Captivating Cappadocia

The boy and I fulfilled a dream of mine when we paid a visit to Cappadocia last weekend. We were joined by a coworker, his partner and their cheeky two-year old tyke.

Cappadocia is located smack-dab in the middle of Turkey. To get there from Istanbul, we flew out of Sabiha Gökçen airport, got a rental car, and drove an hour and a half to the town of Goreme, where we had rooms booked at the Elysee Cave House. By the time we arrived in town it was already quite dark, so we tucked into a delicious meal at Topdeck Cave Restaurant before calling it a night.

The fellas & cool cave interiors of the restaurant!

The most tender lamb I've ever had. Mmm.

Morning came all too soon. Bleary-eyed and yawning, we loaded into the Turkiye Balloons van that pulled up to our hotel at 5 AM. The van wound through Goreme's narrow streets, slowly filling up with a collection of tourists (and equally impressive collection of DSLRs) from all over the world. After the last pickup, we stopped into a cafe for a light breakfast. Not everyone was a fan of our early start, though.

Nobody has seen the troubles he's seen.

Bellies placated by warm bread and coffee, we piled back into the van. In no time at all, we had left the small town as a red sun rose overhead. Then not ten minutes later, gasps and excitement ensued as we got our first glimpse of the enormous hot air balloons that were slowly inflating among the volcanic rock minarets.

Red sun rising

At this point I was so excited that my mouth had gone dry and I was clutching my camera in a death grip. We made our way over to our balloon and eagerly hopped into the basket.

I loved Turkiye Balloons' motto.

And then we were off!

As the colors of the sunrise gave way to a blue sky, our course took us through valleys of different rock formations, each stranger than the last.

The balloon ride lasted for about an hour and a half in total. At our peak, we ascended 980m into the sky. A few times I peered over the basket, saw how much air was between my feet and the ground, and may have had a small panic attack. But our pilot proved to be very experienced as he navigated us within a hair of rock formations with total ease. And it was difficult to stay worried with these views set to a cheesy-but-comforting soundtrack (Eye of the Tiger, My Heart Will Go On, The Final Countdown) and even cheesier jokes "This is my first time flying!", "This balloon is named the Titanic", etc. After we landed, we received our flight certificates and celebrated with flutes of champagne.

In true hobbit manner, we had second breakfast and then napped for a few hours. But pretty soon it was time to venture out again!

A asking a cowboy for directions.

He's ready for his close up.

We split ways for a few hours; the S family to see some old cave churches in town, while the boy and I ventured into Rose Valley (not a euphemism!!!) for an afternoon trek.

Rose valley selfie

The volcanic rock made for an interesting (and at times, slippery) trail.

Photo op from a small grotto

Whee!

Next up, a visit to the fairy chimney structures:

Our only group shot.

A beautiful family.

True love.

And to end a magical day, a viewing of the sun setting over the town.

Sunset selfie

Rocking my 'Javier-Bardem-from-No-Country-For-Old-Men' hairdo... aww yeah.

Some shenanigans with the little one ensued...

This was his attempt to imitate the boy and I after we had limbo'ed beneath the wooden railing.

Dinner that night was at Old Cappadocia restaurant. We started with hummus on vehicles of fresh, chewy, oven-baked bread.

For mains, we both ordered pottery kebabs - a dish that is baked in clay pots and broken at the table to reveal the stew-y meat-y goods within. The presentation was certainly up there, but the taste was just okay. I'm certain this wasn't anything close to the authentic version and reckon it's a bit of a tourist trap menu item - ah well, gotta take the good with the mediocre.

The next morning, we awoke at dawn and went up to the terrace of the hotel to watch the balloons take flight over Goreme.

Shy balloons inflating

Mother balloon and her babies.

All too soon, it was time to say gule gule to Cappadocia. Visiting there was an absolutely magical experience - one that is without a doubt something I'd recommend to anyone visiting Turkey.