Day 29: Moonwalker

Place: Terrace of room 8, Sunset cave hotel, Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey

Drinking:  Efes Pilsner

Would rather be drinking: Guiness

Merhabba(hello in Turkish) Goreme is definitely not ‘Sokak’ – not sure if Donna explained the meaning of ‘Sokak’. It is Turkish for ‘road’. For example: William Nicol Sokak. Funny hey!

My name, Craig, actually means ‘crag dweller’ or simply ‘caveman’. So it makes a lot of sense that I have never felt more at home in this place. We are, in fact staying in a cave. It has obviously been furnished and made into a hotel room suitable for more modern living – but a cave nonetheless.

Below is our cave.

Our day started with a long sleep in and then a jog through the town/canyon of Goreme. At 1150m above sea level, our lungs were constantly searching for oxygen. In fact, I think my lungs Googled ‘oxygen’ at one stage and it came up with no results – which in turn ended up in some long walks. But the scenery was enchanting and moonlike, so the walks were welcomed. We were also overwhelmed by the many hot air balloons which floated above us. At one time we counted 13 and there were still some launching. It really is a spectacular site. We will be flying on Wednesday morning – hope our landing is as exciting as the last one!

The view from our balcony. At R460 per room per night and including breakfast, this is daylight robbery.

Off to breakfast for a traditional Turkish spread of olives, tomatoes, cheese, nutella, bread and honey. The boiled eggs reeked to high heaven so gave them skip and doubled up on the nutella.

These stairs made sure we worked our breakfast off - especially the nutella.

After breakfast and a skype with the folks, we ambled through the town and headed for the open air museum. Stopping frequently for photos and a smooch.

We came across some of the locals that were as old as the hills we were surrounded by. So much character and so friendly. The town has such a wonderful village vibe. Stray dogs run around carefree and are looked after by everybody. The place we are staying at has a Maltese poodle that has decided that this is it’s home and that’s final. If this was South Africa, these dogs would die. They would be fed nothing and be told to voetsak. But here, people love them and all pitch in to take care of them.

Our hotel

Our balcony.

Pics from our walk today.

Some of the friendly locals.

Donna made a friend.

This is a classic - see below!

We allowed ourselves to get distracted and explore the many pathways off the beaten track. One of which lead us to a homestead, which was guarded by some serious looking dogs chained to trees. Lucky for them that they were chained up – a dog is no match for a lion cross orang-utang. After deciding to spare the dogs we made our way back to the main road for the museum.

Close to the museum was a mini market of which one was selling Turkish ice cream. As you can see in the photo it is almost toffee like but has the same consistency of normal ice cream. It is very stretchy.

Below is a guy mixing the ice cream.

At the gates to the open-air museum we saw that entrance fee was about R70 each. But the great thing about the open-air museum is that it is not enclosed and open for everyone to see from outside the turnstiles. We figured that we could see enough from the outside to decide that it was pretty much what we had seen already – the only difference was that UNESCO had proclaimed it a World Heritage sight. We felt the same way as UNESCO and didn’t want to add any possible erosion, so we took photos from outside and returned back to the town center to spend the 140 bucks we had saved. Donna bought a flippen nice scarf after strolling through the many shops – it was worth the wait.

After some afternoon dos time we ambled into town in search of dinner. We went to the ‘Meeting Point Café’ which was meant to be owned by Saffers, according to the Lonely Planet.  But we only found a lonely Turk who served us up some Chicken Soute, which is a mix of peppers, tomato, garlic, rice, bread and chicken of course. Very tasty!! Followed by Turkish coffee – they still call it Turkish coffee in Turkey.

For pudding we went to the local bakery/coffee shop for an Americano and we shared a big brownie.

We booked bus tickets to Istanbul. A 12 hour bus ride which starts at 7pm this Wednesday. We picked up our washing that a kind Turk had cleaned for us for a small price and it was back to the cave to watch the sunset.

So now I am watching this...

Drinking this...

and updating this blog.

Most probably hitting a Turkish bath tomorrow – will let you know how that goes.

Day 28: Cold Turkey

Place: Sunset Cave Hotel, Goreme in Turkey

Time: 23:20

The day leading up to the minute I arrived in Goreme is an absolute blur and the majestic beauty of this little town overshadows every experience leading up to our arrival.

It was about 19:15 when Mustafa, a young good-looking Turkish guy, found us at the Goreme bus terminal through pure blessing. Literally as I got off the bus, he approached me and asked if I needed any help, I said that we were headed to the Sunset Cave Hotel to which he replied, “Oh that’s my hotel. Come with me to the office to put your bags down while I get someone to come pick you up.”

