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Published: November 25th 2007
me...
hiding...Hello all,
Arriving in Istanbul and realizing what a tight schedule we were on if we wanted to see all the sights we were reading about and listing off, John and I made the immense error of opting for a tour. Well, having said that, it was not all bad....
We took an overnight bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia, a method of travel that is slowly working it's way to the top of my never-do-again list, and we found ourselves in the most fantastic world. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, there were monks that lived in the hills and their method of survival was to carve out a space to live in the rock formations that dotted the horizon.
So, all of the caves that can be found date back to the 6th century and are just the most interesting things. You see, these people lived off the land, rather peaceful lives, and their main method of defense is being hidden and difficult to reach (which of course, makes climbing the tricky entrances enticing to the adventurous...)
Not only caves, but there are underground churches, and wineries, and in fact, an entire city 40 meters underground.
me...
safe behind stone... So, to hit all the sights, John and I were collected from our cave-hotel, where we stayed in an actually fairy chimney, and were off. Now, the first day, the tour was the best we've ever had. There was a young fellow who turned up to be our guide and informed us that the tour consisted of us. We soon got to know Emin, and realized that we had a lot in common. So much, in fact, that we irritated the driver, as we didn't stick to the tour route, but rather went and explored some caves that even he had never managed to go inside and went hiking every interesting place he could think of.
At the end of the evening, we were deposited at our cave hotel and filled with anticipation and excitement for the next day. Unfortunately, our luck would not hold, and we were stuck on a tour with a stereotypically abnoxious American couple, a severely hung over Australian couple, two nice Spanish fellows, and a group of Turks who couldn't follow the english explanation of the tour guide. But, nonetheless, we managed to see the ancient underground city, and gently reminded why we did
Perfect vıew...
classic fairy chimney! not chose tours more often!
After that we were met with rain, and seeing the local weather report, put our hiking plans on hold, and went south to Cyprus where we had seen temperatures sitting at 20 degrees!!!!!!
More to come...
Trish xxx
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Neil
non-member comment
Awesome isn't it! I'm sure you've taken pics of heaps of the same stuff as me, definitely that fresco in the church.. I can't believe you get excited when the temp gets to 20! You've got to come to Perth mate, if it doesn't reach 30 it's a cold change!