Cappadocia and Erzurum

 Writing this blog post from a tiny hotel in Erzurum, I feel as if we have finally left Europe behind us. Evidentially then, a lot has happened in the last few days. Izmir to Cappadocia was a bit of a mammoth drive, 800km. Given that traffic in Izmir was a bit of a nightmare, we decided on a 4 am start. Now, I am rubbish at early mornings so lucky Charlie B took the first shift and so we powered onto Cappadocia. This had the upshot of meaning that we arrived at around 2pm and so would have the afternoon to relax by the pool that the hostel's website promised. Unfortunately, one mustn't believe everything on the internet and so said pool at present was just an empty hole in the ground. This has to be said is a little unfair on the hostel - the rooms were in a cave and so provided a novel twist to hostel living. Through out our time we had been wondering where all the tourists were and sure enough they were all here. However, it is easy to see why. The landscape, in particular the rock formations, is amazing and so we thought that a leisurely 2 hour stroll through the valleys would be a nice way to see the area. This 2 hour stroll rapidly developed into a 6 hour trek due to shoddy map reading but it has to be said that we didn't really care given what was around us. The thing to do in Cappadocia is evidentially hot air ballooning. Whilst a little out of the 'gap yaah' budget range, we decided that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and so went for it. It didn't disappoint. The sight of 50 hot air ballons itself is fantastic but when you combine it with the landscape it is truly amazing. That night, in order to make up for our extravagance earlier on, we decided to camp. Finding a little disused church/cave we settled in for the night. My viewpoint on ballooning therefore was slightly altered for the worse as we were woken up at 4:30 as they filled the ballons. Leaving Cappadocia behind us, we powered east towards Erzurum. As we headed East there was a marked difference: more police checkpoints, less affluent villages and awful driving. By the time we arrived into Erzurum, the driving experience had rather become a test in concentration. Lanes are now optional, indicating is not the done thing and its rude not to drive within 50cm of the car in front. Perhaps I was unfair on Izmir. Erzurum definitely is a step down the ladder but perhaps that isn't such a bad thing. No more menus in English, no more English full stop for that matter and so perhaps this is what Turkey is really like once you remove the tourist veneer. However, tomorrow it is another early start to get to Dogubayzit and then onto Iran the next day. KBO.