Open Air Museum Göreme

Georgia and me, getting comfy in our outfits for the next week or so...

Bubbles and cake was the reward!

Sunrise over Göreme

The Oz Bus goes Ballooning!

Salt Lake Tuz

Göreme - what a Highlight!

We arrived at our beautiful hostel Flintstones just in time to dip into the pool and book into a great turkish Barbecue with Shisha - unfortunately I missed out on the swimming bit as I got a bit of a bug again ... the throat. But luckily I am equipped with a well working travel pharmacy and it has served me alright. So only good food and wine in these bizarre surroundings. Giant rock formations popping out everywhere - a great spot to use your imagination!

Very early morning - 5:15 pickup for us lucky people who get to go on a hot-air balloon. It was just amazing!!!

Cruising along, then getting back for a great breakfast, some sleep and a nice little walk to the Open air Museum. Early Christians had to hide from the persecutors, so they cut houses, churches and whole monasteries into the sandstone-rocks. That happened around 900 to 1200 AD and you can still see the Frescoes in the cavechurches. While the others took some horseriding lessons in the afternoon or were off for a 13-km walk, I decided to relax and have a decent nap by the pool. Well deserved I´d say. At night we went out to the Fatboys cafe, owned by a turkish and Ozzie couple, another good Barbecue with lots of salad and chicken. Savour it as long as we can I can only say, not much longer and happy eating times are over! One of us already had to prove it - getting sick on the whole journey from Istanbul to Göreme. It had been the longest journey so far anyways, not the best one for having bellytroubles! Fingers crossed and knock on wood and all that for things to go easy in the future!!!

We are leaving the touristy parts now. Lets head further east, eastern Anatolia, past Mt. Erciyas, the tallest vulcano in central Turkey, towards the Iranian border. Next stop: Erzincan!