Cappadocia to Dalyan – 3rd & 4th September

On Wednesday 3rd September Captain Caveman and I were due to check out of the Mithra Cave Hotel and were thinking of staying 1 or 2 nights in the Göreme Cave Suites, which was fancier and had a pool. We were undecided as Captain Caveman had hoped to travel back to Dalyan via Eskişehir and take a scenic train back to Denizli. I was still sceptical that we could fit the trip in and return to Dalyan in time to see friends before Captain Caveman left Turkey. Captain Caveman decided he would get up to see the balloons again. The hot air balloon flights were super cheap at this time of year, at less than 50 Euros per person. However, neither of us wanted to do it.
We were still to decide what to do and we were thinking we might go mad and stay in the nicer hotel for a night or two. Captain Caveman had been looking at flights, trains and buses and weighing up the affordability. I was reluctant as I didn’t feel I should ‘waste’ the money.
After breakfast, I had to get my laptop out to do some work on a booking. We finally decided we should get back to Dalyan so Captain Caveman sorted out a flight and a transfer. I asked reception what time check out was (11am) then ask to extend until 2pm. Captain Caveman went off to buy more water and some travel snacks while I did a few things on my laptop. After checking out, I sat with the bags on a seat outside while Captain Caveman went sightseeing for the afternoon. At 5.30pm we were in a minivan on our way to Nevşehir airport for a flight to Istanbul. I remember two annoying passengers with tons of bags sat opposite us and that the driver had chatted up and taken the phone number of the young lady in the front seat, 7 minutes before we arrived at the airport.
We were delayed a bit which was eating in to the Lounge time at Istanbul that Captain Caveman had booked for us.
There wasn’t an awful lot of food left at the Lounge so I had some vegetables, rice and then later a plain bowl of pasta. I had 4 glasses of red wine, though. Captain Caveman drank beers and had a lovely chicken dish which I avoided in case it was too spicy. We boarded our flight from Istanbul to Dalaman on time and I fell asleep straight away.

Gratitude List
1. Getting to visit Cappadocia with Captain Caveman
2. Last minute flights and transfers working out
3. The Lounge, which was £20 approx each, so worth it.

We landed at Dalaman airport around 2am on Thursday 4th September and Sonuç, from Dalyan Transfers, was there to meet us. After some sleep, I woke up about 9am and Captain Caveman was getting ready to go Bumming with the Riverbums. Unfortunately, my day was not going to be quite as pleasant as picking up other people’s litter. I’d done something to my foot when I didn’t see a very shallow step and thought I’d stepped on a twig which had crunched. It was hurting, so I decided to go to the hospital to get it checked out.
While Captain Caveman went to Riverbums, I tried to make a hospital appointment but I was in a bit of pain and couldn’t really concentrate. I decided to ask Sonuç to take me to the Yucelen Hospital in Ortaca and get checked out. Captain Caveman had arrived back by the time I was leaving but he didn’t come with me. Sonuç had made me the appointment but when he looked at my foot he said he didn’t think it was broken and probably didn’t need to go. As I’d injured this leg 5 years ago I wanted to just check. I saw the orthopaedic doctor who touched my foot gently to see if it hurt, at first it didn’t, then I screamed out when he touched the bit that hurt. A translator was sent for, an x-ray was booked and I had to give my insurance documents and residency card to another receptionist. The walking between the different bits was starting to get tricky and extremely slow, but I managed.
The translator, Umut, was really good and we got talking about his trip to Japan. The x-ray person was friendly too and we went back to the doctor after, for him to tell me I had broken my 4th & 5th metatarsals. Oh dear. He gave me a prescription and told me to come back in 10 days for a check-up. I walked back to the pay desk where my insurer had already confirmed they would pay my bill, all but 875.16 lira (£16.21), and I had to sign a piece of paper. At no point was I told not to walk on it but I had crutches which Sonuç had picked up from Tay at Rehab bar. I was impressed with the service at the Yucelen and was back home by 3.25pm. I paid 2,000 lira (£37.04) for Sonuc’s services, too, which given he’d driven me about and waited there the whole time was a good deal. Although he’s not an official translator for medical stuff, he’d come in very handy and was great at taking my mind off the pain! I managed to cheese Captain Caveman off by not hobbling in to the chemist on my way back and assumed he would be ok to go and pick up my prescription for me. He was a bit put out but went anyway. The prices were as follows;

