Ah, the Life of a Tourist

So last weekend we took our trip to Pammukale. Because it was a long trip (3 days) and because I have so much to say, I'm splitting the blog into 2 parts: the good stuff and the usual omg-how-has-this-happened-to-us stuff (yup, one trip without it was all we got!). This one will focus on what an awesome time we had. I'll save the ranting for the next post :)

Have I mentioned that our landlady, Nesta, is one of the coolest people I know? If so, let me state it again. She agreed to drive Chris and I to Pammukale, which is about 3-3.5 hours away, but also suggested that we stop at a few places along the way. The first one was Aphrodisias, and all I can say is O.M.G. We had over 3 hours to spend there, and it STILL wasn't enough! And personally, I liked it even better than Ephesus. Less tourists, prettier surroundings, and just a lot more on-site to see. It was also more spread out, whereas Ephesus is one main road. And yes, I am comparing it to Ephesus, even though it's not nearly as well-known (half the Turks I talk to said, "Where?"). As usual, Chris will post pictures when he's good and ready, and there's even video with yours truly narrating! The coolest part was by far the stadium though, which seats 30,000 people and is amazing condition. Whereas many stadiums there will be missing seats, or parts that are ruined, this was basically intact except for the entrances at the top. Originally used for Greek sporting events, one end was converted for Roman blood sports later on. There were even several small openings that I like to think were where the wild animals were released from. Carved into the seats were various graffiti symbols, which denoted whose seat it was, whether belonging to a guild or a family, or people from nearby cities. One thing we're still unsure of is the holes bored through some of the seats. Maybe flagposts or something? Your guess is as good as ours.

A close second to being coolest was a whole wall of faces we happened to see on our way out. After years of excavations, they had all these carvings of marble faces in relief, and they put them all together to form a long wall. I took pictures and video, that will show you what I mean. They were incredible though, all very different, different expressions, features, and in such good condition that some of them really appeared like they were alive and looking at you! (A little creepy, that.)

The theatre was also really cool, in similar condition as the stadium. The stage was even still there! That is rare, usually it's just the seats. There were several other awesome sites as well, including the massive gate that was the entrance to the temple of Aphrodite. The gates are gorgeous, and perched on a grassy knoll with a stunning background. Perfect picture place! The temple was cool but not in particularly good condition. Lots of stones and carvings still laying around. When Christianity came to the city it was turned from a temple into a basilica, and a lot of what we saw there was from that time; crosses and other Christian symbols.

Anyways, enough about Aphrodisias, otherwise this will be a hugely long blog. So next we drove into Pammukale and planned to see that the next day. (We had a FANTASTIC meal that night, a mixed grill that included lamb, steak, chicken, and köfte, along with rice pilaf. We also had mezes of sarma (stuffed grape leaves), the best we've ever had, and eggplant salsa, ALSO some of the best I've ever had. It was one of those really great meals at the end of the day when you're starving!)

Pammukale translates to "cotton castle" and as is obvious from the name, cotton is a big deal here. Before we tackled the hills of Pammukale, we went shopping! We bought bathrobes ($15!!), towels ($6.50 for those huge bath sheets, $3.50 for hand towels), and looked at sheets but couldn't remember how big our bed was in centimeters. After that, we snogged down some gözleme and got ready to climb!

As you'll see from the pictures, Pammukale is famous for it's white hills. In ancient times it was called the frozen city, not because of the weather but because the hills look snow-covered. Interestingly, it's quite the opposite of frozen: it's the site of thermal springs that were thought to be healing in antiquity, and the community developed around the hot springs, similar to Bath in England. So once you climb to the top of the hill, over the white stuff (I think it's something like calcium being leached from the limestone by the thermal waters, but this is where it gets science-y, and I suck at science) there are ruins at the top. So we started climbing and very soon were told to take off our shoes, since for the rest of the way up they could hurt the environment. Now was the time I REALLY wished I had gone for that pedicure before we left... But a very cool climb, and even now I still can't believe how much like snow it looked, but yet how warm I was. (Think sunny day, white reflects heat, oh yeah, it didn't feel like November!)

At the top, we were amazed by the size of the ruins. We had thought there would just be a few here and there. No, this was a very large and well-developed community! Well, we didn't really have time to look at everything if we were going to be back down before dark (it gets darker earlier because the sun goes behind the mountains sooner) so we basically picked 2 things we wanted to see: the ancient pools and the necropolis.

The ancient pools were actually in a temple (of whom I can't remember right now) and the thermal waters are actually open to the public to swim in. There are parts of the ruins at the bottom of the pool, which you can see because of the crystal clear water. So basically you get to swim where ancient people swam, and with pillars and such at your feet. Cool, huh? Yes, except that it was completely surrounded by a food court, lounge chairs, and people. It ended up looking more like a unique hotel swimming pool than anything else. Major disappointment there.

The necropolis was better. Pammukale is also known for it's necropolis, which is where people were buried in the hillside, and there are these cool little entrances to their tombs. We saw some as we were walking, but they were far off the path, and we weren't sure if we were allowed to stray from said path. Then as we got closer via the path, Chris made the executive decision that we were going to go for it. Good call, Christopher! Because we saw some awesome stuff! And there were no other tourists around to bug us! Amazing concept. We also saw the Northern necropolis later, which is along the pathway, and it wasn't nearly as cool. I mean, it was cool in that we got to see a lot more variety of tombs, and a lot more in number of each variety, but they were all crammed together and again, the tourist issue. (Why is it that while we all are tourists when visiting other places, we hate other tourists getting in our way? Same for cruise ships, we love to be passengers, but hate all the other ones...)

At this point, it was getting time to leave. I was exhausted (you'll read more about why in the ranting post) and my feet were hurting, and the thought of taking the 20-30 minute walk back and THEN going down the hill was more than I could bear. We called Nesta, who came to our rescue in the car. Bless her. We bought her dinner that night. (Dinner that night was similar to the previous night, but added in another eggplant dish, this one with grilled, smokey-flavored eggplant mashed with garlic, onion, and lemon juice. again, omg. Chris had the same mixed grill, Nesta had steak and freshly-made fries (YUM! I think I snitched as many as she got to eat), and I had köfte and rice again.)

Sunday we woke up, exhausted again (again, see ranting post for details) and headed for a quick view of Laodicea (one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelations, for those of you who are interested). Although Nesta had been there 2 years ago, and said there wasn't much to see, which is actually part of its appeal, the fact that it's not all reconstructed, a lot had been done in those two years. A lot. Other than the fact that it was gorgeous, I really don't have much of a sense of it, mostly because I was dead on my feet. Maybe Chris can fill in some gaps, since he looked around more carefully than I did.

We drove back that day, and I slept for half the trip. A very fun and full weekend! I'll have to do the rant post tonight or tomorrow, since I just got an SOS call from my friend, who needs some lunch and sympathy. Hope you all are having a great time preparing for Thanksgiving! Mom, I miss the pumpkin cheesecake already!