Last few days happened in such a blur!
Day fourteen was the beginning of the end. I got up an hr extra early sothat i could post all my blogs from the other day. Since i had no internet in my grundgy, poo-smelling room, i had to go up to the terrace to reach the web. Walking up those stairs was like walking into a dream. A few days ago i mentioned that you cannot steer a hot air balloon...well on this day, the wind brought all of the balloons over the town of Gureme!
One of them even landed on a nearby street and took off again...
That morning, we did our last ever optional activity wnd headed to the underground cities of Cappadocia. These underground cave cities were used by the early Christians to hide from persecution.
Some of the stairs and hallways were quite narrow...
This is David from my group pushing a rock ...a circular rock that was used back in the day to block the door way im case of attack. David is super cool and fun btw - he spent years in africa working as a doctor. And now he is retired and enjoying life :) him and his wife, jill, always told amazing stories which made our trip even more awesome!
These caves had kitchen areas, living quarters, toilet areas, massive air shafts, baptism areas - its so hard to believe that even though they were so limited with tools and resources, that they were able to create such a living space underground.
It boggles the mind that these people actually dug out these caves one or two thousand years ago. Eight stories excavated so far, a potential four more to find. Insane.
This underground city was our final optional activity. We then took a bus back to the town of Gureme to catch yet another bus to Ankara, a mere five hours away. Ankara had a massssssive bus station, largest in the country. We made our way to the train station to wait for our overnight train bak to istanbul. There was a restaurant in the train station, surprisingly decent tasting food. The washroom however, is a different story.
I dont think ive talked about the washrooms at all on this blog, but basically, i have trained myself to survive on less fluids just so i dont have to face the squatting toilets that are here (and a lot of asia). It should be noted if any of you guys ever end up coming to turkey that washrooms are one lira to get in. Also, it is especially gross when there are puddles of unknown liquids of where your feet go when you are wearing flip flops. Tread carefully. Anyway, all this talk is a leadup to my story of japanese ppl in the wshroom. They are so orderly and polite. I was in line for the washroom and there was a handicap stall just before the main area of washroom stalls. There was no sign for it so no one knew, but when it was discovered by the lasy who was fifth in line, she asked the first person in line if they would like to use it first. So polite! I cant picture the chinese people i encountered at the expo doing the same. Lol. Anyway, i digress.
Ive only ever been on one othrr sleeper train when we went to italy last year. The bed was comfy, there were two beds and a sink for you. This time? Not so much. Four to a cabin with all of our luggage so it was a tad crammed. Espcially since our dear Cherie decided to bring the biggest rolly luggage on the planet. Lol im just kidding. But yeah it was a tight space.
I shared a cabin with Cherie, sarah and chalar (caglar). Whileq chalar was off doing tour guide duties, i was trying to be nice and make his bed with the sheets we got. Lol he came back during my attempt and laughed at what a horrible job i was doing and told me to let him do it. Sigh.
We arrive in istanbl around seven in the morning, but unfortunately on the other continent, so we have to take the ferry across.
I was so sleely, i dont think the sea sickness got to me this time :)
The ferry ride was a breath of fresh air after spending the nine hours on the train, especially with the gorgeous view of Istanbul from the water.
Finally! After about 18 hours in transit, we make it back to our starting point hotel after fourteen adventurous days in turkey. We sit together for one last breakfast with each other to talk about all that we loved about the trip. Ill be honest, on the first day, i was a bit nervous about having funonthis trp - everyone in the tour was so different...but this trip ws absolutely amazing and i enjoyed the company of every single person in my group. They all gave me memories to last a lifetime and I am so thankful that we all ended up together. Thanks guys for an amazing time. I am definitely hoping my next group will be as great as you guys :)
Location:Cappadocia, istanbul, turkey
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