Balloons over Cappadocia

It was really difficult to chose pictures for this post. My camera memory card is relatively small and through a series of unfortunate events the larger memory card I ordered never made it to me. I took so many pictures on the morning of our balloon ride that I was out of memory by the time we got back to the hotel. So is it really worth waking up at 3:30 AM and 120 Euros?

Yes.

3:30 AM does come awfully early though. I get annoyed when my cat wakes me before 9 so this was really painful. We were picked up shortly after 4 AM by the balloon company we'd chosen (Rainbow Balloons) and joined a van full of chipper New Zealanders who rightfully pointed out that we shouldn't be yawning since we had a later pick up than they! We were taken to the Tourist hotel on the Museum Road to meet up with other groups destined for a ride with Rainbow Balloons and for breakfast which, other than the fresh, hot, pogaca, I would happily have traded for another hour of sleep.

650 meters up

I've never been in a hot air balloon before so the basket was a surprise. I guess I expected on big open basket in which we (16 people) would be jostling for a good view. Rather the basket was divided into five compartments: the center to the pilot and four small compartments in which just four of us jostled for a good view. Our pilot was great though, he made sure to turn the balloon pretty regularly so we all got a chance to see everything.

After we took off we flew fairly low for a while, through Cappadocia's Rose Valley (so named because of the color, not because it has flowers). Then we slowly rose to our max height of 650 meters (1,148 ft). There was really no sensation at all while we were flying, not even during lift off, but when we got to 650 meters and I saw all the tiny balloons down there that had yet to climb high...yeah I stated freaking out a little. While I'm not afraid of heights I have a very reasonable and legitimate fear of falling. And experience has proved that if falling is possible most likely I'll do it. MG assured me that there was no way I could tip over the basket and fall out though. They get you up so darned early so you an see the sun rising over the valleys. It's pretty well worth it.

Most of my pictures are of the other balloons as you can see! This being one of the major attractions of Cappadocia, there are so very many balloon companies. And each and every single morning, every company puts multiple balloons in the air. Since we weren't flying over the famous Love Valley (read about it in a future post though!) the landscape wasn't all that iconic and interesting so looking at the other balloons filling the dawn sky was more fun!

Since it rained so very much the day before we were a little worried that our flight would be canceled. We still had another day to try if it were, but that means we still would have got up at 3:30 AM! Luckily, Mother Nature decided that one day of torrential downpours was enough and the rest of our trip was pretty great weather-wise. A little rain here and there but nothing Ark-worthy. And more importantly, nothing that would keep the balloons grounded!

"Ghost town" largely abandoned Greek settlement

We flew for about an hour which was really more than enough time. As we went down for the landing we all had to assume the landing position...facing away from the flying direction, grip the rope handles, and crouch. I'm not entirely certain why this was necessary...but sure whatever. Apparently either the ground didn't want us or the balloon wanted to keep going as we "landed" two or three times before it was a permanent condition...the permanency largely helped by ground crew jumping on the basket to help hold it down. After we clambered out there was cake and champagne and we all received flight certificates! We were back to our hotel by 7 AM after which we had ourselves a bit of a nap (it was going to be a full day with hiking, underground city exploration, and more!) and then, Hobbit-like, a second breakfast :)

Don't forget to find us on Google +! I'll be posting all the pictures from this trip there including those not posted on the blog!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Suvla Kinali Yapincak

Suvla's Kinali Yapincak is another good white find. If for no other reason than the Suvla Winery's motto, printed on the cork, is: Wine Is Life. I could not agree more heartily.

This wine has a rather lovely deep gold color indicative of having been oaked. Indeed the nose was quite oaky which, given my general disliked of oaked white wines, put me off a bit at first. Happily, the Kinali Yapincak was far less oaky on the tongue than the nose. More noticeable were floral and apple flavors that give the wine a nice crispness.

Like a lot of Turkish whites it was definitely better more chilled than not. It could be that's just me. The closer to room temperature it got, the more evident were the oak and butter flavor effects of its barrel aging.


The combination of finding a winner right out of the gate and Suvla's devotion to wine's place in life guarantee that I will definitely be checking out more of this new (est. 2009) label's 30 wines! Especially as the winery was given such a favorable review on Vinography.com. Despite my resolve to drink more whites this summer I find myself particularly curious about some of the reds.

An Adventure of Sherlock Meows

It's taken me forever to get started on my Cappadocia adventure posts because I've had a traumatic week. The nightmare I've had since moving into this apartment came true. No, I didn't fall down the stairs (that's not really a nightmare, merely a fact waiting to be true). The nightmare is, Sherlock escaped from the terrace.

One of her more favorite, inconvenient for me, hangouts

Raccoon, a gift from KMac, is her favorite toy.

