The Fairy Chimney Inn is located at the top of Göreme Hill. We pretty much decided that we would stay there based on the view alone, which was spectacular. After seeing our room, much smaller than what we had had back in Ürgüp, but perfectly nice, we reserved for the following night.

The day was spent primarily in and around Göreme. The open air museum pretty much summed up the experience nice and neatly. There you will find cave church after cave church from the 11th century filled with frescos of varying qualities. Churches that were nestled further back into the caves had brilliant paintings that had never seen the light of day. This was an easily-navigable park with wide pebbled pathways and proper stairs. There were large tour groups here, mostly Italians and Spaniards based on the languages I was hearing around me. People very politely stepped into a church, took their flash-less photos and filed back out allowing the next group to follow. It was all very civilized and that’s something I have come to never expect but always appreciate here in Turkey.

After the open-air museum, we went back to the small bazaar area and had some more tea. Perhaps you are sensing a trend?

Turks drink tea all the live-long day; piping hot in dainty tulip glasses. Drinking tea in the summertime took some getting used to, to say the least. The first time I did it when visiting someone’s house; I got all sweaty and dizzy and saw black spots. Boy did they have a good hearty chuckle at the American! Now, I drink it like a pro. I even order it down at the pool. End of tea aside.

We spied a sign for camel riding, but there was no camel to be found. We asked around and they suggested we come back the next day, so we carried on.

That night, we wandered into a small garden cafe that was packed with foreigners. There was a small chalkboard declaring that they had falafel and so I figured these folks were also probably vegetarians seeking those lovely patties. Falafel is not a common dish here, being Middle Eastern and all, so I also snapped up the chance to eat some. It was awesome and went down smooth.

We checked into our room back at the Fairy Chimney and discovered that we had company.
As we lay on the bed, lounging and reading, we kept feeling these pinching sensations. After smacking one, I investigated the smooshed culprit and saw a tiny rust-colored curled up dot. Obviously I was going to have to catch one alive if I wanted to solve this mystery. So the next time I felt the tickling, I held my Swatting Hand of Death at bay long enough to see what my future victim was: an ant; but not just any ant…..a biting ant. These bastards hurt! And the bed seemed to be infested with them.

In an experience that sort of tainted the whole sleeping in a fairy chimney novelty, I was in and out of consciousness all night, weary and ragged on the edge of a demented half sleep, smacking those merciless insects and thrashing around grumpily.
I finally got out of bed at 5:15 when the sun rose and filled the room with light, as though our hotel had been in a cloud bank. I paced around the room half-crazed until the boyfriend lovingly coaxed me back to the Bed of Doom.

I had finally fallen into a deep sleep when at 6:30 I was awakened by this booming sssssshhhhhhhh whoosh! sound. I stepped out onto the terrace to see the sky full of hot-air balloons. One even hovered right over me for awhile and I ran about snapping pictures in my sleep-deprived giddiness.

Back inside, the boyfriend had come up with a brilliant ant deterrent. We slathered ourselves in body butter as he deduced that maybe they were bothering him more because his skin tasted better without it. And that worked long enough for us to get about three hours of solid sleep, which was hardly enough when you considered all the walking we had on our agenda, but hey! Sometimes there’s a price to be paid for atmosphere and that’s a sad fact of life.