Istanbul->Cappadocia->Olympos.

We have had a whirlwind schedule and no time for the internet, but now we have safely arrived in our very own treehouse!

We are staying in the ancient city of Olympos, and are soon going to walk 500 meters down to the beach and the Roman ruins there. Tonight, there is a tour to the eternal Chimaeran flames that have been burning here as long as anyone can remember.

We just arrived in Olympos this morning after taking a night bus from Cappadocia. Our itinerary so far has consisted of:
Istanbul, 4 days
Night bus to Goreme (Cappadocia), arrive 8 am, 9 am- 5 pm full day tour
Next day: another full day tour. Return 6 pm, 8 pm get on an overnight bus to Olympos.
After 3 transfers, arrive in Olympos at 8:30 am.

In Cappodocia, we saw churches, underground cities, and huge fairy chimney rock formations that have been created from erosion. After massive volcano eruptions thousands of years ago, a thick layer of lava rock lay over all the valleys, with basalt boulders sprinkled on top. The lava layers eroded away, but the lava that was under the basalt boulders was protected and so did not erode as quickly, leaving behind what people call the fairy chimneys. The Hittites from 1800 bc to 1200 bc first settled the land and started building caves into the rock, followed by centuries of people who kept adding settlements!

The underground city we visited was incredible- carved by hand into stone, centuries of people added layers to the city and added features to protect it from invaders. There were holes in the walkways that were covered when the normal inhabitants walked around, but the cover was removed when attacked so that attackers would just fall through the ground. They also had stone handholds cut into the rock to place one of their people in the image of Jesus being crucified, as a prayer to God to make them successful in defending their city from invaders. It was unbelievable, I can't imagine how long it would take to carve out so many floors (16 I think?) all by hand.

our guide uses a boy on our tour to demonstrate how they would use someone to represent Jesus:

We had two full days of tours and they were fantastic. We got to see so many different areas and we met some wonderful people as well.

I could barely sleep on the night buses, but the amount of things we are getting to see has been worth it.

Here are some photos from Cappadocia! Oh yes, and while we were there we got to sleep in a CAVE hotel! Jordan is sitting on the terrace here: