Exploring Zelve and getting into Zelvish mischief :)

Well, it was another great day wandering through Cappadocia!  We enjoyed a fantastic view of the region from Uchisar Castle, finally made it out to the Goreme Open Air Museum, attempted to visit an additional underground city (which was closed and a bust), caught up with our new Iranian friend and continued our fascinating conversations and answered several questions about the United States, and the favorite of the day?...exploring Zelve's open air museum.  Zelve is a valley that was inhabited until the early 1950s...and has the most complex, anti-invader homes...thus, some of the levels of the homes are very difficult to access.  From what I had read, if you really want to explore Zelve valley a guide is highly highly recommended, because rock climbing is involved and many of the caves have traps and other dangers inside.  ...We decided that we doubted within the open air museum confines there were truly truly dangerous sites and explored pretty boldly - we actually climbed up shafts by using little ridges in the rocks and wedging our bodies against the rocks to make it up and down - we had so much fun!  The down side?  We were absolutely filthy in the end...and then spent the rest of the day outside getting sweatier and dustier...and then flew on a very hot plane from Kayseri to Istanbul. 

We are in Istanbul now - spending the night in a hotel very close to the airport and will fly out tomorrow to finish our trek home!  We both will openly admit we are extremely excited to get home to Chance! :)