Efes

It was only 4hrs from Pamukkale to Selçuk so we decided to just book a bus in the morning. We'd asked around the going rate so we knew what to attempt to haggle under. Kamil Koç (pronounced Camel Coach, and not Camel Cock, like every tourist calls it) were advertising on-board entertainment now in English. I was tempted to re-watch The Prince of Persia without the Turkish-dubbing, however, I felt it was more authentic being delivered in a more middle eastern language. Kamil Koç were also notorious for being the most expensive, so instead we tried Pamukkale coaches. We walked into the ticket office which was empty except for a 12 year-old boy reading a magazine on the couch. "Is there someone nearby who can serve us?" We asked the boy in overly slow English and with large hand gestures, "one moment" he stated, getting up and then walking behind the counter, "how may I help you today?" he asked in perfect English, picking up a pen. Martino, Ellen and I all laughed. The kid continued to stare at us blankly. "Oh, you're not joking? Ok, we need three tickets to Selçuk tomorrow. What times do your buses run?"

"The only bus with seats leaves at 1.30pm tickets are 26 lira each". Before we had the chance to ask if he could do us deal, he interjected. "for you I can do for 24 each. Actually 23. No wait,...22 lira." This kid was dropping the price by the second. We looked at each other then Ellen asked "what about 20 each?" The child began laughing hysterically for about 30 seconds, before turning back to us dead-pan. "I'm sorry madam this price is just not possible". We were going to try for 21 but figured this kid had already dropped it enough to make this transaction as quick as possible so we paid and let him get back to reading his magazine on the couch.

We went to eat breakfast around 11am just before the buffet finished, then hung out by the pool until our bus arrived. As we were laying on the pavers a Turkish girl came close to us and began taking photos with her phone. We thought she was photographing us so we turned around to confront her (and also strike some poses). We realized she wasn't actually photographing us, but a tiny turtle that appeared out of nowhere and was making its way to the pool. We knew the ridiculous amount of chlorine in the pool to combat the urine content would undoubtedly burn the turtle's skin off. So we picked him up and gave him to the hotel management. Apparently he was a pet of one of the guests and had crawled out of its enclosure, but they weren't sure what to do with him as the guest wasn't there. We would've loved to have taken him with us, but Ellen had just bought a 6kg bag of salted cucumbers from a tile merchant across the street, so our hand luggage packs were completely full.

We caught the bus to Selçuk, arriving in the mid-afternoon. We'd pre-booked accommodation weeks ago for the Selçuk stop, but Martino wasn't able to get a room at our hotel, so we split-up for a couple hours and arranged to meet up for dinner. We needed to pay the balance of our booking upon checking-in. The hotel owner asked us whether we'd prefer double or twin room. We said we didn't mind. He told us he'd give us the room at a special price, and then put on an elaborate presentation of everything the room offered, which most rooms usually do not encapsulate like air conditioning, many many power sockets, "city views" and breakfast with "multiple servings" of tea/coffee. We were quite confused as we had the invoice in front of us so knew what we owed, but as he quoted us a higher price we then weren't sure what he was giving us. We showed him the confirmation email, but he said the booking website hadn't converted from euros into lira correctly. We were too confused to argue so just paid. The room he took us to was actually a triple so the confusion continued to build. Ellen looked around before turning to me "so can we use the air conditioning and power sockets, or does that guy charge extra for that?"

"I have no idea."

We dumped our bags and then headed out to see the city.

Selçuk was a cool little place, with an immaculately preserved 30m high section of an aquaduct running through the city centre. Massive stalks have taken the liberty of turning the aquaduct into their home, building large straw nests on top. We met Martino around 8pm and searched for somewhere nice to eat. We found a kebab stand that had a fresh ayran fountain, so we were naturally sold at once. After dinner and two pints of the delicious yogurt drink, we walked around the streets until we stumbled upon a small market. Ellen bought some penguin earrings, whilst Martino and I opted for some ginormous peaches from one of the local farmers. We tried getting another kilo of salted cucumbers but unfortunately the tile merchant selling them had sold his last batch moments before we found his stall. Around midnight we parted ways to our respective hotels, planning to meet back up the next day around 11am to check out Ephesus.

The largest outdoor theater in the ancient world, seating capacity of 24,000.

