Cappadocia Part 1

Getting here was hard...really hard.  

We spent a total of 22 hours in transit to arrive into Istanbul, then we hopped on another plane and headed to Eastern Anatolia.  All in all, we spent around 26 hours in transit before we landed at our final destination. 

The company I work with in Istanbul took amazing care of us.  They had a guide, driver and air conditioned minivan ready and waiting for us, then they took us on a short drive around before heading to our hotel.  

This was the first thing we saw, and needless to say...we were speechless.

The amazing landscape was formed over 3 million years ago by 2 volcano eruptions that created layers of ash mud and lava.  Weather has eroded the softer material and left the stronger material standing in curious rock formations or as locals refer to them, Fairy Chimney's. 

Then we finally made it to our hotel.  

And to get straight to the point - it was the most amazing hotel either of us have ever stayed in. 

And not just that, the wonderful woman I work with in Istanbul had surprised us with a rose-petal covered room and an amazing bottle of wine...among other things. 

And do you see that big pot in the second picture?  Yeah, that's over 1000 years old.  

As if it wasn't cool enough that our room was technically a cave.

We had a bunch of pottery in our room that was older than anything we have in the US. 

You know...just for decoration.  

With all of our excitement, we forgot to set an alarm for the next morning.

We had a hot air balloon ride, and we were supposed to be ready to leave the hotel by 4:30AM. 

That was okay, because we were woken up by the call to prayer. 

I don't know how either of us didn't think about this, but we were in a Muslim country and they call out to prayer 8 times a day.  

Even if it is 4:30 in the morning. 

It was quite enchanting, really.

Out hot air balloon ride was crazy awesome. 

The perfect way to start the first day of our trip. 

K might have been a little scared...note his hand in the first photo. :)

And they finished it with 4 bottles of champagne! 

At 7:30 in the morning!

That's our kind of finish to a balloon ride.