Turkey - Hot Air Balloon @ Cappadocia

We went on a hot air balloon trip last November. I was torn between going to Koln, Germany, for a Christmas Market trip, and this one. I haven't been to the city centre of Koln, but on the other hand, I don't think I can find anyone who is interested in riding hot air balloon in 10 years. Or even in my life time. I'm glad I chose the hot air balloon ;)

We headed to the site before dawn to get some complementary breakfast (just a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, nothing fancy). It was rather cold because it's almost the beginning of winter. Or perhaps winter had already come.

The ascent began when it was still partially dark, and the scene began with the silhouette of Cappadocia landscape.

While our balloon had risen up to quite some height, there were still other balloons nearby that had not been fully inflated. Maybe the balloons are not allowed to fly at the same time to prevent crash.

The ride was slightly shaky, but on overall, stable.  The staff who handled the burners was very professional, and he had been doing this for 10 years. 

It was -2C on the ground according to the weather forecast, but it was definitely much colder up in the air. Thankfully, the occasional burst of flame could warm you enough. Still, I don't think you can survive without a glove, especially if you want to take lots of pictures up there.

I don't know how many balloons fly every day, but you definitely can't count them by fingers.

The balloons don't really vary by size, but since they represent a company, the balloons have different designs and that makes the sky look really beautiful.

We stayed up in the air to watch the sun rise. It was really beautiful, but my camera was just not good enough to capture the best of the moments.

Aside from the sunrise, we also saw the best of Cappadocia landscape.

The landing was very smooth. We sort of had to cooperate by squatting down at the right moment to control the balance of the basket we were in. 

When we reached the ground, the balloon slowly deflated. They had to be careful not to get the balloon stuck on any tree branches nearby, and sometimes the wind could be a bitch. Ours was almost stuck to a tree nearby, but they managed to pull the balloon away from the tree :)

The whole experience was closed by a complementary champagne, and of course, this was the time to give tips to the staff for the awesome experience on the hot air balloon. 

I'm definitely recommending this company (Discovery Balloons) if you ever want to go for a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia!

A big thanks to my brother and his friend for arranging this memorable trip :)

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Turkey - Cappadocia

Last year around October I traveled to Turkey for the first time. Yes, this is a long overdue post, but I'm still going to write it anyway because Cappadocia is just plainly awesome and if you like to travel, this is a definite must-go destination. We first flew to Istanbul, and then took another flight to Kayseri before a 2-hour car drive to our hotel.

Cappadocia is in the middle of Anatolian region in Turkey and, unlike any other places I've visited, Cappadocia has a truly unique landscape that it's not strange to think that this city had been terraformed by aliens. If Antoni Gaudi's works are the description of bizarre man-made beauty, this place is the description of bizarre nature awesomeness.

The photo below, by the way, is a city centre.

You can climb up and see what's inside, but the holes seemed inhabited and some of the holes are even filled with garbage. Nevertheless, the city centre is pretty active. There were merchants selling goods and souvenirs along the streets of the city centre. The prices were quite reasonable, and they had quite a good selection of items.

 

We stayed in a cave hotel called Cappadocia Cave Suites, and it was one of the coolest place I've ever stayed. The room is equipped with proper heaters and a TV, and there is a normal bed inside, so it's not like you're staying there as a caveman :)

We took a hot air balloon ride at dawn. We were told by another passenger of the hot air balloon that we were lucky because she had been waiting for two days because you can't ride the balloons in bad weather. So, if you plan to ride the hot air balloon, it may be better to reserve some extra days just in case the weather does not permit you to fly. It would be quite a waste of the trip if you miss the balloon ride.

We paid USD 150 to ride the balloon, but the price may vary from one company to the other. The one that we rode, Discovery Balloons, seemed to be in the middle range. The staff was very professional, and he brought us really close to the landscapes without crashing. He's been flying the balloon for years :)

The balloon ride took about 2 hours, and the view from the balloon was just splendid.

 

They kind of look like king oyster mushrooms, don't they?

(image courtesy of www.mushrooms.ca)

Later on, we saw more of these king oyster mushroom-looking stones from closer distance.

I also tried my first Turkish ice cream in Cappadocia. Well, I had Turkish ice cream somewhere not in Turkey before, but you can never tell if it's authentic unless you try it once at its origin, right?

It was really creamy and delicious. The ice cream was made of goat milk, and although I'm not a big fan of sweet stuffs, I don't mind getting another cone of this ice cream again. And by the way, it's amazing that they also have Japanese translations in many touristic places in Turkey. I guess what they say in Hetalia, a Japanese web comic strip about personification of countries around the world, is true about Turkey and Japan.

Oh, and we spotted some camels, too. But these guys were just there because they know many tourists would take a photo of the camels and then they will demand a payment from taking the pictures of the camel. Well, at the very least, these guys are not aggressive, so you can quietly take a picture and they wouldn't be chasing after you.

