Cave Man Sleeping in Cave Next Four Nights

This is cave where Cave Man sleep..

I am Göreme, Turkey. This is the Cappadocia region in Central Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey. Göreme is known on the tourist trail primarily for two things: hot air balloon rides (no thank you) and cave hotels. I am staying in a real, genuine cave hotel here in Göreme: the Göreme Cave Lodge. Four of its rooms are the real deal, cave-wise, and I snagged one of them.

The main airport for the Cappadocia region is in Nevşehir. 

It's a modern looking terminal, which doesn't match the fact that this is ancient region, with Cappadocia even getting name-checked in the Bible. It also is strange in that you walk down the stairs out of the airplane and, instead of going into the terminal, your luggage is put on a conveyor belt in a covered area outside. Unless you started your flight internationally. My bags did not go through customs in Istanbul when I transferred from the inbound Sarajevo flight to the outbound Nevşehir flight, which meant they got "inspected," i.e., put through a giant machine, in Nevşehir.

And here is where I am staying in Göreme.

It is one of the few places with actual cave rooms, which are carved directly from volcanic tuff. There are lots of "cave-like" room constructed from stones carved from volcanic tuff, which gives a cave-like atmosphere, but "constructed from carved stones" is not the same thing as "carved from stone."

You can see the difference in the hotel's interior exterior. Yes, I said interior exterior. The hotel is open air and, inside the hotel's wall are interior walls. These are the exterior walls within the hotel's interior, thus "interior exterior."

These walls are constructed of carved stones.

This is the view from the inside looking toward the entrance:

But my room, Room 6, is carved from stone, not constructed from carved stone. So this is a genuine cave:

A lot more sumptuous than you would have thought sleeping in a cave would be.

These rooms are supposed to exceptionally cool during the hot Cappadocia summer. But it's fall now, so "hot summer" is not one of my concerns.

This is the neighborhood. The city of Göreme looks quite interesting. Lots of very, very narrow streets, and steeps climbs and descents, that I have no idea how the over-sized extended 14-seat airport shuttle van was able to navigate.

Here is the view from the third floor of the hotel:

And here is the instagram spot:

Every hotel in town has to have one because it's what the public demands now in 2026. This is one of the places in town to see the hot air balloons ascend each morning (6:00 a.m. -ish) on the days they ascend. Tomorrow's ballooning has been cancelled due to weather, so that will be a sight for another day. I'm not planning on ascending in a hot air balloon while here, but I do want to watch the hundreds of hot air balloons take off one morning. But it won't be tomorrow morning.

Aerial Tram to the Most Infamous Bobsled Run in the World

The bobsled run looked differently during the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics

The bobsled and luge track from the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics is probably the most infamous bobsled run in the world. It also is, perhaps, the only bobsled run that has become a major tourist attraction after its use in the Olympics. No one visits Lake Placid, or Salt Lake City, or Vancouver, or Nagano, Japan, to see an historic bobsled run. They do in Sarajevo. But not for reasons that have anything to do with the 1984 Olympics.

The best way to get to the bobsled run is to take the aerial tram. And if you can take an aerial tram to get somewhere, why wouldn't you?

The lower station for the aerial tram is a short walk from my hotel. So hoof it I did.

In less than 10 minutes, I arrived at the lower station.

The tram ride up was a bit of an adventure. About one-third the way up, the car stopped. It probably was stopped for less than two minutes (I didn't time it), but it felt longer. Then the car (and all cars) started backing up. I was heading back down the mountain. I thought: well, this at least is safer. But right before the car got back to the station, it stopped again, only briefly this time, and then started moving back up the mountain in the correct, intended direction.

More fun that a cable car ride should be!

Second time was the charm and soon I was at the summit of aerial tram line:  Mount Trebević.

Time to search for a bobsled track. You can't hide one very easily, I would think, but I did not know how far from the tram station the track was going to be. I just knew what I was told and that the aerial tram was the best way to get to the now-decommissioned bobsled course.

I don't know the purpose of this miniature train that looked like Barney Rubble's car from The Flintstones. But if you are going to make a train where each car looks like one of Barney Rubble's cars, do you need a purpose? Just a Barney and Betty, I would think.

In searching for the bobsled course, I saw the Olympics rings and thought I must be getting warmer.

Which is ironic because it was a little colder up on the mountain than it was down in the city. At least the very light rain had abated.

Views were nice. Typically views are nice on mountaintops on the edge of cities.

And soon, not far from the Olympics, as I surmised, I spied it:

A section of the graffiti-covered bobsled track.

This track is known now among the tourist set for the fact that it is almost completely covered in what the intelligentsia call "graffiti art." The real history is far more sordid and far more tragic.

