A flight amongst the fairy chimneys and a sad farewell

So we will skip over the 10 hours of salty sticky travel on a only slightly air-conditioned public bus, as well as Konya, where the Whirling Dervishes originated (not much to report bar the fact that it was home of most amazing meal I had in Turkey) and get right to the part where we arrived in Goreme, Capadoccia. For those of you who have been, you know that the landscape is unforgettable. A result of the impact of wind and water on the volcanic deposits of 3 surrounding volcanoes, the rock formations make for an environment that looks a little intergalactic. It gets even more surreal when you realise that these aren’t simply rocks, but houses and churches, some still inhabited! We first saw these from a fantastic lookout over Goreme.

After much happy snapping we checked into our hotel and headed over to our stunning dinner location.

Not only were the views amazing but their specialty of clay pot kebabs were delicious. On top of what we ordered they fed us ridiculous amounts of mezze, bread and dessert. If you have had a clay pot kebab, you will know that the deal is that you need to bash it with a spoon to break the top of it before you eat it. The lovely waiters picked out two in our group to get ‘trick’ pots the first time round. My gorgeous friend Anais received a pretty pink flower in hers… I on the other hand was gifted an eggplant.. I can hear the laughter from a couple of you trouble makers (you know who you are..) all the way from my hotel room in Greece.

It was then home for an early night as, for those who chose to, the following day started with a 4.30am wake up call for a hot air balloon ride. Here I say thank you to a very special friend who gifted the experience - and what an experience. The combination of the sun rising over pointy fairy chimneys together with what seemed like thousands (but was probably hundreds) over colourful hot air balloons floating through the sky was pretty damn special.

After a brilliant ride and a nice soft landing followed a quick champagne cocktail and then a very strange ‘ritual’ of the boys from the hot air balloon company - throwing the girls onto the packed up balloon to squish it in. I think I put up the biggest fight of all the girls but the fight was futile…

After a quick breakfast back at the hotel we went on a gorgeous walk through the valley and then had a group of us went off to the open air museum, which is mostly a collection of caves that were previously used as churches. There are incredibly well preserved frescoes within the caves which are amazingly cool give the relentless heat outside of them!

We ended up finding time for take two of my attempt at a Haman (Turkish bath). Those who have mentioned the 'crazy' experience to me..? Yeah - you weren't descriptive enough! It was nuts and it certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone. Let's just say, I enjoyed it, it was an experience but I can't see myself doing it again!!!

That evening we had dinner in the home of a local family who lived in one of the caves. Being a bit of a sticky beak, I love seeing how other people live! The mother of the family was apparently an award winning chef. They had recently renovated the house and you could easily tell the old areas from the new. During the renovation, this chef had no kitchen and had to cook all her meals in the courtyard outside! Luckily the wait was worth it and she now had an amazing big kitchen to cook in. The house, other than the formation was really like any other family home. As with the churches built into the caves in the open air museum, the house was extremely cool without air conditioning. We had a wonderful meal and were treated to a couple of songs by the youngest daughter of the house.

The next day we met an incredible lady from New Zealand that had moved to Goreme to start a carpet business. And she seriously knew EVERYTHING. She took us through the history and differences between about 40 different carpets explaining the styles, how they were made and who made them. This ex exec had some pretty amazing presentation skills and she had even the most cynical o the group hanging onto every word!

The end of this saw the start of a long journey back to Istanbul. On arrival I was surprised at how difficult the goodbye was. I shared my tour with some pretty special people but there were 4 lovely ladies and one new ‘Gramps’ in particular that completely won me over. They made my time in Turkey ‘amazing times 10’ (hehe - that was for you Georgia) and it’s only knowing that I’m going to see them all again soon that made it easier to leave them.

Next stop.. Athens!