En Route to Cappadocia!

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We were up at 5am verrry early to get on the bus to Cappadocia today! We had an 11 hour drive so a long time and there were things we wanted to do when we arrived too so we had to leave super early! The trip was actually ok. We all slept a bit, read, edited pics, watched movies, caught up on some bachelorette on my laptop! You know how it goes! J We stopped every 2 hours thankfully for my bladder!

When we arrived in Cappadocia we were all blown away! It is incredible. So hard to even describe! Apparently millions of years ago a volcano erupted and left formations of rock all over the city and since then they have all eroded and formed these amazing shaped rocks everywhere!!! So, our pics from this city are pretty much all rocks! Who knew rocks could be so awesome! J So, on the way to the hotel we had a few photo breaks and captured the rocks. Afterwards we headed to an underground city of Cappadocia. There were apparently 23 levels down into the ground but we could only see the top 8. It was really cool. Kinda leaves Marys kings Close in Edinburgh looking like nothing special! There were all sorts of trap doors they used during the war etc. It was really interesting. Not to mention nice and cool down there when it was so stinking hot up outside! We found the grave room inside and stood over an empty grave – who knows where the body now is... When we got outside there were all these lil ladies selling the most scary looking dolls iv ever seen for 1 lira – about 40p! Our guide told us that we should each buy one cos they live off very lil and just make these horrible dolls all day! So that we did. And now each have a very scary looking creature in a dress who seems to stare at you no matter where you are sitting or what way you are facing! Even though we were all expecting nightmares that night (nah not that bad!) we all felt pleased to help the ladies out and they were so happy we had bought some. One of the girls on our tour bought like 5 dolls and actually really liked them. God!

We went back to the hotel after another photo break and by this stage it was about 8pm and we were all starving! But there was a group of us who were wanting to try out the Turkish bath so had to go before dinner. Ben and a few others stayed at the hotel and had dinner and chilled out for a bit. Andrew – the only other guy on tour left with us didn’t wanna get one and girls and guys were in separate rooms so ben didn’t wanna do it on his own. About 6 of us all packed into the bus and headed to what I could only describe as “an experience!” We didn’t really know what to expect but we arrived and got put in a changing room to get a towel and put on our lil pink shoes then she sat us all down in a line and painted a mask on our faces ad put us in a sauna for 15 mins!! It was so so hot! I usually last about 2 mins in a sauna but we had to stay there till time was up. Our masks were all running down our chests! Finally after what seemed like forever, time was up and we went into the next room to wash off the mask and all our sweat!! Then I felt a lady grab my arm and drag me into a room with a giant slab in the middle with very large Turkish ladies all standing around laughing and throwing buckets of water at people. And people lying on the slab around the outside literally head to feet all the way around. It was very odd but i promptly lay down with a lady’s feet above me pretty much in my hair and got thrown a bucket of water all over me! Then she got out exfoliating gloves and very viciously rubbed them ALL over my body for about 5 mins (thankfully not much on my feet!) and then threw some more water all over me to rinse the dead skin all off! She then got this sack looking thing which i think had some soap inside it and flung it around and around until it had heaps of air in it and she popped it all over my body! So odd! She then massaged the soap relatively deeply all over my body front and back and down my bikini top (eww) for about 10mins before throwing another bucket (literally) all over me to wash me off! Wow! We then had to shower and have a swim. The pool was tiny, full of hair (well i felt it and freaked out!) and had a volleyball net in it and 2 balls!! What the??! So i soaked in the grossness of the hair filled pool for all of about 1 mins and then went into the steam room and showered off. I have to say I was knackered, even more starving but felt super clean!! J What an experience! Not sure I’d do it again but wow!

We got back to the hotel and literally wolfed down dinner and then hit the bed and crashed. We have to be up at 4am tomo for our hot air ballooning!

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Photos

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the scary dolls we had to buy

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turkish bath experience