Cappadocia is full of outdoor adventures. If you don’t like climbing–be it on foot or in a balloon, this may not be a good spot for you. We’re about 10 minutes by “taksi” from the Goreme open air museum. Yesterday, we explored the caves that have been used as catholic churches when the muslims attacked. Nowadays, they mostly attract pigeons and tourists. TIP: bring a small toy to tuck into the crevices–we had a super time hiding and finding Polly Pocket–made the caves much more interesting for our 4 y.o.
We’ve done a bit of hiking an poking around the valleys–though the girls prefer hanging out by the swank infinity pool of the Museum Hotel. This morning our big adventure of the stay began with a 4:15am wake up call.
We signed on for a 90 minute hot air balloon ride with Kapadokya Balloons. The shuttle van picked us up at the hotel and brought us to a sad little buffet breakfast, then we were re-shuffled and brought out to a launch site near the open air museum. The inflation process had begun before we arrived. So after about 15 minutes we were loaded into the basket with 7 other tourists (two sets of honeymooners) and given brief safety instructions–don’t fall out and hang on tight for landing.
About 50 balloons set off at the same time, but it didn’t seem chaotic. The ride was nothing but smooth sailing. Our expert pilot, Serhan, pointed out a few highlights, but mostly left us to enjoy the spectacular views. Upon landing, we had a cherry juice/champagne cocktail called the smooth landing (just cherry juice for the kids). The girls helped squash the air out of the balloon and pack it up for tomorrow’s customers (the Turkish people seem to genuinely love children) and returned to the hotel by 8. A super adventure that has left us all a little sleepy!