Cappadocia Balloon Flight

So yes, we booked a balloon flight. It was an opportunity not to be missed. 

The next morning we were collected by a mini bus at 5:30am. We drove around to collect another french girl and a Turkish couple after which we were dropped off in a valley nearby Göreme. There was a lot of excitement there. People were running and shouting, pulling ropes at balloons and busy with huge noisy ventilators which were used to blow the balloons up from the ground. There were car lights and the big flames from the gas burners. This happend, in the dark, at several locations around us. It was a turmoil of activity. Everything had to be done as quickly as possible it seemed, no time to loose! More and more balloons in many different and strong colors were expanding and lifting from the ground and soon we were summoned to climb into the baskets. These baskets were so big! Ours was divided into 9 sections of which the outer 8 can hold 4 people each. The big centre basked is for the captain and his assistant. Not long after everybody was in I counted 34 of us. Soon we felt we were floating and not much longer we were rising, higher and higher, past unusually shaped rocks and boulders just meters away, until people, trees and cars on the ground became smaller and smaller and we could overlook the whole valley with all its weird but beautiful shapes and colors. Everybody was quiet. 

It was magical!