Warning, before you read this blog... I complain a lot in it! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the position that we are in to be able to travel the world, but with the type of travel we do, we have both wonderful and less-than stellar (let's go with difficult) experiences. This is one of those less enjoyable experiences.
Pamukkale... What can I say. To continue on the strange analogy of a relationship I seemed to have developed in the other strands of this trip blog, I would say that in Pamukkale, Turkey was a jerk and we broke up. Unfortunately several negative experiences, each on their own we could have dealt with and moved on, compounded to make a rather unpleasant leg of this journey.
We had a connecting flight through Istanbul and our first flight leaving from Nevsehir was delayed, by the time we got into Istanbul, we had to run in order to catch our next flight, and our luggage just couldn't keep up. We got our luggage back within about 24 hours, but I didn't pack any extras in my carry-on, which I normally do, because the flights were so easy and short. Lesson learned. I would have been interesting to ask my luggage how many hands touched it before I got it back. Nathan and I figure at least 5. There would be the guy who finds it abandoned on the luggage carosel, the guy at the counter who puts it through the computer. The guy who takes it onto the bus to Denzali, the guy who stops at the side of the road to transfer people and luggage to Pamukkale, the guy at the hotel who takes it and leaves it in the lobby of our hotel. That's a lot of trusting random people! At some point it looks like it also traveled on some farm vehicle because it was covered in straw, not sure where that came from.
I had read that the area we were going into was full of "rural charm", it was rural alright, as even the people in the airport didn't speak any English. We had to explain that our bags were missing a lot of pointing and gesturing, and hoping for the best. But charm, it had not. I think a better explanation of the area would be "rural gone wild" (and not in a good way). The town of Pamukkale was "weird". (I asked Nathan for help explaining it, and that's all he could come up with). It seems like it could be the kind of place where locals come to let loose, as there were a few clubs, but no one was in them. The whole place was seedy, dirty, and the people were quite unpleasant. Which is very different from any other Turkish people in any other places we have been. The food wasn't even good! To the people who have visited Pamukkale, I say, why didn't you tell me!?
Our hotel was not any fun either. Our reservation wasn't honoured, so we were stuck in a room with two single beds, a bathroom that had the shower over the toilet and a lovely view of a pile of garbage and the hotel's laundry. And it was hot! We did have a door to the outside we could open for a little bit of air, but then we were right in the laundry area. It may have been survivable if I had my luggage and could have used my bug sheet, the sheets creeped me out, as there were bugs on them. Not bed bugs, just little flies, probably from hanging them outside to dry. But still I was already unhappy with everything.
Well, that's a lot of complaining, but I was very disappointed with this whole place. As for what we did, I suppose I should talk about that too!
The first day, when we didn't have any luggage, and just the clothes we wore to the airport, we decided to go out and visit one of the Ancient first century Roman ruins sites. We were torn between visiting Aphrodisias and Laodicea, and no one spoke good enough English to help us decide. Aphrodisias was seemingly popular, but it was 1.5 hours away. Laodicea was only 20 km away, but we would have to rent a car, it did have one of the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation. We ended up taking a bus and heading to Aphrodisias and we are very happy with our choice! It was an amazing place, which, like many archeological sites around here has been in the process of excavation since the 60's. It was one of those fun places that let you walk where ever and on whatever you want, and it had a fantastic museum with hundreds of statutes they have uncovered, that were so well preserved. Aphrodisias was known at the time to produce master sculpters. Their plan is to eventually put them all back in their proper place in the city once they finish excavations, and that will be an amazing site to see when that happens! In the town, they have focused excavations on major public buildings, so we got to see remarkably well preserved stadiums, baths, temples and an agora. Overall it was interesting, and if I had to be back in this area later in my life, I would enjoy visiting this place again to see how far along they have gotten.
