Cappadocia, Amasya and back to Istanbul...

okaaayy... over a month late.. sorry guys... hectic days.

Friday 14th August
After a fairly good nights sleep... in a cave! we headed out to explore lazy Goreme village, nestled in the heart of Cappadocia- the region in Turkey with the most far out, fairytale landscape you could imagine. Goreme itself is in a valley and most of the houses and buildings are carved out of rock, but not just any old rock... these geological formations that are in these weird cone shaped 'chimneys'. Goreme was exactly what we needed after full on Syria... its very backpacker orientated with really cheap food, and plenty of cafes and places to pull up a turkish rug and just hang out. In the afternoon we headed over to the Goreme open air museum... which is basically a big cluster of the fairy chimneys that were at some point (12th century I think) carved into churches and frescos were painted inside and stuff. The walk to and from the museum is as good as the thing itself because the landscape is so wonderful.



On the road to the open air museum. Some fairy chimneys with caves in them.



The valley below the open air museum, didn't put any photos of the inside of the churches because they're all a bit dark...


Saturday 15th August....
Today we decided to take a tour of some other sights around Cappadocia as there is a lot to see and its very spaced out. First stop on our tour was a gorgeous azure lake which all the fabulous Koreans on our tour did 'jump' poses in front of (they all jump at the same time and someone takes a photo). We had a really great group, about 10 Koreans, 2 French and 2 French Canadians... the Koreans were just giggling all the time... especially when I believed them that one of their group was from North Korea... apparently it was a joke, then they said 'No they aren't allowed out at all'
Next stop was the amazing Underground city (one of many in this region) We went down 8 sotries underground... didn't seem that far until you had to come back up, bent over, knees bent, crammed in between other people in the one way tunnels.... see belowFunnily enough I (karly) had an elevated pulse before we went in, just from thinking about it... but once we were inside I was fine. Nick on the other hand felt fine beforehand but didn't feel too good 8 stories down (thought about all the rock above him too much) :) But we both had fun
Say what now? Nick had the job of being 'last in the group' so our leader could keep track of us. He had to yell out Buruden (I have no idea if thats spelt right) which means 'I'm here' in Turkish, about half way through though he skipped into Croatian and called out Dobryden... luckily there were no Croats or Serbs so no-one realised he'd just called out 'Hello'... it was pretty funny for us though... :D
Looking up the air shaft from the underground city. People lived down here during time of war or when people raided their cities.
Next stop was a hike through the gorgeous Ilhara Valley (see above). Again beautiful red-rock formations but we also got to walk through a lush green valley next to a lovely stream. It was a really nice hike and I did the whole thing in my Havaiana's... who says you even need closed in shoes? let alone hiking boots!

More Ilhara Valley
This is so the life! snoozing in a hammock in a beautiful valley...
We hiked until we came to the road that leads out of the valley and we all had lunch in a sweet little restaurant over looking the stream, in fact some tables were actually situated in the stream!
Next stop was a monestry that was, again, completely carved out the these rock formations. You had to scramble up the rock face for a while before it flattened out enough to walk the rest of the way up to this elevated area where there was a church, a cathedral and a chapel (don't know the difference myself?), along with halls, sleeping quarters and a massive kitchen.
Chilling at the monestry, enjoying the view...

Nick's Cappadocia Panoramas... click to enlarge.


Sunday 16th August.... Lazy morning in Goreme then spent the rest of the day travelling (yuk) to Amasya... Amasya is situated up closer to the Turkish Black Sea coast... although not quite on the coast, its in the mountains that spring up just before the coast. It has a big fat river running through it and some interesting old building in the Orthodox style overhanging the river. There are also rock tombs in the moutains the hang over the town but they weren't really spectacular after seeing Cappadocia... however in hindsight they are very similar to the ancient Persian ones we saw in Iran...

Monday 16th.... Hanging out in Amasya... no tourists (except us) just eating, shopping and stressing about Iran... will we get in? will we be deported?

Tuesday 17th August. Decided to head back to Istanbul. Booked an 11am bus... We were told it would take 7 hours. In which universe? We finally arrived in Istanbul 12 and a half hours later!!

Wednesday 18th - Monday 24th.... Spent a fabulous few days in lovely Istanbul which felt divinely civilized after some of the places we'd been to in the last month! We spent the days catching up with our friend Laura (German we met in Austria), couchsurfing with a lovely Turkish guy Ozzy, picking up Nicks mail from Toygun, shopping, shopping, shopping, harassing the Iranian embassy about whether or not they would let us in or not, and enjoying the Turks non-stop-party version of Ramazan...
And finally it was time to board the 11pm flight to Tehran!!!!!!!! stay tuned for our adventures in a) Iran or b) immigration detention... hehe...