Aug. 29- Hot air balloon ride this morning. Bus scheduled to pick us up at 6.20. So, of course, we awoke at 6.15 and literally jump into our clothes & rush out the door. We rode with our new Aussie friends and- suspiciously- several more people to the tea & cookies meeting point. Here we downed some goodies, checked out the balloons from the early shift cruising the skyline, and got more amped for our flight. Then we chased our balloon (our company's) in the van to its landing spot and changed passengers. We found it odd that the "8-person" balloon we booked ends up fitting 13 people, not including the pilot, but quickly remembered where we were, and reality set us straight. Good thing it was a boy-girl-boy-girl sort of setup in each little compartment, so no one complained too loudly. If it were J, Hamish, and Matt in one section, it would have been a different story.
We started off with a bang, hitting the first valley we saw and did what ballooners do I guess- just sigh and stare out at the beautiful scenery. It really is a fantastic way to start a day. We veered off from the valleys and floated over farmland, even getting a little drenched by some crop sprinklers (at Hamish's request I might add). We eventually made a rough landing in a field where the crew was on the scene to help us out and hand us our champagne for toasting. There is some debate between the authors (J3) whether or not we really crashed. You see, the pilot DID say "We crash..we crash..." when we landed. One of us thinks he was serious, the other thinks he was joking since we had been asking him earlier if he had ever crashed a balloon. Who knows.
Next, we made the obligatory champagne toast and we received our official "I paid hundreds of dollars and all I got is this stinkin' certificate" flight certificate. It was only then when we realized that we should have given them cool fake names like Jose Cuervo or Ruth Westheimer since the certs had our names written on them! The only successful name joke was accidental- a lovely Korean girl in our group named Grace who was crowned "Grease" by the balloon boys on her certificate. A verse and chorus of "Greased Lightning" singing and hand jive dancing ensued immediately, only made worse by the 2nd bottle of champagne.
We were quickly whisked off back to our pension where we were to be picked up for our day tour of the area. We swallowed our brekky in seconds, and were back in another van, again with the Aussies and 2 more of their friends, Sarah & Jamie, who had arrived on an overnight bus just minutes before. While in the van, we learned a quickie fact that the word Kapadokya comes from the Persian language and means something like "land of the horses". Our first stop was at Agzikarahan Caravanserie. In ancient times, the silk road leading from Europe to Asia had stopping points where the traders could rest, feed their horses, etc. These places, called caravanseries, were basically small villages contained inside protective castle walls.
Next stop, Belisirma, another hill with cave dwellings carved throughout, leaving it to look like a big sandy block of swiss cheese. FYI, these caves were just that in the old days- caves. The reason we can often see the caves is due to the fact that much of the outer walls of the hills have been eroded or broken away by earthquakes, rain, and probably abuse by silly foreigners like us. Our next stop was a trek thru Ihlara Valley, where we walked/hiked for over an hour and stopped at rock cave churches, bought overpriced fruit from random boys on the trail (the 'ol bait & hook), and had a nice lunch at a restaurant next to the stream. We think the waiter wants JJ to become a vegetarian, since he twice brought her a cheese pizza instead of the meat one she ordered. Our next stop was at a crater lake, where our Aussie friends took a quick dip in the water while 3 local teenagers praised the heavens for this random bikini blessing bestowed on them (not Hamish's, silly).
The next stop was Kaymakli Underground City. <<history lesson time>> The area of Cappadocia has over 80 underground cities, of which around 25 have been discovered. Question- if the others aren't yet discovered, how do we know they exist? Methinks our Turkish tour guide should replace "discovered" with "excavated". But we couldn't pin him down on this subject. Anyhoo, the UG city was amazing. This is where Christians would hide out for months when invaders did what they do best- INVADED. The cities are set up for real long-term housing. They have living quarters, kitchens, children's nursery, livestock stalls, even rooms where grapes were danced upon, filtered & fermented into wine. There is even a ventilation shaft stretching the entire eight-story depth of the city. One memorable feature was the wheel-shaped doors, which are so big they had to be carved out of stone inside the caves, and had to be opened on the inside, by moving a rock "doorstop" and rolling them aside for moving people & things in & out.
Next we found ourselves at your typical tour-ending sales pitch, but enjoyed it thoroughly. We were in the Avanos pottery shop/factory. This is where some of the region's best mud is magically turned into beautiful, colorful, and ornate pottery. We saw how the workers do their thing, and Hamish even gave it a go, turning a ball of mud into very strange vase, then into something John Holmes would be jealous of, then back to a ball of mud. We then proceeded to fight off the sales pitch (as well as our own itch to buy the beautiful goods) and off we went.
Next, we arrived at probably the most famous Cappadocia items- the famous "fairy chimneys". These are rock formations in sort of a tall cylindrical shape, with different type of rock on top coming to a point. This top rock is shaped like that because it has been protecting the bottom section from rain, wind, etc for centuries. They got their name when the locals many moons ago thought that these rocks were so amazing that "only fairies could make them". We concur- they ARE amazing.
We headed back to Goreme and had some beer and nargileh with the Aussies while waiting for the bus to take Hamish, Kirin, Matt, & Susie to Istanbul. After the fearsome foursome (FF) took off, we (J3, Sarah & Jamie- from now on S&J) headed for Dibek Restaurant. Even though the FF warned us not to go here, we did it anyway since Jamie's sister knows people there. Turns out, the friends-of-friends were great, but the food was just as bad as the FF had said. Oh well, the waiter was fun and we had a great time with our newest friends from Down Unda!
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