When I first moved in here she was terrified of the terrace and would hide under the couch whenever I opened the door. I wish we could go back to those days. The last few months she wakes me up before I'm ready to be awake and immediately runs for the top step to yowl her displeasure until I open the terrace door to let her out. When she first started going out I thought maybe I should finally get a collar for her or get a kitty leash (my vet does sell them) but people told me I was being ridiculous. Even my friend and fellow cat owner who used to live in this apartment scoffed at me. Her cat Jimmy escaped from the terrace once or twice and ended up on a neighboring terrace only to be put out on the street by those people.

Sigh, if only that's all that happened to Sherlock.

Tuesday night Sherlock and I were enjoying sunset on the terrace. While I was using Twitter to make everyone jealous of my drinking wine while watching the sun set behind the iconic Sultanahmet, Sherlock was prowling along the narrow ledge of my neighbor's sun room. I hate it when she does that. A while later I noticed I hadn't seen her in a while and began calling. Usually if I call enough she'll find me to see what I want and why I'm interrupting her fun. Even when I'm inside and she's on the terrace she runs down the stairs every half hour or so to check in. I called and called. No Sherlock. My friends told me to stop being silly, that she'd fallen asleep on the other side of the sun room or was messing with me and she'd come home. So despite the threat of rain I left the terrace door open that night, hoping she would wake me up in the middle of the night walking on my head the way she does.

No such luck.

The box KMac shipped it in is her 2nd favorite

What's in there and why can't I catch it?!

I woke up before 6 AM Wednesday to still no Sherlock. I searched the terrace again and trudged down the five flights of stairs to search the streets. Nothing. I had to get ready for my first day of a new Turkish class but when I got back that afternoon I searched the streets some more with equally bad luck. Back up on the terrace I noticed the older woman on the terrace over and down (mine's the highest building on the block) was on her terrace so I called down to ask if she'd seen a small black and brown cat.

She had in fact. She said she saw a cat walking along the small ledge of the sun room and then jump down. And then a lot of words I didn't understand accompanied by pointed at what looked to be a hole that her building had been built around and was badly covered with chicken wire.

Her new favorite hangout

The toys she brings to play with in bed while I'm trying to sleep

I got my downstairs neighbor and we went next door to talk to the woman. There were just too many words I didn't know coming out of her so I needed the help. She took us to the building basement where, if Sherlock really had fallen, is where she'd likely end up. We searched the shaft and the basement but neither saw nor heard her. It didn't surprise me though because I figured if she were ok that all the voices would scare her too much into to responding. I couldn't get the old woman to stop talking though so we left empty handed. My neighbor helped me do another street search and talk to the local cat lady who takes care of the street cats and some of the guys who hang out in the nearby tea house. Thursday I expanded my search of the streets wandering farther around the neighborhood stopping to ask in at restaurants and tea houses where I basically got the same response to my 'have you seen my cat' question. And that was that there are a lot of cats around here.

A closed terrace door will not deter her

Just hanging out, planning evil

Friday I checked the streets again on my way to/from class. While waiting for my neighbor to come home (so I could drag her next door to check that basement again) I heard a very loud yowling in the stairwell. That turned out to be my neighbors giant ginger cat which had somehow got out. I chased him down the lobby and hauled him back upstairs to her place. Something made me go back down though. I hadn't fully investigated my building's basement yet because it's kinda scary. Like a Michigan basement on a roid rage. And the lights don't work. I was pretty sure Pennywise was down there somewhere...

The older man on the first floor, who is basically a hobbit he's so short, heard me calling Sherlock's name and went into the basement with me. After a cursory check he declared her not there but I thought I heard a faint something. I called her name and once again heard a faint mewl. Through a bloody wall. She WAS in the neighbor basement. Luckily there already seemed to be a hole in the wall between the buildings and my hobbit neighbor helped remove the bars and plywood blocking the hole. Sherlock, being contrary, refused to come to me so I had to clamber through the wall. It looks my basement is on level with next door's first floor because coming out of the short tunnel into the air shaft I saw what looked to be another 8 to 10 foot drop below. Sherlock apparently hadn't fallen the entire way so it was no wonder we didn't see her in the basement on Wednesday. I finally got hold of her and crawled back through the hole in the wall.

Gonna be a little while before she's let out again

Other than being a little more clingy than usual and cuddling with me all night, Sherlock seems generally unharmed. I'm likely more traumatized than she is. I'll take her to the vet once this week's torrential rains cease just to make sure (and maybe to get her a flea dip) but within a few hours of being home she was already on the steps leading up to the terrace demanding to be let out. That is unlikely to happen for a little while.