Ephesus is the most well preserved Roman city in the Mediterranean region. Ephesus (Greek: Ephesos; Turkish: Efes) was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the coast of Ionia. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which served to make it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world (at it's peak in 100 AD, the population reached 400,000). The city has a massive history, so here is just a snapshot of some of its quite interesting years (yes again sourced from your trusty historian, Wiki):

Celsus Library and Mazeus Mithridates Gate

Underneath the theater foundations.

Ephesus, a territory that was traditionally Greek to the core, became subject of the Roman Republic. The city felt at once the Roman influence. Taxes rose considerably, and the treasures of the city were systematically plundered.

In 88 BC Ephesus welcomed Archelaus, a general of Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, when he conquered Asia (the Roman name for western Asia Minor). Ephesus became, for a short time, self-governing. When Mithridates was defeated in the First Mithridatic War by the Roman consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Ephesus came back under the Roman rule in 86 BC. Sulla imposed a huge indemnity, along with five years of back taxes, which left Asian cities heavily in debt for a long time to come.

When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, he made Ephesus the capital of proconsular Asia (which covered western Asia Minor) instead of Pergamum. Ephesus then entered an era of prosperity, becoming both the seat of the governor and a major center of commerce. It was second in importance and size only to Rome.Ephesus has been estimated to be in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 inhabitants in the year 100, making it the largest city in Roman Asia and of the day. Ephesus was at its peak during the 1st and 2nd century AD.

Lower Agora (city square)

Processional Way

The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis. It also had one of the most advanced aqueduct systems in the ancient world, with multiple aqueducts of various sizes to supply different areas of the city, including 4 major aqueducts. They fed a multiple set of water mills, one of which has been identified as a sawmill for marble. The city and temple were destroyed by the Goths in 263 AD. This marked the decline of the city's splendor.

During the Byzantine era (395–1308), the importance of the city as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the river  despite repeated dredging during the city's history. (Today, the harbor is 5 kilometers inland). The loss of its harbor caused Ephesus to lose its access to the Aegean Sea, which was important for trade. People started leaving the lowland of the city for the surrounding hills. The ruins of the temples were used as building blocks for new homes. Marble sculptures were ground to powder to make lime for plaster.

Temple of Hadrian

The town knew again a short period of flourishing during the 14th century under new Seljuk rulers. However after a period of unrest, the region was again incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1425. Ephesus was eventually completely abandoned in the 15th century and lost her former glory.

After 6hrs walking around the Ephesus site we retired back to our hotels for much needed showers. We ate dinner at our new favourite ayran fountain kebab stand, before taking one last stroll around the city. We found an awesome baklava patisserie so bought 6 pieces to share. A young boy was walking around with a tray delivering Turkish tea to all the shop owners nearby. We hailed him over and ordered three. Within a minute he had rushed off to whatever tea source he had secretly hidden nearby and returned with our order. Tea delivered to you on the street at 11pm at night by a 9 year-old kid, for only 20 cents...I think Australia needs to step up its Hospitality standards. Ellen bought 6 more slices of baklava for the bus ride the next day, however, ended up eating them on the street like the addict junkie she is. We headed off to sleep, arranging to meet at 10am at the otogar the next day.

Ellen was in a baklava coma so slept like a dream boat that night. The next morning I had to slap her awake with the last remaining salted cucumber we had left in our hand luggage. We ate breakfast, packed our bags and headed out. Upon exiting the hotel we felt as if we'd stumbled into a portal to a linen fortress world. A three block radius outside the hotel was converted into a massive bedsheet castle that was filled with market stalls.

We couldn't see the sky, just a bed linen ceiling for hundreds of meters. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen! We wanted to dump our bags back inside and explore the massive fortress, but it was already 9.55am and we knew it was going to be a mission bustling through the crowds with our ginormous bags. The stalls were selling everything from clothing, books, fresh food, house and garden equipment, electrical and even paraphernalia from other countries. Ellen spotted a tile merchant selling salted cucumbers for 5 lira per kilo, so rushed over and grabbed a 10kg sack. We met Martino at the Otogar only minutes before our bus pulled out. We were on our way to the quaint seaside town of Ayvalik.

