Balloon Rides

Day 2 in Cappadocia we decided to get up at the crack of dawn and take a hot air balloon ride. After being blasted out of our cave dwelling by the 5:30 am call to prayer (yes, we were staying in a cave), we took a van to a field in the valley where 50 or more balloons were getting ready to take off.

Since we got the "most estrogen in one balloon" discount (aka the "pretty lady discount" according to Ahmet the owner of the company) we were only in the air for about 2 minutes before our pilot, Alp started showing off the his skills. We flew up so high that we could see for 100s of kilometers (this is the part where I stayed on the inside of the basket and tried not to pee my pants) and then down into the valleys. We were so close to the rocks sometimes that you could touch them. In this picture you can see the balloons touring in the valleys.

We were treated like precious cargo all morning. Alp even landed at one point and some guys from the company ran out from behind a rock and gave us all roses. All the other balloons were hovered around watching with envy because they didn't get flowers--however, they also were not travelling in a pack of women.

At the end of the ride (9:30 am) the champagne flowed quite freely and we blitzfully (whoops, I mean blissfully) headed back to our caves.