Well first off, anyone who isn't sure if they should go to Turkey or not... GO! There is just so much here it's unreal... or surreal you might say. See what I mean? :
They call them Fairy Chimneys. Basically it's like the badlands on steroids. Not normal steroids either, I'm talking genetically superior, hardcore, pro wrestler steroids. In one place you can climb through passages that weave in and out of mountains, crawl through the sewers of ancient underground cities that put the ones contructed in Vietnam during the war to shame, or go out for a night on the town where you can watch Turkish belly dancers while eating and drinking all the local food and booze you're capable of.
Oh not to mention if you head over to the coast you can see some of the most impressive ancient Roman cities in the world. Or maybe you'd rather visit Troy or chill out in a tree house in Olympos. I know it sounds like I'm writing a tourist propoganda piece but damnit Turkey is an amazing country!
I think I managed to travel through it in the most inconvenient way possible as well, going north then south then west then east then west again only to eventually head back up north once more. Anyone ever heard of a circle? Oh well, I will try to actually plan China a little better.
I'm not sure how much I can say about these places without just showing you the pictures so I won't try. Here are some photos of some of the most impressive sites I have ever seen:
The Open Air Museum in Göreme 
One of the valleys in the background
One of the fairy chimneys
I climbed to the top of this badboy. Four levels and to get to the top I had to climb up what's in the next pic!
This tunnel is straight up and about 4m long. Oh and it's cut into the roof 3m from the ground. Hard to reach!
Me and my climbing buddy!
Horse stable in the chimney
My hotel in Göreme. Yes. It's a cave.
Trapped in the underground city! Damn inpenetrable grates!
Rockin' out after my escape
A passage in the underground city
Which way is up?? It's like one of those paintings!!! You know.... with the stairs?
Ancient roman city of Ephesus
Ephesus theatre. Huuuuuge. 
A different theatre in Pamukkale.
The Tavertines in Pamukkale
A brief stopover in Greece to pose for a photo.The other thing I wanted to do with this post is fill everyone in. For those not stalking me on facebook, you probably don't know yet that I am planning to stay here in Izmir for a few months. Well at least two anyway until my visa runs out. I think it is not too difficult to renew for another 3 months so chances are I will be here into the new year.
The reason is hinted at in the last post I made. It gets really hard to leave so many amazing people and Izmir has some of the best. Only two or three other places I've been have I felt so comfortable and met so many wonderful people (Riga comes to mind - actually, that may be the only other place that's comparable). And with my money running low and the need for english teachers in Turkey relatively high, I thought why not? In four days I managed to land myself three new best friends and a girlfriend. What's not to like? I'm learning the language at record pace and hope to be able to hold down a conversation in a month or so. Knowing my luck I will probably just have it figured out and will be on my way to China.
The main reason I'm Still in Turkey! Sedef!So what's the plan while I'm here? Hell if I know. Try to work somewhere, try to sell some travel articles or short stories back home, keep writing in my novel... We'll see. All I ask is that my income goes into the black and I hold steady until I hit up China! The good news is The Toronto Star (biggest paper in Canada) liked an article I wrote for Cappadocia but have already done a similar piece. They said I should submit something else to them so I will. In the mean time I'll send that article around to some of the other papers. See if there are any other takers.
That's it for now. I'll keep you all updated and start loading some of those old photos I keep talking about from Europe once I finally get my computer.
