May 24 Above Town (Day 240)
Rain, dark clouds and wind this morning means no balloons today! We took it easy in the morning, spending several hours before breakfast securing ferry tickets and accommodations for a short island hop through Greece in the near future. After a leisurely breakfast sampling all the Turkish salads and breads made by ‘Mum’, and nap time, we headed out to walk around the town of Goreme.
Not all is old here in Goreme. There is lots of construction, but our host said there are rules about the type of construction allowed, to ‘fit in’ with the existing. This modern hotel is built into the existing partially restored stone cave house.
There is a ridge above this little neighborhood that we have seen people gather on to watch the balloons, so we wove our way through the narrow cobblestone streets, up, up and further up until we came to the ticket booth where you have to pay 20 turkish lira(.62 cents US) per person for the privilege of walking even further uphill to the summit! But it’s worth it!
From the ridge we looked southeast over the Zemi Valley below and to the right, and northeast to the Rose Valley at the base of the plateau in the distance.
Looking directly down on the west side of the ridge we spotted our Airbnb rooftop terrace and breakfast room (the purple arrow) and our rental car (the green arrow)!
All around town there are stray cats and dogs that are communally fed. The dogs have tags pierced into their ears I imagine to indicate they have been vaccinated against rabies! Some dogs have collars and I imagine they are pets that have free reign of town.
This handsome aloof fella looked at home on the peak of the ridge like he’s king of the hill!