Arriving at Uchisar

It's seven am. I have been riding this bus for ten hours. I have slept ten minutes in ten different positions, each involving the paralysation of ten muscles. The bus stops at a dangerous place at a junction outside town. Only myself and another solo female traveller get off. All the Aussie backpackers and couples look at us with sleepy faces as if to ask where on earth are we going? This makes me smug as I had tried hard to find a town that was not another Bali or Bondi.

The streets are quiet and I have that exhilerating feeling where you don't know where you are going but you know it's an adventure not a problem.

Many houses have carts (as in horse and - ) in front of them, and after several photos of them (they are decorated in handpainted motifs), I realise that I need to stop as there is one in front of nearly every house.

Only very old men in Muslim skull caps dot the streets. They respond with toothless grins set in wrinkled leather faces when I greet them Guneydin.

Goreme Cadessi is a dirt road lined with stone built houses, abandoned arches, caves and crannies cut into the rocks, punctuated by pensions.

The landscape is as I imagine and more, quarry like layers of stone, endless vistas of folded rock, generations of strata, all like dollops of some rich dessert. There are cones with caves, windows with ornate decoration, pigeon niches and more.

To top it off, beautiful big balloons fill the sky and I know I will be in one tomorrow...

There is nothing better than when you arrive in a new place and see something for the first time, alone - and you think it's all your discovery. Nothing can get in the way of your pleasure, no buses to catch, no itineraries, no connections, only a desperate need for a toilet...

The hotel was quiet, and so a random member of staff was left to greet me in a mixture of French, Turkish and English. He perturbed me by firstly knowing I was due to arrive (as the previous hotel did not!) and by staring at me rather intently. Disturbance increased when he presented me with the key to my room and two cheek kisses. I thought I was just going to get a demonstration of how the curtains are drawn and the locks work...

After encouraging me to take a shower, and with immaculate timing to coincide with my undressing, he returned to my door with a coffee, and with Paddington Bear like stair added "you are very beautiful". Having been offered potentially dodgy coffee before (Assos / Behramkale) and had someone try to get into my room (Assos / Behramkale and Ankara) I was starting to get very nervous.

I thought of lots of self defence techniques. I thought of what I could put against the door. I thought of nothing because after four nights on a handle of sleep, I quickly fell asleep.

So much for fight or flight.