Up up and away, in my beautiful, my beautiful ...

Well, today was the day of the balloon flight. We got up before dawn and were picked up from our hotel and taken to a local restaurant for breakfast (along with about 200 other tourists). Now, I say "breakfast", but actually that's the term given it by the tour company. I had a cup of instant coffee and two chocolate wafery things - they seemed the most innoffensive objects on the table.

Anyway, after a half an hour we were all bundled off in buses to the various launching sites on the edge of town. Judith estimated that over 100 balloons went up that morning - each of them with a basket carrying 24 people paying 150 euro each ($175 AUD). That's an approximate value of $AUD 420,000 floating through the air - and this is the low season!!

Anyway (moving right along), the balloon flight went off without a hitch and Judith and I had a great time. It was our first balloon flight and the views were spectacular. The landscape itself was fascinating to see, but then add to that the spectacle of over 100 hot air balloons up at the same time and you get a breathtaking spectacle. It is one thing to see the erosion up close and personal, but the ballon flight enables one to see the big picture and the grand scale of the landscpape.

Yes, it was expensive and they obviously overcharge, but it was indeed fantastic and we have no regrets. Oh yes, there was one regret: the views were so great I took millions of photos and then had to cull masses of them.

The tour company dropped us back to our hotel room where we had a couple of hours of sleep to compensate for the early morning rising. In the afternoon we both had a Turkish bath which was a nice bit of pampering mixed with a bit of a sudsy massage. Judith and I compared notes afterward and it sounds as if I got the better deal as I had the same guy leading me and washing me through the whole process. Judith enjoyed hers but thought the experience might be enhanced by doing it with a small group of friends.

In the evening we went to a Turkish night of food, music and entertainment which was at a specially designed venue about 15 km away from our hotel. We were not sure what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised. The food was OK, the wine was Turkish (!??) but the dancing (traditional Turkish from various regions) was very professional and well done. The belly dancer was excellent and represented the highlight of the evening.

We were whisked back to our hotel by 11.20 and so ended our day as fully-fledged package tourists.

Tomorrow we are going on a day tour of Cappodocia which will include one of the underground cities. We are both looking forward to it, especially as we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn.