Monday September 25
Rhonda: Hi y'all. Today is a big day. Up at 430am to go for a sunrise hot air ballon ride. We have never done it and I am a little afraid. I think Chris is too.
We got picked up later than we were told we would be and it was getting closer and closer to sunrise and our driver couldn't seem to find our balloon. So it started off rough. But once we got there and started seeing our balloon and pilot team working all of that faded away.
Hahaha. If you could have seen us trying to get in the basket!! It was so tall and you had to climb in it. It took many men to get me up far enough to throw a leg over the side and fall in! Our friends were right beside us and that was great. We were next to the pilot and the burners which was nice because it was chilly that early. We did get to see the sunrise as we were rising up. I was never nervous and it was absolutely the most exciting thing I have done. I felt like we were floating on a cloud. With the best view you could possibly get of the entire region. Our pilot was amazing.
Chris: oh my gosh, it was just no words amazing. Rhonda and I were just laughing out loud from joy. It was absolutely beautiful. Our pilot said there were 164 balloons in the air that morning and yes, as Rhonda said, he was amazing. He took us up high so we could see the entire region spread out before us then we went low and floated lazily amongst the fairy chimneys and thru the valleys. It was just stunning. At one point the pilot took us straight for a huge rock cliff and at the last second he climbed and we just barely cleared the ledge just as the rising sun came into view. Beautiful
All the balloons are hauled out to the launch are each morning, every balloon has its on truck and trailer. As we started coming in to land we could see our balloon's truck and trailer below us. At maybe 30 feet above the ground we started drifting sideways towards the trailer while slowly descending. Rhonda and I looked at each other in astonishment and Rhonda said, are you f@!??ng kidding me ?!?!? Right about then the pilot dropped the balloon the last couple of feet, perfectly on the trailer !! It was amazing and he seemed pretty happy with himself as he should be and I think he really enjoyed the reaction of all of us in the balloon
We got back to our cave home and had breakfast and off again to tour all day. I have to say that after the balloon ride the rest of the tour was downhill. I would recommend to do all of the tour and the balloons at the end because it's hard to impress after that. But they did take us to a handmade pottery class. And omg was the pottery beautiful. We may have spent too much money and had things shipped home!
But later we went to a handwoven rug demonstration and while we were utterly fascinated and will forever look at Turkish rugs with respect, we managed to get out without buying one. Lol.
It was another very long day and we got back to Istanbul about 10pm. Very tired. But then our car and driver showed up and I swear we got Hugh Hefner's Playboymobile !!! It was electric blue leather inside. With recliners and a tv that went up and down if we needed to talk to the driver. It was hilarious.
Comments