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Published: November 9th 2007
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The Less Famous Red Spring
Also looks like a truck stop; "Red Spring Refreshments" We slept as long as we could get away with and left a stupidly small amount of time to wake, pack and get downstairs for breakfast at ten. Breakfast was good again. It never ceases to amaze me how much food Rob can put away first thing in the morning, especially jam and bread. We got the bill and walked into town to post a first batch of postcards and to withdraw money for bills etc.
We had been told that whilst the red spring was definitely worth seeing we wouldn't want more than twenty minutes there. Ordinarily we wouldn't waste our time, but it was thundery and getting caught in storms on the travertines didn't sound that appealing, so we opted for the spring. We caught a dolmus there no problem, it was cheap and the conductor made sure we got off in the correct place which is always nice. We were pointed in the right direction and we set off walking. We reached a car park for it and figured we must be pretty near and so followed a sign to where we thought it should be. We explored all the options and walked quite far one way.
Eventually we both got a bit annoyed and figured if there was anyone around the car park we would ask and if not we would head back to the village. The car park was empty but we could hear voices so we climbed up some steps and there in front of us was the red spring. It was fairly big, muddy, hot and smelly. Neither of us wanted to take our shoes off and walk around in it, so we contented ourselves by walking around and taking pictures and messing around with the mud.
The town that the spring was based in was quite small and to get from one end to the other we walked through a small street market. It was obviously not that much of a tourist trap because everything was so cheap. We decided to stop for something to eat because it'd be much cheaper than at Pamukkale. I had an omlete and Rob opted for another Iskender kebab; I think he is getting a taste for them. Just as were paying our dolmus rumbled past so we chased it down the street. Once back in Pamukkale we settled the bill with the mother and
We Almost Settled For This One
It was water and warm...why not the red spring. Later we found it was actually water running from the spring! walked up to a bridge and caught our dolmus to Denizli.
Denizli bus station was rather large so it took us a while to find the left luggage. We dumped our bags and went to find tickets back to Istanbul. The first company we spoke to offered us a reasonable price and when we said we were going to look around for a bit he knocked the price down again. We went to the cash machine to confer and we agreed it was a good deal. With our tickets bought we were left with a lot of time to kill in Denizli.
We ambled in a direction we hoped would lead to the centre, but we never actually found a definite centre. There were a few main roads which we walked down, keeping a watchful eye for warmer clothes we liked. We are very aware that once we leave Turkey the weather won't be quite as mild. We bought a couple of things and haggled like pros, which was just as well because we ran out of money.
We wanted to get some food for the twelve hour bus journey to Istanbul and we knew there was
a big supermarket called Kipa (owned by Tesco) which we had seen on the way to Pamukkale. We asked a girl for directions and she just took us to a minibus. We said we would rather walk and she said it would take about twenty minutes so we set off. We walked for ages along side a busy road which was in an industrial area. The sun was setting and we could not see Kipa anywhere. After walking for about forty minutes we nipped into a garage and asked how far away we were. The guy working there didn't speak English so he called his friend who gave us directions over the phone.
We eventually got to the supermarket and stocked up on food for the journey. Instead of walking all the way back we caught a free shuttle that dropped us off right at the Otogar. We grabbed a soup and pide at a café and wasted some time by trying to translate the news headlines from the TV.
Our bus was ok but I was cold and the guy who does all the service part didn't want anything to do with us because he didn't speak
English. I tried to tell him in Turkish but he was having none of it. A lovely woman next to us gave me her pasmina which I gratefully accepted. We both dozed on and off throughout the night and the only thing of interest was that Rob finished The Time Travelers Wife, and proclaimed it the best book he has ever read. I will make a reader out of him yet.
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Brian
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Reading
Hi You Two Rob Reading a book all by himself, it must be the weather or he must be missing his computer games Brian