Lessons in Bus Travel Part 2:

You may get dropped off by the side of the road.

At 5AM, Jen and I were dropped off at a rest stop in Aksaray, expecting to transfer to a bus to Göreme.  Now, since bus travel is so frequent in Turkey, rest stops are significantly less sketchy than they are in the US.  A man who worked at the nearby gas station saw us and asked in Turkish if we were going to Kapadokya.  We answered yes, and he said we'd have to wait by the side of the highway, since busses to Kapadokya don't usually stop at that rest stop.  He walked us over and waited with us for about 15 minutes until a bus to Kapadokya came.  We chatted a bit, and I think I understood most of what he said.  Anyway, the bus to we eventually got on wasn't the one we were expecting, and we had to pay a little more money, but when you're waiting by the side of the highway, you get on the first bus you see.  

So Kapadokya is crazy.  It's known for its wine and its strange rock formations.  It's basically a cross between Napa Valley, Utah, and Mars.  I kinda felt like I was on the set of Star Wars, which, I mean, I was.

The part we went to, Göreme, is a huge place for backpackers, and our hostel, recommended by Rebecca, was fantastic-- a great place for information about the area and for just hanging out. 

The Göreme Open Air Museum is a UNESCO site.  The rocks were carved out, and churches were built inside of them.

Basically, Jen and I spend the day swimming, eating ice-cream, and anthropomorphizing rocks.

  

Oh, and then there was that time we climbed halfway down a rock only to realize it was actually someone's roof and there was no way to get down without landing in their vegetable garden.  We climbed back up.