It’s a different landscape out here.
The closest comparison Daina could come up with was Alberta’s Badlands. I haven’t been but, from the pictures I’ve seen, I can’t disagree. I’ve seen rock formations en masse before, but none really on this scale, or that retain so much function.
For instance, we’re living in a cave that’s a part of a hotel that’s carved into a rock formation. We visited a church today which was literally carved out of a rock. Actually, we visited several churches that were carved out of rock, many of which had fantastic frescoes that have existed in one form or another for a thousand years.
Pretty awesome.
We started with a long hike up to the Goreme Open Air Museum, hit some side streets that led us to the Hidden Church (real name) and a UNESCO Heritage church, the Kazar Nalize (Church of the Evil Eye). We wandered through the “Love Valley”, which was filled with giant phallus looking things. It was a good deal of hiking, made a bit tougher by the hot, hot heat.
So, at about 1pm, we decided to wind down the day for a couple of reasons. We’re still going out later to see the sunset at – wait for it – Sunset Point, but we have an EARLY day tomorrow, as we’ll be doing the thing to do in Cappadocia, watching the sun rise from a hot air balloon!
Booyah!
