We’re going up in a hot air balloon today, and the butterflies in my stomach have begun to spread throughout the rest of my body. By the time we reach the Voyager Balloon offices on the opposite side of the tiny tourist enclave of Göreme, I’m buzzing so hard that the Turkish coffee I quaff down hardly registers on my radar.

There’s no place in the world like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Exotic textiles, the finest handmade carpets in the world, jewels fit for royalty, aphrodisiacal teas, and treasures recovered from shipwrecks mark only a small portion of the vast selection on offer in this labyrinthine sprawl — it’s as easy to get lost in the colors and smells as it is in the virtually indistinguishable passageways that twist and turn upon each other in every direction here.