Travertines, Tractors and Theatres.

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Hello!!
First of all, I really want to thank everyone for all the messages and comments, they're really nice to get. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to read these blogs and provide me with feedback. Thanks!
So last Tuesday night I started off for Pamukkale, which is a very small town about 7 hours away from here. So small in fact that buses don't even go there. You take a bus to Denizli, the nearest city and from there you take a dolmuş (small bus type transportation) to Pamukkale. Well, I really didn't get much sleep on the bus, so I was dead tired when I arrived in Denizli. Plus, my bus was almost an hour early, so instead of getting in at 7:00 am I was there at 6:15. Sounds great, but the first dolmuş doesn't leave until 7:30, so I had to find a way to kill time there somehow. Lucky for me, there was a really nice old man working at one of the bus companies who let me sit in the office (there are no chairs in the Denizli bus depot), bought me breakfast and showed me where to catch the dolmuş when the time came. He even did some traditional Turkish dancing, although I'm not really sure why.....
It just so happened that an Australian-Turkish exchange student has an uncle who owns a pension (pretty much a hostel) in Pamukkale and she let him know that I'd be coming for the weekend. So immediately upon exiting the dolmuş some little man comes running up to me yelling my name to let me know that my room was 'waiting for me'. Talk about service hey? It was really nice to have a bed immediately when you're so tired you can barely keep your eyes open.
The first day there I didn't do too much, just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful weather (it was about 23 each day). The next morning two of my friends, Jessie and Sibel joined me, and we started off by exploring Pamukkale's famous travertines. They are truly bizarre. It's hard to explain. Imagine this big white hill/mountain on the outskirts of town that slightly resembles a glacier, however, it's made of solidified calcium carbonate. As well, it's terraced and has pools of warm mineral water in some of the terraces (although, not as much as in the past. People used to be able to bath in the mineral water, but it's dried up a lot now and all you can do is walk through it.) We were really surprised that we were able to just walk on it. However, when we were really close to the top, a guard appeared and started whistling at us. He pointed to our shoes and said "problem", which we understood to mean that we weren't supposed to wear shoes when walking along the travertines. We felt a little guilty about having walked with our shoes on but there were no signs at all indicating that we were in the wrong, so we didn't feel too guilty.
To add to the novelty of the area, at the top of the travertines lay the remains of an ancient Roman city, Hierapolis. Starting around 190 BCE, it was used as a cure centre due to the mineral hot springs. The ruins are really extensive and spread over such a large area so that it was really easy to gain an understanding of how big the city really was. We ended up spending quite a few hours just walking and lounging around the ruins. The highlight of Heirapolis is it's extremely well preserved theatre. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before. The only disappointing part of the theatre is that about 2/3 of the way down, there's a rail that prevents you from going to the bottom (the best part). So we decided to do some independent exploring of our own. We managed to find a path that led to the back of the theatre where there was an opening and you could go inside this secret chamber room. There was no sign telling us not to follow (and if there was, it would have been in Turkish anyways) so we let our curiosity get the best of us. It was a neat little place, but not very much time had passed when we heard the walkie talkie of the guard who kindly escorted us out.
A little while later, as we were leaving, walking down the travertines (with our shoes off this time) we heard the whistle of the guard yet again. We had no idea what we were doing wrong this time. As it turns out, there are only certain areas you can walk on, and all others are restricted. Again, no signs telling you where you can go and where you can't. So we had to head back up and around to get out. I think we've set a record at Pamukkale for getting whistled at the most times in one day.
That night, 3 more exchange students showed up in Pamukkale (one being the Aussie-Turk). They told us that there was going to be 3 more coming the next morning. So we wake up Friday to people speaking English outside the window, and I just assumed that it was the 3 exchange students we had been told about. Much to my surprise then, when we went for breakfast to see 13 other students standing outside! I guess the word spread fast and some others decided to come along. So in all, there ended up being 19 METU students in little Pamukkale.
Next on the agenda was the Kaklık Caves, essentially a Pamukkale underground. We found our way to the closest town to the caves, and from there it was a 4 km walk. About 15 minutes in, this incredibly old man on an even older tractor stopped and offered us a lift there. I'd never ridden on a 100 year old tractor before, so we took the man up on his offer and got there a lot faster than originally planned.
We really wanted to go to Afrodisias on Saturday, so when we got back to Pamukkale we arranged for a car to drive us there (it's about 150 km away). It was supposed to be for four people, and there ended up being an extra person but we really didn't think it would make a difference. So we show up the next morning, all five of us, to have them tell us that in Turkey it's against the law to have five passengers in a vehicle, and therefore we couldn't fit in one car. I was really surprised, because Turkey has a lot of laws, but none are really obeyed. We offered him more money, thinking that was the problem, but apparently he was serious in not wanting to break the law. Weird. Well, we really wanted to go, so we thought we'd try get there ourselves using public transportation. Turns out you have to take four separate dolmuşes to get there, and instead of taking an hour and a half like it should have, we made it in four. It wouldn't have been quite that long except at one stop Liam insisted on going to the mosque for prayer and he exceeded the ten minutes the dolmuş driver gave us so the dolmuş ended up leaving without us, which meant we had to wait for the next one.
However, all that mattered was that we got there, which we did. And it was worth the hassle. It really is one of Turkey's best sites of classical ruins. I could have spent hours there (since we were so late, we only had an hour and a half, and we were determined not to miss the last dolmuş leaving the site). Again, there was a beautiful theatre, that we had all to ourselves as we were the only tourists there, so we made it the spot for our picnic. It was great.
Well we did make the dolmuş and didn't get stuck there for the night (which wouldn't have been so bad). We also found a faster way home so that the return only took 2 hours instead of 4. It still ended up being a long day and we were all exhausted at the end.
The next day we had to head home to Ankara and were stoked that we found a discount bus company that only cost 20 YTL (about 17 dollars). Well, you do get what you pay for. When we stopped for lunch we were told that the bus was 'broken' and we had to wait until a mechanic could come and look at it, but it really only took about 45 minutes, so it wasn't that bad. But for the whole ride back Jessie swore that she didn't think the bus was shifting properly. What really sucked was that the heater was also broken so there was absolutely no heat for 7 hours. But again, I paid 17 dollars so I'm really in no position to complain.
That's pretty much my latest adventure, and I realize that this is getting really long so I think I'll end it here. I'm not sure what's next on the agenda but I'll keep you all posted.

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Photos

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Peaks of Pamukkale travertines. Because they're dried up they look a little dirty.

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From a short distance.

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Start of the travertines.

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Neat!

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Really neat!

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More terraced travertines.

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Close up.

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Where the people are walking is the 'route' apparently.

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Sibel in the travertines.

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The water's so warm!

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Town of Pamukkale beneath the travertines.

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Ruins of Hierapolis.

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Walls of the city.