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365 Days of 2013

I was wondering if I should still try to write a post relating to new year's resolution since 19 days have passed and everyone is over it. Hardly anyone is probably thinking about resolutions anymore, but on the other hand, it never hurts to write one for myself.

To be honest, I don't really have any specific aims or goals to fulfill every year. You see, sometimes when you set an objective, you limit yourself to a certain scope. Being able to focus on one thing is great, but it increases the probability of missing something else you could have achieved. This way of learning probably doesn't suit everyone, but I think it works pretty well for me so far.

2013 was a really exciting year, covering 18 countries in total, mostly in Europe. I tasted a lot of local cuisines from different parts of the world, and my favorites being Adona kebab I had in Istanbul, Turkey, and duck confit from Paris, France (it's hard to hate French food, really). I watched my first Broadway musical and my first live football game in Old Trafford, Manchester, for a big match between Arsenal and Man United. I flew on a hot-air balloon ride in Capadocia, Turkey, and saw a gorgeous landscape that seemed to be shaped by aliens. Wait, since when did I go to Turkey? Ah, yes, the stories are not up on this blog yet!

It's a pity that I didn't manage to post many of my travel journals here because I didn't really have the time to upload and sit down to write them, but I'm going to try to catch up before I start new travels this year *crossing fingers*

Aside from travelling, what made me satisfied with last year was the fact that I could still produce a number of songs with VOCALOID, a voice synthesizing software that replaces human voices with computer-produced sound. Well, they obtained the voice samples from real humans, but the end users are dealing with a program. I almost lost faith in learning how to produce songs because someone I know in real life was just telling me how pointless this song-writing act is, and that I probably had reached the plateau of my learning curve when it comes to musical skills. That I'm not cut for it.

But then, I have to thank my subscribers, my listeners, and everyone who commented on my songs saying that they like my songs. I have to thank the judges for CLAS:H theme song competition last year for choosing my song as a favourite-song award winner. Although I don't know most of you out there who support me, I want to let you know that you mean so much to me because you keep me going. So, let me use this opportunity to say it again to you:

Thank you.

And my thanks goes also to everyone around me who keeps me going: my parents, my brother, my friends, both in real life and in the online world, and my colleagues. It's definitely full of ups and downs, team meetings till midnight, cooking and eating dinner together, watching movies, partying, travelling together, misunderstandings, life drama, getting pissed off over nothing and getting happy over nothing... I was almost never bored last year. And I hope this year will be equally exciting, but with more smiles filling in my and your days :)

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Spain - Palau Guell, Barcelona

From the front entrance, it was a bit difficult to tell why there were so many people queuing up in front of Palau Guell, or Guell Palace. However, the more I explored the interiors, the more amazed I became, and the highlight of the experience was actually on the roof top:

If you are a student, you can get a discounted ticket for 8 euros per person. You have to buy the ticket before you go into the waiting line. It took us about 20-30 minutes before we entered, and we were there during the weekday. I suppose you should be prepared to wait longer during the weekends.

The ticket comes with free audio guide. First, we were guided to the basement, where they used to keep horses.

The pillars have a really strange funnel-like structure. They looked a little bit like mushrooms to me.

As we approached the first floor, I saw this beautiful glass art in front of an old piano. It was slightly before noon, and I saw this beautiful ray of sunlight passing through the glass, illuminating the hidden picture in the middle of the window.

I think it was a very brilliant play of natural sunlight. And the tints of colours reflected off the glass stains at the border of the main picture made it even more picturesque.

The interiors were filled with detailed crafts.

And on the top floor, you could see how Gaudi created the colour combination in his design:

Might be quite interesting to figure out why this pattern was chosen. By any chance, is there an algorithm to this pattern? A pattern in hexadecimals?

But anyways, as I mentioned, the highlight of Gaudi's work is on the rooftop.

The first thing I thought to myself... WHAT THE MARTIANS ARE THOSE??

They look like cones in colours and various shapes. None of them are the same. As you have seen in the first pictures, there are even cones with weird shapes that remind you of a tree, or a rainbow ice cream swirl, or... a rocket?? A durian?? Those things are just so... weird! Why would you place these kind of structures on the rooftop anyways?

But I guess that is something an art enthusiast can answer. I love to see beautiful designs, but when I have to ask an architect to build me a house, I probably wouldn't think of requesting such random structures on the rooftop.

And this.. just looks like a communication tower built to make contacts with extraterrestrial being:

His works are simply stunning. I still don't get why they are shaped like that, or why they are placed on the rooftop in a somewhat random arrangement (I see no connection between the shapes and the colours of the "cones"). I guess I really have to dig into this topic or consult an art specialist to have a better understanding of his works.

Unbelievable structures, yet stunningly attractive and beautiful.

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