The next day we were all set to rent a car. This was an awesome experience. When we arranged a cab back to the airport to pick up our rental car, the receptionist looked at us like we were crazy. But after a cab ride and some broken English/Turkish communications, we had a Volkswagon Jetta and we hit the road. We did a lot better navigating Turkey that I expected. We drove to Ephesus to see the historical city.
We were both about at our max for ancient ruins, so we were not super excited to see Ephesus. However, it was a bit different than the others as you could see just how the city used to work. It was also cool to see the statue of Nike, the goddess of victory. My favorite part was visiting the House of the Virgin Mary where it is believed that she died. It was very surreal. The site was at the top of the mountain and beautiful. The other great thing was that we got to visit another one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Temple of Artemis. We kind of laughed as there is one lone column left. Not a lot to see, but hey, we saw it.
We headed back to our hotel. Kristen was very excited as we booked a room in a castle in Kusadasi for the night. The town of Kusadasi is a resort/beach town with a great feel. As for our hotel, Kristen was little bit disappointed as staying in our castle has its disadvantages along with the perks. It was a very beautiful set up with a great courtyard and they tried hard to preserve what it would be like to live in a castle with some of the modern luxuries. We had a typical shower and A/C, but there wasn’t a tight seal around the door and windows. The floors squeaked. I think she was glad we booked the room for one night, but I don’t think she would want to stay there again. An Ikea decorated room is more up our alley. The best part of staying in a resort area was that we finally had a chance to get in the water. We were over half way through our trip and we still hadn’t gotten wet. This is crazy to think about as the two of us love the water. I guess the Nile and the boat infested waters of Istanbul just didn’t entice us.
After the night in the castle, we made what we thought would be a two hour car ride to Pamukkale. We did not have a handy detailed map of the area. We had a very basic map, and we went with it. We made it in about three hours, not because we got lost, but because there wasn’t an “interstate” that ran the whole way like we thought. The road went through all of the small towns along the way. It is different traveling outside of Istanbul as fewer people know English. We eventually figured out where to park and how to get in. Pamukkale is known for its white cliffs made from travertine. It has thermal water that fills many of the travertine pools with water. Very beautiful. The tragedy is that many of the hotels are allowed to drain the thermal water, so the site isn’t what it used to be. However, despite being highly commercialized, it was still amazing to see. A shiny white cliff with water running over it! There was a small ancient town of Hieropolis which was believed to be a town of healing as it is thought that the thermal water has healing properties. There were signs and descriptions breaking down the water’s properties and how it had healing properties from GI issues to rheumatoid arthritis. I think the list contained about every known chronic problem. It also stated that the water had orthopedic healing properties. With both of us having some Achilles issues, the verdict will be out shortly regarding this. Nowhere did it state a timeline on the healing of ortho issues, so I am not sure when to expect results.
With all of the commercialization, we decided to support it and stay at a Thermal Hotel in the area. The hotel was gorgeous as it sat on the top of the hill overlooking kilometers and kilometers of land. We didn’t spend much time in the thermal pools as they closed before we got a chance. However, we were both glad to spend the entire afternoon at the pool. The pool was huge and we were able to swim a few laps which felt good to actually exercise.
I would say there is a huge difference between the west coastal area of Turkey and the Istanbul, Eurasia area. People in Istanbul were noticeably friendlier. I am not sure why this is, but there is a huge difference. You would expect a city of nearly 14 million people to be less friendly.
We spent our finally day in Turkey laying on the beach. We spent almost seven hours reading, sleeping, playing paddle ball, and wading in the Aegean. I finally got a chance to read one of my books I brought on the trip, Blink. I think my record was reading 22 pages before falling asleep. Reading just does that to me. But I finished and I would say that Blink was not one of Malcolm Gladwell’s best books. Tipping Point and Outliers were better. However, I would recommend the book to someone who has read those two and enjoyed them. The book talked about our unconscious and how it affects a lot of the decisions that we make.
Well we are about to pull into port of the island Samos in GREECE! We have finally left Turkey for our Greek Island cruise. We have four islands in eight days. Hopefully Greece will allow us to upload pictures through Picasa. I also have videos that I want to upload, so maybe by morning there will be more!
Goodbye Turkey, hello Greece!
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