After having a few lazy days in Antayla we decided to have some more and so headed further east along the Turkish coast. Our next stop was Side aka German tourist hell (apparently the most popular resort along this stretch!). Side may once have been a very beautiful resort but sadly it has been completely destroyed by tourism and as such is dominated by shops trying to sell you appallingly bad fake D&G t-shirts and Prada handbags or else is full of restaurants, cafes and bars. The only saving grace was the remains of a roman city at its entrance. We stopped for lunch had a wander around and then headed off. Half a day was more than enough for us and to think people book two week holidays there.

Nevertheless we continued east and went to Alanya - to be honest we weren't expecting much but actually it was OK. We stayed near the West beach and wandered around the town for a bit before heading down to the harbour for dinner. We ate fablously well at a smart restaurant just at the end of the harbour - we had shrimp for starters (Rich wanted calamari but 3 days in a row and for both lunch and dinner was a bit much for me by now) and then had some greda which came which a burning flame next to it (hard to describe but it looked impressive and the fish tasted great). In fact the restaurant was all the better for the live music! which can only be described as a fat 'Barry from Eastenders' looking guy with a keyboard, flute and guitar jamming cabaret standards along to the demo button- Awesome. Afterwards we looked for a busy and non sleazy cocktail bar (no chance!) but were able to drink some lovely strawberry daquiri's .

The next day it was raining heavily, but when it stopped briefly we wandered around the castle and through stones from execution rock. Apparently prisoners were told that there lives would be spared if they threw a stone from the top and it hit the water. An impossible feet and when it hit the rock below they were pushed to their deaths. Both of our stones naturally failed to hit the water. Afterwards with the promise of continual rain for the next four days we headed further along the coast before venturing inland and heading for the Capadocia region. By now it was mid-afternoon and we drove up to a pass of 1700 metres which no doubt provided spectacular scenery but by now it was pitch black - with the numerous sharp bends and hairpins we had made slow progress and the car never got above 30mph or 3rd gear. By the time we got to the next town it was alreay 8pm and we had another 130k to go in the mountains.

Ok this would be the point where most people would decide to give up and look for accomodation - but not us. After turning the wrong way up a steep hill and then having been given a lesson in reversing Rich takes over the driving. You see the map says that part of the road we are to take is unmade, now in Romania in my mind this mean't impassible (Rich proved otherwise - poor Rover). But in actual fact the road was actually Ok if a bit gravely. At one point we stopped the car and turned off the lights (there was nobody else around for miles) and it was pitch black. So we continue up and down mountains for the next few hours before arriving in Nigde where we found a reasonable hotel.

So today we got up early and headed into Cappadocia, our first stop was Derinkuyu and a visit to an underground city. Fortunately I didn't get to claustraphobic and it was amazing to be exploring what I can only really describe as a rabbit warren cut out of rock.

There were lots of tunnels (most of which I couldn't stand up in - so you can imagine what it was like for Rich) and caves. Not all of the city has been excavated so we were only able to go three floors down but apparently there are at least 8. Afterwards we went to Uchisar and climbed to the top of a castle made from hollowing out a rock, from the top we got our first proper view of the landscape. We then wandered around the village which was full of fairy chimneys and houses cut from rock.

Tonight we are stopping in nearby Goreme, we did consider staying in a cave tonight but its quite cold so we're in a traditional ottoman home instead.