At the end of the day, we’re tourists. And the #1 tourist thing to do in Cappadocia is to wake up at 5am for a hot air balloon ride. There are about 15 balloons that take off each morning in neighboring fields carrying three or four hundred people. The crowds are forgotten very quickly as we watch each balloon fill up with its massive bunsen burners. What can we say, we’re both fans of flame and we got our fill this day.
Once in the air, we saw the expected incredible views of Goreme and the surrounding valleys and towns. We quickly moved right up next to one of the couple hundred foot tall tufa cone apartment buildings and then ran up to about 4500 feet above ground level.
Then we drifted over town and out towards a few valleys and our landing site. The pilot had some creative ideas about landing, though, and three times sent the ground crews running across vineyards only to take off on them and drift across another valley. Bad for them, good for us!