Pamukkale - The Cotton Castle

This is Pammukale

One massive white mountain in the middle of the Turkish countryside. It doesn't feel quite so strange  until you're standing on its peak, looking out at the rolling green hills and pastures surrounding which prompt you to wonder "how the hell did this get here?!".

Sunset on Cotton Castle.

And now for your science lesson of the day:
In this area, there are 17 hot water springs in which the temperature ranges from 35 °C to 100 °C. The water that emerges from the springs is naturally carried to the head of the travertine terraces (a fault in the Earth's crust that allows the water from below to escape through) and deposits calcium carbonate on a section 60 to 70 metres long covering an expanse of about 300 metres. When the water, supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide degasses from it, and calcium carbonate is deposited. Calcium carbonate is deposited by the water as a soft jelly, but this eventually hardens into travertine which is the rock that makes up this white mountain. Due to its strange natural appearance, the Turkish name Pamukkale literally means 'cotton castle'.

The ancient city.

Ancient societies attributed healing powers to the hot springs and so founded a thermal station on the site in the late 2nd century. The history of Hierapolis followed the same course as many Hellenistic cities in Asia Minor. The Romans acquired full control of it in 129 BC and it prospered under its new rulers. It was a cosmopolitan city where Anatolians, Graeco-Macedonians, Romans and Jews intermingled. The hot springs which attracted throngs of people, also served as a place for scouring and dying wool, and hydrotherapy which was accompanied by religious practices that turned into some sort of a local cult.

Alex and Martino getting right down to business in trying out the mineral properties of the hot springs.

We travelled to Pamukkale with Martino, as he was also working his way to the west coast and then up north to Istanbul. We all booked the same bus and headed there in the evening. The trip began with 120 of us packing onto a coach that seats 56 (no one going to Pamukkale realised we were supposed to get a dolmus to Nevşehir to then get on our bus. So we all just jumped on the Antalya bus and demanded we be dropped along the way). It was a really nice ride, made even better by FINALLY receiving ice-cream! On top of that it was the gooey Turkish kind and pistacio flavoured. At 6am we were dropped on the side of a highway as our bus was continuing on to Izmir. We thought we'd have to then walk the 9km to Pamukkale, but out if nowhere 6 mini buses turned up and began screaming hotel names to everyone. In the confusion we just jumped onto a random bus, which just happened to drop everyone outside the hotel we'd booked (winner).

Water runs down the hill like a liquid carpet.

We only wanted to stay one night as we'd been advised that you don't need more than a day there. We booked the cheapest hotel we could find. It turned out to be the best one on offer! It had a really nice pool, spa and sauna. (As it was 40 degrees outside the spa was thankfully cooled so it was like a cold bubble pool. We were once again exhausted so slept for a couple hours then chilled by the pool. All the tours go to the mineral pools during the day, so we waited out until late in the afternoon. When we arrived it was still bustling with people, but after a couple hours of walking around the ruins of the old city the mountain became almost deserted. We swam in the warm mineral pools until the sun set. The snow-like appearance of the white calcium deposits during the day, become reflective washes of oranges and purples during the evening sunset. It was incredibly beautiful. After Alex dropped me down one of the flowing mineral rivers, where I scarred half of my back, we descended off the gorgeous mountain and headed back to the village for some dinner and then a much needed nights sleep.

Cappadocia - Part 2

Ellen gave you the history of Cappadocia. Now Alex will give you the story of our trip to the tiny town of Göreme.




Fethiye was a great way to end our Mediterranean adventures. Getting in as much sun and salt water swimming as possible on our last boat cruise left us feeling refreshed and well seasoned. The mini-bus picked us up from our guest house in the afternoon and dropped us at the otogar for our over-night bus to Cappadocia. We had heard a lot of stories about the long-distance buses from travellers we'd met. They had advised us on which companies to take, which to avoid, and when not to fall asleep in case of missing the ice-cream man!

