göreme, pt. 1

the sun was already setting as the bus drove through capadocia, which would come to be one of my favourite landscapes ever. i got off in the center of göreme, which is really more a village than a city. in summer it's one of the most popular tourist destinations in turkey, so i can't imagine how crowded it'd be.

after finding a supermarket and getting some supplies, i headed to an area where my camp spot apps indicated some good places to set up my tent. it was a sort of plateau with a view over the city and all the sandstone pillars in between the houses, with a huge mesa and snow-capped mt erciyes in the background.

i woke up to a great sunrise and figured this would be the right moment for a little run to test out my new shoes and explore the area. i went for a route that took me through "love valley", which, according to everyone i have spoken to, should definitely be renamed to "dick valley". went for about 10k, but it was more of a trail run and i'm a bit out of shape, so it was enough for my joints. i did get lost once or twice and had to go offroad, found an injured fox and also developed blisters on my feet, but apart from that it was very nice. will do it again in the future.

i knew that the area was famous for it's balloons, but although i watched every sunrise and -set, i never saw any, even the next day, so i packed up in the morning to set up camp somewhere else.

it's the first time i did a proper hike with my whole backpack, which is only now a possibly because my parents took so much weight home with them. felt pretty good though. i wanted to see if the top of the mesa was good for camping, so i headed there. on the way, i went through some amazing landscapes and saw tons of houses inside rock formations.

arrived on the plateau and met the only hiker i saw the entire time, colin from switzerland, who coincidentally stayed at the same hostel that i was going to if the mesa was no good for camping, which turned out to be the case. too windy. i headed down, saw some more amazing valleys and arrived back in göreme to check into the hostel. i could've picked another camp spot, but my powerbank was empty and the sky rather cloudy, so no solar power either. i accidentally gave the other powerbank to my parents to take home with them, so that's on me.Read more