Cappadocia

We have been looking forward to seeing Cappadocia ever since we saw it on a postcard in Bulungula, Wild Coast, South Africa, in March at the very start of our trip. And when we finally arrived we were not disappointed. From the bus we could see the cave houses near Uchisar and the the fairy chimneys in Goreme, a landscape that is totally otherworldly.

The rock formations of Cappadocia are varied in their apperance, from fat and squat little houses to tall and phalic pillars to the drapery-like white rock on the sides of the canyons. It's the kind of landscape that takes a long time to get tired of looking at.

And in order to see it better, we decided to see it from the sky via a hot air balloon ride. Or a balloon flight as they call it here, but we all know it's really more of a ride than flight. It was the first time for both of us to go up in a hot air balloon (we were intending to go up in Tanzania but we decided to pass since we'd missed the migration) and it was absolutely fantastic. You float magically up off the ground and sweep into the sky in absolute silence except for the occasional blast of hot air. The the wind gently swept us from one valley to the next, with our expert pilot (?) taking us down into most of the valleys, just meters away from the formations. When we landed, we landed exactly on the trailer and were treated to a glass of the finest - and by 'finest' I mean 'cheapest' - champagne. It was lovely.

Besides the hot air balloon, we also did a few walks through a couple of canyons to get a better look at the formations and we visited the underground city in Kaymakli which was interesting in a clausterphobic kind of way. We were sandwiched between two tour buses, but everyone was friendly enough.