30th of April, 2022.
In the morning, I wash my feet, my armpits and my socks before going to the road and start to hitchhiking again.
In only a few minutes, a man stops. He looks like a well succeed man. And he is a bit hangover. They had a party in his restaurant last night. After a while he says he is hungry and offer me some breakfast. Yay! We have a great Kurdish breakfast with different types of cheese, jam, honey, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs, and a delicious bread!
If I am not mistaken, he was going to Ankara, so he drops me off in Konya. I am a bit confused about what happened exactly at this point (never let to write things that happened to you, in details, over 3 months after), but I believe I had to walk for a while, because the place where he drops me off is not that good. And then a lovely family picks me up.
Demet, her husband and their child have a very humble car and they stop immediately when they see me. My sign says “Goreme” and she tells me they are going to Aksarey, which is on the way. During the trip she gives me some tea, and some homemade snacks. She is very sweet. But I start to wonder why the trip is taken so long, I mean, Aksarey is not that far. It is only on the last minute, when I start to see the signs saying “Goreme” that I realized they actually have driven me all the way to Goreme. What? Yeah, I know, I can barely believe too. And as if it was not enough, Demet even give me some food before they leave. What a lovely family!
Wow! So here I am in Goreme! Here I am in Cappadocia! What to do? Laugh.
I ask for some directions in a tourist info travel. I think the man is actually drunk. He smells at alcohol at least. And his directions are not very helpful. I ask to drop off my backpack in a restaurant, and the manager is a very sweet man. He keeps my backpack and offers me a lemonade! Yummy! I talk with a waitress and another Turkish guy, everybody very friendly. Only the weather does not look very good. It is very dark in the horizon…
I notice something when I am entering another tourist info: When I approach the place, they are all smiles and “Welcome! Welcome!”. As soon as I say I just need some information, they treat you like nothing. And again, give me useless directions. After another two or three people, I finally get in the road which leads to the Open Air Museum. I am not sure if you need to pay to visit, but it might be a good route to take anyway.
It is indeed perhaps the most famous road to take it. From here you can see many areas, or as they called around here, the Valleys. And of course lots of this unusual rock formations for which Cappadocia is famous for. I don’t know why I am not impressed. I mean, it is nice, but at the same time so “nhé”. And you have to pay to visit the open air museum. There are so many tourists around.
Talking with a lovely young tourist guide, I discovered that walking to any of the valley is quite too far. Doable, because it is a walking distance, but I don’t think I will have enough time (because of the rain) and I am not sure if it worth it.
So before the museum entrance, but to your left side, there is an area with a small lavender garden, which you are free to go, and from there you can have some great views. You can even go through some little trails and do a small hiking.
One of the sunset spots is quite close to the centre but there is a small cabin where you have to pay to go up. You have to pay to go up the hill for a sunset view? Are you fucking kidding me? Anyway, luckily I decide to ask to this elderly man if he can allow me to go for free. He does! Unfortunately there is no sunset view, only really dark clouds view. Laugh. Apart of that, you can have an OK view of Goreme and some nice views of more weird rock formations.
A few drops start to fall so I go back to the restaurant. My plans are to ask in a camping site nearby, if I can pinch my tent there overnight for free. But I cannot find the fucking camping site! I forget about that for a while and decide to ask for some bread (because I have no food) to a young man siting outside a closed restaurant…
Çççççççççççç (this was typed by Gibson, a very cute and fluffy cat, who belongs to my current host, in Sweden. That is his contribution to the blog)
… but it turns out that the restaurant belongs to three brothers, and the elderly one is the only one who can speak English, so he come and talks to me. It is the last day of Ramadan, and they are just about to have the dinner, their first meal of the day and the last of Ramadan. He invites me to join them. Yay!
The two younger brothers are cooking and what a delicious buffet they are having! Plus some delicious dessert after! I am so happy for have being invited not only for a meal but a delicious meal! The elderly brother shows me the whole area of the restaurant (which is amazingly carved into the rocks), like caves, and its history, and also the place where he will be leaving soon: another cave, but on the second floor. Here is where he says, if I want, I can pinch my tent for the night. Yay!
We have a coffee after the amazing meal and soon they all have to leave. The elderly brother has a puppy staying around the place where he will live but I guess he is sleeping by the time I come because he doesn’t make a sound. I have a peaceful night of sleep and next morning I try to leave towards Gobekli Tepe. Pfff…
P.S.: As you can (not) see and imagine, the weather was too bad for any balloon trips =(
