Blogs from Pamukkale, Aegean, Turkey, Middle East - page 3

Brrr, no sun today!! We headed off from Kusadasi in the drizzle hoping that the weather might improve as we drove inland. Today our first stop was at the city of Aphrodisias, which is considered to be one of the finest archaeological sites in Turkey. And yes, it was named for the goddess of love, Aphrodite. We were dropped off in a big parking area and ferried over the main road to another big parking area adjacent to the site in a trolley towed by a tractor. We have absolutely no idea why our mini-bus couldn't park in the car park on the Aphrodisias side of the road. This transfer made us feel more like we were taking the wildlife safari tour at Werribee Park Zoo than going to visit an ancient archaeological site!! Once again ... read more

HE SAID... We woke at 5.30am and organised ourselves for our travel from Selcuk to Pamukkale. We had a pretty basic breakfast at 8am and then headed to the train station. The train arrived at 9.25am, and it was fairly packed. There were no seats, so we stood for the first hour of the trip. The aisles filled quickly with locals travelling on market day. When we arrived at their destination, the train cleared and we grabbed a seat. We were wearing the evil eye charms our guide had given us. It was meant to ward off jealous stares and thoughts from other people, and the symbol prevails in every Turkish tourist shop. Many Turks wear an evil eye, and they even place them in new cars to prevent jealous glares from their neighbours. We travelled ... read more

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

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

We had a fun day today and I was happy to be feeling better. After breakfast (we always have yogurt at breakfast but today's was a particularly thick, tasty version), at the Ata Park hotel's sea front restaurant, we checked out and began our drive to Pamukkale. We made several stops on the way. Mid morning we stopped for a refreshment break, where Susan and I enjoyed Turkish coffees. I'm really loving Turkish coffee and we have one every chance we get. It is similar to the Arabic coffee we make at home. We continued on our way, through very pretty scenery. We passed through pine forests, then drier, more stony areas. There was lots of agriculture in this area, and we passed lots of greenhouses. Corn, oranges, pomegranate, and melons are grown here. We see ... read more