Ballooning in Cappadocia


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Middle East » Turkey » Central Anatolia » Cappadocia
April 6th 2018
Published: May 15th 2018
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This trip was a bit of a surprise to us.

Our plans for Easter were to fly to Bangkok and then try to organise a trip to Myanmar, but for some reason the price of the flights to Bangkok never seemed to drop. I think we may have been spoiled by the £360 bargain we bagged last year with Oman Air, it’s set a precedent I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to match.

This meant I was scouring the flight search engines for flights to ‘somewhere new’ which was the only guidance I’d been given by Faye.

Jordan has always been somewhere we’ve wanted to visit but flights weren’t far off what we’ve paid to visit South East Asia, the cheapest being with Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul. The flights for the London-Turkey segment were really cheap though so I thought, ‘Let’s go to Turkey’. It’s not a new country for us but we can go to Cappadocia which is a place I’ve longed to visit for a while, and certainly is new.

When I pitched the idea to Faye, the response I got was ‘Turkey? That doesn’t sound very exciting’. I think she had visions of all inclusive beach resorts, which isn’t our idea of an adventure at all so was instantly turned off by the idea. Even with my poor descriptions of how wonderful Cappadocia looks, she didn't warm to the idea. She’s not a fan of looking at loads of photos and videos of places before we go, as she thinks it ruins the surprise, so I couldn’t even use those to persuade her.

So back to Jordan then, time to suck up the cost, come to terms with the fact that flights are expensive this year and book the next adventure. We did have a couple of weeks though, and I didn’t want to spend it all in Jordan, so to hell with it. Turkish airlines very easily let you split up the flights, so we’d spend a week in Turkey and a 8 days in Jordan, that way, we both get what we want. 😊

First we spent a day in Istanbul, the sun was shining and it was gloriously warm. We had no real plans to see much as we only had a day and we were coming back later, so we wandered Sultanhamet (the old town) taking in the immediate sights and took a stroll to the grand bazaar to see what tat we can buy to remind us of our trip.

I immediately warmed to the city, it is really quite beautiful, the hospitality in our hotel and the restaurants we visited were amazing and the food was spectacular, which isn’t really a surprise as one of our favourite restaurants in London is a Turkish place. It was a bit busy, with loads of security checkpoints as Erdogan was speaking outside the Hagia Sophia, but even that didn’t distract from the charm.

So after that day, we headed back to the airport to catch our one hour flight to Kayseri in Central Anatolia. Once landed we jumped in our rental car and headed to Goreme in Cappadocia where our hotel was. We decided to rent a car as the price of transfers from the airport cost more than hiring, so it seemed a no brainier. Thankfully I’m not a nervous driver as the driving abilities in this country are frankly hilarious, but it was straightforward enough. It also meant we could explore to our hearts content without having to worry about how we would get anywhere.

Cappadocia is famous for its honeycombed hills and towering rock formations which dot its incredible landscape, and it’s also well known as a fantastic place to go hot air ballooning to give you the best views of said landscape. Because of this, if they can fly, hundreds of balloons take to the air every morning filling the sky.

Of course this was also what we were there to do, but when we arrived we were told straightaway that the balloons wouldn’t be flying the following morning as the wind would be too strong. Thankfully it looked good for the day after that. We had given ourselves three mornings to do it in case of cancellations, and I was really nervous the weather would be terrible for all of them.

The following day we spent exploring the area and I must say, we came for the balloons but was captivated by the landscape. This area is so beautiful, we pulled over often to explore the many valleys and had an absolute blast exploring the many caves which riddled the hills. As there are so many, you can climb and explore to your hearts content and as we could drive ourselves wherever we wanted, we got to explore mainly by ourselves following our own timetable.

So the day had come, balloon time. The forecast was correct and the day was perfect, it was an early start, being picked up at 5.15am for breakfast before being taken to our balloon for just after 6am.

When we arrived the balloon was almost completely inflated, and a few moments later we were shown to some steps and climbed into the basket. We were ready to go, and gently gently the balloon rose and drifted across the landscape. Of course what makes this even more special is that while we’re drifting along, we were joined by hundreds of other balloons, providing a sight straight out of a glossy travel magazine. We drifted gently along following the contours of the ground before rising to 750m and continuing our journey back the way we came. It’s difficult to put into words just how beautiful this experience was, I knew it would be good, but it blew every expectation I had away.

I’m not a spiritual person by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so euphoric that It’s one of those experiences I will cherish in my ’soul’ for a lifetime. Completely magical! Needless to say the time went very quickly and no images or video could do this experience justice but I captured what I could with my camera, content that I’d truly captured it where it counts.

We loved the experience so much that the following morning we woke early, jumped in the car and watched the balloons ascend into the sunrise from the ground. A stunning sight first thing in the morning.

The rest of our time in Cappadocia was spent walking the valleys, exploring the caves and enjoying the food. Turkey is incredible value and it was nice to order what we wanted with little regard to cost.

After Cappadocia, we flew back to Istanbul for a few days to do some proper sightseeing. we further explored the Hagia Sophia, wandered around the parts of the Blue Mosque we were allowed to, visited the Basilica Cistern which really interesting and loaded up with crap bought in the grand bazaar.

It’s fair to say we had an amazing time in Turkey, I’m so glad I made the decision to extend our layover. It has created some cherished memories and we’ve already vowed we will be back.

Of course the best part was that the adventure was far from over, onwards to Jordan.


Additional photos below
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15th May 2018
Goreme

The boys are so big now!
time has flown.
16th May 2018
Goreme

Yep, they're getting very grown up.
Nate will be 10 this year! 10, can you believe it?? :( Thankfully, it means two years from now they'll both be 10 and we can get them diving! :)
17th May 2018
Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia
Beautiful...great shot
1st June 2018
Balloons at sunrise

Beautiful sunrise
So many balloons so little time.
1st June 2018
Grand Bazaar

I love the colors
Such beauty

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