TTT (The Tara Times)

This is most likely the last blog of the trip as Saturday and Sunday we will be traveling mainly and hopefully will have no issues with our flights ;)) I will keep you updated however if something changes! Thanks for reading my Turkey adventures!!  Update #1: We got up at 4:45am to go see the sunrise with the balloons from a different angle! We had to hike up this small hill and there were a ton of other people there but the balloons where everywhere. It was beautiful. Now we are back in our room taking a nap before breakfast this morning. Update #2: We just woke up it is 9:10am and we are now headed to breakfast before beginning our day.  Update #3: Our first stop was to the fairy chimneys. These were rock formations that looked similar to a long tall mushroom. We hiked around among these before finding some that would could enter. Dad and riley climbed even further up to see the top floor of these rocks. It was super cool that people used to live in these.  Update #4: Our next stop i

Update #1: We started out our day with the usual, a nice breakfast overlooking beautiful Cappadocia. We begun finalizing our plans for the day and soon headed out.  Update #2: Our first stop today is a hike through a beautiful valley. This hike was a lot better then the hike yesterday thankfully. Along the route we saw a lot of different little churches in the stone along our path. We also got to experience the beautiful scenery with vibrant red poppies and the river next to us. All in all the hike was very fun! Riley even got in some light rock climbing.  Update #3: We then drove about an hour in the other direction headed back closer to home to stop by an underground city. I slept the whole way there.  Update #4: Initally when I thought of an underground city I thought it was going to be a lot more spacious however when arriving inside I realized the exact opposite. My heart started racing and I found it extremely difficult to breathe as we climbed down into the very tight small tunn

Day 10: Update #1: 2:45am the alarm goes off and we all get up. It didn’t feel as early as it actually was and I wasn’t actually that tired…yet. We were on our way to our balloon adventure! First we hopped in the van which took us to get checked in and get breakfast. Then we were driven to the takeoff spot of the balloons. The process was neat. The basket (which holds up to 20 people not including the pilots) was divided into four parts with a middle strip for the pilots. Upon arriving the basket was flipped on its side and the balloon itself was laying out on the grass. For the moment they just had air blowing into the balloon so it was blown up but not floating in the air. Soon they turned on the burners and the balloon started to lift up into the air and along with it the basket flipped right side up. My family got one of the four sections all to ourselves which was so cool because then if you wanted someone to move you could just tell them and you didn’t have to share at all! Soon

Day 9: Update #1: This morning was pretty relaxed we got up early left the dock and took the water taxi to the car where we drove to the airport. Update #2: Today we are headed to Istanbul and then to Cappadocia where we will be staying in the stone hotel. Overall the travel time today is about 12 hours from leaving the house to finally arriving at the hotel.  Update #3: The flight to Istanbul was beautiful, however, landing in Istanbul was bumpy and for no reason. There was not a cloud in the sky however the  descent  onto the landing strip was about the rockiest thing we have experienced in a while.  Update #4: Scratch how bad landing in Istanbul was, landing in Cappidocia was worse. There was a huge storm outside. For a while we couldn’t even land at all. We circled above the airport about 4 or 5 times before finally landing. The landing was honestly a little scary. And when we finally did land there was a round of applause for the captains. When we landed it began to pour. The issu