Fairy chimneys in Goreme

Zemi Valley
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We arrived in Goreme pretty tired from our overnight bus, the information man told us to walk up to the mosque, turn left and our guesthouse (Panoramic and Global Guesthouse) will be up the top of the hill.  Trudged up there with our backpacks on and had a snooze in one of the wooden pavillions overlooking the town until our room was ready.  Went for a walk in the afternoon to the Goreme Open Air Museum to see 15th century churches which were in the caves nearby.  In the heat of the day, James had to have a rest every 15 minutes.  Every time I turned around, he wasn't there!  I called "James?" and his voice would answer from inside a cave where he was resting.  Forced him to trudge back to the town where we had a wander around before heading to Dibek for dinner.  We had ordered Testi Kebaps hours earlier as you need to give them at least 3 hours notice to cook the dish.  There's not testicles in it, don't worry!  Just minced meat and veges in a sauce, cooked for  3 hours in a kiln in a sealed clay pot.  They break the clay seal at the table and pour the dish onto your plate from the pot.  Absolutely delish.  We tried the restaurant family's own red wine which was also lovely then head up to our cave for an early night.

Hot air balloon
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5am wake up, get picked up in a van and taken to outside of Goreme to go in the hot air balloon!  There was coffee and biscuits waiting for us but only had one as cheeky, grinning Turk manning the cookie table knew one word in English and it was 'calories'.  We were stuffed into the balloon basket with some Japanese sardines and then headed up into the sky and over to Rose Valley - named for it's pink cliffs and mountainsides.  Most of the time we floated close to the ground but a couple times we went really really high to see over all of the valleys.  The landscape is hard to describe, pointy, sometimes phallic looking hills with little windows in them beside rosy stark cliff faces and lush greenery in between where the locals grow their grapes/plums/corn.  An hour in the skies was enough, watching the other balloons was quite entertaining though and then we were on the ground and celebrating with champagne and being given our certificates (no idea what they were for).  Head back to the guesthouse to have breakfast overlooking the town in the morning sun.  A typical Turkish brekky - omelette, feta, olives, tomato, cucumber, watermelon, bread, more bread, some more bread with honey or jam, nescafe coffee (gross) with powdered milk (even grosser) or turkish tea (very strong and black).  Fortified by this hefty meal we set off for a hike through Zemi Valley which was nice but the stream running through it was a scary orange and stunk.  Ended up at the highway and bought some honey sesame peanuts and dried apricots to snack on.  Head back to Goreme through Pigeons Valley.  Didn't see many pigeons but lost the track at one point and ended up climbing precariously across a cliff which in hindsight, once we were down the bottom, I really shouldn't have done!  Made James go the long way around as his shoes don't have super grip like mine.  Arrived back hot and sweaty for a beer and dinner - aubergine and more aubergine.

Where the sunflower seeds come from
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Next day we head out on a hike through Rose Valley, walked all day through there to the next village where we stopped for gozleme (savoury pancake filled with white cheese and parsley or meat) and a game of backgammon with cay (apple tea) and then back to Goreme and a giant glass of orange and watermelon juice.  Had a borek (pastry filled with meat and cheese) dinner with some Intrepid tourers and their tour leader John and drummed him with all the questions we had stored up.  Where are the cows and why isn't there fresh cows milk, only UHT?  (Everywhere, not sure)  Why doesn't he have a Turkish girlfriend? (Turkish men are charming but Turkish women are surly - I didn't say this, he did!)  Does apple tea have apples in it? (Don't think so, just flavouring and sugar)  Then head off on another overnight bus trip to Oympos (which James left the ipod on).