The Last Blog: I couldn't have picked a better final destination than Turkey!

I can't believe its been a year! This has by far been the best year of my life and I'm sad its come to an end, but one thing is for sure, I now have a serious travel addiction and long list of places I want to see or return to in the future.

For now, it's probably best I take a break because I really have seen to much. After a quick stop in NY and visit to the law firm that sucked my soul out but gave me the means to make this trip possible at the same time, I'm back to Cali to study for the GRE's, apply to Grad Schools and then move to Australia until I start :)

I'll keep this blog open just in case I end up blogging about future travels, which, knowing me, I probably will :)

As for my final 2 weeks in Turkey, they were exactly what I needed. Turkey is filled with great people and beautiful sights. The prices may have been high (after all it's practically Europe) and the tourists everywhere, but I still had fun and was reminded of why I love traveling so much. I once again met great people and was never alone. I had a good time, saw gorgeous places, got to know a country and learned a lot. It was all so easy too, with transportation going anywhere and everywhere!

CAPPADOCIA:
My loop around Turkey started in Istanbul (last blog) and then went to Cappadocia, where I felt like I was on the moon.... and surrounded by penises... either one! Cappadocia is filled with fairy chimneys (aka penises) - volcanic cones made of tuff that eroded into these "interesting" shapes. I slept in a cave, hiked around the many fairy chimney valleys in Goreme and also went to an impressive underground city.

Prehistoric civilizations carved underground cities in the volcano tuff. The underground cities go many levels down through multiple tunnels connecting rooms. There were even huge stone rollers to close the tunnels for security. Very cool!

MEDITERANEAN COAST:
From Olympos to Fetiyeh, I relaxed on beaches, enjoyed the sun and kayaked over Kekova, a city that sunk during a 2nd century earthquake.

What can I say? The Mediterranean water is stunning, but there are WAY too many tourists, beach chairs and umbrellas. I am also not a fan of pebble beaches, except for one, Kaputas. Kaputas is a tiny beach I stumbled upon where the pebbles are smooth and tiny enough that you can lay directly on them by the edge of the water without having to worry about later dumping out sand from your bottoms. Unfortunately, most beaches were not like this. I went to one sand beach (Patara) but the rest were filled with big, hot stones, making walking and getting into the water a slightly painful experience. I also had to re-define my definition of "beach". Unlike California's never ending beaches or SE Asia's big stretches of sand, a beach on the Mediterranean seems to mean a tiny cove with an area to lay down on that you can walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes.

I can't say the Mediterranean compares to the Caribbean or South East Asian beaches, but I still had a great time at them with the people I met while traveling. It was especially nice to be in the water and look back at ruins once inhabited by the Greek or Roman.

EPHESUS, PAMUKKALE & HIEROPOLIS:
Even after Athens and Petra, Ephesus impressed me. Ephesus is an ancient Greek city known for the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. While the Temple is no longer there, the library and grand theater along with other ruins remain well preserved.

The ruins of the ancient Greek city of Hieropolis are also impressive, but more attention gets focused on Pamukkale, the white travertines on which it was built. Created by thermal springs and calcium deposits, it's no wonder the Greeks refereed to it as Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle". As you can see in the pics, it really does look like that.

Currently, Pamukkale is being restored because too much tourism and permission to walk all over ruined its beauty. Today, you can still swim in some of the pools as you walk barefoot to the top, but I'm sure, 10 years from now, it will be even more restored and beautiful.

So, that was it. After one day in the cute little city of Sirince where a friend and I went fruit wine tasting (because they make a lot of fruit wines here), I headed back to Istanbul and then boarded a bus to Romania to see some family. Words can not even describe that experience, but let's just say that smoking was permitted from seat 30 on as if that would prevent people sitting up to seat 30 from inhaling the smoky air...... and there was a raffle on board by which the 7 people picked had to get up in the isle and dance for 3 songs. Cruising through Bulgaria on this ridiculous bus with people dancing in the isles got a lot of funny looks.. Oh Romania.. haha! Got to love where I'm originally from :)

* Thank you to all those who I know and don't know that read and commented on my blog throughout this year :)

---

---

---