göreme, pt. 2

unfortunately, because the hostel was basically just a shared hotel (if that makes sense) and had no social area, i never saw colin again. i did however meet nina, one of the volunteers i had stayed with for two weeks in thessaloniki, again. she was as surprised to see me as i was.

my roommate, a guy from the states, told me that there had been no balloons going up because of wind conditions, but they were scheduled to take off the next morning for sunrise, so i set an alarm (which i didn't need because someone decided to check in in the middle of the night) and went back to my old camp spot to see the spectacle. after 30 minutes of waiting, as the sun was coming up, i could finally see some ballons inflating in the distance. i expected around a dozen or two, but i once they were all up, i counted over 50. had some breakfast while they all flew overhead, it was amazing.

funny enough, halfway through, i meet the same american guy again. after about an hour, the balloons landed somewhere in the distance and we went back to bed. that day, i didn't do much else except planning my next moves. i had to be a bit more strategic, because eastern turkey is kind of a no mans land. all the major cities and tourist areas are in the west, so there are almost no hostels past göreme until georgia or iran. luckily, most cities have hotels for under 20€ a night, so while it's more expensive, it's bearable. still, i had at least 10 days to pass until my iranian friend saeed would return to iran from slovenia and be ready to accomodate me.

the next morning, the balloons went up again, and this time i picked another spot to watch them from way closer. after the balloons were gone in the distance, i headed back to hostel to check out and got on the road again. literally. i walked to the next best main road around 5km away and started hitchhiking.

this time, unlike that time in istanbul, it was a blast. got a ride from two teenagers to the next bigger city, then a trucker picked me up. my original plan was to go to kayseri, but when he offered to take me all the way to his destination in gaziantep, i couldn't say no. we drove for hours and hours, slowly, because the truck was wayyy overloaded with quarry stone, toward syria. he even insisted on buying me lunch, great guy. i didn't expect him to let me out like 50km outside of antep, so i had to hitch another ride to the city in the dark. the turkish didn't disappoint though, and within 3 minutes i was in the next car. they set me off right infront of my hotel, where i checked in, ate, and fell asleep.Lue lisää