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Posts tagged ‘cappadocia’

Venice to Turkey 17, Part 1

Day 17, Kapadokya, May 20, Before Breakfast!

Today we get up at 3:45 AM. Yes, you heard that right! We are on a bus at 4:15 AM! Happily even! The bus drives for about 30 minutes. At about 5 AM, we arrive to see hot air balloons inflating. We are awake and happy because we are going up today! Within 15 more minutes, we’re in a balloon basket with 27 others plus 2 pilots.

Soon we are aloft and soaring over and through hills, valleys and hoodoos. Absolutely beautiful and magical! Another Bucket List Item checked off! Hot Air Balloons over Cappadocia, or the way they spell it in Turkey, Kapadokya! If you pronounce it the way Turkey spells it, you will pronounce it correctly!

The ride lasts an hour and we watch sunrise from the balloon. There are a total of 156 balloons in the air this morning. All of them ascend and descend through the hills and valleys of Cappadocia.

Our pilots even have a selfie video recording us. We all gladly get together and purchase the set of videos that they record!

This is a different experience than other hot air balloons we have been in. The pilots guide us up AND down through the hills, hoodoos and ‘Fairy Castles’ of the area and so do all the other balloons!

We even spot a house built into the rocks, more on that later!

Sunrise is beautiful from the air! This is surely a unique area of the world!

We are told that a lot of hot air balloon pilots from around the world come here to train. And it becomes evidently true as at the end of the flight, our chase truck is parked right where we land and, amazingly, we land right on the trailer!

Then, as the balloon deflates, the pilots hold a champagne party where they mix champagne with pomegranate juice.

Then it’s back to the hotel for breakfast. Yes, I said breakfast! We feel like we’ve been touring all day and we have only got to breakfast! A very good Turkish breakfast, I might add! Then we relax in the room for half an hour and it’s time to board the bus for the rest of the day’s tour!

But I will leave that for the next post….

Venice to Turkey 16

Day 16, Ankara, May 19

Breakfast in the Palace hotel was very good! They redeemed themselves from last night. All kinds of traditional Turkish dishes, olives, cheeses, spreads and breads!

We are in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. It’s the anniversary of Turkey’s founding in 1919 after being freed from the Ottoman Empire after WWI. The weather is quite cool here at 14C. Oz is giving us historical info on the city. Flags and banners are everywhere along with photos of the founder of Turkey and the current president.

We drive to a castle. We visit the Avrupada Zilin museum here. A travel friend poses with a statue! We see artifacts from well before 1000 BC. Amazing uses of metal, stone and colors.

Now it’s back on the bus and we entertain our cameras with sights of the architecture. We learn that the Ottoman Empire failed because they stopped progressing. Europeans developed better technology and better armies.

Next stop is the Mausoleum of Mustafa Kimal Ataturk (Father of the Turks). The mausoleum is interesting and we walk through. Cameras afre totally welcome! There are views of the city from one end. Inside and out there are very lifelike statues of guards on pedestals. Hey wait! That one moved! It turns out the ‘statues’ are live guards! We must be at the Pageant of the Masters! Not! As we are leaving, we are interrupted by the Changing of the Guard where those ‘statues’ come to life! Fun ceremony to watch. Then we are back on the bus.

We now drive for one and a half hours through the farmlands of Golbasi. I’m not sure I thought of Turkey as fertile and beautiful, but here we are!

We drive through Central Anatolya in the middle of Turkey. We see what turns out to be a ‘Salt Lake’ in the distance. Soon we make a roadside stop for lunch and to comply with Turkish law for bus drivers at “Tuz Golu”, the Salt Lake. Food was poor and barely even warm. The health department back home would have a field day with Turkish roadside restaurants.

We know Turkey has good food, sadly, just not where our tour is taking us. The ice cream stand at Tuz Golu at least had good ice cream! This part of Turkey is also known as Asia Minor.

We stop at the entrance to “Saratli”, the Underground City and vendors assault our senses with colorful displays of goods. We walk through them and enter the underground caves. Narrow tunnels with steep up and down steps that are very uneven.

We only spend less than a half hour in the caves but it is enough to experience them. We stop in the local gift shop and look around. We see a sign advertising Natural Wine and we inquire. When the lady finally understands us, she shouts, “Shaddup” or something like that. It almost sounds like she is saying, Shut Up”, only very fast. We taste what she gives us, pouring it from a refilled water bottle, a pinkish liquid, and it tastes like a crude honey mead or grappa. We decline purchasing any. Then we walk back through the vendors and board the bus.

We drive next to ‘New City’, Kapadokya around 4 PM. We know it as Cappadocia, pronounced more like the Turkish spelling! It’s symbol is Fairy Chimneys in front of Tulips and Horses. We arrive at the Avrasya Hotel and are in our room before 6. Part of our group signs up to go four wheeling in the local area but having spent decades as an off road photographer, the allure of that is over. We will take a walk and check out the neighborhood. There are a few stores in the area but no restaurants.

So we eat at the hotel and we are pleasantly surprised as they have a buffet of delicious authentic Turkish food! There is even a full bar in the hotel so we get a glass of wine with dinner. The wine is even a new grape I’ve never tasted and it stands up to the taste test!

Tomorrow will be an early morning so a glass of wine in the room and it’s time for a shower and bed.