Day 16: Sept 20: Hide and Seek

Today we explored the open air museum and some nearby caves. The museum was a missionary school founded by Saint Basil. Everything dated back to the 11th through 13th centuries, but I was a little skeptical about the frescos. It was hard for me to believe that so much remained on exposed walls that are soft and crumbly (hardened volcanic ash). Regardless they were pretty cool, even if they were not as old. We also saw many banquet tables (the only furniture left except for the holes in the walls and floors).

We went with two other canadians to the museum (we'd met one of them on the train from Ankara). We spent a couple hours there exploring and realized that tour groups ruined the magic we had experienced the day before when exploring the undergound cities and the caves at Selime. That and the fact that it was about 15 bucks to get in. The plus was that our tickets got us into the oldest and largest of the cave churches in the region that was down the street. It impressed us with its size and multiple levels. Its frescos were especially vivid (they had described them as livid).

We made our way back into town to buy our overnight bus tickets to Selcuk (on the western coast, south of Izmir). Then after refueling with turkish pizzas for lunch, we headed back towards the caves across the road from the museum. Although these weren't as well kept or preserved, there were endless caves to be explored that were still very impressive (and free). It was like we were in some martian land. Its hard to describe, but if you can imagine cones pointing upwards of various sizes and widths, piled within a landscape of steep hills and deep valleys that were then carved out often with two to three floors within a cone. They say it looks like where star wars was filmed (the first one). We'll add pictures eventually.

We wandered back to the hostel in the afternoon to shower and eat before our 7pm bus. We should get to Selcuk around 9am but we are trying to change our plan to get off at Izmir at 8 so we don't have to backtrack. See you tomorrow!
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