Cappadocia

This was day 3 of our trip, so we woke up and enjoyed a bit of a leisurely morning. Then we walked down the street to a bakery where I was able to get a simit (kind of like a bagel) and a plate of tomatoes with cucumber and cheese along with a refreshing cherry lemonade.  Our driver picked us up at our hotel and took us to the airport. I think I forgot to mention that Istanbul has a beautiful new airport. It is really fantastic!  We were easily able to find the counter for Turkish Airlines where we checked in before getting a bite to eat.  They have a lovely food court on the second level of the airport before going through security.  I forget the name of the dish that I got, but it was kind of like a pizza that looked like a long ear with just meat on it and was baked in a really hot oven.  It was delicious.  We boarded the plane and arrived in Cappadocia 45 minutes later.  You can drive there, but I have heard the roads aren't very good and it can take up to 6-9 hours of driving time.  Glad we flew.  Frank had arranged for a driver to pick us up which was really nice and he took us to our hotel.  The airport was about 45 minutes from Cappadocia.  We checked into our lovely hotel before getting some dinner.  The hotel was clean and unique.  Would have liked a window on the main level, but at least the bed was big and the bathroom was huge. It was now 6 p.m. and so we walked into town where we grabbed some dinner.  Frank got a burger and fries and I got some lamb stew.  He also got some fresh juice.  Everywhere you go it seems there are fresh juice stands.  The juice is amazing.  We had an early wake-up time of 3:45 a.m. for our hot air balloon adventure, so we went to bed pretty early.