My first evening in Goreme, I felt like I was on a movie set. The landscape just didn’t seem like it could be real!
There was an information office in the little square that passes for the bus station in this tiny town, so I was able to have them call the hotel to come pick me up. I had found an incredible deal on booking.com for a cave room at a highly-rated cave hotel/pension, and it turned out to be the nicest place I’ve stayed in apart from my lovely guesthouse in Istanbul.
My cave hotel room and view:
As I’m getting a little tired from constantly being on the move, and because I figured it would be a good way to meet people, I booked two day tours: the easy “Red Tour” itinerary for my first day and more challenging “Green Tour” itinerary for the second. The owner asked whether I wanted to book a hot air balloon ride and I replied that I needed to think about it. I really wanted to go on one, but I’m also terrified of heights. Decisions decisions.
trails untrod 
Do it! It would be an amazing experience!
Reading your blog is becoming the highlight of my day! I hope you keep traveling so I can live vicariously through your wandering. Your entries just keep getting better; I liked Russia, but your Turkey entries are fascinating. It sounds like an absolutely beautiful country!
Thank you so much for the encouraging words! I’m enjoying writing the blog so I’m glad you’re enjoying reading it. It’s been great writing again and actually having people read it means that I have to have the discipline to write regularly.
Yes, Turkey is indeed a beautiful country and on the whole I’ve had fantastic interactions with the people here, barring that one creep.
And I’ll let you into a little secret about the balloon – when I wrote that last post, I was already in Ankara and knew whether I’d gone or not. But enjoy the suspense:)