All of Cappadocia squeezed into a day!

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We had a MASSIVE day today! Our wake-up call was at 4am to get up to go hot air ballooning! At least this early start was for something super exciting, not just to get up and get on the bus. So we crawled out of bed literally after very little sleep and heard the Call to Prayer which is the prayer for Ramadan. We’re not usually obviously awake for this so was the first time we heard it. Thankfully the only time! What a racket! J Anyway, most of us piled onto a mini bus and they drove us to the lil restaurant we paid for the flight and had “breakfast.” It was the weirdest breakie ever! Apple tea (normal), chocolate cake and sausages. Very odd but we were all hungry so we attempted to eat some of it. We have come to the conclusion that Turkish breakfasts are not quite any of our cup of tea! But it didn’t matter cos all of us except ben (who was very very nervous and not feeling the greatest) were super excited! We all got into another mini bus and they drove us out to the site where all the balloons were. They were all lying on the ground and being filled with air and fire was blazing! It was an amazing sight! We watched for about 20mins as other balloons set up into the air then we all climbed into our basket! I was amazed that there was 32 people in each basket! 8 in each pocket. So there was 8 of us from the tour and we all got to be together which was fun. Ben stood in the very middle as far back from the edge as poss and we all excited leant over the edge watching as we rose into the air. It was absolutely incredible. We watched the sun rise and the landscape is just out of this world!! We took some amazing pics. What an experience. And I was so proud of ben. There was only one point where he didn’t look well at all, at the start when he took us really really high up into the air. The rest of the time we were actually quite low and going in and around rocks and picking walnuts off trees! It was just incredible! It lasted for an hour and then the guy landed the basket and balloon on the back of a ute in a trailer! It was pretty impressive flying! Our pilot was funny but incredibly full of himself! We then all stood around and got non alcoholic champagne and got certificate for achieving our flight! Mine was made out to Rachel Srewart! He had trouble pronouncing it and no wonder! What a last name! So by this stage it was about 7am and we were all totally buzzing! But pretty tired and were hoping we could have a lil sleep before starting our massive day that was planned. Unfortunately our driver had trouble finding us where our balloon had landed in the middle of nowhere, so we had to wait for ages. We got back to the hotel at 8.15am and were leaving on the bus at 9! So we got a tiny lil lie down!

At 9am we drove for about 20mins ad our first photo break was somewhere I can’t remember the name of but there was a set of rocks that represented a family! Maybe I should have researched this before writing this blog – meh, pics are there to see! So we all took pics, a lot of posing ones cos the day was full of rock formation pics so we had to mix up the subjects a lil! We then went to Imagination valley, where there were a whole lot of rock formations that you could imagine being all sorts of things. The famous one is in the centre that looks like a camel! Pretty amazing. We walked high up a hill and looked down over them and then Andrew, Ben and I climbed up high onto a giant rock. Getting up was all good, coming down proved difficult in jandals! But teamwork won in the end! And no injuries were had! We even managed to take a group leprechaun jump shot in front of the formations which I have to say was a highlight of this photo stop! We then had another stop which again I can’t remember the name of but the formations again were amazing ad there was a famous castle which was lived in, in the rock formation! Pretty awesome! So we went inside and Ben climbed up into the top story and got a pretty good view.

After some photo stops we next went to a carpet making factory and got a tour there. It was really interesting and most of us weren’t expecting much! We all got free apple tea and listened to how carpets were made and watched these lil old ladies sitting on a pillow making the carpets! It was amazing to see how much goes into making one. We all got to give it a go as well! The speed at which their hands move is amazing!! They tried selling them to us and I have no idea how they thought that a group of 21-32 year olds could afford a giant carpet or even have a house to put one in!! We saw one made of satin on the wall which was absolutely stunning – 65,000 euro!! My goodness! But we enjoyed the trip an made us appreciate how much work goes into one small carpet!

We went to a restaurant for lunch next where their Testi Kebabs were famous. We had one in istanbul and they had set the bar super high so we were curious to see if this could match it! It was yum but made with beef not lamb which wasn’t quite as good. Ben and kate both got to have a go with the giant knife and slice the top off the clay pot which looked fun but there was no lil entertainment show like we had at the Metropolis in Istanbul! Still though, it was yummy and we were all very full!!

Next stop was the pottery factory. This was also really interesting! Watching the way that everything was made and hand painted. Bonnie – a girl in our group got to have a go with the clay and making pottery! She already used to do it once a week at home so she kind of knew what she was doing apparently, though it didn’t really look like she did! Again, we got complimentary apple tea and watched the hand painters at work and then went into the show room and were all just blown away. Lots of us bought things! Ben bought a wine gullet, kate – a tea pot, me – a clock! We spent up large! J Not really, it wasn’t too expensive!

And the day kept going! Next stop was the open air museum. It was a whole lot of churches and house formed within all the rock formations and the churches had a lot of frescos on the roofs and walls which was impressive. Unfortunately I was feeling really sick and nauseas so sat in the shade for a bit of the trip. But it was all pretty cool. Def not temperature cool though! It was roasting! And there were people EVERYWHERE! After the open air museum a lot of people had completely hit the wall including us so everyone got the option to go back to the hotel if we wanted. So about half the group went back and chilled out for a while. We decided to keep trudging on and next stop was the jewellery stop! I almost wish we had got off at the hotel cos we def spent up large here! I was not planning on even looking for any jewellery but found this stunning silver and opal stones bracelet and kinda fell in love with it! The guy followed a metre behind me all around the store which really annoyed me, but in the end I ended up buying it for 120euro!! A lot of money! But worth it I reckon! Kate bought a ring and a bracelet and ben bought some cuff links! Whew! Worth the trip for sure!

We then had 2 more photo stops after the jewellery stop. One was pigeon valley which was obviously just named cos of all the hundreds of disgusting pigeons that congregate there! Apparently pigeons are holy sacred animals in turkey! Bleugh – no idea why!! So we took some more posy pics of rock formations and then headed back to the hotel! We got back at 7.30pm and had to eat dinner and b ready to get picked up at 8.30pm for our Turkish night!

Dinner was another buffet at the hotel and very very poor so we tried a bit, loaded up on rice and bread which was one of the only edible things, and then headed back to shower and try and make ourselves look like we hadn’t been up a ridiculously long time and all want to go to sleep and not go out! We managed and dragged ourselves to the bus yet again and made our way into tow to the Turkish night. I didn’t mind it actually but a few of the girls thought it was a waste of money. The dancers were ok but at one point the grabbed everyone there – a few hundred, and made a giant congo line and went out the back and danced us round a bonfire for ages! Bit odd, then one of our girls got dragged into middle with a veil over her face and Andrew got handed a scarf and he had to dance around her, do press-ups, show his muscles and ask for her hand in marriage! She refused! J then ben got dragged literally unwillingly to the middle and had to belly dance with the dancer and about 5 other guys – all of who were extremely enthusiastic! Poor ben! I have never seen him so angry and so disinterested all rolled into one! He did well but it just seemed to keep going and going and he had to do solos and all sorts! I found it hilarious till i looked up and saw the look on his face!!! We got free drinks for the few hours we were there but all of us were just so knackered that we didn’t even feel like it! We left there about 11.30 and got home after midnight! It was a reaaaalllly long but good day! But we needed another day in Cappadocia cos it was ridiculously jam packed! We have a gianormous 4.5 hour sleep till our wakeup call at 5am tomorrow to head back to Istanbul!

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