Safranbolu

The escape from Istanbul was especially sweet because our next stop was the lovely and incredibly friendly town of Safranbolu, famous for its large number of restored Ottoman houses. One of the perks of the town is that a lot of these houses have been converted into good value pensions and we got to stay in a ripper complete with a decorated ceiling, traditional niches and some of the best hospitality we've had in Turkey.

On our first night, we were escorted to a little restaunt in town by one of the women working at the pension. We walked through amazing little alleyways, up and down a valley, past mosques and fountains, always amazed by what we were seeing and quite confident that between the two of us we'd be able to make it back. And perhaps in the daylight this would have been the case, but after our yummy dinner the sun had well and truly gone down and we were stuck ambing through unfamiliar streets with the constrant refrain 'does this look familiar?'. The town appeared to be deserted; we hadn't seen anyone in ages. Eventually we bumped into a young guy who was getting picked up by his friend. We sheepishly pulled out the hotel's card and asked, mostly through gesticulation, if he could point us in the right direction. After a few words to his friend, they said 'please get in. We will take you there' and they did! For free! It is one of those amazing little situations that would surely never happen back home and really demonstrates the goodness of the people out here. Needless to say, we thanked them profusely.