Our last morning in Göreme, we woke up and headed straight for The Open Air Museum, which consists of more cave churches and dwellings, but they are the most preserved and easily accessible – so we weren’t climbing all over the place and getting dirty. It was super cool, especially to see all the churches, whose reliefs and wall paintings were still visible.

After that, we hopped in the car and made our way to Kaymakli where we visited the Underground City, one of the many underground cave cities in Cappadocia. There we hired a local guide named Mustafa (we have had great luck with Mustafas lately) who led us through the labyrinth and explained the purposes for each nook and cranny. Originally dug by Hittites to escape enemies, this underground city was expanded by early Christians and then abandoned, providing a great location for local kids to play hide and seek. There were eight floors total, five of which were open to the public. Mustafa ran us up and down tunnels and stairs and was generally the most adorable little Turkish man. And his toupee was fabulous.

Then we hopped back in the car and made our last road trip back to Istanbul. And here we will stay for the remainder of our trip.