On the drive down we went past a huge salt lake. It was beautiful and seemed perfect for a rest break – mind you, the rest stops were few and far between and we were the only people at the rest stop we pulled into… In addition to the three men who came over and watched us the entire time as we went down to the WC and bought a bag of chips. Kind of eerie. But they waved and smiled as we drove off.
The lake though, was amazing. It looked deep but you could literllay walk on it as the water was only about 1 inch deep and stretched to the horizon. I think we could have walked across if we were so inclined. The setting sun and reflections in the water were spectacular. It seemed like the perfect place to shoot a car advert.
We stayed in a town called Goreme – a sort of hippie/backpacker enclave with more carpet shops than restaurants and its very own DHL office for shipping all of those carpets. We spent a few hours in one carpet shop – the Rose carpet shop, which was owned by the proprieter of the hotel we stayed in, The Canyon View Hotel. We really enjoyed our stay there and would recommend it highly. Hassan the propretier was very nice and made great scrambled eggs to go with our full Turkish breakfast (cheese, bread, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, jams, honey, oilive past and tea/coffee). He also showed us a gorgeous cave church behind the town (near The Flintstones hotel and past a stonewalled garden/orchard) as well as trying to sell us carpets in his shop. We nearly bought the pale yellow kilim standing against the wall to the left in the photo but it was more than we could afford right now and we are trying to save up for one to buy in Ankara before we go… Oh, and we would highly recommend the Goreme Restuarnt in town! Fantastic atmosphere, food and prices. Again, one of those places we ate in two nights in a row!
The next few pictures were taken across the road from the open air museum in Goreme. The museum entry fee is 10 lira per person. As we were on a limited budget we opted to go across the road and explore the many cave houses and churches there. Best idea ever. We had a blast exploring on our own, climbing into caves, looking at the gorgeous desings on church ceilings afforded to us by the flash on our cameras and climbing through a valley -inlcuding climbing up an 8 foot wall by bridging it! This was super exciting for me as I am not inclined to such big adventures for fear of falling but we were with experienced climbers, Annie is even an instuctor and so even me, super nerdy whiner who would have always said “no that is too dangerous,” managed to climb all through this valley and had a blast! Much better deal then the museum. I would just recommend good shoes, water and a flashlight for exploring!
I think these colors and motifs are gorgeous. Inspiration galore in Turkey! Not that I would paint saints on the ceiling of my house but some of these color combinations and patterns could make for some amazing visual interest in a room..
