Well, it wasn’t such a simple journey getting there.  At least you can now use a London Oyster card to get to Gatwick Airport from the main tube network.  Last year you had to still travel using the traditional orange BR style tickets, I’d ideally like a way to buy this along side my flights.

I flew from Gatwick to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (there are two airports in Istanbul, not Constantinople!) 🙂  I found to my horror the visa I bought from Turkish government wasn’t valid as I put down the wrong week by accident.   The woman behind the counter at the visas department mentioned I had to buy another one for 25 Euros or $30, and they wouldn’t take Turkish Lira.   So it was a case of using a ATM machine close by, getting some cash out, paying the women to get a little postage stamp type visa sticker, similar to one I got in Jordan.

Once passed the security clearance, I decided to try and get some sleep on the seats of a closed coffee shop.   It was midnight and I had the next plane at 7am.  Doesn’t matter how much your budget for travel you still often have to travel at unsociable hours.  The second flight to Kayseri was just two hours.   When I got there I was surprised to see this tear in my luggage, I have insurance but there’s a fairly big excess so I don’t think I will bother.

Once in Keyseri, you can tell this is a world away from the Health and Safety and strict aviation rules of the west.  I actually walked from the plane to the airport building.   No cones, no staff, no directional signs.  Once out, I managed to get a bus and head to Goereme.  It came apparent that communication could be a problem, as very few people I spoke to knew English.   The bus had Android tablets built into the back of the seats, and a man on the bus came and served us water, coffee and cheesy biscuits.

I didn’t stay here, but there is plenty of hotels and hostels that share this built around rocks style. 🙂

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