Leaving Fethiye at 7.30pm was the perfect departure time. Watching the sun set behind the vast mountains and pine forests that surround the north-west outskirts, was an absolute gem of a farewell. As it dipped below the horizon, Ellen set about busying herself in attempting to sniff out what treats they had in stall for us, whilst I checked out the on-board entertainment. The Turkish coaches really are just like aeroplanes. Each person has their own touch-screen tv with movies/live TV/music/games, and every couple of hours a steward passes down the aisle offering refreshments and wet-wipes. Ellen fell in love with ours, as he was wearing a gold bow-tie and brought her favourite selection of chocolate-filled biscuits, cakes, herbal tea and sour cherry juice...unfortunately no ice-cream:(

Whilst Ellen attempted to sleep during the 12 hour journey, I was content amusing myself watching an array of Hollywood films in terribly dubbed Turkish. We stopped every couple of hours for either toilet/smoke breaks or so the driver could wash the entire bus (for some reason the Turks have a burning necessity to always drive with a freshly polished bus..) At some stage around 3am we wound up in a bizarre city that was completely lit up with neon lights. We felt like we'd stumbled into the Turkish Las Vegas or something. The only difference was instead of Casinos, bars and hotels, it was still just full of banal commercial businesses like kebab stands, hair dressers and carpet warehouses. We walked around for about 15 minutes to stretch our legs, feeling like moths in a light store...except that every light was mortifyingly scary and making us nauseous.

Your first glimpses of Göreme feel quite strange.

When we finally reached Göreme we were both ready for a proper sleep. Thankfully the tourist info centre was open and directed us to our hotel. The hotel only had one dorm room and it was converted from a traditional cave dwelling, it was really cool to experience some slightly authentic living. Thankfully our beds were already vacant so we jumped straight in.

When we awoke later that day, we decided to take the small maps on offer at reception and walk a short 45-minute section of one of the nearby valleys. The landscape was unlike anything we'd ever seen, so decided to just extend the route a little further. Six and half hours later we found ourselves lost in the middle of two unknown valleys, and facing a rapidly setting sun. Our map was pretty crappy, presenting only a basic outline of the valleys, but not listing the routes that ran through them. Thankfully, a group of young dutch guys appeared from behind some bushes a couple hundred metres away. We ran up to them and asked if they knew where we were. They were looking perplexed at their map. It was pretty crappy as well, showing only the trekking paths, but not labelling the valleys. Putting our two crappy maps together we were able to discern a rough idea of where we were and how to get out. When we finally got back to the main road the sun was set and the sky darkening. The dutch guys mentioned they knew a good place to eat so we tagged along with them. They were leaving the next day so over dinner gave us advice of what to see in which valleys. We headed back to the hotel, quickly showered, then met some of the other roomies.

Ashwin was from Bangalore, currently completing his phd in the Netherlands. Martino was from Milan, easily discernible as being Italian before he even introduced himself, as he was having a stereotypically elaborate phone conversation with his mother as we walked in. There were three Spanish girls who just sat around talking about godknowswhat, in high-pitched voices faster than the speed of sound. Lastly a Chinese boy, who only referred to himself as 'Orange'. He had travelled all through the Indian sub-continent and middle-east into Turkey, wearing only flip flops.

The next morning the Spanish girls all woke up at 3am to go on a hot-air balloon ride. Göreme is famous for ballooning, as every morning up to 100 hot-air balloons cover the skyline as the sun rises. The wind floats them over the top of Göreme village, so you cab stand at various look out vantage points and watch them fly overhead. As the Spanish girls woke everyone up with their loud packing, we collectively decided to all just wake up and walk to the lookout together. That way, we could put a ban on anyone else sleeping in the dorm who wanted to go for a balloon ride throughout the week.

It wasn't very far to the lookout from our hotel so we arrived there with plenty of time before the balloons took off. Just as the sun began peaking its head over the horizon, a bunch of small dots began to appear in the sky. Then a load more. Within 15 minutes the sky was littered with about 60 hot air balloons. All of a sudden 50 year-old men lugging cameras with 2m lenses began running past us to find perfect vantage points for them to set up their tripods. They definitely had no idea how to use the equipment as they were struggling with the camera settings for about half an hour before they actually started taking photos...(the problem was the lens cap hadn't been removed...ah, oldies and technology). We sat up there for about 3hrs watching the balloons. Breakfast started at 8am so we headed back to the hotel, ate, and then went back to sleep for a couple hours.