Now this sounds ‘too good to be true’ you might say, but it is just another one of the examples of how great God is and the how he opens so many doors.

We got to the Hotel to check in and immediately fell in love and booked for 3 nights instead of 2. Hasan, the owner, and who also happens to be the deputy mayor of Goreme upgraded us to the deluxe double suite and we were escorted up to our room. It was a steep climb to the top room, but once we dropped our bags and looked over our shoulders we saw the most beautiful and most unimaginable sunset, which I can only describe as ‘something out of a fairytale book’.

But this is how our day ended; let me tell you about how it began.

We woke up at about 07h30 this morning in Adana, where we scoffed down a simple breakfast of bread with jam and honey, didn’t even bother to wash it down with the terrible coffee and tea and grabbed our luggage to get to the Otobus (pronounced Autobus) garage, more commonly known as the Central Bus Station 2 hours before climbing into our reserved seats on route to Goreme. We were exited to start the journey and arrive the Cappadocia region. However, that was not the plan, somewhere along the line, our reservation was incorrect or just not done. This may not sound like a ‘trainsmash’, but there was only one bus for today and it was FULL.  I could hear Craig make a long FFFFFFFF-sound in his head with disbelief. No-one spoke a word of English there and we were disheartened for about a minute and I then asked Craig to call the only Turkish speaking person I know out of desperation, our wonderful hotel owner at the Five Fingers in Girne, North Cyprus. Craig called Arif and explained the situation to him; he was then handed over to the man at the bus counter in an attempt to come up with any solution. Turns out, there was a bus going to Kayseri which is another bus trip of about 1.5hours from Goreme. Without hesitation, we booked it and thought to ourselves that we would at least be that much closer to our destination this way. We had to wait until 12h30, but that’s no problem when you have wi-fi, doner kebabs and a cup of Turkish coffee (I opted for the pepsi though). We did a lot of research on how often busses run from Kayseri to Goreme and tried to come up with various back up plans, and praying that we didn’t need to get an expensive taxi or waste a nights accommodation anywhere other than Goreme.

12h30 came and before we knew it we were on the Kent bus and waiting to leave for Kayseri. These buses are ‘jacked’ with tv’s and a selection of movies, none useful to us as they are all dubbed in Turkish but we were super stoked that we had ‘bus hostesses’ which brought us coffee, tea, water or pepsi….whichever we liked.  As we were getting cosy in our seats, the host came and asked Craig and I to switch seats, oddly enough the only reason must have been is that a Turkish man did or could not sit next to me and preferred Craig. Im not sure if it is a sex thing or a smell thing, but either way I was stoked as I now got to sit next to the window with my favourite shoulder (cushion) on the otherside.

The drive was scenic and very different to how I imagined. There were huge mountains capped in snow with small farms and villages below. The cities remind me so much of Korea. They are tall apartment blocks stacked closely and no homes with gardens to my surprise.

As I got off the bus I heard an old bald man screaming Goreme, I looked at him and raised my hand. He hurried me and told me to follow him as there was a bus leaving straight away. I grabbed Craig and we followed the man. All the buses were full, but he led us to where we could buy tickets, we did and had another wait, again nothing a kebab, tea and pepsi cant remedy J

Third (and hopefully) last bus of the day which ended with our meeting of Mustafa and where we are now- ‘somewhere out of this world’.

Cant wait to jog, explore and take loads of pics to show you tomorrow.

Sleep tight and God Bless

Day 27: Turkish Delight

Place: room 116 Hotel Mercan, Adana, Turkey

Another early start… but no too bad. We were up at 5:30am as our taxi was picking us up to take us to our bus which was taking us to Ercan airport near Lefkosia. We got to the airport around 8am and tucked into some breakfast. Donna was so hungry, if she wasn’t going to get food I was worried she was going to start eating the children. She murdered a toasted cheese sarmie and tried to catch up on some z’s.

Eventually our airline was ready to check us in. We were asked with raised eyebrows, ‘ are you travelling to Adana?’ We weren’t sure why the surprised look. But I suppose most foreigners fly to Istanbul. We went through to the boarding gates and to our surprise noticed that there was not one plane to be seen. 15 mins later a Turkish airlines plane came cruising in and taxied rapidly to position where the passengers quickly disembarked and reloaded with new ones and off they went. A very quick turn around. After 25mins our Pegasus plane came rushing in and the turn around time was even quicker. We decided to by a can of coke on the plane to appease the hunger and save the children, but it cost me R40 – yes 40 bucks. Best damn coke I ever had. Our flight took 32mins from take off to touch down – my shortest flight ever. Barely had time to finish the coke.

