Cappadocia

What a place!
This would have to be some of the most unique landscape I have ever seen. Seeing it from a hot air balloon made it even more special. There are columns of rock formations called Fairy Chimneys everywhere. Just stunning! You’ll have to check out the photos to understand what I mean because it’s just too hard to explain.
Over 160 balloons went up this morning - what an amazing sight it was.
19 days ago I had never been in a balloon; now I’ve been twice 😂😂
Our pilot was soooo clever - went down almost touching the ground in order to get a real sense of the valley, then high up to get an overall view. He was soooo impressive that he even landed our basket onto the trailer!!!
Afterwards we returned to the hotel and had breakfast before heading off to explore the rest of Cappadocia.
Imagination Valley lived up to its name - like lying in the grass looking at clouds and seeing all sorts of weird and wonderful animals etc, so too could you see things amongst the rock sculptures. Most obviously we saw a couple dancing and a camel. We hiked through the rock formations and had fun exploring. Next we went to an underground city. It was kinda like Coober Pedy but a fair bit prettier. Like an underground labyrinth complete with massive wheels that were used to roll across the doorway in the event of an “invasion”. The locals could then escape via another exit whereas there was no way to roll the wheel from the other side. Very clever.
There were rooms that were kitchens, a cellar, all sorts. In places it goes down up to 150m but they are no longer open to the public due to the number of times ambulances were called after people had anxiety attacks etc.
What we saw gave us a good enough idea of just how amazing the whole city is.
We explored several other locations all around this phenomenal region and I had to stop myself from wowing at every turn.
We visited churches inside the rock formations and all saw people’s homes and pigeon houses and all sorts of interesting and unusual places. You could explore for days, if not weeks around here!
Needless to say, lunch was also delicious 🤤Read more