August 20, 2025
Travel day! Lucky for us our AirBnb was one of the few places in Romania with a clothes dryer so we were able to get our piles of laundry done overnight before heading to Türkiye this morning. We were off to the airport to catch two flights today, first to Istanbul and then to Nevsehir Kapadokya airport.
At the car rental return I realized we had left Lenny’s booster seat in Mihai’s car, fortunately rented from the same company. They did not make a big deal about it and when I started to unload our bags from the trunk to get in the airport shuttle the employee asked me what I was doing. He told me to just get in the car and he was going to drive us to the airport in the car we had rented. By far the easiest car rental of this trip and probably my whole life.
The flights were uneventful with the boys happy to do the two flights with a layover to extend their unlimited screen time. The Istanbul airport was massive and the nicest airports we have been in. We were able to get nice salads for lunch to not suffer through the normal gross feeling that comes with a travel day. Once in Kapadokya we got our bags and hopped in the large van taking different groups on the 40 minute drive to Göreme and Uchisar. Lenny was asleep in 5 minutes.
We were the first ones dropped off from the van at our hotel, Taşkonaklar Cappadocia. We had booked it some time ago but were excited to see the family cave room. The staff was very friendly and let us know our balloon ride was all set for tomorrow, wake up call was at 3:45AM for a 4:15AM pickup. They had also found a company that would do it for 200 EUR cheaper than originally quoted!
The hotel had great views of Pigeon Valley and various fairy chimneys with ancient dwellings carved into the hillside. The room was really cool and huge for a “cave” room. The boys had their own room with some ancient artifacts we were terrified they would break. At one point Ollie climbed up in one of the displays to reach a hole in the wall near the ceiling so he could stick his head through into our room. The room had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a large living room. Also a gated off section where people who had used the cave hundreds of years ago made wine.
We headed to dinner early with hopes of eating and going right to bed. Lenny was not on his best behavior after the travel day. We were sat right next to the window overlooking Pigeon Valley and he kept putting food on the window sill. Eventually the window automatically opened, for the whole restaurant, to let in the cool evening air. We quickly asked him “what he had done?” Looking shocked he said “nothing” so we told him all the food on the window sill must have broken it and caused the window to open. He looked at the sill and saw one last crumb sitting there which he covered with his hand and said there wasn’t any food. After a few minutes we told him it was a trick and while clearly relieved he was not happy about our joke.
The food was good enough with some dishes much better than others. It was a struggle to get Lenny to eat but Ollie was willing to try more things after we would tell him how Mehmet loved them, mainly Turkish meatballs with yogurt. Kayleen took the boys down to the room to get ready for bed while I finished my drink and paid the bill in peace.
Off to bed early, but the thrill of sleeping in a cave had worn off on Lenny and he voiced concerns about the cave collapsing on us during the night. It took everyone a while to fall asleep and there was some musical beds with everyone moving around. Eventually everyone settled in and waited for the 3:45AM alarm or the cave to collapse depending on who you were.
