A walk in Zemi Valley (Day 11 of the world trip)

09/15/2019

Last night, something happened that we haven't experienced here in Turkey before :O It rained and there was a thunderstorm, and it cooled down so much that you should wear a jacket…

This morning at breakfast, it looked a bit friendlier. In Ireland, we were walking in much worse weather back then :D So we packed our rain jacket, rain pants, rain cape, and backpack rain cover and went for another walk/hike. As you can probably tell, hiking is great in this area ;-) And Göreme is a great starting point for that, because you can walk from here to the beginning of the hiking trails.

So for the fourth time, we went up the hill to our photo session from the first day here. One would think that it gets easier with each day, but of course it wasn't – at least not for me. I felt like Jonas wanted to jog up the hill or something :p However, the hill has unfortunately not decreased in steepness over the past few days, so I started to breathe heavily again. How will it be at the foot of the Himalayas? :D :D

This time we went to Zemi Valley. The path there was (like all hiking trails here that we have explored so far) poorly signposted. Allegedly, the path through the valley is only 4km long, but we were on the road for a good 3.5 hours, so hmm… ;-) But since there is usually only one trail, you can't really get lost.

We initially went through similar vegetation as yesterday, with gray skies and the appearance of rain. However, the sun came out shortly afterwards, so our rain gear was completely unnecessary. Too proud to admit it, I continued to wear my jacket, scarf, and headband :p :D

At some point, we came to a junction where you can hike up to old, hidden churches. They were even marked on Maps.me, but they were clearly visible from below as well. Probably it looked different here some time ago. Otherwise, the term "hidden" seems a bit strange to me^^ You could climb up to the first church using the holes mentioned in previous posts, which are carved into the rock like steps. Jonas went ahead and made it up without any problems, but I only made it halfway and preferred to sit down… My fear is always that I can climb up but then can't safely climb down again :D

The second church was more accessible and I even went inside for a moment. There are wall paintings there, similar to the ones we know from our "modern" churches. In addition, Greek writing could be recognized – so overall really exciting :)

After the churches, we returned to the actual trail and continued over sticks and stones (and the occasional fallen tree trunk). Unlike yesterday, the paths were a bit "wild" here, as the plants on the right and left were sometimes waist-high and the path was not always cleared. Also, the fruit trees sometimes hung so low over the path that you had to duck down repeatedly. At least Jonas got a snack here, fresh green grapes :) Oh, and the classic butter cookies couldn't be missing^^ (this is becoming a real food blog, as we suspected :D)

We were already back in Göreme by 1:30 PM, and since we had already walked the main paths in the past few days and the weather was not so inviting, we decided to have a quiet afternoon.

Then the topic came up "what do I do on "free" days during a world trip?". Not always is there something new or exciting to see, and well, that's also one of the challenges to overcome – making good use of the (partially newly gained) free time. Whether you take up a hobby that you can spontaneously practice anywhere, listen to music, read, or do your exercise routine – you always find some kind of occupation. And well, writing the blog and selecting photos is also a kind of hobby that you enjoy doing :)

Oh, and of course you can always eat :p For 15 lira (about 2.50 €) we got two breads, a package of cheese, a package of Nutella, and a package of cookies. So if you want (or have to), you can really save money here.

The day will therefore end quietly and "unspectacularly", and we will do some research on Konya. We are traveling there tomorrow – we have already bought the bus ticket for 10:00 AM tomorrow :)