Day 30 and 31: Fumbling onto Flamboyant Fairy Chimneys

Place: Fat Boys Restaurant, Goreme in turkey

Time: 14:53 (Waiting to catch our 12 hour overnight bus to Istanbul)

Due to laziness during the day and late night ‘jabberings’ with new friends, I wasn’t able to write about yesterday, and as Craig says, the rules are that I now have to write about yesterday and today. The good news for me is that I have wonderful material to write about and cant wait to let you know about the elation of the days passed.

Day 30, Tuesday the 1^st May

I have highlighted the day into point form for a change:

• Woke up and skyped Matthew Folks as the hot air balloons went by.
• Scurried down to a breakfast of yummy sesame breads, Nutella and coco puffs
• Went back to bed as Craig researched online for ‘who knows what’
• Woke up to the cleaning lady and pulled myself out of bed to go on a little walk
•  Fumbled onto beautiful views of the town and found a few more Fairy Chimneys
• Found a spot under a tree and read
• Gobbled a chicken kebab and hot chocolate down
•  Had an afternoon nap
• Went for a TESTI KEBAB. This is a lamb stew cooked inside pottery and the only way of eating it is to break the pottery to discover the delightful meaty treasure, combined it with salad, breads and finished it off with baklava and tea.
•  Hurried home to catch the sunset
• Made friends with Neighbors and chatted until late about travels done and looking forward to.
• FYI: Emma and Denis are an excitable couple who live in Paris. Denis is a Frenchman and Emma is Finnish. We can already tell that we will be great friends and have made plans to meet up in Paris.
•  Went to bed in order to be ready for the early morning antics of today.

Day 31, Wednesday the 2^nd May

Although we had an early start, there is no way that I can put into point form just how magical our morning was.

We were awakened by our alarm at the dreadful hour of 04:30am this morning in order to get our lift at 05:15am which was taking us to the amazing site where literally hundreds of hot air balloons were ready to be launched in absolute splendor.I was stoked with our colourful balloon as it was by far the best looking balloon in the cloudy skies.

We climbed into our basket with 18 other very excited passengers and were ready for lift off.

Im not sure if it was just the propane gas or the fact that our French fellow passengers had forgotten to brush their teeth, but as the men let go of the ropes slowly we were let off into the big and beautiful open skies.

In every direction we could see, we had plenty ‘ooooh and aaaaaah’ moments where our camera was put into great use. All we could hear was the ‘whoooosh’ of the gas being let off by all the hundreds of balloons around us and watched as a couple played ‘bumper cars’ with each other. It was absolutely incredible and such a spectacular experience.

At one stage Craig counted 68 balloons, and that was only on one side, it is truly amazing and these guys have mastered the art of hot air ballooning.

Up and down, through the valleys and above the Fairy Chimneys we went with ease and brilliance leaving us gasping at the sheer beauty of the flight.

Eventually it was time to land and the experience was a complete contrast to our last experience, not only did the pilot land the basket onto the trailer, but he didn’t even need a tree, chicken coup or electric fence to break our fall. The landing was absolutely smooth and worth a well deserved glass of champagne and toast to our professional pilot.

We headed back to the hotel, grabbed some food and headed straight for bed to take advantage of our last few hours before checkout and the countdown to our 12 hour bus trip.

Next stop Istanbul and will report back to you then.