So the bug that got Marie and I earlier in the trip took Caitlin out today… She woke up at about 3am feeling really lousy and none of us got back to sleep for a while… so it wasn’t until well after 9 that Marie and I got up. At that point Caitlin really didn’t feel up to much of anything so she stayed in bed while Marie and I went to get some breakfast (included with the room).
After breakfast, Caitlin was awake but feeling pretty poorly so she and Marie decided to watch a movie while I got caught up on the blog and backed up all the pictures and whatnot. I went for a brief walk around the town (it’s pretty small although the maze of streets and cave houses, hotels and pensions makes it seem much larger when you’re walking around). When I got back, Marie and I went out for a bite to eat while Caitlin slept a bit more then we all curled up and watched movies until just after 6 when Caitlin felt up to going for a bit of a walk and grabbing something to drink (she still has no appetite but that was the case for Marie too who didn’t really eat anything for 2 days).
Adding to Caitlin’s feeling poorly through the day was her feeling bad that Marie and I weren’t able to to anything special for our anniversary (our 23rd)… We kept telling her that it was kind of nice to have some down time after the chaos of Istanbul and that we’d built extra time into our stay in Goreme so we could have some downtime but she just kept apologizing for it being a crappy day (then giggling and saying “no pun intended” – if she can still make bad jokes she’ll probably live).
During the afternoon, we made plans with Efe (the hotel’s concierge/gofer/front desk guy/breakfast guy) for what we’re going to do tomorrow.
Marie and I are going to get up at the ungodly time of 3:30am to be picked up by Turkiye Balloons to do the sunrise hot air balloon tour over Cappadocia. It’s the most expensive thing we’ve ever done traveling (€130 per person for transportation to the launch site/breakfast/a 60 minute balloon tour and commemorative certificate and traditional champagne toast upon landing (assuming all goes well of course) but it’s a must-do activity on pretty much every guide book, blog and review of things to do in Turkey so we don’t want to pass it up. I’m looking forward to some spectacular pictures… Marie is hoping she won’t spend the 60 minutes in abject terror… Caitlin decided not to do it because she’s not sure she’ll be feeling up to it and doesn’t want to have to cancel (and lose the money) and is worried that she wouldn’t like it because of the heights… Because it’s so early we’ll be back before she wakes up so it should work out okay.
Unless the balloon crashes… then she will be locked in the room because of the European locks which require the key to lock or unlock the room from the inside… We’ve encountered these locks almost everywhere we’ve stayed and can’t see the reason for them – they’re a huge hazard in the event of fire and don’t seem to be any more secure than a knob that turns or a deadbolt… Presumably there’s some advantage to them…
After we get back we’ll probably grab a power nap while Caitlin sleeps for a bit more and then we’ll all grab breakfast (Efe has promised to make Caitlin an omelette if she’s up and about so that should get her out of bed… if he throws in pancakes she’ll drag herself there no matter how she’s feeling). After breakfast, we’ll hang out for a bit in town (if Caitlin is feeling up to it we’ll probably do a bit of exploring or maybe rent some scooters or a car to go a bit farther afield as many of the attractions are in other towns). I’ll probably spend a bit of time getting an old-fashioned straight razor shave – something the Cappadocia region is quite well-known for… I’ve even been letting the beard grow for the past week so the barber will have something to work with. Marie and Caitlin will probably take advantage of me spending 5 lira (about $2.50 cdn) on a shave to go to the spa or the turkish bath or something and will come back all pampered and massaged…
For the evening, Caitlin and Marie will be going horseback riding while I go for a sunset quad tour… Apparently the horses here are too small to carry anyone over 200lbs so that leaves me out… and truth be told, I’m more interested in getting some good sunset pictures than the experience of horseback riding so it’s probably all for the best. We’ll be quadding and horseback riding until about 8:30 and then it will be time to grab some dinner and call it a night…
That’s it for our day in Cappadocia. It’s actually been nice to have the down time… the hotel is super comfortable (one of the nicest rooms we ever had anywhere) and it’s been very quiet and cool and the staff has been awesome. Efe in particular has been amazing – made Caitlin mint tea, brought her a small bowl of salad to try and settle her stomach, gave her the pillow off his chair when we were all just sitting around outside and has been very concerned about how she’s feeling…
It’s just too bad Caitlin’s been feeling lousy and didn’t get to enjoy the down time as much as we did – hopefully she’s feeling better tomorrow.
It’s off to bed now… I’ve got a busy day tomorrow of hot air ballooning, straight razor shaves and quadding… It’s hard to believe we’re heading into the last 2 weeks of our trip…
Thirty-Eight More Nights in Europe 