The previous post in this trip to Turkey and Italy is here..
After we finished the Hammam and lunch in Istanbul, we took a one our drive to Istanbul airport and after waiting there for a few hours flew into Nevshehir airport. We had arranged transport through the hotel (we were to pay per person and were told to pay in Turkish currency but the total was in Euro!). Had to have it ready when we we entered the van. The van guy waited till he could find some last minute unplanned passengers to fill and finally after 35 minutes started towards Kapadokya. A middle aged woman who was flirty decided to sit in the front set next to the driver. It was dark and windy roads with no lights and she kept showing him her phone and making conversation. The driver was obviously taken in with this and was not focusing on the road. The rest of us got very nervous after the driver swerved a few times. So as a collective we spoke up and asked her to stop talking to him or distracting him while driving. The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. Finally after dropping off 80% of the folks we got our turn.
The staff at the cave hotels were nice. The manager gave us a crash course on what to expect and what to do in the morning. Will write a separate post on the cave hotels. The rooms are carved from the rocks. They are all on a hill. We were all tired but I decided to see the balloons rise at 5AM. Turns out they went up only closer to 6! It was beautiful to see. San joined me on the roof for some photos and decided to go dress up and come back for more photos!
Once the sunrise was done, we went back woke up the kids and had a nice breakfast wtih the view of the last few balloons coming down. Then it was time to go on our all day package tour of Kapadokya. There are a thousand odd photos of all the places we visited in the next 8 hours.. so will create mini blogs of each place over the next few days..
We were booked to go on the balloons the next morning and San, myself and Jr. did wake up really early and go to the balloon starting place. Heavy winds made them cancel the rides for the day. So balloon away while the sun shines , is the moral of the story. We were returned to our hotels after sitting in a van for an hour and our money refunded. If we want to be on the balloons, we have to make another trip! Decided that watching them with chai in hand was as good an experience.
A lot of those photos were taken before the balloons started.. (you will see it in the video). The night sky was so clear inspite of the lights from the cave hotels. Got to see so many constellations, planets with just the iPhone!
A video highlights reel including some time lapses, some slow motions…
Book every morning you are there… you never know which way the wind blows!