 

This was a battleground during the Bosnian War of the 1990's.

This looks like a segment of a parallel track -- probably the luge track -- collapsed in decay or from the war.

This is a strange point where it looks like there was a switch between the bobsled and luge tracks.

However, given that each of the tracks were made from concrete, it doesn't seem like the tracks could be switched, so I do not know why this looks like an intersection.

This is now a place for a peaceful walk through a quiet forest. It was not anything like that 30 years ago.

This was the front line during the war. With its strategic high ground, this was a deadly sniper's nest during the war. Artillery and mortars were lobbed down on the city of Sarajevo from here. This area also was extensively mined, so even after the war ended, peaceful strolls through the forest were not feasible,

I am guessing that this area, being on the internal border within Bosnia of the Federation and the Republic Srpska, this high ground was controlled by the forces loyal to Slobodan Milošević.

(Ethnic wounds here have not healed here. The other day, when asking a question about the Bosnian War, I referred to one of the sides as being the "forces of Milošević," and the guide to whom I asked my question immediately said that he understood and appreciated my use of that particular phrasing rather than using an ethnic label.)

Let's rub some salt in the open wound by taking a selfie:

I finally reached what I am guessing was the end of the track:

The reason I am guessing that this was the end is because, at this point, the track starts going slightly upward. Bobsleds don't climb. They descend. So this must have been the end. Only problem? No signage as to how to get back. And my google maps was not working in the middle of the forest. So I did the only thing logical that I knew would be a sure way out.

Backtrack.

I ignored this bit of graffiti art on my dissent:

Then I overheard a guide telling the group he was leading that his bit of graffiti was done by a professional artist from Slovenia. It does look more professional than the other "graffiti art," which looks a lot more "graffiti" and a lot less "art."

The ascent up the track was more tiring than the walk down. Plus my tired legs were even more tired. Luckily, I soon saw the aerial tram overhead and I knew I was getting close to the summit.

Here is an old style aerial tram car that was probably a more "interesting ride".

No longer being lost in the woods -- and, more importantly that I am now seated instead of walking uphill -- I finally can smile.

 

In honor of the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.

This is the end of the Sarajevo part of the vacation. I am too tired to go out walking to a nice restaurant for some Bosnian cevapci (uncased sausages made from either ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and lamb). Tomorrow I catch an airplane to whisk me off the Asian Turkey part of my vacation adventure.

Inside the Sacred Heart Cathedral

Interior of the Sacred Heart Cathedral

After visiting Saint Mark's Cemetery and the tomb of Gavrilo Princip, it was a walk back to my hotel to rest my tired feet.

I saw this interesting looking building.

Then I noticed the loop de loop pedestrian bridge and realized that was the Academy of Fine Arts that I saw on the walk to the museums.

Then I saw Sacred Heart Cathedral, the main Catholic church in Islamic and Orthodox Sarajevo:

And I decided to have a look-see inside. Only cost two marks, which is about a dollar.

A pair of two otherwise unidentified saintly figures in a Catholic church in Slavic country? I'm guessing Saints Cyril and Methodius, but I'm only guessing (and playing the odds). 

Across from that:

Built to last:

A plaque dedicated to Saint John Paul II, whose statue is outside the cathedral.

Finally, with my feet and legs about to give out from all the walking, I go back to my hotel. This is the mosque next door:

This adjacent building seems distressed.

Lingering effects of the Bosnian War? There are still a number of those, but those numbers (thankfully) are diminishing.

One Man's Terrorist Is Another Man's Freedom Fighter

The tomb of Gavrilo Princip in Saint Mark;s Cemetery

Back around the time of the 9-11, one of the major news outlets -- might have been CNN or it might have been A.P. or someone else -- remarked that they would not call the 9-11 hijackers terrorists because, and I quote, "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." I thought the statement was outrageous regarding the 9-11 terrorists. However, it is a very apt description of Gavrilo Princip.

Princip is one of the very few people in history who you can say single-handedly changed the world. His firing his pistol into the open car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and Franz Ferdinand's wife Sophie, and killing them both, sparked the conflagration of World War I, which changed everything in the western world.

Selfie at the tomb:

Even today Princip is a very controversial figure within Bosnia and Sarajevo. I think that might be the reason why the gates of Saint Mark's Cemetery, just north of the old city of Sarajevo, were locked. You can look inside and see the tomb, but you can't get too close. Because, to some, in Sarajevo 2026, Princip was a terrorist, and, to others, he was a freedom fighter. An assassin whose recklessness unleashed the horrors of one of the world's most brutal wars? Or the man who did more than almost anyone else to end the age of monarchy in the west? Your call.