I forgot to mention that while walking around I have been mistook for a Turkish person. People come up to me and ask me for directions and try to have conversations with me. I suppose the more I grow my beard and the tanner I get the more Turkish I look.
I am in Cappadocia!
When I got off the bus at 7:45am I went up to the Travellers Cave Panysion where I am staying, dropped off my bags and had a Turkish Breakfast for free 
. I then left at 9:30am for the “Green Tour” which took me and others from nearby hostels, and hotels around the Cappadocia region to see an underground city, a hike through a gorge, lunch nearby a river, seeing what looked like a set from Star Wars, and a few other noteworthy places around the region. My favorite was the underground city which was 8 stories. The people that built it made the passages small so their enimies would not be able to move fast through them if they were attacking. So everyone on the tour had a bit of a back cramp afterwords. But it was an enjoyable tour. I met another girl from my same cave from New Zealand. It was great talking to someone in English for the day during our tour, and being able to relate to many of the same things. For instance, I now have a friend of a friend who has a brother who is good friends with Jermain from the flight of the conchords series. If you havent seen it I highly recommend it.
(underground city)
After the tour I we went back to the Cave and watched a bit of Turkish TV, the film we watched was in Turkish and from the 1970′s, the acting was overdone quite a bit, we were not exactly sure what happend during the show. But it was enjoyable.
Later I bought my bus ticket and had a wonderful chicken dish for dinner.
Today I did not necessarily have a plan of attack, other than trying to go for a hike here and there. After mailing a few post cards I headed out in the general direction for hiking and seeing more of the “fairy chimneys” and other old dewllings. I decided that I was bored with following the road and the map and just hoped on over to a dirt road that led to a few of the chimneys, as they call them. Being myself, I just started exploring the region.
(the guy I farmed with)
I hiked up an area that once served as a town for the cave dwellers and I explored all of the caverns along the cliffside. Later I ran into a french tour group that started up a hill, I followed them for while and then went to the top of the rocks and set out for another bigger mountain, I decided that it was a good idea to hike to the top of the tallest moutain I could see in the hot desert landscape. After getting to the top I felt quite accomplished, famished, tired, hot and thirsty. But the view was quite worth it.
I wanted to get down and head toward Goreme instead of the way I came, which proved to be a bit difficult. I found myself jumping down some of the rocks, climbing down proved to be problematic considering the rocks in the region are quite unstable and typically break apart when you try to climb them. I did find a cave in the hillside that I took a break in. The temperature was considerably cooler inside. I came out of the cave a bit refreshed and actually found some more dwellings high in a hill that I scrambled to get to. Once inside I noticed that it was relitevely untouched, there were still artifacts from way back when. There was an old piece of pottery, a metal thing on the wall, and some hey that had been fashioned in some manner for something or another.
I followed a dry creek bed for some time and had to work my way through the thick brush and tall grasses over crumbling rocks and strange landscape back into a small town. I started walking through the town, looking very tired, I was covered with dust and I had sweat running down my face and all over my sun glasses. A guy a bit older than I said hi, and asked me to join him to sit down. He was running a shop for tourists. But did not pressure me into buying anything. He did ask if I wanted water, when I asked Ne Kadar (How Much) his friend said 2 Lyra, the man who invited me over spoke to him in Turkish and then he said 1 Lyra, he had explained to his friend that I was a backpacker and not just the average tourist. I of course thirsty bought and drank the icy water. After a bit of conversation with the guy I noticed that the family was preparing for lunch, I started to tell him that I was going to leave because they were eating, he then invited me to eat with them. So, after my long hike through the desert I was given water at a reduced rate, and a traditional Turkish home cooked meal with a family outside on a beautiful day. We had chicken and rice, salad, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, bread and orange fanta. It was amazing, the food was great and the hospitality was even better. I thanked the man and his family for their generosity and moved on. I found myself next hiking toward a church out in the middle of nowhere. I went past it and noticed two men farming, they were a bit startled that a tourist had wandered that far off the beaten path. I offered my water to the eldest one, but kindly refused and had me sit with him. He didnt speak any english other than Obama, Good! I have noticed that all over the world where I have gone, people seem to love Obama. He tried to ask me questions and have a conversation, we got to a point and then I decied to help them farm. I picked up a hoe and started to work the land with them. It was pretty fun hoeing the dirt with two Turkish farmers in the middle of nowhere.
I then walked a few KM back to Goreme and to the Cave for a much needed shower and clothes washing.
(the wild flowers around here are amazing)
(inside of a church)
