It appeared that in Niğde schools didn't know about us although it was supposed to be organized. The school principal of Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi was very kind to let us in, however.
After some chat and çay we were quite surprisingly invited to visit one class.
With daughter.
Nice flame! Dancing with joy.
The teachers here were so happy to hand the kids the torch.
Thank you for such nice surprise!
The weather was turning quite bad today, as in the rest of Europe. It was quite a shock since it was 33 degrees in Adana and now just 3 degrees here in Anatolia!
Shake hands, make friends.
The Mayor of Yeşilgölcük introduced us to the local school.
The children were yet different. Simple but with a lot of energy.
Especially in their hands; even girls had very strongs hands. As we found out, they work on potato fields most of the time.
The school principal is a man with big heart for everyone.
It was great to have lunch together with other teachers. They are all here like one big family.
As we heard, Pranava looks just like husband of one of the teachers! Maybe we should leave him behind in case the original husband gets lost.
Yeah, cold and windy.
But it didn't matter for boys and girls in Derinkuyu.
It was crowded again and the eagerness was all around.
The sports teacher was very happy for this small excercise.
Fenerbahçe or Galatasaray?
Jitendra was here the popular one.
Later on we paid a visit to local shops.
Time to buy some gear for cold weather and disobedient team members.
Puneeta has chosen a more fashionable piece of equipment.
There is an ancient underground city below Derinkuyu. It was used by local christian population to hide and defend themselves even for months when enemy was approaching.
Some smurf population still remains apparently.
There are hundreds of these cities and thousands of people were living there for months.
The cities have churches, grannaries, schools, kitchens; all dozens of meters under the ground.
Strange creatures crawl out of the caves when darkest hour strikes.
It's easy to get lost here for non-locals. This made it easier to defend.
Ali wearing his team colors of Adım Adım.
And regaining energy for next run.
Some prefer to fly.
Like Puneeta.
As the evening approached we entered Kapadokya.
It's a strange land with very specific landscape.
6 and half million years ago two volcanos spit around vast amount of ash and sulphate.
Years of erosion by water and wind created this specific cones structures and canyons.
Later on people used the soft sulphate ground to carve their homes into the hills.
The Mayor of Göreme was kind to welcome us in our final destination and offered us much rewarding dinner.
As the sun set down the Peace Run here in southeastern part of Turkey has come to end this year. But it feels like we'll be back soon.
