Day 505 In Beijing: Flight To Cappadocia.

 

A few miles above Turkey.

A few miles above Turkey.

 

Jill had been to Cappadocia, on a previous trip to Turkey, and she wanted to share the experience with me on this trip.

Jill had set up pretty much everything about this trip and did an amazing job.

She has no interest in being a travel agent, but she could be one, if she wanted to and I am grateful that she took care of all the big, and little things, that came up.

As a psychotherapist, I definitely need a break and this trip was the perfect remedy for anything that was ailing me.

Jill had our tour company, Rock Valley Travel, set up most of our trip in Turkey and worked with them on the flights, trains, hotels, and everything else that we were going to do.

I think back to what she had to do, and with a very limited budget, and am constantly amazed at how easily Jill can get things done.

Jill is truly amazing.

We took the bus to one of the Istanbul airports, of which there are two, and waited for a few hours after checking in.

There are two airports in Istanbul, one for cheap flights and one for the long haul more expensive flights.

We were doing a 60 minute cheap flight, on Turkish Airlines, so we went to the cheap flight one.

That being said, our flight was on time and there was food.

Yes, there was food.

On a 60 minute flight there was a meal that was quite yummy.

It had a sandwich, eggplant salad, and chocolate mousse.

The total of this flight was about $85.00 USD.

I don’t think any of the US carriers do anything as nice as that and it was a very pleasant surprise.

Little known fact:  Turkish Airlines goes to more destinations than any other airline in the world.

We arrive in Cappadocia and were met by our driver, who was quite nice but spoke very little English, and a few other travelers waiting to get a ride to their hotel.

We drove in with him, about a 40 minute drive to Goreme, the town in Cappadoccia where we’d be staying, and I was blown away.

 

Day 404 in Beijing: And We Are Out Of Here!

 

A beautiful view of the mosques in Istanbul.

A beautiful view of the mosques in Istanbul.

I hope you enjoy the next week or so of blog posts because I won’t be able to update them much since Jill and I will be in Turkey and Greece.

We leave today and return on August 15th so we will be gone for exactly one month.

We have been in China, non-stop, for 7 months and are extremely excited to get away and have some peace and quiet.

Istanbul will be busy but we will be hanging out with friends, and some family, and just enjoying it for the first week.

Trust me, compared to Beijing, nothing is busy and anywhere is quiet.

Jill has been to Turkey three times and I’ve been there once so we have some familiarity with it and the people.

We have always loved going there and meeting with people who are very open and friendly.

We will start, and end, our trip in Istanbul.

We are going to go to Cappadocia and do a balloon ride through the Fairy Chimneys.

Then to Pammakule to see the perfect blue waters and natural white thermal pools.

We are also going to other parts of Turkey but those are the highlights.

We will then go to four different islands in Greece including Naxos, Paros, Santorini and Mykonos.

We will spend about 3 days on each island and Jill will be able to celebrate her 41st birthday on Naxos.

Last year she celebrated in China and we think this is a very nice way to celebrate Jill.

Who knows where we will celebrate her birthday next year?  The world is our oyster!

We will head of Athens for two days and see the sites and then head back to Istanbul to finish off our trip and grab our flight back to Beijing on the 15th of August.

I’ll do my best to post a few pictures of our travels and hope you enjoy them.

I’ll be doing more full blog posts when I get back to Beijing and have time to sort through everything and figure out what I want to write about regarding our trip.

Here are a few pictures from Jill’s past visits to give you an idea of what we will be seeing and doing when we arrive in Istanbul.

 

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