Balcı Pharmacy
Ketoprofen Painkillers 108.69
Naproxen spray 159.10
Frenag spray 247.21
Support Bandage 450
Total 965.00 lira (£17.87)

I was hungry as I’d not eaten yet today so Captain Caveman suggested we eat at Lukka, so I didn’t have to walk far. Here’s what we had with prices in lira from Lukka bar;

1 Sprite 110
2 small Draft lagers 170
4 Efes Malt 360
1 Philli cheese chicken sandwich 375
1 Crispy chicken sandwich 390
Total spent 1,405 lira (£26.02)

The food was lovely and a generous portion size – I’d somehow forgotten to eat sensibly this holiday!
I went back home for a rest and to put my leg up, the medicine can’t be taken with alcohol and I hadn’t known this so I would have to start the pills tomorrow as I had already consumed 2 halves of draft lager with a bit of lemonade.
We had no food in at home, on account of us coming home earlier, so for dinner we went out again. It took me far too long to hobble along to Ayaz, a fairly new local eatery. It was quite late so the staff were very apologetic to have run out of all lamb dishes. I had a chicken shish and Captain Caveman went for a chicken iskender. I had a fresh pomegranate juice and the whole meal was amazing at a great price, even though I forgot to note the prices.
On the way home, I bumped in to Aytaç Burçak Saraymine, my insurance broker. He wanted to check how I was and also how the service had been with the insurer. I knew the insurer would only pay up to 80% of any outpatient costs and I was happy with that. Aytaç invited me and Captain Caveman for a cup of Turkish tea with him and we sat and had a chat. I had been so happy that I had taken out the insurance with him. Lots of people (obviously, not experts) had told me that the cheaper insurance for residency wasn’t worth having but I certainly disagreed with that. My injury could’ve been a lot worse and cost me quite a bit just for not noticing a really small step!We stayed out until 11pm and I needed to rest my foot when I got home. The sprays were really helping and tomorrow I could start the stronger painkillers.

Gratitude List
1. Sonuç being available for hospital visiting
2. Not having a cast on my foot
3. Health Insurance covering 80% of the cost of my injury.

Cappadocia – 2nd September

Captain Caveman got up early to watch the Balloons again on Tuesday 2nd September but I stayed in bed until almost 7am! Breakfast was good and quieter at the hotel so we sat inside – away from the wasps. Our Green tour started by 9.15am and included Pigeon Valley, Selime and the Kaymaklı Underground City, which Captain Caveman had been excited about seeing. I last went there with The Aussies but had freaked out so didn’t complete it. There was lots of history in today’s tour, a lovely lunch and, although I had been before, it was still interesting. We also went on a nice walk down to a valley where the riverside cafes were no longer there – it was not for the faint-hearted in the heat though and, obviously, I was the slowest in the group. When we got to the underground cave, I couldn’t bring myself to go in and I had to turn back, along with another tourist who had pushed lots of people (including children) out of the way to get out.

When we got back to the hotel, I was quite tired so we got ready and tried to go for an overpriced drink in the hotel bar. It was closed so we went to the rooftop bar if the hotel next door. The staff were a bit slow and it took a while to get served but at least there was nice views to look at.

For dinner we went back to the Turkish Ravioli restaurant from last night. Captain Caveman was keen to have the bulgur balls again. We ended up having 3 portions of them between the 2 of us plus some hummus, bread and a bottle of water for 640 lira (£11.85). After dinner, we went back to the Fork in the Road pub for another buy one get one free wine and ended up spending 1,029 lira (£19.06), even though we left before 10pm. We were still peckish so went to a local cafe in a kind of square where we had 2 soft drinks and 2 lahmacun for very cheap and the service was excellent. At bed time we were still deciding as to whether we would leave Cappadocia tomorrow or check in to the lovely hotel down the road.

