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Published: June 26th 2008
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Goreme
My room at the Guven Cave Pension Day 1, Overnight bus ride from Izmir to Gőreme: $25
I took the metro (about $1) to the main bus station (Otogar) in Bornova, Izmir. I had no trouble getting pointed in the right direction of the long distance bus counters. I think the only company to travel all the way to Gőreme was Metro, so I approached the counter and asked if anyone spoke english. Several of the ticket agents said they spoke a little, so I proceeded to book my 8pm bus to Cappadocia. I decided I was going to stay in Gőreme, a small central town. I had already booked a room in a pension ($17 nightly for a room with a bath). I was seated next to a young college student. She did not speak much english, but between my daughterś handy Turkish phrase book and my translator, we did ok. It was a very long, uncomfortable ride, but the bus did have an attendant that provided a snack cake and virtually unlimited tea, coffee, water and cola. Sometimes it was so bumpy that it was hard to drink without spilling. We stopped a couple of times throughout the night at stops that were like truck
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My view stops. They had restaurants, stores and bathrooms (most of the stalls were of the hole in the floor variety). About 5am we stopped and picked up some American women that looked as if they were transferring from some other bus. The were carrying blankets and pillows and had obviously been with some tour that moved them from their bus to ours. They seemed barely awake and confused. Finally, after a long uncomfortable night, we arrived at Gőreme (after passing some fairy chimneys), where the attendant was kind enough to make sure I got off at the right stop. The bus station in Gőreme is very small and I easily walked to the Gűven Cave Pension from there. My room was not ready yet, so I waited in the breakfast room and surfed the free internet and talked to some other travelers there. I met a couple from England, who are also travel bloggers, who were on a 2 year round the world trip. How fun. By the time my room was ready, I was so tired, that I just went up there, opened my windows to a beautiful view and fell asleep. I awoke around 4pm and walked into the
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My meal...eggplant casserole center of town to find something to eat. I ended up at one of many cafes and ordered a claz oven casserole dish. On the way to the restaurant, I passed a group of men sitting outside another cafe, playing backgammon.
Touring:
I booked two tours for my time in Cappadocia, one for the local area and one for further distances, like the Ihlara Valley, which is 70km from Gőreme. It was a small tour group, maybe 8 people and 4 of them were Turks. The cost was 50 YTL. Our tour guide was "Fairy". She was a very personable girl with hopes of getting to America to study english. It is very expensive for the Turks to get visa's to the U.S. We went to the Open Air museum and toured all the churches and living quarters. Many of the church murals had been long ago defaced by the Muslims because their religion frowns on the whole effigy thing. After the Open Air museum, we went to some of the fairy chimneys and then to some of the other sites in the area. The next day I took the tour to the Ihlara Valley and we walked through
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Guven Cave Pension the valley to a restaurant to have lunch. We also stopped at Pigeon Valley and a few other places, including a carpet shop. The tours always take you to some sort of shop; carpet, onyx, pottery, during the tour.
Gőreme:
A great little village. Friendly people. I met several people there that I plan on staying in touch with. One of which was Violetta, from Lithuania, who is coming to the U.S. this fall and we are going to take a road trip around the West. I ate at the Anatolia Kitchen, where I met Orhan. He was so friendly and hospitable. They had great lentil soup and great prices. It was nice to just sit and drink tea and talk to Orhan. There is not much to the village. A few shops and restaurants. A great place to just chill or go walking in the valley among the fairy chimneys.
Back to Izmir:
I sat next to a village woman who was so friendly, constantly feeding me hard boiled eggs, bread, and chocolate. She didn't speak English and I didn't speak Turkish so everything was gestures. She would rub my hair and face and she took off
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Village Cats her head scarf and gave it to me. Then she gave me her prayer beads and a picture of herself. She also gave me a loaf of bread to take with me. She told me her name and had me program her phone number in my phone. When I got back to my daughter's in Izmir, I asked one of my daughter's Turkish friends to call her and thank her for all her kindness.
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Wow!
Lani, I can only imagine how you felt trying to communicate with the village woman who gave you all her stuff. I am going to Turkey in October; what kinds of things do you think I could bring to give as little gifts to the people I meet, like that woman did? What an experience!