An older Korean guy checked into the dorm the next day. He didnt really talk to any of us so we assumed he had possibly missed out on getting a bus ticket before they filled up, so had to wait til tomorrow. This turned out to be the case, except he had also booked himself on the Balloon ride and not set himself an alarm. Like all ageing persons he was able to sleep quite heavily. At 3.30am a Turkish man from a tour agency began storming around our room shining a flashlight in everyone's eyes demanding us to get up immediately if we'd booked a balloon ride. We all groggily stated that the man must've walked into the wrong room. He left, spoke to the receptionist for confirmation of the room number, then waltz back in, once again harassing each of us to get up. The Turkish man kept going back to Orange's bed as the name was obviously an Asian sounding one. We told the driver to go ask the Korean man in the corner. He said he'd already asked, but went and shook him awake once more. "no, no. Go away." We heard the Korean man reply. "its not him. It must be one of you!" The driver demanded. Martino got out of bed. "ok, I'll go on the balloon ride so you stop pestering us". The Korean man sat up. "oooh, did you say Balloon ride? That's me." He started getting noisily changed. We all glared at him in the darkness reaching for the salted cucumbers under our pillows.

Hasan's tea house in Pigeon Valley - go there!

The next four days after that we explored the numerous valleys and canyons around Göreme and Uçhisar. We met an incredible old man Hasan, who had lived and worked in cappadocia his whole life. He was fluent in English, Turkish, French, German and Italian. He used to be a tour guide, but as large hotels and tour agency are monopolizing the tourist demographic who want to take tours, as opposed to self-explore the area, he was now unable to attract business. Instead he ran a tiny tea house off one of the trekking paths in Pigeon Valley. He served us extremely potent Turkish tea and sesame bread pretzels. We spoke to him a lot about the change in tourism and infrastructure to the area, and how rapidly the mass amounts of tourists who ride ATV and motor bikes through the valleys are eroding the landscape. He also told us stories of his travels through Turkey and recommended us places to see. A French outdoors author had recently published a book about cappadocia and Hasan had been featured in a four-page spread. He eagerly showed us the copy the author had sent him, and translated the text. Before we left he quizzed us on our Turkish knowledge. We were pretty rubbish, only getting 3/10. However, he still deemed it satisfactory enough for us to receive gifts. I was given a miniature stone carving of the fairy chimneys and Ellen, a cute little turtle.

We spent about 6-8hrs everyday trekking through the valleys with the boys, Orange scaling every rocky surface with his rubbery thongs, yet still managing to grip better than anyone else. The cave houses were incredible and each one completely different. The highlights were definitely the churches, though. The intricate ornamental carvings inside the rock structures were blowing us away! The most incredible was a church with 14m high pillars carved into the space. On top of the altar ceiling was two more stories of rooms that were used for storing food, candles and bibles. From the outside all that was visible was the rock face of the cliff, a small doorway entrance and a couple of small Windows. We weren't even going to enter it as it appeared to be nothing more than a small house. This clever exterior discretion was how the villages were able to avoid being found and having their properties raided during invasion. For the time being you can climb up all the secret passageways and touch all the intricate carvings, however, I guarantee within 10 years the spaces will be roped-off and only accessible with tours. VISIT THIS AMAZING REGION ASAP!!!

We took the dolmus 1.5hrs outside if Göreme to visit the underground city of Derinkuyu. This was the pinnacle of mind blowing human will-power. Derinkuyu is surrounded by flat plateau areas, unlike the undulating gorged landscape of Göreme. So there is no soft rock fairy chimneys in which to carve out housing. Instead what the inhabitants of this area did was dig directly underground. Not just 10 or so metres, but an astounding 75m down! The city could accommodate for 5000 people, as well as livestock, grain and other food storage. The rock in this area is much harder as well, so the excavations must have been a lot more arduous. This is visible by the extremely low ceiling height, and narrow passageways. The city planning was pretty incredible as well. Each level folded on top and around the others, so you could quickly slip up and down levels with incredible ease. They had grated and heavy stone wheels they could roll over passageways to prevent intruders from gaining further access, and as they knew the connection routes they could wrap around and attack from behind. The most amazing aspect of the city was their access to fresh air and water.

A massive ventilation shaft ran the entire length of the city, so fresh air carried to even the deepest parts. They had built an amazing Roman bath for washing, however the specific drainage system is un-determinable due to the ceramic piping now being broken. I don't know how often they would emerge for some much needed sunlight and to dispose ofj rubbish/sewage etc. Needless to say, it was truly an astounding example of human engineering and ability to adapt to an environment.

