I was tired and didn't want to walk anymore so when I saw a guy loading some bikes in his car trunk I ask him for a ride. The cafe owner got a kick out of this. He told the guy to charge me 20 euros. We both were laughing.


This might be a good time to tell you, as you have probably guess, that I'm not going to Tajikistan. I found that it is really difficult as an independent traveller without a lot of paper work to go through Turmenistan and Ubekistan. I could care less about those countries since they are flat and no where to swim. I thought I could fly over them from Baku, Azerbaijan, but no I'd have to go back to Istanbul where the flight is an outrageous $1000.

That is why I took the detour to Greece. I still plan on going to Georgia, (where I plan on being within a week) Armenia, and Azerbaijan. I'm not finished with Tajikistan, but it won't be this trip.