So while Facebook jokes fly about Sherlock having seen so many movies and TV episodes starring her namesake that she felt compelled to go off on her own adventure (The Kitteh Waterfalls, The Case of the Missing Neighbor Cat, The Triumph of Sherlock Meows), I'm just happy she's home!

One happy kitteh mama

One utterly unconcerned kitteh

Goreme Open Air Museum

I was beyond excited when my visiting friend, MG, agreed to go to Cappadocia with me. I'd had several people tell me 'Don't go to Cappadocia without me! I'm want to go when I visit!" Then said people didn't visit. May is still early season in Cappadocia so I convinced MG that it would be a great side trip.

View from our hotel room

View from our hotel room

Our doggie guide

Apparently no one told the weather that it was a good time to visit because there were thunder storms predicted for our entire stay. What do you somewhere where literally the entire reason for going is walking around outside if it's raining?! We were about to find out.

Our hotel was about 1.5 KM from the Goreme Open Air Museum. It wasn't raining when we left our hotel but it started while we were buying water. I of course was jacketless (it was warm!) and had unthinkingly left my umbrella in the hotel. I shake my head at myself. I did at least have this weirdly shaped clear plastic rain coat thing for my camera. My brother gave me these ages ago an I'd never had cause to deploy them.

So that happened

Luckily the rain on the way to the museum was fair deal-with-able. Which was especially good because the camera raincoat frustrated me and I just took it off and hoped that it wouldn't rain too much. Only partially sure that we were going in the correct direction we were happy to run into a friendly stray dog who I swear was leading us to the museum. We were a little worried he might get hit by a car as he went berserk chasing and barking at the passing vehicles. Thankfully they all avoided him and when they passed he trotted down the road a piece, waited for us to catch up, and then kept going.

We did finally find the museum but hesitated to buy tickets. While the rain that had been pretty steady when we started had tapered off at that point, the sky did not look promising. A sudden crash of thunder and a streak of snake lightening hitting the ground in the near distance decided us. When the skies opened the resulting deluge was enough to make me wonder if God was going back on his word to not flood the earth again. We, along with everyone else in the vicinity, ran for the museum cafe for cover. Luck was with us and we managed to get the last free table and spent the next hour or so being entertained by all the people dressing up as Ottomans for souvenir pictures.

The rain finally let up and, now armed with a 5TL rain poncho (me that is, MG had a real raincoat) we decided to risk it and went into the open air museum. We got pretty lucky all things considered. It rained on us a bit but not overly.

Karanlik Kilise

This region of Turkey is where many early Christians lived and the open air museum is home to I don't even know how many cave churches which were used in those early days. Sadly they don't allow pictures in any of them. So you'll have to trust me (unless you Google image it) when I say these cave churches aren't like your today churches. There's no where to sit. There would maybe have been an alter and some candles...and not a lot of room for anything else. What is so impressive though are the surviving frescoes. The so-called Karanlik Kilise, or 'Dark Church' built in the 11th century is the one that has an extra entrance fee (there's always something here in Turkey that has an extra fee). It is definitely worth the additional 10TL ($5) though. The interior is much larger than any of the others and the frescoes are shockingly well preserved. It's gorgeous. Horrifyingly, it was used a pigeon house from the time of the Ottoman invasion until the 1950s. It's amazing that the frescoes survived that.

Tokali Kilise

Rain aside our first day in Cappadocia was a success! Having got up at 4:30AM that day to catch our flight here we were pretty tired. And since we had to get up the next morning at 3:30 AM for our next adventure...we turned in pretty early.

Stay tuned for more Cappadocia adventures!

Wine of the Week Is Back!

While the reviews have been lacking the last couple weeks the wine drinking has not! I've been on the road with a friend (thus the lack of posting) but thought a great way to get back into the weekly regime would be to start off my Cappadocia posts with one about a Tursan wine!

Tursan is the wine making in the Cappadocia region. It's a tough region with high elevation, grasslands, harsh, cold winters, and not a lot of lush greenery. What little I know about the grape growing process doesn't make it sound like a welcoming land for them though. Maybe that's why I was unimpressed with the wine? I was told I should buy a couple bottles while there because once they reach Istanbul mark-up has taken over. From what I drank while there though I took a pass on bringing home alcoholic souvenirs.

I'm not saying it was bad. I just wasn't impressed. Out of the many offerings of Tursan we chose the above which is a blend of: Syrah, Bogazkere, Kalecik Karasi, and Okuzguzu largely because we liked the description of blackberry, dry plum, and caramel.

The wine had a really nice deep red/purple color. It was dry but not overly so, and had some light tanins going on. In all it sounds like a wine that I should rather like. But I didn't. I could not even finish the two glasses I had. All the elements were there but I was not feeling the end result. So I give the Tursan megamix an 'eh'.