As it was currently Ramadan, every evening at 8.15pm (or there abouts) the mosques would project the final prayer of the day, signifying you could now eat and drink again. To reward the community in for their diligent fasting, the mosques set up a banquet for Muslims to enjoy a free meal. Orange took it upon himself to also enjoy this free meal, rocking up and dining with the exhausted locals. It was quite hilarious seeing the tables of turkish men all dressed in their shirts and suit pants, respectfully sharing the communal bread and salad dishes and then seeing Orange rock up in his boardies, singlet and thongs, usually with an opened can of coke already in his hand, and sitting down next to them, scoffing his meal and then heading off. Sometimes if he wasn't in the mood to sit on the hard plastic chairs outside the mosque, instead preferring to lounge on the hotel couches with us, he would waltz down, ask for them to package the meal take away and then eat it in comfort in front of us. He truly was a special one.

We could easily have stayed another week in Göreme, but we wanted to keep exploring other areas of Turkey's vast countryside, and I had smashed my jaw on the bed frame, chipping my tooth, so needed medical attention from a Dentistry office that wasn't built into a cave. So we booked an overnight bus to Pamukkale and jetted off.

It's a long night bus to Cappadocia - Part 1

Earth's second moon, also know as Cappadocia, lies in pretty much the center of modern day Turkey. Let me just repeat how massive Turkey actually is and it's when you jump on a bus to get to Cappadocia from anywhere in Turkey, the never ending bus ride really puts the size into perspective.

The traditional name "katpatukya" means land of beautiful horses.

The view of Zemi Valley in Göreme.
If you look at the rock tower on the right you can see the window at the top. In this photo we are still standing a way back from it and so you can't quite grasp its size. It is however a 3 story house with a 360° lookout at the top. Each level is connected by a vertical shaft that has little foot holes dug our for climbing up and down. Despite the ladders being mostly worn away we somehow successfully climbed up to the lookout and down without breaking our necks (I'm sure that day I used up my 8 spare lives).

The view of Red Valley in Göreme.

The formation of this strange landscape started during the third geological period, when three volcanoes located on the edges of this region began erupting frequently. The deposits of volcanoes ash, lava and basalt laid the foundations for today's landscape. Earthquakes and ongoing effects of erosion have contributed to form the valleys and the "fairy chimneys" that can be seen today. As the rock below the top layer of basalt is extremely soft, it can be easily carved. Communities took advantage of this to make their home in the rock pillars and under the ground.

Cities, empires and religions have risen and fallen in the unique underground havens of Cappadocia. These strange and eeire spaces were once used by early Christians to hide from Roman armies. The entire landscape of Cappadoccia is a maze of over 200 underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms and ancient temples that have a layered history as each new civilisation that occupied this area continued to build on the work of the last. In part due to their secret locations and the naturally temperature-controlled nature of the cave interiors, many religious artifacts and artworks have survived for over a thousand years.

So how did Cappadocia become such an interesting place? In short, because of its location in old Anatolia (the location of today's Turkey during the Ottomon Empire). It's location was heavily desired by surrounding empires who continually fought over this area for its control. This happened for hundreds of years and consequently because Cappadocia the became stuck in a border area of conflict for its control, this forced the people living in the area to hide in the fairy chimney rock formations or underground for protection.

We still can't work out how they got to their front doors.
They must have been a generation of Olympic climbers.

I can't explain the history very well but here is an exert from Wiki that gives a good summary:
Kingdom of Cappadocia
After bringing the Persian Empire to an end, Alexander the Great tried to rule the area through one of his military commanders. But Ariarathes, a Persian aristocrat, somehow became king of the Cappadocians. Ariarathes I (332—322 BC) was a successful ruler, and he extended the borders of the Cappadocian Kingdom as far as to the Black Sea. Then you know as history goes he is killed by someone who then takes over, who then himself is stabbed in the back by his friend who takes over, who then is defeated by the original guy's son who then takes over again and yes its all quite confusing but then anyway we get to...... Ariarathes IV taking over control. Under his rule Cappadocia came into relations with Rome. At one point they were enemies but eventually when leaders changed they became friends.

