Nothing a good sleep can't fix...

I'm feeling much better today. I ended up sleeping for 13 hours last night, 7 pm to 8am. I'm guessing tiredness was probably a contributing factor to my blahness. I was going to have a sleep when I arrived yesterday morning, and when I had a room, I jumped in the shower to find there was no hot water (realised after waiting in the shower for about five minutes with frozen toes) and the room was not heated at all. I hate sleeping when I'm dirty and stinky so decided to explore. Today was much, much better.

I saw some of the most amazing places ever. I really need to get pictures up, but will have to wait for another town... I'm thinking of moving towards the Mediterrainian with Olympus,Efes (Ephesus),etc tomorrow. So hopefully a better internet cafe.

The landscape around Kapadokya is difficult to describe, besides saying lots of rock that people have built into, snow covered mountains, old stone villages, and huge canyons. Pics required to believe if they can even begin to capture it. I went on an all day tour in a little Ford transit van with a bunch of other travellers. First stop an underground 'town'. This place was amazing... an intricate maze of 8 separate 'stories' used to hide from invading armies during times of war. There were chapels, bread making rooms, wine pressing rooms, storage rooms, huge communal living areas, numerous family rooms and even a creche room with play pens carved out of the rock that would be lined with animal skins. Very cool. I met a bloke before that grew up in that village... that would be the best cubby house in the world. We went for a trek through a valley with sheer cliff sides with rooms houses carved out. Played with cute puppy, used a pottery wheel, and generally we explored heaps of stuff. The one place we stopped may have been used for StarWars, if it wasn't here, it's very similar. Very, very cool and well and truly worth the $40. We were gone for 8 hours with lunch included.
There was an american bloke named John (in his mid 50's I guess but looks heaps younger) and I spent a lot of the day chatting to him. It was fantastic- he comes from Idaho which apparently has similar land formations so he knew a lot of the geology behind it. But more than that, he's had some amazing experiences with Turkish people too so we could relate and talk through a lot of stuff. He travelled around with a carpet salesman for a few weeks and had a lot of amazing experiences too, seeing the family networks, learning about carpets, and the weight on his shoulders he feels for his family as the one who has escaped poverty and can help the rest out... but fears his business could fold. I love the country but don't envy the poverty part of there life at all.

It was good to talk to someone who has thought in depth about the poverty and social structure. It was just what I needed. Someone to help process everything I've experienced. So very good.

He's even been propostioned too- however he had a young gay bloke hit on him. I do not envy him at all. I laughed quite a bit when he told me that. He's good value. I'll definitely be more careful about putting all Americans into one stereotypical box in future.

Anyway... there's some amazing photos to come. Just wait.