Blogs from Pamukkale, Aegean, Turkey, Middle East
November 15th 2011
I'm too tired to relay a story or even basic information, but here are some images from Pamukkale, or Cotton Castle. I will say that all that white stuff isn't snow... it's calcium carbonate deposits brought in from hot springs... talk about awesome! :D... read more
November 3rd 2011
Today was a extremely long ride from Anatolya to Izmir, from Mediterranean to Aegean sea. To break the trip we stopped in Pamukkale. Although there are ruins here from the ancient city of Hieropolis, the main draw for tourists is the terraces of calcium carbonate from the hot springs. This place was a destination for people seeking healing waters, a health resort. I walked down to stick my feet in the water. The rocky surface was painful and the water was just lukewarm but the terraces do look pretty cool. I've been trying to eat new local dishes. Today I finally got a chance to try the Turkish pancake, called Gozleme, which is a light crepe filled with cheese. And we are still seeing lots of cats wherever we go. Our guide spent a good bit ... read more
October 4th 2011
So where are we up to? Pamukkale, Turkey, drinking a beer is the short answer (for me); for Tanja, she’s hanging out the washing… ah, I’ll make an Australian sheila of her yet! Hmmm… I’m going to be in a whole world of trouble when she sees this start to a blog entry. Anyway, you may, or may not, get to read this bit, depending on exactly how much trouble I get into But how did we get here? Read on, for the fascinating tale that is the Tanja & Brian world tour (yes, yes, London to India is only half way around the Northern hemisphere, so in fact is only a ¼ of a world tour – but world tour sounds better, put it down to artistic licence). Santorini to Paros & Antiparos (19/9/11 ... read more
October 2nd 2011
Woke after a surprısıngly good nıght's sleep on deck to the sounds of the crew preparıng an early cup of coffee for Chris and Liz, who had a 6:30am pıck-up. Got up to say farewell and wave them off, then jumped back ınto bed for a few more mınutes. We ros properly a little after 7am, had to take turns packıng as the cabın ıs so small. Brekky was ready and everyone was up by just after 8am. Saıd our farewells, paıd our drınks bıll and dısembarked for the last tıme from our beautıful gület. We had a fairly short walk to the bus office where a large-ish minibus was waıtıng. We hopped on and waıted for our short trıp to the otogar, where we loaded on to the big, modern Pamukkale (company) coach. Pretty well ... read more
August 20th 2011
We left at 9.30 from the hotel and drove 3 hours to Pamukkale, which is an area inland with terraced natural calcium formations which you can swim in. We had lunch when we first arrived, then took some photos from the bottom before we went up to the top of them. They look like snow but are hard like rock, kind of what I'd imagine the pink and white terraces would have looked like. When they were first discovered all of the terraces had pools of water covering them, but they have been damaged over the years so some areas have no water. There is a small area which we swam in, it wasn't very deep but it was refreshing because it was such a hot day. After our swim we sat and had a cold ... read more
Where's Waldo: World Edition (Thru July)
Published: July 23rd 2011Middle East » Turkey » Aegean » Pamukkale
July 23rd 2011
For those of you that are not my facebook friends, here are some of the Where's Waldo (or Wally depending on where you are from) pics from all of the world. Enjoy!... read more
July 18th 2011
Day 14: Today we got up in the morning and hopped on a bus bound for Pamukkale. The word Pamukkale means cotton castle and is so coined due to the cotton appearance of the bleached limestone. Since we were staying in Hieropolis ("holy city"), also known as Pamukkale, our tour guide informed us we could wander at our own pace because we didn't have to catch the bus back to Selcuk. Naturally it wasn't the ruins that interested us at this point; but, the copious amounts of limestone that naturally deposited out of the thermal springs. When we first arrived at the site of Pamukkale our guide informed us that we were lucky because there was water. I was a little confused at first until I realized that this place is run strictly by tourism and ... read more
July 14th 2011
The idea of sending unwanted clothes back home wasn’t such a good one. After having to unpack the box that we had carefully packaged it turned out that it was going to cost us too much – certainly more than the value of the clothes in the package. Tonight’s job is to now repack our packs to accommodate this excess. At least it will make us think twice about buying new “stuff”. Our bus trip to Pamukkale was both interesting and uneventful. The first leg was by mini-bus to Marmaris where we changed to a large coach for the second leg to a large town called Denezli. Both of these legs were extremely picturesque. The first leg, along the Datça Peninsula, was along/over mountain ranges with views to small, quiet rocky coves. Occasionally there would be ... read more
June 8th 2011
I woke up and said happy birthday to myself, I am now a quarter century old! (One foot in the grave as I say) I was really excited since we were visiting Pamukkale today and we would get to “paddle” in the thermal pools there, I had heard that you couldn’t swim in them so I didn’t bring my swimmers, but wore something I could get wet in if need be. ¬Yesterday on the bus Taylee asked how old I was and I told her that I would be 25 the next day, so they were all excited for my birthday as well! I got on Facebook and was so happy to see that I already had birthday wishes, even though with the time differenc it was almost 1 am in the States, it made my ... read more
May 26th 2011
First visited the ancient city of Aphrodisias, with many splendid Greek and Roman ruins. Then onto Pamukkale and the magnificent white limestone flowing over the hillside. Walked amidst the warm springs flowing there and viewed the travertines.... read more
