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Published: June 30th 2017
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What at incredible day! Today started out with an absolute highlight of our trip - a sunrise balloon ride over Cappadocia. We left the hotel around 5:20, and had a quick breakfast at the balloon company office, then we were off for our spectacular 2 hour balloon ride over the amazing Cappadocia landscape. Wow! Truly incredible. I couldn't believe I was actually there, it was SO fabulous. We watched the sunrise from the balloon, and just marvelled at the scenery. You will see from the photos that the sky is full of balloons. This is a very popular activity - very expensive but well worth it. Most of our group joined in on this optional activity, so it was just our group in the balloon.
After we landed we enjoyed orange juice and sparking wine, and were presented with a souvenir medal (we still have ours!). We got back to the hotel at 9:15, had a quick change (it was chilly this morning on the balloon so we wore warmer clothes than usual). At 9:30 we set off for the Goreme Open Air Museum. A highlight was the Dark Church, which I had read about so I knew we wanted
to see this - it was well worth the extra charge. The frescoes are amazingly beautiful and well preserved. It is called the Dark Church because it has little natural light so the frescoes are much better preserved than those in the other caves. It was quite busy in the Open Air Museum, with fairly long line ups. But it worked out well for those of us who went to the Dark Church because it had no line up and we had time to see in and return to the others in the main line up before they had got in.
After we toured the Open Air Museum we headed to a carpet workshop. It was interesting to see how they are made but the carpets are way too expensive to buy. We stopped for lunch (set menu again). I had trout which was good but I find it's too big a meal for me for lunch. We then went to a pottery workshop, Omurlu Ceramic, which had very beautiful pottery. We bought a beautiful tile, a decorative plate, and a mug for Susan (similar to the one I got in Istanbul but better quality).
We got back
to our hotel about 4 pm and we did some laundry and relaxed and I wrote in my travel journal. We then met our group at 6 and headed to Dervis Evi (Dervis House) for a whirling dervish Sema (ceremony). It was in an underground cave and I thought it was very interesting and enjoyable. The Sema has seven parts and each part symbolizes a stage in the journey to perfection. While the dervishes are whirling, their arms open, and their right hands are raised towards the sky and God, and their left hands turn towards the earth, and they spin (pivot) from right to left. The brochure we were given explains: "Revolving around the heart, from right to left, they embrace all of humankind, and all of creation with affection and love." We were not allowed to take photos during the ceremony, but afterwards they performed a short ceremony during which we could take photos.
After the Sema we went back to the hotel to change, then we headed off to a Turkish folk show and dinner. The setting was very nice - in an underground cave, but these packaged dinner/shows for tourists are not really our thing.
However, we did enjoy the show. The appetizers (dips and salads) were very good, along with the excellent Turkish bread, but the main dish was not so good. I had trout again as it was the only non-meat option and I am getting rather tired of trout.
Tomorrow we do two different hikes, and a Turkish bath in the evening. We could see the hiking paths from the balloon and I think they will be great, also looking forward to the Turkish bath!
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