Roman and Byzantine province
The Cappadocians, supported by Rome against Mithridates VI of Pontus, elected a native lord, Ariobarzanes, to succeed (93 BC); but in the same year Armenian troops under Tigranes the Great entered Cappadocia, dethroned king Ariobarzanes and crowned Gordios as the new client-king of Cappadocia, thus creating a buffer zone against the encroaching Romans. It was not until Rome had deposed the Pontic and Armenian kings that the rule of Ariobarzanes was established (63 BC). In the civil wars Cappadocia was first for Pompey, then for Caesar, then for Antony, and finally, Octavian. The Ariobarzanes dynasty came to an end, a Cappadocian nobleman Archelaus was given the throne, by favour first of Antony and then of Octavian, and maintained tributary independence until AD 17, when the emperor Tiberius, who he had angered, summoned him to Rome and reduced Cappadocia to a Roman province.

Enjoying another great find with our new traveling buddy, Martino.
The detail of the cave churches is remarkable.

One of many hidden rock churches.

Cappadocia contains several underground cities largely used by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion. The underground cities have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels. These traps are very creative, including such devices as large round stones to block doors and holes in the ceiling through which the defenders may drop spears. These defense systems were mainly used against the Romans. The tunnel system also was made to have thin corridors for the Roman fighting strategy was to move in groups which was not possible to do in the thin corridors making it easy to pick them off.

The Cappadocian Fathers of the 4th century were integral to much of early Christian philosophy. For most of the Byzantine era it remained relatively undisturbed by the conflicts in the area with the Sassanid Empire, but was a vital frontier zone later against the Muslim conquests. Then heaps more happens after this but you don't want to know, it's so confusing your head will implode (I know, I tried to read the rest). It doesn't matter anyway because up until the end of the Byzantine era is when all the caves were created and used.

What is interesting: Before the new urban center, Nevşehir, was founded in the early 18th century to serve as regional capital, many former Cappadocians had already began to make a shift due to the pressures of a new Turkey. They changed to a Turkish dialect of their Greek language, known as Cappadocian Greek. Following the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the language is now only spoken by a handful of the former population's descendants in modern Greece.

A couple days in Fethiye

So I must begin with a massive apology to Kishan, Joan, Anna Maria, Winnie & Elaine (the blog's biggest fans) for once again reaching the month-delay mark in updates. Turkey has been blowing us away with the diversity of culture, activities and an ever-changing landscape. We've seen some amazing sites, indulged in delicious Turkish cuisine, annoyed each other to the point of salted-cucumber duels and been absolutely humbled by the unfounded hospitality of the Turkish people.

 Ironically, we've so far completed a 3,000km journey through central and western Turkey, and have come full-circle back to the Mediterranean. We sit in the exact same comfy hammocks we were in 5 weeks ago, in the seaside village of Olimpos. However, to bring you up to speed on all the exciting things we've seen and done, we will now join forces and pump out 5 weeks worth of blog posts for you! If I recall correctly, we left you with an end to our 12 days in Kaş and were heading further north along the west coast towards Fethiye.....

The distance to Fethiye from Kaş isn't very far distance-wise, however, due to a massive mountain range the road must loop hours around it (apparently the Turks haven't figured out dynamite can blow through rock). We took the dolmus with an American girl who'd been staying in the dorm room with us. We were dropped at the Fethiye otogar, where immediately upon us stepping off the bus, were ambushed by a large man demanding to know where we were staying. We told him the guesthouse name and he smiled, heaving us over to his bus company stand. "we will take you for free!" He exclaimed. We did have to wait about an hour for this said free ride, in which time he showed us all the backpacker friends he'd made on Facebook and invited us to dinner that night with him to the Fish Markets. Although he looked like a Mexican drug dealer I felt he was genuinely just interested in hanging out with us, however, the looks of horror on the girls faces was more than enough to signify that I was in no position to accept his offer.

