So after our very dodgy 'sleep' on the bus, we were woken up an hour before we even got to the end, then, 15 minutes before we arrived, the driver decided to stop for petrol! Argh! But we finally got to Göreme at about 8am and got the heck off the bus!! We got some directions and made our way to our hostel, then when we didn't find it, got some more directions and got followed by a cute dog all the way there. After a confusing check in, there no one was at reception, and when we asked in the common room, no one knew, then as we went to leave, the old guy on the couch followed us out and went up to reception. Strange. But we got checked in, and went straight to our beds (which they had to make up while we waited, as it was so early) and got almost an hours snooze in before we had to get up again! According to our itinerary, we were being picked up from our hostel for a tour of Cappadocia, but when no one came, I asked a lady who was working, and in the very little English she spoke, she pointed me down the road to a travel agency. So I went down there to find out what the go was, and was told we had to meet there! So I went back and woke Darren and we walked down to the agency where the minivan was waiting. Darren was still feeling pretty gross, so they let him sit in the front seat of the van, which was nice, then we drove around town picking up other people from their hotels (and the tour guide) then made our way to our first destination, Üçhisar Fortress. Its going to be very hard to describe the beauty of Cappadocia (or in Turkish, KapadoKYA!) so you should look at the photos, or google image 'Cappadocia', but I'll do my best! All through the huge volcanic region are giant rocks (kaya's! Hehehe) and a lot of them have been carved into over the centuries to make homes, churches etc etc, where people used to live to hide from invading armies and the like. Üçhisar Fortress is a huge conical mountain, surrounded by lots of small conical hills, all with carved windows and doors and rooms that were visible due to the erosion of the mountains over time. It's made up of mostly two types of rock, one which is soft, pretty much condensed ash from volcanic eruptions, which erodes quickly, and one harder type of rock, which protects the other. It makes for some pretty spectacular scenery. Our guide gave us some information on this process and then we got some free time to wander around a little and get photos. Darren just checked it out from a bench as he was feeling quite gross, then we walked back past the random dreadlocked camel that you could pay for a photo with, and back to the van. We set off for our next stop, which was at the Göreme open air museum, where we were going to go for a hike through a valley and over a hill. Darren was really sick, so he decided to stay in the van for a snooze and meet us on the other side with the driver. So I set off with the rest of the group and walked through Rose Valley. We were surrounded by mountains, lots of which had carvings and windows and lots of pigeon holes. We got to look through some of the rooms that were open to the outside, then started up the side of the mountain, where we came to Hacli Church. Apparently this church was carved into the hill in the 6th century, and there were still paintings from the 11th century! The whole altar section was really clear and detailed and there was a giant cross carved into the roof. It was so amazing how they could do that so long ago! I chatted with the Russian family from our tour and we exchanged some photo taking opportunities, as well as email addresses, before starting the hike up to the top of the mountain! We got some amazing views from there over the amazing landscape and rock formations. It's such a beautiful area! At one stage when we were heading back down the other side of the mountain, there was a section with a rope nailed into the side of the rock to hold onto as you walked. This is the one section where I slipped over, and I had the rope to hold me up! Winning! Go coordination skills! Once we were down the other side it was a very easy walk along the road to where we were meeting the van, and I had a chat with a couple of guys from Uruguay and a guy from Colombia, who were all very nice. We got to the van, which was in a little village called Çavuşin Village, which was built around a huge wall of eroded rock with all sorts of rooms and tunnels, windows and doors and all sorts of places. The modern day village was built around it too, just as the ancient village was built into all the surrounded rocks. After looking around (and seeing some very cute 'guard dogs' sleeping on the job) I went back to the van to see how Darren was before everyone came back. He was feeling very slightly better after his hour-ish snooze, but not 100%, so he stay laying down for the next leg. We drove a short way to a restaurant for lunch, which was provided. We got some mezes for entree, then the waiter brought out a table with a flaming clay pot! He heated a huge knife up in the fire, then pulled the clay pot out, and called me up to him! He gave me the knife and I got to bash at the pot until the top cracked off! That was fun! We got our mains then, and a strange kind of dessert, which was sweet and a little coconutty. So we were quite full by then! After lunch we went to the Avanos Handicraft Centre (at least I think that's where it was) where we went to a pottery factory. We got a tour of the company, and got to see some people painting the pieces, but the tour was quite boring compared to the one we did in Morocco! They had some pretty pieces in the shop, my favorites were the ones with 3D tree carvings in them. Very cool. Then we left and went back to the van where we went to Paşabağları Valley, also known as Monks Valley (again, I think that's the name of it!) where they had the famous fairy chimneys! These are more of the eroding rocks, with hard rock at the top and softer rock through the body, making a type of mushroom shape, or chimney. They must be pretty big fairies to have chimneys that big though! We got to walk around there for a while, and look into a few more carved rooms. We climbed up a hill at one side where we got a pretty amazing view of them too. I think this was my favourite stop for the day. It was very cool! Again, look at the photos, as I can't explain how weird and cool they look! After hanging around there for a while, we moved on to our next stop in Devrent Valley, also known as Imagination Valley, which was full of heaps of smaller chimneys, with lots of strange shaped ones, that you could make pictures out of. There was a camel, the Virgin Mary, a big and little troll, the three stooges, and many more! We were a little worn out by this stage, and actually ended up seeing more things when we looked back at the photos later! After a bit there, we went to an Arts and Crafts store, where Darren decided to stay in the van again, as he was feeling pretty bad again. The rest of us went in and got a demonstration about the different types of rare stones they had in Turkey, the main one being Turquoise. He showed us examples of a turquoise stone, as well as comparing a fake stone. After showing us a few more things, he took us through to the shop. It was a massive room carved into the rock (recently, not an old one) full of heaps of displays of jewellery. There was so much of it! I'm really not into jewellery, so I just wandered around pretty quickly. The best part was the free apple tea they gave us as we browsed! I found another room which was more interesting, it had lots of little figurines and cool things made from different types of stones. There was a set of elephants that looked cool, which apparently if you put them around your house, in one year you will own that house! They also had some pretty chess sets and some large pieces of stone with preserved bugs in them! Random. After a while (and after stroking the furry wall in one room) I snuck out of there and waited around out the front for a bit until everyone came out. When we were all ready, we got back in the van (Darren was still feeling ****) and made our way to our last stop, the family of chimneys. They had a mum and dad chimney, with a baby chimney leaning on the side of one, then a stooped grandma and grandpa chimney behind them. I got a few more photos there, then we got back in the van and headed back to Göreme. When we were dropped off we went straight back to the hostel. Darren jumped straight into bed to go to sleep, and I went for a walk down to the ATM for some cash, then picked up some bottles of water from the supermarket. I had a quick look in a few souvenir shops to try find a sticker, but failed, then went back to the hostel. I went to have a shower, but it was being used, so I went to bed too, for a few hours, woke up at some stage for a shower then went back to sweet sweet sleep.