Goreme

After arriving in Ankara at 11pm, we were in a car to Goreme by 6:30 the next morning. We arrived at 10:30. Goreme (pronounced Gor-em-ay) is the signature town of the Cappadocia region of Turkey. Sarah's first comment was "Feels like we're in Star Wars." We are staying at the Kelebek Hostel, which is a beautiful spot on top of the hill, on the edge of town. Our room is an old cave with a huge arched cieling. Very unique. When we got to town, we walked about 3km to the Open Air Museum, which had a bunch of old cave dwellings and churches. We then went on a 3 hour hike up one of the valleys, where we saw tons of crazy rock formations, watermelon farms, and no people. The views are stunning. It's kind of like being on what I would imagine as a mixture of Arizona and the moon.

Cappadocia is one of the oldest parts of the world that had been inhabitted constantly - approx 6000 years. The history behind the cave dwellings is that when Arabs swept through the region in the first 500 years after Christ, the local people (Christian), would hide out in the caves. Some of the churches have beautiful mosiacs - again - all of this is carved from stone.
St. George was a 5th century Cappadocian. He is also the Patron Saint of England. Why? Because during the Crusades, it was rumored that St. George was seen on his white horse helping fight the Muslim people. So St. George, who most likely had never heard of England and died 800+years before the Crusades, is England's Patron Saint.