Apart from a 20 minute wait outside the supermarket, where the driver's assistant ran in to grab 4kg of salted cucumbers, the free bus surprisingly actually dropped us outside our guesthouse. Upon entering we were welcomed by a "g'day, how ya goin?" We thought the owner was doing this sarcastically as she was expecting Australian guest, however, when she emerged, in front of us stood a typically surfer-looking Aussie girl. To make the situation worse, she was even from Coogee! (why travel 15,000km to the opposite side of the world just to run into people who live down the road from you?...is this karma telling me I'm a neglectful neighbour or something?) Thankfully she was actually extremely helpful on advice for things to do, not just in Fethiye but the rest of the country, as she had been coming every year for 15 years and was now engaged to a Turkish man. We spent hours sitting down with her and planning not only our four days in Fethiye, but points of interest for the rest of our trip. We'd settled for a one-day boat cruise which encapsulated St Nicholas island, Butterfly Valley and Blue Cave, so that we could give full-days to see Kayaköy, ölüdinez and around Fethiye itself. Dumping our bags in the dorm room, we quickly changed then headed out to see the city.

Highlights of Fethiye:

Fish Market
Dinner at the fish market is a must for any tourist popping into Fethiye. The market is located in the heart of the city, in a block the size of a whole suburb. Small market shops make a perimeter around the inner market area where the fish vendors and restaurants set up every night.

The event begins by making your way into the courtyard where the fish vendors begin yelling at you in an attempt to attract you to their stall. There are hundreds of fish to choose from, all different shapes and sizes caught from local fishing areas. First you choose a fish, then you haggle with the man behind the counter for a better price, then you choose from the thirty restaurants surrounding the courtyard which one to eat at and then they cook Mr. Fish for you.

We had gone as a group of 3 with our new friend Jolie who we met in Kas. Our power in numbers allowed us to purchase the biggest fish you have ever seen, it could have fed a small village. We even got a discount and paid only 30 lira for our tasty friend. Once you choose a restaurant and sit down,  it only costs 6 lira for them to cook your fish and serve it with freshly made bread, garlic butter and a king size serving of salad. It's a deal not to be missed.

Eat the eye for extra protein

Butterfly Valley
This has become one of the most popular spots along the southwest coast of Turkey for tourists. Butterfly valley is at the foot of the tiny town of Faralya, previously this area was hardly visited by tourists but in recent years the valley became more popular as people began to look for more hidden places to visit (more accurately hippies were upset that their existing hangout at Blue Lagoon became overrun by tourists so they set out to find another water haven to call their own).

The town of Faralya is reachable by road, however it is situated at the very top of the canyon. From there the walls of the canyon are dangerously steep to climb down into the valley. In recent years there have been some tragic deaths as tourists have slipped while attempting to reach the valley from above. Consequently the valley is only reachable by boat.

The view of Butterfly Valley as we pulled out from the shore.

Reaching out to the butterflies.

We took this opportunity to spoil ourselves with another day cruise around the waters of Fethiye. After more swimming and eating our boat eventually pulled up at the shore of Butterfly Valley. From there is was a 15 minute walk through the valley to the rear wall where the waterfall is located. Within the waterfall live the endemic butterflies for which the valley is named after. At the base of the waterfall the water is cool and refreshing but the butterflies live higher up, away from the swam of curious tourists. After climbing up two ropes that had been attached to rocks in the waterfall (and yes with our rather amateur level of climbing expertise this did take some time) we finally found the butterflies.





Kayaköy
South of Fethiye you will find the ruins of a town once known as Kayaköy.

Up until the Greco-Turkish war this town was occupied by Greeks because of it's close proximity to the Greek border. The war concluded with the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 that dictated a population exchange where Greeks living in Turkey had to return to Greece and Muslims living in Greece would return to the new Turkey. When the Greek inhabitants of Kayaköy left for Greece, Muslims from Greek Macedonia were settled in their place. However, Macedonians who were used to large and fertile fields in their former land found this hilly and rocky area with little arable land unfit to live, and abandoned the place in favour of other regions.

You never know who you find living in an old abandoned village.

Decades of neglect in addition to the big earthquake of 1957 that shook the region has left Kayaköy as a ghost town. It is now a preserved museum village, consisting of about 500 rundown but still mostly intact Greek-style houses and churches which cover a small mountainside.

Once we finished climbing in, out and around ever ruin left in the old town we embarked on one of the best day walks of our trip. Following the windy path up through the mountain side of the village we reached the peak that looked over the Mediterranean Sea. From there we walked all the way across the mountain and finally down into the harbour of Ölüdeniz to have the most rewarding swim at the beach.

The way from Käyaköy to Ölüdeniz.

Views from the mountain top along the track.