Turkey is such an amazing place, I wish I had so much longer here to exploer (Ok so I wish I had much longer in a lot of places to exploer, but I have been so surprised by Turkey!)
From Fethiye, I caught a bus to Olympus, a stunning place where you stay in tree houses, how fun. When we eventually managed to get there (driver missed out stop, so dropped us off 3km down the road, we walked back up the hill until we found a road with a mini bus on it, and said where we wanted to go-yes he could take us there. Got dropped off and told that the hostel was 100m down the path, so headed off, crossed a river, through the resteraunt, getting more directions, 100m down the beach, at the end of the beach were told we had to pay to get through the ruins to the hostel. Found a very nice guy who spoke both Turkish and English who explained that we would have to pay to get to the beach anyway so might as well pay now, and yes the hostel was just through there. Eventually made it after a 3km walk!!!) The hostel was fantastic however, staying in a treehouse-how fun.
I spent the afternoon exploring the "town" where I was dropped off, then experienced a Turkish wedding party that night (the owner of the hostel was married 5 weeks earlier, and was having the party bit, and we were all invited) Was an interesting evening, dancing the night away.
The next day I spent exploring the ruins, which were so facinating, scattered around through the forest, it had the most amazing atmosphere. There wasnt a huge amount left, and not a lot of explination about what they were, but the location certainly made up for it. I then decided to climb a mountian to see the view from the top, and the ruins perched on the edge of it. After getting to the top, I decided that it probabaly wasnt a good idea to do it in thongs, getting down was certainly interesting. The afternoon was then spent relaxing and enjoying the beach (stones, no sand, but still beautiful. I am hanging out for a beach with sand!)
I then caught the night bus to Goreme, along with 10 other Aussies fromt the same hosstel, all going to the same place, a very interesting 11 hours!!!
Goreme has the most amazing landscape, like an alien planet. There are lovely pillars of rock in fantastic shapes (including Dick Valley, yes named from the shape of the pillars), with houses, churches etc built into them. I could have spent so long here exploring, but unfortunately, I only had 3 days.
This is also one of the best places to go hot air ballooning, so not wanting to pass up this special opportunity, took the plung and splurged on another hot air balloon ride. It was worth every penny. If I thought the scenery was fantastic from the ground, it was something else from the air!!!! Words cant do it justice.
After spending the first day wandering around the open air museum, 5 of us decided to hire a car and go out to explore. I ended up driving, which was certianly a different experience. Having not driven for 9 months I was pleasanlty surprised how well I did, given that I was also driving on the wrong side of the road, and sitting on the wrong side of the car. In 200km, I only ended up on the wrong side of the road once, and only for a few meters-Yay for me!!!!
We visited an undergound city, which was great, the rooms winding round, little alcoves, etc. I was surprised by how short the rooves were, at times I was almost bent double. We then wandered up a lush valley, and explored the most amazing monastry built into the rocks. I could have spent a whole day here exploring here, but unfortunately only had about an hour.
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