Hello, first off I'm loving the App, it's a real cute and personal experience.
I have an idea; balloons with special attributes.
When you pick your balloon, besides the regular ones, there would be versions with certain qualities or attributes when it comes to their flight patterns or nature.
For example:
-One balloon might fly very high, skipping local or intermediate countries and only landing when they're hugely far away (And after a few days or so). This could be described as having extra helium, and a thick long-life rubber.
-Another balloon might fly a short distance and land in near-by locations, taking many different replies to build up a big distance.
-Others might fly in certain directions, West, East or so on.
I'm sure you guys can think of more variations than I can, but that's my idea.
(Now all this depends on how realistically the balloons -really- fly around the world. If it's really more simulated for the aesthetics of it all, then this won't really work.)
P.S Maybe also have weather conditions, so if it's Windy in the country you are located in, have the balloon's travel effected in some way.
This might just be annoying, especially as it wouldn't make much sense to have this be an On/Off option.