Up, Up, and Away in Cappadocia, Turkey
--I officially want to come back to Turkey. No.. I officially WILL come back to Turkey. I absolutely love it here.
--Ephesus is pretty cool. I mean I hate to say this, but ruins are ruins. After a while they all start looking the same. But It was sweet that I was walking where St. Paul walked.
--An hour bus ride and two planes later, I arrived in Cappadocia. Best. Decision. Of. My. Life. A volcano erupted there long ago and out of all the ash they carved what are now houses, restaurants, and hotels. It is indescribable and pictures don’t do it justice at all.
--We checked into our hotel. Holy cow. It was VERY nice. It was a five star Turkey hotel and we ate dinner, which was everything you could have possibly imagined. It was buffet style so we all nommed so hard. Also they carved Cappadocia into multiple fruits like a cantaloupe and watermelon!
--3:30 AM wake up call. It wasn’t even torture to get up this early just because I knew a hot air balloon would be awaiting for me. We drove to the hot air balloon headquarters (kind of) building where they served us a light breakfast before we took flight. I had like 3 chocolate milks, which in Turkey is served hot kind of like hot chocolate but wayyyy better. I’m in love. Then we drove a little more to get in our balloon. Not gonna lie, I was a bit frightened at the beginning cause I didn’t know what to expect. Does it go up super fast and my stomach drops? How do we land? Will we hit a tree and die? So many things were running through my mind, but turns out it was the smoothest ride ever. Not to mention the AMAZING view we got at the top rising with the sun—spectacular. Then we landed perfectly into the back of a truck. I mean literally.
--Once we all piled out of the balloon they gave us medals basically telling us woo you survived the hot air balloon-congrats! And we got champagne to celebrate too! All of us mixed orange juice with it to make a mimosa… at about 7 am at that time.
--The rest of the day in a nutshell: exploring an underground city, eating lunch in a cave, seeing some churches carved into a cave, and seeing “fairy chimneys” or rocks that look like penises, flight back, arrive at the ship at 1:15am.
--In between our two flights back we were all starving and had 5 min. between so the only thing around was Sbarro or BK. So I went to BK with some people and after ordering my FRIED meal the man asked me where I was from and after I said US he said “Do you model over there?” Like what. I mean that was flattering and all, but I am at BK and ordering fried food. Sir, do you think models eat crappy food like BK? I mean I’m not an expert or anything but I don’t think so..
--P.S. to my future husband: be prepared to propose to me in a hot air balloon.
xoxo,
Em