[Turkey] Awkward Cay and Goreme

Location: In the Ufuk Hostel lobby

So if you've noticed I've learned that the easier way to write a blog is to use lots of photos..and just use texts to describe them. I just don't want to write endless blogs that are not only painful to type up but also to read. Well anyways, so this time I want to talk about the town, Goreme, the hostel I'm staying at, and the village I went to on the second day in Cappadocia.

The town..
is completely driven by the tourist industry. Which cannot be blamed due to its geographical location and what it has to offer. Seems like 100% of the employment are related to restaurants, hotels/hostels, souvenieur shops, or tour agencies. Therefore I don't think I've seen anyone wearing suits in this town yet..
But the town is nice and small. Can tell that much of it was modernized only recently only so that it can adapt to the rapid inflow of tourists. Every shop and restaurant on the main street was there to serve and satisfy the needs of visitors, which worries me because it makes the local people so economically vulnerable. I feel pressure when I walk into a shop to buy just a bottle of water, as if they will have nothing to eat the next day unless I buy more. I feel guilty when restaurants are empty, or if there aren't any customers in carpet shops. That's why shopkeepers and restaurant workers aggressively invite tourists to come in. I wish they understand that that's the same reason why tourists are scared away, even if they would have considered eating there if they had enough time to look at the menu. Same with souvenieur shops. Had it not been for owners breathing on my neck constantly, I may have decided to purchase their items. I don't know if it's just me but I just panick and walk out of the store when I don't feel comfortable, and then feel guilty once again.
But anyway, it's a nice small city that has many restaurants, cafes, and shops. It's also helpful that it has over 130 hotels/hostels and due to heavy competition, you can stay in hostels with cave rooms for as cheap as 10TL (which is what I'm doing). Which brings me to my next topic..

This is a traditional food in Goreme. There's a bread covering a pottery that has meat inside. It looks cool but I wasn't sure if the portion was worth the 18TL..I'd definitely try it if I wasn't by myself though

Hotel Ufuk
Lonely Planet (again, my travel book) introduced this hostel and recommended it to backpackers on budgets. 10TL for a dormitory (cave) room. 7TL breakfast is optional. Good location to access valleys on foot. Excellent. I mean, I figured that there wouldn't be that much of a difference in hostels of that price range, so I just went with what was recommended. Turns out this Ufuk

Hostel is popular to Japanese backpackers because it is also introduced and rated high on one of the major Japanese tourist books (equivalent to the Lonely Planet in the US), called "Chikyu-no Arukikata". I didn't know that until the hostel owner asked me if that's where I got the hostel information from. So yeh, this might of been the first time in my journey that I socialized with 2 other Japanese people at the same time.

On the right is Martin (the hostel owner) and his brother on the left. Martin speaks perfect English and some Japanese. I still find it hard to believe that both of them are a quarter Japanese..but then again I'm having trouble trusting people these days when it comes local people surprisingly having a connection to Japan. But both of them were nice and I actually regret certain things looking back..I want touch on that later on if I remember.

Comfortable sofas on the terrace that the two owners sleep on everyday

A courtyard space that people can chill and have food (so it's also a restaurant)

I spent quite a time here..it's filled with information on Cappadocia, along with travel guides in various languages.

Green Cay
After going to the Open-Air Museum, I spent the second part of the first day exploring the city. Goreme isn't a large town and getting from one end of the town to the other only would take about 30-35 minutes. Unless, of course, you're really into Turkish carpets and you walk into every carpet shop in town. Then, it'll take you about 3 days. I was walking around, paying most of my attention to what I usually do; locals, tourists, food, and cafes. So when I find an old CAFE or a RESTAURANT off from the main street where all the LOCALS gather and play gammonback, that's typically where I decide to have my Cay break (I think by now TOURIST-free is a given). That's exactly what I did in Goreme. I managed to find an old, funky-smelling cafe not too far from my hostel. The best part of cafes that don't attract tourists (like this one), is that Cay is only .5TL. That's a half, or even a quarter of the price of Cay served in cafes or restaurants in major cities! I'm guessing it costs close to nothing to make Cay (because they purchase in enormous batches), so it's somewhat ridiculous to pay over 1000% of it's actual raw material value (it's still only 1TL so I'm not complaining..). Anyway, so at this cafe/bunch-of-benches-and-chairs-under-a-roof, I've witnessed the most awkward Cay menu ever. (Excuse the long introduction) I present two of the most awkward,

Kiwi Cay. Being a big kiwi fan, it didn't take me long to decide this Cay as my first order (I was already planning to order two). I thought it wasn't going to fairly close to the ordinary Cay, but with a scent of kiwifruit. Wrong. This is the greenest thing that has ever entered my body. And the taste..well, lets just say it took me about 5 sugar cubes to sweeten it enough for me to finish it.

Yeh..I wasn't too optimistic about this one even at the time of ordering. But after the Kiwi Cay, I knew to set the bar rather low. So again I decided to gamble. Doesn't look as awkward does it? Lemon Mint Cay. As of the taste? Go to the kitchen and mix lemon tea with a box of altoids and there's lemon mint cay for you.

But hey, two Cays, 4000 sugar cubes, and an exclusive experience for 1TL. No complaints.