Live Diary Page about Cappadocia

After having aged 5 years in 14 hours, we arrived in Goreme in Cappadocia.Quote of the day (from fellow traveler): "I'd rather take a donkey back to Istanbul than take this damn bus again!!" Spoke with a helpful travel agent who met the bus (he was unrelated to our tour operator, was looking for people without prior arrangements). He called the tour company to let them know we were finally there. Dora was looking forward to finally seeing a usable toilet in our wonderful hotel room. Some 15 minutes later, the tour van showed up. Seems we didn't have time to go to the hotel since it had gotten late, other people were in the van, etc.. Our helpful tour guide said "don't worry" but his solution was stopping at a Shell station. Now, if you think gas station bathrooms in the U.S. are questionable, well...Seems the travel agent had been a little too rosy with his description of how this trip would play out. Had a wonderful breakfast of clif-bars and red bull, and we were on our way!Cappadocia is known for its extensive cave-dwellings some dating back to 1200 b.c. to the Hittites. Toured an underground city, a monastery, and an above-ground cave city. The tour was worthwhile, but the obvious better choice would have been plane and then car rental.Dropped off at the SOS cave hotel - not very luxurious, but clean. Built somewhat in a cave, but not as much as other hotels. Seems there are so many caves, the locals will use them for anything.Decided we would pull the plug on "Touring Turkey by Bus" and went to one of the myriad travel agents and bought a plane ticket to Izmir on the coast. Evidently in Turkey it is polite to offer your guests tea. We've also noticed that when you are about to be horribly ripped off, they will suddenly remember to offer you tea. So the travel agent offered us some tea...(btw, Lonely Planet vouches for the integrity of "Rose Tour" which is the aforementioned travel agent)Cappadocia Day 2Van promptly picked us up and began the tour. Since we had no accommodations, we asked the tour operator to arrange something in Izmir for us. They were helpful, and once again, the tea...Went and saw some unusual formations in the shape of cones, a cave village inhabited until the 1950's when it was damaged by an earthquake, the valley of the "fairy chimneys" (Ted thought they looked like mushrooms, Dora thought they were phallic - check out the pictures and you decide!), and another settlement outside of Goreme.Had another stop on the tour, the infamous "ceramics cultural demonstration". Saw some talented locals making pots, but began to worry after everyone was offered tea. Sure enough, Dora fell in love with an admittedly beautiful bowl, but the price was 1750 Lira = 1400 USD. After extensive negotiations, the price had dropped to 400 Lira = 300 USD. Decided against buying it since although this might have been an excellent value, we're not really in the market for a $300 bowl.Brought out to the airport immediately after the tour and flew to Izmir. Met a couple from Puerto Rico (Alison and Joel) on the tour and coincidently they were heading to Izmir on the same flight. Flight was an hour late, but still quicker than the bus.Our friend the travel agent had helpfully booked us in a hotel some 1 hour from the airport in a sea-side town. Turned out the hotel was an absolute dump and although they had refunded the second bus trip from the package, we still paid way more than was appropriate.At this point, we have 2 rules for traveling in Turkey:1) no buses2) no travel agents