HOT AIR BALLOONING!!!!

So our last morning in Cappadocia was a 5am start as we were picked up and delivered to our lift off point for hot air ballooning. At 120 euros for just over an hour of flight time, it was pretty expensive, but we all agreed it was well worth the money. As over 60 balloons fired up all around us, we were pretty excited to take off. The flying was incredibly smooth, only being interrupted every so often by the incredibly loud flame throwers to manoeuvre us higher. It was an amazing experience and there are hundreds of photos between the 8 of us that went.  

Some Turkish balloons that were firing up all around us. They used massive fans to get the initial air in, then fired them up as they got big enough. It was a nice way to light up the morning sky.  

 This was our balloon firing up. The biggest in the world until last year, now third biggest. It seemed to do the trick...

 The skyline littered with Turkish pollution.

 More rubbish ruining an otherwise beautiful sunrise...

 An otherwise pleasant view.

 Oscar and Jen ballooning.

 Rose valley, Love Valley and Cappadocia.

 Jen ballooning.

 I think between Jen and I alone we took over 150 shots. All as spectacular as the next.

 Oscar, Chels and Nick

 Nick, Chels, Jen and Oscar

 Nigel our pilot and a customary post flight Turkish champers

Our hot air ballooning certificates. Thoroughly deserved I think. Turkish humour at its best. 

Cappadocia

OK so after the drama described below we arrived finally in Cappadocia! If you haven't heard of Cappadocia Google/Wiki it NOW. This place was off the charts. Basically the volcano next door to the town erupted ages ago and people moved to the area and hollowed out the massive rocks that came out of the volcano and made them into houses. The picture below is our 12 bed dorm in the Nomad cave Hostel. It was an actual cave and despite 35 degree plus temps everyday the cave was always around 25 degrees. So we had three days here renting bikes and riding round the gorges and valley. Visiting the cave museums and eating in the local restaurant "Fat Boys" (a Turkish/Australian restaurant which had Turkish toast with Vegemite on the menu). The Highlight though was definitely the Hot Air Balloon ride on our last morning (blog on this to come) and visiting the local Turkish Hamman Baths and getting nicely scrubbed and massaged.

 Cave home for 3 nights.

 The most amazing Turkish rug shop filled with hundreds of rugs and traditional Turkish dress. The shop also had a spice room, a tea room, a couple of jewellery sections and a shisha room.

The shop from the front with a Cappadocia Rock cave House in the background.

 Oscar in front of the nunnery/monastery in the open air museum.

 View from the museum over a village of caves perched above the town.

Oscar pondering cave-life/ nursing his hangover, at the museum.

Schoolboy error

So making our way from Valencia to Turkey ended up being a bit of an ordeal. We boarded a bus in Valencia at 9.30pm which took us to Almansa by 11pm. Little did we know before we arrived that Soria was in the middle of nowhere with no bus station. As such, We were left sitting on a bench for 2 and a half hours waiting for our connecting bus which finally pulled up at 1.30am. We arrived at Madrid airport at 6 in the morning where we found a quietish corner to, in proper backpacking style, lay out our sleeping bags on a solid concrete floor and get a few more needed hours sleep. As we prepared ourselves to board our next flight, we were soon told that we had booked the wrong flight. And by we, I mean me, Oscar. In the confusion of trying to book two weeks of flights, busses and accommodation,  I had accidentally clicked the 31st of August instead of July. So crisis aversion mode ensued. We went to four desks asking for various flights, all either booked or over €500 euros. Not really an option. Next we found a Internet station and spent 30 minutes looking at all the options. Finally, using a website called costasur.com, we were able to get a plethora of busses all connecting and finally getting us to Toulouse. Totaling €100 euros, we were paying the price for my mistake. The upside is we were still going to make our flight to Turkey, even if it was at the expense of not sleeping in a bed for a second night in a row. Then it dawned on us that we would also be sleeping on a bus the next night, from Istanbul to Cappadocia. Moodiness started to settle in. Four busses later we were in Toulouse. Another sleep in the airport and a sink and wetwipe shower and we boarded our flight to Istanbul where we met the rest of the gang, totaling 9 of us now. We didn't have much time to catch up as we rushed for our next bus which was leaving from the other side of the city only an hour after us landing. Happy to say we made it after 10 busses, one flight, one missed flight, two airport floor sleeps, one van, a cab and 60 hours in transit. 

