Balloon Ride and Istanbul

Well.... i don't even know where to start... the balloon ride was such an experience.. worth every penny, or lira i should say. It was as close to flying as i think u can get!! So we woke up at 4:30am for our 4:45am pickup.. that was a bit rough, but i kinda felt like i was in grade school again excited for the first day of school! So we got dropped off at Kapadokya balloons (the most reputable balloon company. we made sure of that!) and hung around for about 15 min. with about 50 other people before we got taken in about groups of 12 in large vans to the site- we were impressed with how professional it was.. they did loads of tests with small balloons to see were the wind was going and kept throwing up dust and sand- we drove to 3 different sites before they chose which one would be best with the current weather conditions. So we watched as they blew up the balloons and then all piled into the basket as the pilot explained to us what was going to happen... i was super nervous... what if it didn't get off the ground? what if the wind took us crazy places?? but as soon as we lifted off it was if we weren't even moving at all- it was the smoothest ride of my life! the views were magnificent and it was all just a surreal experience.. here I am in a hot air balloon in Turkey, flying over these crazy rock formations with my husband???!! it doesn't get any better/more surreal than that! So the flight lasted for about an hour and we ended up having the softest landing.. we made us practice our "fast landing" positions which was quite funny, but luckily we didn't have to use that. We met some neat people, one of which had extra batteries that he lent us because ours ran out!!! just our luck- we had 3 spares and none worked.. so that was a bit stressful! but luckily this man from the mid east USA had some to spare!
So after the balloon ride we visited the goreme open air museum which was a bunch of rock churches, with some of the most amazing frescoes we have ever seen- we paid a little bit extra to visit the "dark church" named for it's lack of light- but because of this lack of light has these preserved frescoes that literally took our breath away!! so worth the extra 10 lira. This was the end of our Cappadocia sight seeing and were then whisked off to the airport for Istanbul. The plane ride was a little rough but we made it into Istanbul, pretty exhausted from only getting 4 hours of sleep that night- luckily we had booked an airport pickup so we didn't have to worry about how we would get from the airport to the hotel.. that is soo the way to go! The hotel we are staying at in Istanbul was recommended from the hotel we were staying at in Cappadocia, and it is nice.. clean with air/con.. that is all that matters!
Our first night in Istanbul was a laid back dinner at an Indian food restaurant... just what we needed, a switch of cuisine! its not cheap.. but at this point we don't really care! it was a very early night, i think we fell asleep at 10? but we needed that, and knew we had 2 long days of sightseeing ahead of us!
The first day we went to Topkapi palace, where the Sultan rulers lived with all their concubines... what an interesting history there... the palace was massive and we spent about 3 hours exploring it! the ottoman architecture and tiling is really really interesting and we actually bought one of those audio guides to listen to more details about everything. After the palace we spent the rest of the day at the grand bazaar.. that was so much fun! i must say that my bartering skills have gotten so much better... i got a vendor down from his original offer of 250 lira to 50!! i was proud! josh and i bought well umm.. a lot.. haha.. we went a bit nuts, but had a lot of fun and were happy with our purchases! i ended up getting 2 necklaces, we bought a hookah, a scarf for my head in the mosques, and some other little trinkets.. it was an expensive afternoon, but a once in a lifetime experience! We ended our evening of course playing backgammon and drinking apple tea with a hookah...
The second day we went crazy with the sights, we needed to go hard if we wanted to see everything we wanted to see! we say the blue mosque, aya sofia, the basillica cistern, the spice bazaar, 2 other mosques all before 4 pm.. that was exhausting, but really worth it. We can't get over how massive these mosques are and what intricate detailing has gone into everything.. it was interesting wearing a scarf on my head, but i wanted to be really respectful. After 3 mosques though, we are mosqued-out... no more.. but it was worth it to see those 3! We spent the night taking a ferry to the Asian side and eating super cheap fish sandwiches near the pier... it was relaxing and a great way to end our night-
Istanbul is busy... noisy and a bit grimy... but overall we really like the city... today we will explore more over the bridge, and eat dinner at a restaurant with over 36 vegetarian appy's!! it was recommended by a couple we met! We leave tomorrow at 10 to go back to Athens which we will then catch a place to Munich, then Dusseldorf, and apparently stay 3 nights there??!! this is all news to us... that was fun learning that our paper tickets and our online itinerary dates were different... apparently flights have been cancelled etc..but no one bothered to inform us.. but oh well.. we get to have 3 nights in Germany!! so we are now going to be home on the 8th.

So as i write this josh is having a traditional Turkish bath-i think that basically means u get massaged by hairy men?? hehe.. but i look forward to his return to hear all about it!

our love to you all!