It was pretty cool watching them inflate the balloon. All 16 of the people on our tour signed up for this excursion. The basket we went up in held 22 passengers, the pilot and co-pilot!
We used a small ladder to get into the balloon. It wasn't very graceful, but we made it!
Once we were in the basket, we waited until they had the balloon fully inflated before our take-off.
We could watch as other balloons were getting ready to go. They launch over 100 balloons, then about 30 minutes later, another set of balloons take off! It was amazing.
It was about 6:30 when we took off. We all expected the flight to be bumpier, I think. We were surprised at how calm and peaceful it was.
After taking about 9000 photos, it was hard to narrow it down for this post, but here are some of the sight we saw!
As we were getting closer to our landing spot, we watched as another balloon landed - ON ITS TRAILER! Here is a video of their landing. https://youtube.com/shorts/pCgm_0LuW8E
We soon spotted our trailer and watched as we were guided down to our trailer.
The ground crew helped secure our landing.
And we made it safely down - even though Tobey did give us a scare mid-flight. He was dehydrated from being sick and fainted. Fortunately, he came to and we gave him water and he was back on his feet.
Our tour group - everyone did the ride and it was awesome!
Our pilot, Ahmed, said it takes over two years to get your license and he has been a pilot over four years.
Yes, we were treated to mimosas and chocolate covered strawberries, as well as receiving a gold medal for our experience!
We headed back to the hotel and EVERYONE was still excited out this first part of our day! After some breakfast we headed out for the next part of the day - minus one. Tobey decided to stay in and rest, so I went solo on the next part of the adventures.
Next stop was the Goreme Open-Air Museum which is comprised of frescoed rock churches dating back to the fourth century. There were amazing rock formations which are know as fairy chimneys, an entire village and rock-carved churches.
Most of this area is tufa rock, a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes.
Wendy was taking a break in the kitchen / storeroom!
During the 1st century Christianity was forbidden but the area was good for them because the landscape made it easier for them to hide from the pagans. Until the 11th century, this area was a functional village mostly inhabited by hermits and monks. As late as 1923, there were still Greek Orthodox monks residing here. Most of the carvings and paintings found inside are from the 7th-10th century AD. In one of the churches, there are frescos which are pictured on the sign board below.
Our next stop was an underground city. More than 100 underground cities from the Hittite period and were used by Christians when the Turks arrived. The underground cities were used for defensive purposes and were over 260 feet deep. This city had 11 floors and we were able to see four of them. It wasn't as impressive to me as other things we had seen, but the history behind it made it worth visiting.
Our tour director, Nilufer ducking down to go through one of the passage ways.
Ventilation opening
Stone door they rolled across the openings for protection
We had a lunch break after the cave city at the Fat Boy Restaurant! Wendy and I shared this dish. It is cooked in the pot and you use a small hammer to tap it open. Inside was a delicious chicken and vegetable stew like dish. We had it with rice, mashed potatoes, and bread.
You would think the day would be over with everything we had done so far, but it wasn't! We stopped at the Stone Castle Jewelry Shop and had a chance to look around. Once we finished our browsing, we walked across the street to see Pidgeon Valley. More rock cut houses ... and lots of pidgeons.
The next scheduled event was a hike in Love Valley. Only eight of us wanted to hike, so our driver dropped us off and took the others back to the hotel. According to the tale, divine forces created the valley's formations as a symbol of eternal love and a warning against discord. Love Valley's distinctive phallic-shaped rock formations were formed over millions of years through volcanic activity and erosion.
I thought this formation looked like a native American chief.
Our group of eight hiked about 2-1/2 miles.
Our guide, Nilufer, took a break!
After finishing our hike we arrived back to the hotel around 5pm. Tobey was a bit better and joined us for dinner. Tomorrow we head back to Istanbul for our last couple of days.
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