After quite a bit of complication trying to figure out transportation from Adana to Goreme (long story!), the Turkish Skirmish Travel Team decided to suck it up and rent a car for the drive up! And we’re glad we did!
Randi went with us to a bakery a few blocks away for breakfast, then we picked up the rental car (Ford Focus, the only automatic they had since none of us is comfortable with the stick shift), loaded up, and got on our way! We drove for a couple of hours, and around noon we decided to find a place for lunch. We ended up in a little place (calling it a restaurant would be a lie!) and ate what they offered us. It was pretty good, but way overpriced, which I’m sure they thought they could get away with since we’re Americans. He told us thirty, but then we figured out his English was just bad and he meant forty. Definitely not worth it. They seem so nice, and some are, but the ones that are out to get your money are ruthless. He also said we could use the bathroom after we ate, but then he said there was no bathroom when we asked him about it on our way out. Oh well. We found one anyway!
Next stop, an underground Hittite city! Over 100 have been found and excavated, and there are another 130 or so believed to be in the caves around here! It was so cute because these little kids were our “guides”, and they used what little English they knew, plus hand motions to explain what the rooms were used for. They kids were so precious! These folks really knew how to make it work living in a cave. They were able to hide out and build fires because the type of rock in the cave absorbs smoke!
Next stop… Avanos! They are known for their pottery, and the all the stuff was beautiful! They made a lot of original things, as well as Hittite and Ottoman-style pottery. The people were friendly and definitely not as pushy as they were in Istanbul. We got ice cream (are you noticing a trend?) and walked around the little town a lot, which was super cute, then around 8 or so we headed to our hotel.
Cue next adventure! We drove around Goreme, which is a cute, small, touristy town, and we had trouble finding the hotel. We stopped in to ask someone, and they directed us up this alley-type “road” up a hill. Up and up and up we went, and finally we were flagged down by our rental car guy! The renal car place drops off and picks up wherever you want, so we’d asked them to pick up the car at the hotel, and lucky us we didn’t even have to look for him! He showed us where to go, then helped us get our stuff to the hotel. The roads are small enough that you can’t even drive all the way up them! The guy at the front desk checked us in and showed us to our room—it’s so cute! It really is in a cave, and the view is beautiful! The Fairy Chimneys were lit up at night, but you could also still see the stars. Definitely recommending this place! The only kind of funny thing is that the bathroom and shower are all together—no door, no curtain, just the door to the bathroom!
And then it was bedtime! Andrea and Dan went out to explore the town a little bit and pick up some water, but I wasn’t feeling 100%, so I went to bed instead and had a pretty good night’s sleep! Breakfast was good—no buffet, just made to order!—and now we’re headed out to explore Goreme! There’s an open-air museum and a few other things we’re looking forward to trying out today. Wish us luck! =)
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