Pamukkale

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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 morning! Then at breakfast Bex and I were eating and out of nowhere she freaks out and wishes me Happy Birthday! It took me a few seconds to realize it was my birthday (I had already forgotten).
We had to leave a bit early since it was a 3 hour drive to Pammukale from Kusadasi where we were staying. We again picked up a specialist tour guide and were on our way to the “cotton castles.” This tour guide, Oscar (again don’t know his real Turkish name), looked like he was trying to impress someone, he had his hair slicked back and had girl sunglasses! But he was nice enough.
We got there and it was hot hot hot! We walked through some ruins and Oscar talked about them, but we couldn’t really focus because there was a giant group of Turkish school kids on a tour as well. They looked to be about 10 years old and they kept coming up to us and asking us the same things – “hello, what is your name” and “hello, where are you from.” One girl came up to me and asked me what my name was; I told her and then I asked her what her name was and she just kept staring at me and then walked away. Bex said I scared her off, and it sure did look like it, but they had just learned those English sayings in school so the girl didn’t know how to answer me. There must have been at least 30 kids and we tried to walk fast to get away from them, but it didn’t work. I felt like I was in a zoo since they were also taking pictures of us! I guess they have never seen foreigners before. . . ?
We finally get to the part where it’s the thermal pools and Fatih and Oscar let us loose for about an hour and a half. There were so many people there! We all joked since as you looked out you could see all the way down the slope and it was pool after pool after pool, but if you looked to the right it was a sheer drop of about 100 feet and there wasn’t any guard railing or rope or anything! In Australia, New Zealand, or the US that would not have been the case. We started to make our way down, but it was not easy going since you had to tread carefully and you didn’t have your shoes. Plus you are dodging tons of people! Luckily once you got down further along the slope there were less people.
It was the best people watching ever though! The things that some people wore were hilarious! So many budgie smugglers and G-strings that it left little to the imagination! Once we made it down to the bottom it was really nice; Taylee and Josh had worn swimmers so they were sitting in the pools covering themselves with the mud. Meanwhile, Bex and I were wetting our hair from the runoff from the pools. It was much more refreshing down where we were, but still not cold cold, as at the top it was really warm. We had a great time until the kids finally reached our pools and were causing a ruckus so we started the trek back up to the top. Bex and I took a few pictures from up there then went back to meet the group.
On the way back we stopped for gasoline and snacks then were back on the road. I didn’t know it but while we were at the rest stop Steph and Josh had bought a post card and then had everyone sign it, and they gave it to me on our way back to the hotel. It was so sweet of them!
Once we made it back to the hotel we had planned to go out on the town, but we were all just so tired that we had dinner on the rooftop again and had drinks up there. Steph and Josh insisted that they buy my first drink, then Bex insisted on my second (these people are trying to get me drunk!) and Ali, the manager of the hotel found out was my birthday and gave me a bottle of wine on the house which I shared with everyone. Even Fatih brought up some of his pomegranate wine to share! (it was our own partaay) Fatih and Hassan also drove into town after dropping us off at the hotel and bought me a birthday cake. So after we had all finished dinner they cut the lights out on the balcony (I was pretty confused) and everyone started singing happy birthday and they brought the cake out with candles and sparklers! They all sang me happy birthday (twice) and then I blew out the candles. It was such a nice surprise and they bought the yummiest cake! It was chocolate with chocolate mousse and bananas! We all ate cake and drank wine and beer and were merry until 2:30 in the morning! It was more than I had ever hoped my birthday could be while traveling alone! It was going to be a rough morning since I still had to pack and we were leaving at 7:30, but it was a great day and I have the people in my life – those I have known for a while and those who are new friends to thank for it!
B

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Photos

The running water off the pools
it was so nice

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Enjoyed hearing about the pools
Sounds like your guide was nice too. Happy Travels.