I think Donna explained the amazing deal we landed for flights from North Cyprus to Adana. Insane. I kept reminding myself that the flight cost less than R250 and it was going to take 32mins as opposed to 8 hours by ferry. I must have reminded myself of this at least 5 times today. Like when we landed I said,’ sheesh if we were on that ferry we would still have 7 hours and 30mins to go.’

Adana airport is tiny. Reminded me of Lanseria at first but then I decided that Lanseria was bigger. It was more like Windhoek airport in the old days. We walked into the airport slightly apprehensive as to whether we would get a visa or not. We were thrown a bit when we heard a story in Cyprus that a South African had to return to Cyprus from Turkey for some visa related issue. It was not clear as to why they were sent back but nevertheless we did our homework and were assured by those in the know that there shouldn’t be a problem. And we prayed of course and rested on the promise that God gave us that we would give us passage into every country that our heart desired.

We arrived at passport control and made a very cool and relaxed Turk suddenly look horribly confused. He phoned his superior, as he couldn’t figure out what to do with my passport, as it had no visa. The queue behind us was growing longer and longer and eventually he asked us to stand aside so that he could deal with his fellow countrymen – a run of the mill transaction. The superior disappeared with our passports and came back with a very comical colleague who approached us and asked us to follow him to the visa application booth, which was closed since our arrival. He entered the booth and lifted the blinds and asked us for $15 dollars each. We gave him a $100 bill to which he replied he had no change in US Dollars. He then phoned his superior who the safe key so that he could get change. The string for the blinds was hooked on the handle for the safe and as the safe opened, the blinds shot all the way up, released its lock mechanism and came plummeting down – only to be followed by laughing on the other side. We enjoyed that too!

We received a 90day multiple entry visa for Turkey and proceeded to our luggage and head out side. We caught a taxi to our Hotel, dropped off our luggage and went back outside with purpose to find lunch. We were beyond hungry! Not even 50m from our hotel was a nice Turkish restaurant which served kebab. For R100 we ate ourselves broken. Chicken kebab, pita, salad, some other bread fresh from the oven with sesame seads, lemon, chilli’s and the most incredible dessert, which Donna said,”if I had to eat heaven, this is what it would taste like.”

With full stomachs we rolled to our hotel for some shut eye. We went for a stroll through the extremely busy streets of Adana later in the afternoon. Reminded me a bit of Cairo – but the Turks are wonderful people. We ended up at some well looked after park where we had an ice cream and a relax.

Tomorrow we catch a bus to Goreme. A small town in Capadoccia full of very interesting rock formations. Should be very interesting!

Day 24, 25 and 26: ‘Sokak’ in Girne

Place: Bespermark Sokak, Girne, Northern Cyprus at the Five Fingers Bungalow

Time: 14:43

The lack of Internet access is the reason for cramming all the days’ happenings into just one post, but I will try my best not to leave any valuable news out.

Wednesday the 25^th April

On Wednesday the 25^th of April, Craig and I used the time to laze about around the pool. Read a little, sleep a little and eat a little as possible as we were heading to Angelo and Dora that night…we knew that we had to save the space in our stomachs, as they would put on quite a spread.

Johan came to pick us up just before 7pm and took us to Angelo and Dora’s spot where they were already hard at work with the yummy Souvlaki. Andrie and Lito (their daughter and her husband) joined us. We were very exited to meet them as we have heard so much about them and weren’t surprised when we got along so well and enjoyed listening to their stories from the previous years. It felt like old friends reunited and we had a wonderful time laughing together.

Craig went outside to help the men with the Souvlaki and once he saw it said to me (and I quote) “Next to you, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen”. – never a man of few words. J

The lamb and chicken were on a rotisserie being seasoned and cooked to perfection, starting the grumble in our stomachs. The time had come to sit and enjoy but not only was there Souvlaki, Angelo had made my favourites, Sieftalies as well. One thing we did realize is that if you are invited into a Cypriots home (especially Angelo and Dora) you are a ‘bottomless pit’ and will eat everything (or at least have a spoonful). I have honestly never experienced Craig groaning from his full stomach as I did that night and just as an indication of how much we ate….Craig couldn’t eat again until 3pm the next day and he wasn’t even hungry then, he just knew that he had to have something.

Anyways, we were so touched by their incredible hospitality and found it very hard to say goodbye as they are such a pleasure to be around and we feel so blessed being able to spend time with these wonderful people, but we know that we will see them again at every possible chance in the future.

Thursday the 26^th April

The time to move on had arrived and being the phenomenal people that they are, Johan and Maro Grobbelaar insisted that they would take us into the Northern (Turkish Occupied) area of Cyprus where we would try to get a ferry across to Turkey.