Valencia

Valencia is our last stop in Spain before heading to Turkey to meet the group again. Valencia felt nice and intimate for such a large city. Nothing like Barcelona, very safe and friendly. We were staying in the old town and didn't travel too far from our place as it was conveniently next to all the best bars and restaurants. We did however do a free walking tour with a nice Scottish bloke and got amongst the history of Valencia, which played a very interesting part in making Spain the Catholic country it is today and liberating the country from a Fascist rule post WWII. 

 The old gates to the city, still in great condition with a cool moat on the other side which has since been turned into a nice park that surrounds the city.

 This is the skinniest building in Europe. Its 1 meter wide and still remains a residential property.

 Somehow Oscar managed to sniff out a boutique beer stall in the Central market. He tried a really nice local Valencian pale ale.

 The Central Market. It was enormous! And definitely the nicest fresh food market i've ever been in. All the walls were covered in tiled mosaics and the glass dome was huge. There was something like 190 stalls in the market selling everything from fruit and veg, baked good, meat, fish, Asian food, Indian food and Beer!

Oscar with his beer in front of one of the many Ham shops. So much Ham!

Granada

Granada was amazing fun. We came here on a recommendation from my brother Chris and i am so glad we did. He doesn't always have the best advice but in this case he did well. Granada has an amazing history with so many different religious groups having power in the area during the centuries. Which means the city has such a diverse culture. It is divided into 4 main quarters; the Jewish/university quarter, The Christian/Modern quarter, the Moorish/old quarter and the Gypsy quarter. The Jewish quarter is filled with students and funky bars covered in street art and graffiti. The Christian Quarter is a pretty standard European area with all the department stores and the cathedral. The Moorish quarter is really interesting, it is as if you have stepped into Morocco, with narrow market streets, mosques and tea houses. The Gypsy quarter is built into the hill and has old gypsy caves from centuries ago and current gypsy dwellings, with friendly locals. Apparently Granada is the birth place of the Western European Gypsies (ie. not the Romani people but what we stereotypically think when we think of Gypsies). 

 Oscar by the river which can only really be considered a stream. lots of underground bars on the street to the left. The other selling point of Granada and probably the reason Chris raved about it is that it is one of the only places remaining who serve Tapas the traditional way, which is to offer a small plate of food with any drink that is ordered. This allowed Osc and I to bar hop and buy 2 euro beers and get a free dinner along the way most nights. Great Idea!

 Photo from Gypsy Hill (not the technical term, it was called Sacromento) out over the Alhambra (Moorsish Castle) and the Gardens.

 I enjoyed a nice chai in a Moroccan tea House in one of the back streets. Oscar had a Coca-Cola...

 One of the Market streets in the Moorish district. I spent a lot of time in streets like this. So much fun!

Baskets of Tea, spices and dried fruit. YUM!

Malaga

Again Malaga was a last minute decision. We felt we needed to spend more time at the beach since we had only spent about 20 out of the last 40 days by the seaside. Malaga is known for its nice beaches and english tourists looking for a cheap holiday. So we saw lots of those two things. There was a couple of the usual cathedrals and parks etc. But it was pretty much beach followed by beach followed by beach. I did manage to drag Oscar through some local markets along the way. It was a refreshing change from 45 degrees in Seville and nice to not feel guilty about not touristing. However there are no photos of Malaga. Sorry mum!

Sevilla

We decided to visit Seville on a whim just to fill in time. Id heard it was a nice city but what we discovered was that it is the heart of Flamenco dancing in Spain. So all the shops were filled with brightly coloured flamenco dresses and hats etc. That was fun, but we also found out that Seville is nicknamed by the Spanish as "The Frying Pan of Spain". The temperature reached 45 degrees in the afternoons and so Oscar and I succumbed to the Spanish tradition of the Siesta happily. The streets were dead between 1pm and 7pm everyday. But after 7pm the city came alive with big demonstration against more government spending cuts and job losses. But unlike any normal protest/demonstration this one had live music, dancing, singing, chanting and generally a positive vibe which was unusual given they were supposed to be quite angry apparently (perhaps the abundance of pre-drinking in local bars is to blame). So in Seville we ate great tapas, clung to air-conditioned shops and did little touristing. Hence the lack of photos. Still a great city and lots of fun ... but a little on the hot side for me.

 An old palace surrounded by nice shady cool gardens.

 Great building that they lit up at night with fluro lights (but i forgot to take my camera at night). Selling yummy sweets and of course Flamenco gear.

Osc outside the Cathedral. Its the 3rd largest cathedral in Europe (maybe the world cant remember) after St. Peters and St. Pauls. The Spanish argue that its bigger than the other two in square meterage but i doubt it very much.