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We had a 6:30 start to see the balloons take off in the valley - we climbed to the view point and had one last look at the fabulous scenery.
We left Goreme with a heavy heart; we have had a great time here. Our 1st stop was Kayseri where we changed buses. We were expecting a long wait here but our initial bus arrived early so we bought tickets and we were off again in 10 minutes.
The trip to Gaziantep was 6 hours from Kayseri and it took us past some spectacular scenery. We left Kayseri along the plain but with distant views of the extinct volcano. We then went into the mountains and started to descend towards the lowlands. The mountains seem to go on forever.
We arrived at Gaziantep and disaster struck - Fran needed a comfort break and came back very upset. She had managed to lose her new expensive sun glasses down the toilet - I was very relieved when she told me that they had been flushed away with no chance of retrieval (it was a 'Turkish' style squat toilet as opposed to a Western one). I thought she was going to ask me to go and retrieve them! Apparently she had put them on top of her head and they fell off straight into the hole!!
Gaziantep is quite a large town famous for pistachios and Baklava. We had a wander round town and just had to find a place to have some baklava and tea. It is certainly not a tourist town - everybody stares at us and the kids come up wanting to practice their English. The place is much more Middle Eastern - women in full veils and men in baggy trousers. We had dinner at a famous baklava bakery - that also did very good kebabs.
Next day was sightseeing in Gaziantep. First stop was the castle - it had good views and a museum that gave the Turkish side to their war of independence. We then had a look round some Hans (Caravanserai, where merchants stayed as this is a Silk route town) and then the bazaar. After lunch it was onto the museum to see some mosaics that were rescued from a site that has been flooded by a new dam. This is a 'must see' sight in Gaziantep. We found the museum on the map and dived in - it all looked a little bit tacky and unimpressive and worst of all, no mosaics. After a long discussion with various officials, it transpired we were in the wrong museum -what stupid tourists we are!
The proper one was very modern and very impressive. The mosaics were displayed beautifully and the number and quality of them was stunning. It was the highlight of our visit to Gaziantep.
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