Travelling in the Dark

We seem to always be travelling in the dark - our flight from Canada to Istanbul was an overnight flight - our trip from Istanbul to Goreme was an overnight bus trip. We left the Tourista Agency via a tour bus to the main bus terminal to get the Suha Turizm bus to Goreme.

At this point I would like to tell you all that our travel arrangements were setup by Rina Svensson of Insight Travel Agency. My daughter Tracy described our best trip ideas and they worked together to make this adventure come off without a hitch. There was always someone to meet us, greet us and get us to the next destination. All our tours and hotels were fabulous.

Back to the bus. We finally arrived at this HUGE bus depot. We did enjoy the sights along the way.

I love this apartment building with all the laundry and satellite TV dishes.

Then we pass by the remants of the old city wall.

I said this was a busy bus depot.

 

So after a short wait we are shown to our bus. Not many people here speak English so it is a little scary thinking you might be getting on the wrong bus but after our tickets are checked and rechecked and checked again we are settled in our seats. Tracy and Cheryl together and me by myself - but not for long. I get a seat companion. I was a little aprehensive at first. It was a young girl and I was worried that this was going to be a long ride with no conversation but it turns out that she spoke some English - and this was a good thing as we soon find out there are only 8 on the bus that speak English the rest Turkish. We have two drivers and a hostess - no English. Any communication with the English speaking passengers is going to be done via my new friend.

 

I am sad that we are leaving Istanbul in the dark as we cannot see the scenery. It seems to take forever to get out of the city. Finally after at least an hour and a half we are on our way. I have lots of questions and with our limited knowledge of each other language and lots of writing down of words we talk. I find out that she has just graduated university as an architect and now has a position teaching until she gets another job in her field. We discuss houses and families - how many generations live in the same house - that her family is living in the same house that was built over 100 years ago. The night is long and we get lots of "pit" stops. As the sun rises the countryside has changed from a city to very desert, desolate looking scenery - almost like around Kamloops. I spy what looks like a soddy. There are houses and farm land. Finally we arrive in Nevsehir and disembark. My partner gets onto another bus to go to her destination and we wait and wait and wait. We are panicking a bit as we have an appointment at 10 a.m. to meet at our hotel for a tour.

 

Finally a bus comes and we get on. We arrive in Goreme at about 9:30 a.m. and are dropped at the bus depot there. Our itinerary says we are to walk to our hotel - well where is it - so I go and ask. I am told that someone will be along shortly. We wait - finally a man comes and we drag our suitcases up the hill to our hotel - The Local Cave House. OMG.

Here now - satalite dishes on ? WHAT IS THIS?

And here was are --- oh this is going to be good. We dump our luggage and depart for our tour - hungry and tired and excited.