At Göreme, we visited another open air museum with churches. The entrance fee of 20 Euros, with another 6 Euros when you want to visit the “Dark Church” with the best frescos, felt a bit like a rip-off.
We had a lovely lunch in a small pide restaurant in Cavusin, away from the more touristic places, and later went in search for the best place to watch the balloons in the morning. We parked on a ridge overlooking 2 valleys and went to bed early, hoping that we had chosen a good spot.
Quarter to five, we heard them filling the balloons not far from us and jumped into warm clothes as it had only 13 degrees outside. The sun wasn’t up yet, and we watched fascinated how more than a hundred balloons started all around us and floated close to the rock formations. A fascinating spectacle.
That day we did a hike through the Rose valley, where we first descended on an old track formed into the rocks during hundred of years by farmers and their animals taking this path up and down. We then walked up the valley, which was lush and green. A small river was often our path through the rocks until we reached the upper end of the valley and walked back to our camper.
For the next morning, we decided to go to a spot above the Love Valley to get a different view of the balloons. We parked at the edge when it was raining and hoped for a better weather the next day.