I can’t begin to explain the absolute blessing that the Grobbelaars have been to us on this trip. From lunches to outings to transporting, they have been at the forefront and have become such amazing friends, and we now regard them as our Cypriot family.

They picked us up at 9am and we left for Lefkosia where we would meet Maro’s close friend Yanoulla. She is a dynamic woman who travels these roads often and crosses the border regularly, so she knew the procedure and Girne relatively well.

We stopped in Lefkosia where Yanoulla spoiled us with a tea and coffee together with delish pastries before hitting the road yet again in the direction of Girne.  Car packed, tummies full and off we went.

Yanoulla gave us a quick tour of the city and dropped us off at the Five Fingers Bungalows where we had arranged to stay for one night.

We all hate goodbyes, especially ones with such wonderful people, but promised that it was more of a ‘see you later’ as we waved them off.

Craig and I were exited about our little spot as it was in the ‘bundus’ and nowhere near the city. It has a slight Tuscan/Stellenbosch feel as it lies at the bottom of the Mountains with an ideal view of the sea. We dropped our bags, downed a quick cup of coffee and scampered to the city in search of a place to buy our ferry tickets.

We climbed onto the Caglas (the shuttle taking us through the village to the city) which drops us off at the harbor and its another case of the ‘blind leading the blind’ once we got there.

We find the only 2 companies which sell ferry tickets and our options are less than ideal. Either a 12pm ferry or 12am ferry. So after a talk and Doner Kebab, we feed our brains and eventually enquire about a flight to Turkey….long story short, we got a bargain. The flight to Adana costs us half the ferry ticket and saves us 7 hours. Feeling quite proud of ourselves, we head home to catch the sunset and for a much needed ‘good nights sleep’.

Friday the 27^th April.

So much for a ‘good nights sleep’. Cats screeching, sheep ‘baaaaaaing’ and elderly people getting up to chat at 4am. Craig and I woke up feeling broken and a good breakfast was in order.

On the menu, fresh homemade cheese and olive bread, muesli, yoghurt, fruit, washed down with some tea and coffee. Feeling refueled, we head back into town to take care of some final details, and enjoy the day.

The northern island (which is a Turkish area) is completely different to the Southern area and feels as though I am already in Turkey. The economy, the language, people and flags are all Turkish and I have to keep reminding myself that I am still in Cyprus.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn to get to the airport on time tomorrow morning, exited to get to actual Turkey – too exiting J

We have had such a wonderful and very special time in Cyprus and exited to continue the trip and see Turkey at last. We have heard so many things about it and not sure what exactly to expect, but that’s how we prefer it - no expectations just learn and experience for ourselves.

We have found a hotel with Wi-Fi in Turkey so be sure to check in for news on the day’s events soon.

Day 22 and 23: A whole lot of nothing

Place: Lobby at Tasmaria hotel apartments
Time: 19:46

Well, there is nothing exiting to report over the last two days. Craig and I have been jogging, walking, eating, sleeping and enjoying the relaxed mediterranean atmosphere tremendously.

We are going to Angelo and Dora for dinner tomorrow evening and then heading to Northern Cyprus with Johan and Maro on Thursday to try and organise a ferry to Turkey.....hopefully the next time we touch base, it will be from there.

P.s. I have to let you know how much I am loving the rugged ginger beard of Craig's. It is such a win and i think that he should keep growing it for 6 months so that you can all share the wonder of it too - what do you think?


Here are a couple of pics which we enjoy everyday.

Day 20 and 21: Gallivanting with the Grobbelaars

Place: Outside on the porch at Tasmaria Hotel Apartments, Pafos.

Time: 20:20

Day 20

Today is our 11 month anniversary and as everyday in Cyprus so far, it started with a beautiful shuffle along the coast, a quick shower, breakfast and getting lost.

Craig and I had to return our car at 10:30am in Morfou Road, which so happens to be just off our street about 400m down the road, however Craig somehow (still being directionally challenged) went in the opposite direction and got us horribly lost. Never the less, we managed to ‘run’ into the Europcar down the road and walked back in the direction of our hotel on Tomb of the Kings Road and off to the supermarket where we would get supplies for the next few days.

Hummus, halloumi celery, tomatoes, cucumber, olives and fruit were just a few of the wonderful fresh goodies we intended to eat while on the Mediterranean.

We got back to the apartment and Craig decided to call Johan Grobbelaar, his boss from his days at Highpoint in Johannesburg, to let them know that we were in Pafos and were exited to meet up with him. Johan and his incredible wife, Maro are instrumental in our passageway into Cyprus as we had so many run-ins with the Cyprus Embassy and literally only picked up our passports with our VISA on the day that we flew to London. All this was only possible because Maro called the embassy and had a few Greek words, which obviously did the trick.

