If you’re not in a hot air balloon in Cappadocia, then the next best thing is to watch the balloons rise with the sun. Andrew ran off to the top of a hill to capture them rising above Goreme, while Alex and I preferred to make the most of our roof of our cave hotel. It is a truly stunning sight, and the photos below give you a better appreciation of just how many balloons are in the area.
The early morning light also gives whole new perspective on the rock formations – just incredible!
Our tour guide collected us this morning, and ran through out itinerary as we headed to the first destination, at which point we realised we were on the wrong tour. Instead of a Castle and an Open-air museum, we were headed to another walk through a valley and another underground city.
As we hopped off at the first stop, there was an enormous clap of thunder, lightening, and then the icy rain came…. what a contrast to just hours before. All of a sudden, neither the valley was nor the open air museum looked appealing, so a couple of calls to the tour company, and we were heading to Istanbul earlier in the day, giving us an extra afternoon in the city.
One of the iconic images that appears all around Turkey is the ‘Evil Eye’. The blue glass charms can be found everywhere – keyrings, bracelets, on tea cups, and ornaments, and are meant to protect the wearer from the evil eye curse intended to cause injury or misfortune. In this shop they almost looked like Christmas decorations!
We arrived in Istanbul in the late afternoon, and hit the streets straight away to make the most of the light before sunset. The first thing that struck us was the volume of people. You expect to find pockets of busy-ness, but there are literally tourists and locals everywhere.
Of course, the other thing that stands out in Istanbul is the mosques. This photo is of the 2nd largest mosque, Suleymaniye – you certainly can’t miss it!
Heading over to Galata to get a better view of the city, there were hundreds of locals fishing from the bridge. Unfortunately, lots of fishermen doesn’t equate to lots of fish – I think I saw one in a bucket!
We finished the day at another stand out landmark, Galata Tower, just in time for the obligatory daily GFP!
Love M & theBunch xxx
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