Gratitude List
1. Another great day sightseeing in Cappadocia
2. More bulgur wheat balls
3. Having another wonderful day in Cappadocia.

Cappadocia – 1st September

On Monday 1st September Captain Caveman and I started our month and day watching the hot air balloons at sunrise from the terrace of Mithra Cave Hotel in Göreme, Cappadocia – how romantic. It’s a very strange sensation and is eerily quiet aside from the sounds of the flames roaring in the balloons, which are very close. We were out for 90 minutes before the sun finally got over the mountain at 6.30am and then Captain Caveman went off to explore and I lost him before breakfast. He went on to a building site while I followed some wood pigeons down a hill.

It was too early for breakfast so, back in the room, I checked August’s blog progress and set a September budget. My blog in August had received 173% more views compared to the previous month’s and I had finally managed to get Vietnam readers back in to the top 10. The top 3 countries for views in August were the UK, Turkey and the Netherlands, followed by France, USA, Vietnam, Spain, Ireland, Australia and then Sweden.
At breakfast, it was a bit of a free for all and the food was absolutely lovely. There was so much choice of all the different types of Turkish breakfast dishes to help yourself to. We sat on the terrace to eat and there were quite a few wasps, which most of the foreigners flapped about at. Interestingly, I didn’t spot any English people but maybe it was the wrong time of year for Cappadocia for the Brits.
Today we were on the Red Tour with a group of randoms and were being picked up at 9.30am.

For those of you who are able, I recommend you visit it yourself, we visited the following sites; Zelve, Paşabag, Avanos, Dervent (Imagination) Valley, Uçhisar Castle, and Love Valley – most of it was rocky, hilly and very sunny so it was quite hot for me but Captain Caveman was so happy. The trip included lunch which was a soup, a kebab with mezes and was pretty good to say we were on an organised trip. The water was also included. We didn’t have to pay anything extra to the 100 Euros we had paid for the trip and we met some nice people, including our guide, Mr H. I wasn’t sure how Captain Caveman would adapt to being a customer on a tour, rather than the leader, but he enjoyed it and we both had very dirty feet and legs when we got back to the hotel.

In the evening, we decided to try out the ‘Buy one get one free’ wine at the Forked Road pub. We sat on the roof terrace and ended up having 4 glasses of decent wine and a bottle of water for 1,134 lira (£21).

We’d seen a hotel with a gorgeous swimming pool which we wished we had booked so we decided to go there for another glass of wine and a nosey round the hotel. It was just 770 lira (£14.26) for 2 glasses of wine with a 10% tip but with a poolside view. I spoke to a member of staff to see if they had rooms to stay there after our current hotel booking finished. He made us a deal for €160 (£140) for a good room and we thought about booking it tomorrow. For dinner we went to a restaurant opposite where we had eaten last night. Turkish Ravioli had a more varied menu and we had a bit of a feast, they didn’t sell alcohol, though. Here’s what we had with prices in lira;

1 Big bottle of water 40
2 Icli Kofte (Bulgarballs) 260
1 Saç Tava (chicken on a tray) 900
1 Clay pot beef 950
Total spent 2,150 lira (£40)

It was definitely the best meal in Cappadocia so far and we both really enjoyed it.

Gratitude List
1. Mithra Hotel breakfast
2. The Red Tour in Cappadocia with Mr H
3. A fantastic evening in Cappadocia with Captain Caveman.

Photo credit – some photos by Captain Caveman

Dalyan to Cappadocia – 31st August

I went downstairs in the early hours of Sunday 31st August to find Captain Caveman fully dressed and asleep on the sofa. I had barely slept upstairs while full of cold and my alarm went off at 2am. Sonuç was insistent on taking us to the airport early, as he thought there may be queues even for the domestic flights. He arrived at just after 2.30am, the fare was £30 and we were at the airport before 3.15am. Captain Caveman was a bit mardy when we only took 5 minutes, maximum, to get through to the gate and, of course, it was too early for us to know which gate for our flight at 5.10am. Captain Caveman had booked us on a cheap flight to Ankara for less than £25 each and we would arrive at 6.25am. We landed a bit early and made our way to the Havaş shuttle bus which took us from Ankara airport to the main bus station. I forgot the price as we paid cash but it was cheap. Captain Caveman had booked us a Flixbus from Ankara bus station at 9am to take us to Göreme in Cappadocia which was less than £15 each and took about 4 hours. The bus station at Ankara is huge and we sat and ate our Ela’s Kitchen sandwiches there. There were toilets which had squat and western ones but you did have to pay to use them. I bought a water, a coke and some travel sweets in the bus station for 100 lira (£1.85).

The Flixbus was good, it had a toilet on but we also stopped for a loo break. We arrived in Göreme, Cappadocia, a little early after a couple of tours round the bus station. There was a bit of a walk up the hills to our cave hotel and it was hot and sunny. This was Captain Caveman’s first time in Cappadocia and he already looked impressed as he sped off up the hills. I had to shout him to wait to take my heavy bag at one point. We were early for check-in by an hour at Mithra Cave hotel, but the room was ready. Our room had a round bed and was inside a cave suite, I thought we had booked a room with a view and that the hotel had a pool but their Website was a little misleading and neither were available.

After unpacking and drinking all the water in the minibar we went off to find a tour company to book our Red & Green tours with. Originally, I’d asked a lovely guide called Ozzy but he was booked up already. It cost us €220 (£191) for each of those for both of us with Cappadocia Visitor. We also got a free bag from the guy in the office, which I was happy about. We went in to an off licence where we didn’t find any screw top wine so we just bought a big water for 25 lira (46p) and a big bag of crisps for 75 lira (£1.39), before making our way back to the hotel.

It was so good to be in Cappadocia with Captain Caveman. We had a stop off at a cafe for soft drinks, here’s the prices in lira;

1 small water 80
1 Lemonade 120
1 Double Espresso 170
Total spent 370 lira (£6.85)

It was definitely more expensive than being in Dalyan and I drew out more cash at the ATM. I had to check the budget later but I had a feeling August had been an expensive month. Captain Caveman and I were still on holiday in Turkey for another week too, so September was also likely to be extravagant in the first half.
We walked back up to the Mithra Cave Hotel and had a rest in our cave suite before I attempted a bath. It leaked and the water went everywhere so I didn’t try the jacuzzi part. The toiletries were also screwed to the wall and not near the bath.

For sunset we walked around the hotel then sat on the hotel terrace with a glass of wine each and took the obligatory Cappadocia skyline photos. I went to pay the bill and was quite surprised to find it was 880 lira (£16.30) for 2 glasses of red – luckily we just had the one!

Captain Caveman had chosen a rooftop eatery for dinner, close to the hotel. At Zukra we had a glass of wine each, a bottle of soda water and 2 tubs of very tasty mantı (Turkish ravioli) for 1,800 lira (£33.33). Not the cheapest meal but we enjoyed it, despite the paper container and wooden fork to eat it with. The staff were lovely and they also had a beautiful dog which we petted.
I was begging for mercy by 10.30pm having still got cold and being dosed up on Theraflu. I checked the budget spreadsheet and found that despite a £1000 budget for August, we had gone over that. I’d put in £844 and Captain Caveman had contributed £900 but we still had £310 left to go in to next month. I was happy to have spent less than £1500, given that I had been in the UK for 11 days and Captain Caveman had been in Turkey for 9 days already – we spend more when we are together. I was tired so it was an early night, ready for our full day tour tomorrow.

Gratitude List
1. An easy (& cheap) journey from Dalaman to Göreme, Cappadocia
2. A holiday in Cappadocia, staying in a cave hotel with a round bed
3. Being able to afford a short trip to Cappadocia!