Capadochian caves, and my last night in Istanbul

After my trip to Sofia, I decided to hop on a tour to Cappadocia, about an hours flight away from Istanbul. I was extremely reluctant to hop on a guided tour, but given my time constraints, I really had no choice.

The tour itself was alright, but it was the same kind of hop-on, hop-off type deal where they shuttle you from one sight to another. Granted, we covered alot of ground, but it just didn't feel right. What DID feel right was the ultimate highlight, staying in a my own hotel room with my own bathroom. To top it all off, I even had a king size bed! After about 5 months of bunking in hostels, this was an absolute highlight for me. I met some cool people on the tour, including Gil, from New York, who was with his girlfriend and travels quite a bit to South America for business. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to meet up when I get there. I also met a couple ladies from Amsterdam in my hotel who are BIKING from Holland to China, through Iran and Iraq. Ladies and gentlemen, further proof of how smoking weed can affect your better judgement.

I had to take a 12 hour bus back to Istanbul from Cappadocia and was not looking forward to it. I arrived at the bus station and asked which bus to Istanbul and the guy at the office pointed me to a small minibus, the kind that seats about 10 people and was pretty disappointed. I mean, 12 hours in THIS freakin thing? "What happened to the big buses??!!," I thought. One of the locals probably saw my freaked-out demeanor and reassured me that it was just a shuttle bus to the actual bus! I ended up chatting with him and a bunch of his friends on the journey back to Istanbul. We made a stop at Ankara, and there was one empty seat left in the bus, and it happened to be next to me. I told my Turkish friends that with my luck, my seat will be taken by a huge fat man. Well, sure enough, a huge fat man shows up and all my friends start laughing. The huge fat man wonders what's so funny and one of the guys mentions to him what I had predicted. He laughs a bit and I was glad he took this in a good way, as we sat together (rather uncomfortably) for the next hour or so. Luckily, a few other passengers got off on the next stop and he was able to find a seat to himself. Phew....

My last night in Istanbul was spent with my good friends Chris and Kadri, as well as my friend Jack, whom I met on the plane ride from Paris to Istanbul. A few others joined us as well that night, including a married couple, Dianna from Denmark and Terry from Portland, and Jon from the UK. Dianna and Terry are doing a round-the-world trip, and Jon, crazy Brit, was trying to BIKE around the world. http://www.smallwheelsbigworld.com/ So, our poker night consisted of Dianna, Terry, and me, doing a round-the-world trip, Chris and Kadri, motorcycling around the world, Jon, biking around the world, hanging out in Istanbul, with Jack, our local friend. It was a great time, except for the fact that Kadri, the so-called, "River Queen" kept beating me, even though I had to teach her how to play a week ago! I really hope to see everybody again one day, after we complete our respective journeys, if not sooner.