Cappadocia – Day 10

The late night out at the Whirling Dervishes made the 4:15 muezzin call particularly unpleasant. No chance of getting more sleep as Rob, the girls, Barbara and I had to be in the courtyard at 4:45am for our outing! A van picked us up and bounced us over roads to the hot air balloon company, where we had coffee and pastries and paid for our trip. We then bounced over some more roads to what I dubbed “balloon valley”, where dozens of hot air balloons were being filled and loaded and launched.

Once our balloon was ready, we climbed into the big basket — a bit difficult for those of us with short legs! After we were all loaded, we lifted off and floated over the fairy chimney. We saw lots of pigeon holes (pigeon guano is used as fertilizer), grape vines and more as we drifted along. The view was quite amazing from high up in the air! We landed right on the trailer, then the truck drove with us still in the balloon a little ways. Once we climbed out of the basket, we were treated to a glass of champagne and a little pastry.

Back at the hotel, Chloe changed into her swimsuit and swam in the nice pool. Rob brought me coffee, bread, cheese and olives, and I sat by the pool having a nice breakfast and uploading photos. Too soo, it was time to climb back on the tour bus. We started out at the Goreme Open Air Museum, visitng centuries old churches built in the caves in the fairy chimneys.

Our next stop was a typical tour bus captive audience stop at a carpet place. We watched some women tying carpet knots, then a man spinning silk from cocoons and then were led into a showroom where we were served drinks and shown a hundred different carpets. Barbara decided to buy one for the cabin. Chloe was desperate for a new rug for her room and cried and cried when we wouldn’t buy her a rug. “But the ones from the store will unravel!” The carpet salesmen loved Chloe; in fact, all the men in Turkey love Chloe, patting her on the head, giving her candy, kissing her cheek.

Lunch was at another tour bus lunch area, this time in a nice garden. After lunch, we were then subjected to another captive audience stop at a pottery place. When the man asked if there were any potters in the group, Chloe was the one only to raise her hand. I bought a little turtle for our collection.

We bounced our way back to our apartment in Ankara, where we worked on packing up everything to leave the next morning for Ephesus.

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