Anyways, back to our excellent day with The Grobbelaar’s.

The Johan and Maro are hosts of note, and would not take no for an answer so we arranged to meet them for a beer at their local (which happened to be right next door to our hotel) after which we would go for lunch and then watch the Sharks play the chiefs at their spot later.

We were absolutely spoiled by them as they took us to a typical Cypriot place where we ate and ate and ate some more. Greek Salad with Pita, grilled chicken, halloumi, chips and a beautiful thing they call the Sieftalies (this is similar to a pork sausage, but it has a fresh texture with the addition of lamb, parsley and mint inside mixed into the sausage). Now I am not a huge pork sausage fan, but this became a top favourite of mine. Once we could eat no more, our incredible hosts took us on a sightseeing tour of Pafos to Coral Bay and the harbor before heading to their apartment in Konia for the Rugby.

The Sharks unfortunately lost, but we felt like absolute winners being able to enjoy the wonderful view from their balcony ending an amazing day as we headed home for an early night as Maro and Johan had arranged to take us to the Mountains of Troodos to visit with Maro’s family at her village, Lysos.

P.s. We love it here so much that instead of leaving on Tuesday, we have booked 2 extra nights and will be here in paradise until Thursday.

 Day 21

In great anticipation we waited outside of our hotel for Johan and Maro to pick us up and drive to the mountains of Troodos for the day.

We were greeted by their warm smiles, hugs and kisses as we set off ready for an exiting day ahead. On the way we met up with Maro’s cousin, Angelo and his stunning wife Dora who would join us up to the mountains. Angelo and Dora are young spirits with incredible energy and passion.  We were so surprised to hear that they were 71 and 60 years of age as they firstly don’t look it and mostly don’t act like it. They are like young teenagers in love and have a vibrant presence, which adds such fun to our day. We arrive at a gorgeous little restaurant for lunch where the sieftalies catch my eye while Craig opts for the Sovlaki which is a grilled lamb done with flavorsome herbs. As always, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and we eat everything in sight, Craig even helps Maro with her Kleftiko which is a roasted lamb…needless to say we were so full but that didn’t stop our pallets watering as they spoke about stopping at a little place later for some Cyprus coffee and dessert.

The temperature changed as we climbed the mountains and so did the scenery.  We were thrilled when snow started appearing in abundance. From small heaps to slopes of white surrounding the pine trees. This took Craig and I by complete surprise as never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would crunch our way through snow on our trip, nevermind the fact that it happened on the island of Cyprus. We were totally ‘gobsmacked’ and took every opportunity to take a picture. Around the mountain we went and saw the mist set in as we approached a small monastery on top of the hill. There was no one in sight except the tiny chapel and the colorful chestnut trees with their fusia colored blossoms.

It was time now to head to the village of Lysos where Maro’s family were awaiting us. As soon as we entered the village I felt incredibly privileged, as we were welcomed with love, warmth and more Cypriot foods.

As we arrived, Angelo took us for a short walk around the neighborhood talking about the history and taking us into an empty home, which he says belongs to his cousin. We feel as though we are breaking and entering, but still stroll through the house with its beautiful sandstone walls and wooden interior. 

We then make our way to another cousin, Maro (not Grobbelaar). She owns the small coffee shop on a corner, which is filled with Cypriot men drinking coffee and playing cards. It is such a surreal feeling hanging out with the locals and experiencing what I thought only happened in movies. Maro has put on a delightful spread of walnut preserves soaked in Syrup and is like tasting a little piece of heaven each bite as the syrup oozes out. The next is a tart of sorts, made from boudoir biscuits topped with cream, vanilla and almonds. Two helpings later and it was time to visit Angelo’s house. 

It is picturesque as the sun is setting and the light falls onto it. We begin to chat to the cousins and it being the small world that it is, we find out that Rhea, a fun filled woman who recognized Craig is in fact the Aunt of Mario, (Iriene’s husband) who’s wedding we attended last February – amazing isn’t it. She then took us to her humble home where she took us to the rooftops and showed us where Mario and Iriene would sleep when they visit. As we come down from the roof, Rhea has put on another spread of local and homemade dishes. The first being a citrus preserve and the other an eggplant preserve which we wash down with an ice cold cup of water.

It has been such a full day of wonderful sights and experiences and Craig and I couldn’t wait to get home and reminisce about the day we were so privileged to have had.

Nothing exiting planned for the next day or so, just absorbing every minute of the island and the captivating people.

xoxo