10-20 (Thurs) Cappadocia, Turkey

We have been bobbing around on the Mediterranean for the last three days. Remember the awful train room I wrote about? Well . . . the room on the boat was worse than that in many ways. It was so small only one person could stand at a time. We had requested 2 beds so we got bunk beds. I slept on top and it was a nightmare. The only saving grace was there were 2 windows up there. It was so close to the ceiling that not only could I not sit up but Barbara had to pull the covers up for me. There was only 13 inches between the mattress and the ceiling, that means I only had 4 inches between my nose and ceiling.
A highlight of the trip was when Barbara taught us all to play “butt darts.” It was hilarious.
We met some great people: four from the UK, 2 from Canada and 6 of us from the US. We swam in the Mediterranean, read, soaked up the sun, took shore excursions and got rained out. When it started to rain on the last day, and looked like it wouldn’t let up, all of us except the four from the UK decided to abandon ship. We took a bus to Antalya where we spent the night and explored the next day. Barbara and I had a BEAUTIFUL hotel (we deserved it.) It was in the old quarter so the location was perfect.
Late Tues night (9:00) we, and the two doctors from San Francisco, flew to Cappadocia. I thought I was going to perish on the leg from Antalya to Ankara. We were flying over the mountains and I guess got caught in some bad wind currents. The plane was nose diving down so the pilot put down the flaps to bring it back up. People were screaming and I was shaking from head to toe. Then we rolled to the right and people screamed again. Obviously we landed safely (everyone clapped) but that was a flight I would not like to repeat. Then we had to get on a prop plane and fly on to Cappadocia. That flight was fine.
When we arrived we got picked up at the airport and taken to our hotels. We didn’t arrive until 1:30 a.m. Unfortunately Barbara and I were let off at the wrong hotel. It was more like a hostel. They were not expecting us so we had to wake the guy up. After we got in bed Barbara said she thought we were at the wrong hotel - she was right! The next day we were transported to the correct hotel and it is heaven. It is like a suite . . . We have 2 huge rooms and the bathroom is to die for. We’re so happy.
Today (Oct 22) is Barbara’s birthday. She has gone hot air ballooning to celebrate. It is really cold here so she has on everything she owns. We left all our cold weather stuff in Istanbul!
If you don’t know anything about Cappadocia you should look at it on the internet. It is such an interesting place.