The next day, we had our luggage and were able to get a swimsuit and sunscreen we actually went to the place that was the whole purpose in us visiting the area. The travertines! So there is this very mineral-y hot spring at the top of a hill, and as the water cascades out and down it cools and leaves calcium deposits like solidified snow-like waterfalls. It is very beautiful and very neat, however I think in my mind I had it built up to be larger and cooler than it was. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy my time there. You start by walking up the side of the travertines, which look like they should be slippery, but they are not. Along the way there are pools of water that you can wallow in. What I didn't realize is that most of the pools that you can actually go in are actually man-made! It is a huge beautiful place. What is interesting is that they have directed so much of the water into different places, including the swimming pools for the hotels down below, that much of the attraction is actually dry at any given point of the day. They do change the flow so that each area gets some water at some point, it would just look nicer if all of the pools were full of water at the same time. Besides the travertines, there are three other attractions in park. We did them all! The first attraction is to watch women taking seductive and sexy pictures. Why? I have a few theories. Because that's what you see when you google pictures of this place, so it's a cycle. Or maybe because there aren't too many places to go around here with a swimsuit on. Or maybe because there is something inherently sexy about looking like you are in the snow in your swimsuit. Either way it was entertaining. Especially to watch the mothers taking these pictures of their daughters, or even better, mothers having their young sons take their picture! Can we say uncomfortable...? The other attraction is behind the Pamukkale travertines is another ancient Roman town of Hieropolis complete with theatres, temples etc. It would have been neat if we hadn't been so impressed with Aphrodisias the day before, and compared to that town, Hieropolis looked like a pile of rubble. The last attraction of the area was to pay to go in and swim at the hot spring that is the source of the water for the travertines. It was a little bit of a shock at first because the water is not all that refreshing, being that it is about 30-36 degrees (celcius). The place has been an ancient pilgrimage site and has been used as healing pools for milenia. There was a big list that they claim the water helps, so hopefully my arthritis and rickets are all healed now. Haha. There was also claim (with a disclaimer that it has never properly been studied) that drinking the water cures stomach pain and all sorts of internal problems as well. I did not test the theory, but there were hand pumps if you wanted to fill a drinking bottle. The water we were swimming in was murky with all of the minerals, but just below the surface are many submerged relecs, pieces of buildings and columns from ancient buildings from the area that you can sit or stand and have a rest on. Overall a neat place. My body didn't need any healing, but the best part for me was that for a couple of days after, my hair was very soft!
We decided that we were tired of the crummy town, and we did everything we had really wanted to do so we decided to check out of Pamukkale a day early and fly back to Istanbul (which we had to connect through to go to our next destination anyway). However one more bad thing had to happen before we left. During the day when we were in Pamukkale, I had a drink of some very refreshing looking and tasting lemonade... that I discovered was not made with bottled water! So a very draining travel sickness night was spent before we left. I am ok now, it only lasted a night. Hopefully that will be it for this trip now though, because between Nathan and I, we are all out of the antibiotics we brought, and so we will be trying to face any other bugs with pepto-bismal tablets. Mmm not fun.
Upon flying to Istanbul, we reserved a night at the glorious airport Mariott. Maybe there are some hotel snobs reading this who are saying "what's so special about a Mariott?" Well, let me tell you, when you compare it to tiny room, no air conditioning, mouse friendly, dirty sheet pensions that we have been staying, it was pure heaven! (Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them so much, and going cheaper on accommodation allows us to go further, and see and do more) And the breakfast! We have been fortunate that every place we have stayed has included free breakfast which gives us a great start to our day. However every single breakfast has been the same, and you do get a little tired of olives, cheese, cucumber, tomato, white bread. The Marriot had oatmeal!!! Scrambled eggs and homefries. It was a delight, and we stayed there because Nathan thought we needed a positive "reset" to be able to get back into the right mindset to enjoy the rest of our trip properly.
For Our one day in Istanbul I spent half of it sleeping off my travel sickness, and with the other half we took the subway and tram back to downtown to go to the Grand Bazzar! It was so much fun to walk around to see all of the colourful displays, and interesting things for sale, some high end stuff, some food, some knick knacks, each store was slightly different. I made a few purchases for myself, Nathan bought a leather belt, and I located some spices my mom wanted, so I was happy with the whole event.
Next stop, Kas and the mediterranean Sea!
And just a few more pictures... Because YOU like them.
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