We left Goreme, today, and flew via Istanbul to Kars. Kar, in Turkish, means "snow." Turkish people we met elsewhere thought we were crazy for coming here. It's so cold! There is no airport! Well, no. It seems okay, and there is definitely an airport. What it IS is very near the Armenian border. For Turks in the rest of the country this is like Afghanistan, or the moon. One visits Kars to visit Armenian cultural sites that lie within Turkey. This is sensitive stuff! Anyhow, Kars is in the steppe, which is vast, and undulating on a huge scale. We saw Mt. Ararat as we landed at the airport. There is a castle here, too, and not a fancy-pants castle, but a defend-this-plain-for-you-are-otherwise-alone castle. Kars is a city that reminds me a lot of Russia. It was, in fact, used by occupying Russians a hundred years ago. Here are a couple more pictures of stuff from Goreme, and one preview picture of Kars.
Here we are by a crater lake in Cappadocia.
Katy in a rock-cut church at the Sileme (we think...) monastery near the Ihlara valley in Cappadocia.
Katy made a friend!
View of Kars and the steppe that don't do it justice. The mountain is in Armenia, I think.
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