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!

Pamukkale, Part 1

Another day, another very tired Amy. Today, we pretty much just drove from Bodrum to Pamukkale,

After eating meatballs 

And stopping at a coffee place on the way that offered "Turkish coffee turpentine", because

I was very sleepy

And seeing some super weird rock formations––if anyone

knows what these are, it would be nice to know!

but arrived late enough to not really have enough time to visit the travertines (or the ruins and museum, which were closed already). Instead, we walked over to the lake at the base and took pictures at sunset.

Water traveling down from the travertines

Part of the "Cotton Castle" at sunset

At the pool where you could stand in the water 

As I am doing here!

And here

After which my feet were wet and gross.

So Marcos got in so his feet would be wet and gross, too.
And got photobombed by a little boy, hahaha

A kind fellow took our photo––notice the gushing waterfall on the right! That's
coming from the springs further up the hill

When we got back to the hotel, we had dinner there––25 TL apiece (yeesh), but it was a) very delicious, and b) very peaceful, as we were the only ones eating.

Breaking of bread over tomato star soup

Cucumber-onion-tomato-cilantro salad, nom

Chicken and rice and tomato and onion semi-stew, which was delicious.
We also had watermelon, but I did not photograph it.

Tomorrow, we are going to wake up early (for reals!) and visit Pamukkale and Hieropolis, then drive to Antalya.

Now, bed. This blogging is super time consuming!

Bodrum

Yesterday, after our normal breakfast, we drove to Bodrum to take a Blue Cruise, a daily cruise offered by a variety of boat companies that goes around the Bodrum area. 

Blue Cruise, indeed.

Though our hotel was less than 10 km away from Bodrum, it took us more than 30 minutes to get there, as the traffic and lights were not conducive to speed. We found parking relatively nearby, at 15 TL for the day, and walked towards the docks. I decided I wanted a hat, so we got one from a shop on the way for 20 TL (down from 30). 

Seen here, where I am pretending to be a pensive heiress.

It's more than I really wanted to pay, but it's a very nice hat (albeit not quite wide enough for my incognito-movie-star taste), and given how touristy and overpriced Bodrum is, I'm not going to be too bothered by it. 

Parasailer!

Marcos picked up a pair of knockoff Ray-Bans, finally––he's been going without sunglasses this whole time!––but exchanged them for a different brand (Police, ha) after we got back because if he's going to have fake namebrand glasses, he wants them to be a brand you can't get in the US.

We also stopped and got a big thing of water, and should have gotten food, too; the cruise comes with lunch, but 6 months out on the sea is long enough for me to want to eat at least 3 times. Note to self: whenever going on an organized tour, always bring extra food.

View from the top deck, which had squishy pillows.

It was a  pretty big boat, with two floors and a little platform higher up. Unfortunately, only the first floor had any shade, so we stayed down there most of the time (except when doing stock footage or drying off post-swimming). 

View on our way out

Most of the other passengers were Turkish, but we heard some English (not American) being spoken, too. There were 5 stops altogether, and we ate on the 3rd one. I swam at the first bay, which pretty much exhausted me for the day, ha! 

Salt water!

The trip was very, very beautiful, and the water the most gorgeous shades of blue and green, but I was ready for it to be done about 3 hours before it was. 

Seen here: A collage of pictures of the water that I took at various points.
Mama, I thought of you!

I always forget how exhausting being around groups of people is for me, even though it's been, um, nearly 24 years that I've been me. It reminded me that I have to be careful about what I try to do at the conference in Berlin––I don't want to completely overexert myself the first day and be unable to do anything the later days. 

Fellow boat

I'll just have to prioritize! And be okay with missing some things, which is really a fact of conferences in general: when 10 talks are being held at the same time, you're missing out on at least 90% of the information! Oh well.

Attempting to snooze on the boat; a brief light doze
was achieved.

Oh yeah, I also dropped my iPad while reading an article (about MEGs of harmony violations in Turkish! interesting stuff) and the display was wonky for a while, but it seems to be back to normal now, knock on wood. 

Being studious, pre-drop.

I definitely need to get a case that goes straight on the body rather than the current one I have that slips over it (and adds a lot of weight and size, hence why it was not on at the time). And also, just don't use expensive toys on boats: it's bad news bears.

Another excessive shot of the beautiful water

And another!

One of the stops was at the Black Island, which has thermal springs and (at least used to) yellow healing mud. Cleopatra supposedly hung out there back in the day. It was very dark and humid in the caves, and there was no clay to be found, but it was still pretty cool. Though the water was not noticeably warmer?

Just like Cleopatra did

And a uniquely me take on the experience.

After we got off the boat at around 6:30, we headed to get dinner at a little stand recommended by Lonely Planet. 

I got the bread döner and Marcos got the dürüm döner. It was closer to what I remember döner kebaps being in Berlin, and I imagine the pitta döner would have been even closer. At 5 TL each, they were quite affordable, and very delicious. 

Bodrum Castle from the water on our way back in

We had hoped to wake up early the next morning (aka, this morning, on the date of posting) and go to the Underwater Archaeological Museum in the Bodrum Castle, but were both too tired to drag ourselves out of bed at 7:15. I ended up sleeping through breakfast (a first here!), and the 11 hours of sleep definitely helped recharge me.

I'm on a boat!