1 More Week!

In Cappadocia, we stayed in the town of Göreme and this is the cave that we slept in.

We woke up to the sounds of hot air balloons every morning. Though it would have been fun to take a ride, this was far out of our price range.Hazen with the town of Göreme in the distance.

So this is Cappadocia. Land of some very strange rock formations.

These rock formations are called fairy chimneys and many of them have homes carved into them.

We decided to go to an underground city that was full of tourists. For some reason, these small spaces didnt scare anyone away.Playing in the fairy chimneys during a day trip around Cappadocia with a moped.

Our friend Mustafa. We stumbled upon an underground city and he was our guide, though he spoke no english.

Things are definately winding down. With only 1 week until we land in Seattle there is still lots to do. Today is the first day since our last post that neither of us was "actively" getting sick. That might hint that we have been hanging low most of the time. We spent five nights in the town of Goreme. On the last day we were able to rent a moped and tour the area. It was a great day as we hit the four lane highway with our moped. Definately hit some out of the way areas that people were very surprised to see us. In the village of Mazi, Mustafa (pictured above) came running into the street waving his arms and signaling for us to park. When we headed his demands he ran to his garage and grabbed his trusty propane lantern and motioned for us to follow. Didn't really know what to expect but were surpised when he led us through a door that led to a giant underground city. Mustafa proceeded to give us a detailed tour, in Turkish of course. He even sat down at one point in the city and broke into a long and elaborate story in which he was yelling, laughing, and carrying on. Have absolutely no idea what he was talking about but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Much better than our previous underground city visit that was overflowing with tourists. On the way out we slipped him a 10 YTL and were rewarded with kisses on both cheeks. Little more Authentic Turkish than we needed but oh well. Today we spent backtracking to the town of Konya, which is where we became ill in the first place. Turns out we have the same beds and are hoping for different results. After we got into town, Hazen headed to the Hamami for his traditional Turkish bath. He wasn't disappointed. Luckily the place wasn't that busy as it is risky to go on Friday which is the religious day of the week. If he were to splash someone who was finishing up their pre-prayer wash they would have to start all over again because they had been splashed by a non-muslim. After a bath and sauna he was ready for a scrub and massage. The scrub removed all sorts of unsightly things and the Turkish soap massage was really a treat. Hazen is probably the cleanest he has been since birth. In the morning we are going to continue back to Antalya for a relaxing two nights before jumping a plane to Munich on the 24th. We are praying to Allah that our appetites will be back to their usual state for the Brats and Sauerkraut. We would like to apoligize in advance to those picking us up from the airport in Seattle. No matter how hard we try, we have had a funk following us around for about the last 2 months. Probably because we have been wearing the same group of clothes the entire trip. Might want to throw up a new pine tree on the mirror. Probably won't get another post up before we get back but will be sure to get one more up when we get home that will include some Oktoberfest and a bit of London.

To summarize the trip would be impossible. It is a safe bet to say we have seen & learned some things. We think our friend Miguel, from Alicante, said it best. After a long night of sharing local wine, passing around the sheesha filled with flavoured tobacco, and chatting as if a language barrier never existed. He leaned back in his half-broken white plastic lawn chair, folded his fingers around the back of his head, looked up to the starry sky and proclaimed "Perfecto!".