Pamukkale, Part 2: The Real Deal

The highlight of today was, of course, Pamukkale ("Cotton Castle"). For those who don't yet know what it is, let me show you some pictures (you'll probably want to click on them to make them bigger) (and sorry for the number––this is culled down from 200):

Chilling out in my castle

Aaaaaaah

AAAAAAAAAH

Even Tibs enjoyed it! (Though I misplaced the labeled bag, so had
to make do with a sample baggie. Sorry, Mom.) 

How regal, how serene 

That's more accurate.

The ground was not slippery, unless you were walking in a pool with
clay lining the bottom. It was not the most comfortable to walk on, though, and
my feets are ready for some TLC.

A rare undisturbed pool 

Until I tromped through it 

Weird texture! It's something about the minerals in the spring water;
when exposed to air, they form calcium compounds that are bleached by the sun.
It makes for very bright, very beautiful, and very sun-reflective terraces.

It was absolutely amazing, stunningly gorgeous, ethereally beautiful and heartbreakingly strange. I nearly cried. (No, seriously. It was incredible.)

There's also some ruins, Hierapolis (built by the King of Pergamon, who you might remember from here), which were very nice and all but I couldn't much care next to the glory of the travertines. If you're into columns, though, here:

Gymnasium

Part of the Temple of Apollo, Plutonium, supposedly
connected to Pluto's underworld, from which poisonous gases emit.
It's been covered up now, unsurprisingly.
Here you can also see an archaeologist, hard at work! 

More Temple of Apollo

Another theater

More archaeologists!

While Marcos walked back up through the site to the car, taking stock footage on the way, I chilled out at the pool at the base of the hill. We'd worn our swimsuits in preparation for the Ancient Pool in the ruins, only to discover that it costs 32 TL to swim in, to which we said "pshaw, as if" and just creeped on people who'd paid.

It was a very pretty shade of aqua.

And there's submerged ancient columns!

The pools I hung out at instead. I swam some in the far left one, and also took
a dip in the mini-travertines with healing clay. Cost 15 TL to get in,
but it was a nice way to while away a couple hours.

Our pension owner had let us keep our luggage in their lounge area while we visited Pamukkale, and offered to let us shower when we got back, but we wanted to get on the road. He gave us each a bottle of water and some peach juice before we left and refused a tip, saying we should instead write a positive review for the place, which we gladly promised to do.

We stopped at a restaurant outside of Denizli (lit, "with the sea", which is ironic as it is 3 hours inland) that the pension fellow had recommended. We were the only customers, unsurprising at 3:00 pm, and the family that owned it spoke very little English. We halfway communicated for a few minutes until one apologized for his English and said he was from Germany, at which point we switched into German. I had to ask him to repeat a couple things more slowly, evidence that my German has slipped, but it was definitely more effective! Though not entirely so, as I thought he said it was 15 TL for the both of us, only to get the bill and see it was 50. Not entirely surprising, given how much food we got:

Oh my gosh so hungry. The pitta was amazing, and topped
with the yogurt and kebap and salad, it made for a delicious
little sandwich

It was a very relaxing time, and since we ate so late we didn't need much for dinner (a shared tost, or panini, did us). During this time, Marcos also declared that the salt shaker is the one with only one hole and the pepper shaker has more holes. He bet me $50 that he was right, and though I was 95% sure I was correct (my mother is Home-Ec-y Beckie, after all) I didn't want to risk losing 50 bucks. Instead, I looked it up on my phone (hurray for international data plan), and I WAS RIGHT. Which I proceeded to crow about, and it will probably continue to be a point of great pride until I die.

I WAS RIGHT!

I also drank a Turkish coffee and tried to do as Deniz showed me, covering the cup with the saucer and swishing it around 3 times (I couldn't remember if it was supposed to be clockwise or widdershins, so I did it both ways) and then upending the cup on the saucer and reading the trails, but I couldn't remember what any of it meant. So Marcos took pictures instead, so we can ask Deniz when we get back :-)

I don't know what it means?

Antalya is very, very hot, even late at night, which is a definite something to keep in mind when looking at language schools. Our air conditioner is rather persnickety and doesn't like to continue working without frequent prodding, but we're hoping it gets its act together. Our pension is in Kaleiçi, or old town Antalya, which is an absolute nightmare to drive through––half the roads are blocked off, most of the others are one-way in the wrong direction, and it is a nightmare. If I had been driving, I would have had a complete mental breakdown in the middle of a market street, but Marcos was calm and collected through it all––he's an excellent travel companion! But if you're visiting Antalya by car, do not stay in Kaleiçi. It is not worth the hassle.

Now I must shower off the day's sweat and grime and go to bed––I hope to visit a couple of language schools tomorrow, so need to get up before too late!