What A Wonderful Week!!!!!

It has been an absolutely wonderful week having Chad here. Surprisingly, he settled into the Sivas flow of life quite well and not suffered any real culture shock (except for one toilet episode, which I shall tell you about later). In fact, Chad seems to like Sivas so much, he says he would not mind staying!

We did pretty much nothing for the first day, as Chad recovered from a lack of sleep, due to him working the night shift in England for two weeks straight. He was also very skinny from living like a true bachelor in London, so I set on the task of fattening him up for the kill, with lots of yummy Turkish food.

Chad was not the only one who was being fattened up for the kill, because the Bayram holiday is called The Festival of the Sacrifice, where everyone slaughters an animal to give thanks for the year's prosperity, and shares the meat with neighbors and those less fortunate. So on the first day that we went wondering around, we saw our fair share of bulls, cows, sheep and goats in the various stages of sacrifice.

Someone's eating lamb tonight!!!!

Beef, anyone?



When it was all done, there were truck loads upon truck loads of skins. And lots of blood in the streets. Yech!

But enough of the blood and gore, and on with our story!!!

So off we went, to see Sivas, and I was more than happy to play tour guide.

Above: Chad strikes a striking pose by the Cifte Minarets.

We also took a walk up to the Sivas Citadel, which was an old fort overlooking the city, and it was just beautiful, with a fantastic panoramic view of everything.

Chad thought that he would just breeze out in Sivas for ten days. But little did he know that I had orchestrated an evil evil plan, to whisk him away on a surprise adventure to a magical far away kingdom known as Cappadocia, The Land of the Fairy Chimneys.

Cappadocia is famous for its 10,000 year old civilizations, cultural importance and unique cave dwellings. The area was once highly volcanic, and the rich volcanic peat that spilled over the land for millions of years was blown to and fro by the winds, to form bizarre stone structures which came to be known as "Fairy Chimneys".

Above: Us in front of fairy chimneys.

But Chad knew nothing about all this! Poor ignorant fool!

I awoke his sleeping ass at the butt crack of dawn and told him gently that we had to get up, bathe, pack our bags and get to the bus station. He was more than a little bewildered, and in the bus station experienced the mildly difficult and slightly upleasant task of using the squatting toilets, but once on the bus we were fine, and heading to Goreme for three days.

Above: the town of Goreme.

Goreme has a fascinating and bizarre landscape. The first settlers in this area were nomads, who decided to carve their homes into the soft but stable earth. But it was not just a bunch of people sitting in a cave poking a stick in the dirt -- they carved elaborate underground cities, farmed the land, and had rooms for every purpose, from camel stables to wine fermentation, to long tables and benches, all carved into the caves.

We arrived at our hostel, The Traveller's Cave, and settled in to our cave room. It was very comfortable, though it smelt a little dank. The most interesting feature was the fact that the shower was IN the toilet, so that if you in fact wanted to, you could pee, brush your teeth, and bathe all at the same time.



Our hotel



Our three-in-one bathroom.

Goreme has become a big tourist area over the past twenty years, with endless hotels and hostels created from the ancient caves in the area, and so the town has become a bustling little area, with lots of bars, restaurants and stores selling souveniers.

The Traveller's Cave was chock full of about 30 Korean tourists, and one very large New Zealander called Steve who meant to visit Turkey for a few days and accidentally ended up staying for over four weeks. Apparently so many Koreans go to Cappadocia that the hostels and restaurants will have their information in English, Turkish and Korean! In fact, our hostel even had stir-fry on their menu!

Above: Steve and his Korean "darlings", the dude from the hostel we called "Fabio" on account of his mega mop of hair, and me and Chaddos.

After settling in to our place, we walked about 1 km to the Goreme Open Air Museum, where we spent the afternoon. The Museum is an old cave community with lots of churches, and is now a protected World Heritage Site, and a very, very big tourist trap.

Cappadocia was also highly influenced by Christianity, when the disciples passed through Turkey spreading the word. The area is full to the brim of endless rock churches, cave churches and monasteries. The caves are all painted in the red ochre with paintings of Jesus Christ, Mary, endless saints and important scenes from the Bible.

The next day, after sleeping for about ten hours, we found a dude to take us around on a mini-tour and show us a few selected sites.

First the Sword Valley...



Then to see an area full of rock structures that look like animals; this one is known as Camel Rock...



Then to see more rock formations and Fairy Chimneys,

By the way... has anyone noticed that these Fairy Chimneys strongly resemble giant circumsized totees? Because I do!



Then Chad almost got bit on the head by a camel, ha ha! Good stuff.

Mmm! Doesn't Chad's head looks like a tasty treat? Nam nam nam!

That night we had a big dinner, and smoked some nargile and drank some delicious ice cold Efes.



The next day was our last day in Goreme, so after breakfast Chad and I ended up wandering around in the bush for a few hours. It was really stunning, and we felt as though we were a million miles away from everything, with nothing but miles and miles and miles of red and pink stone, fairy chimneys, and ancient caves.

Here Chad reclines in what looks like the eye socket of a dinosaur head

Goodness gracious! Doesn't Chad have a very large... um.... heh... smile!

Above - a pretty cat, a very blue door, and old-school burglar proofing.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end, so we checked out of our cave and got our asses back on the bus, and headed back home to Sivas to enjoy Chad's last two days.

And now he is gone. I reluctantly took him to the airport this morning and bid him a very very fond farewell. I don't know when Chad will be back or when we will see each other again. So if you all will excuse me, I am going to go and drown my sorrows in chocolate and love songs.

Peace out!