Same country, different sea

The last time I wrote we were on the south coast of Turkey relaxing on the Mediterranean Sea. We've now made it to Turkey's west coast and with it to the Agean sea.

Our boat trip, although relaxing, did not turn out quite as we would have wished. We woke up to a cloudy sky that quickly started to dump rain on us. By 11am it had cleared up enough so that the trip was not called off and we became optimistic that things would continue to improve. Unfortunately, they did not do so until about 5pm. Up until that point the clouds alternated with sunshine and were interspersed by periods of drizzling rain. Overall we didn’t mind too much and it was still relatively warm. The downside was that the gorgeous turquoise sea simply did not have the same impact and color as it would have in full sunshine. Secondly, because there was no guarantee of warming oneself up in the sunshine, I did not have enough courage to go for a swim in the slightly chilly waters. But you can’t go wrong when you’re sailing through gorgeous bays all day long and are fed a fantastic fish lunch for a whole $10CAD.

The following day, despite the hotel managers valiant attempts to convince us to stay longer (on the house), we hit the road again. Our initial trip took us the scenic route through little villages, winding roads, high “mountain” (hill) passes, gorgeous valleys, beautiful lakes and a number of detours all the way to Pamukkale.

Yellowstone National Park has one site in it that is like a white waterfall of calcium like shelves. On photos it looks like snow with icicles. Well, Pamukkale is a large scale equivalent of this. The site is 2,700 meters long, 600 meters wide and 160 meters high. It can be seen from the hills on the opposite side of the valley in the town of Denizli, 20 km away. These travertines (terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing hot spring water) are quite the sight. They would be even more impressive if they were filled (and overflowing) with water.

Unfortunately, unlike in Yellowstone where nature is left to do its thing, humans have intervened in Pamukkale. By the 1990 the human effect on these shelves was becoming apparent, especially since there had been a road leading directly through them and hotels which diverted the spring water for their own purposes. Most of these pristine white shelves had started to turn grey. To reverse this effect, the road was shut down, much of the area was closed to tourists and you could no longer bathe in them (with the exception of a small area specially designated for that purpose). However, most significantly the water was diverted from the pools to allow them to bleach out in the sun. Now the water is controlled on a weekly rotating schedule with the result that only a small amount of the travertines are filled with water. All the gorgeous photos you can see on the internet, are taken during special times during which all pools are temporarily filled.

Nevertheless, Pamukkale was quite a sight, and it was neat to walk around some of the shelves and take a dip in the 36 degree Celsius water.

From Pamukkale it was a semi quick drive down highway-like roads all the way to Selcuk where we spent the night and bright the next morning went to explore the ruins at Ephesus. Following the advice of travelers I had met in Cappadocia, we showed up shortly after opening hours and were rewarded by much lesser crowds (most of the tour buses not yet having arrived). The highlight was the Library of Celsus which had been gorgeously reconstructed. The library was build to house 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. It was not as large as I had imagined it to be, but nevertheless impressive (especially when we managed to snap a few shots without ANY people in them (well – aside for maybe us). By the time we were leaving the site, it was difficult to squeeze by all the people, even on the main roads.

The cacophony of languages surrounding us by that point in time was crazy. But we did manage to pick up some interesting bits of information from the various tour groups: from a German group we found out that the communal washrooms with about 40 “toilet” holes surrounding what originally used to be a fish pond were quite the meeting place but the marble slabs had to be pre-warmed by slaves during the winter; from the Polish group we learned that the town hall was the place for all welcome-parties and all such events were paid for by the citizens of the city; and from the British group we learned that the four statues at the front of the Library symbolized: wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and valor (Arete).

From Ephesus we headed up the mountains into the midst of various fruit orchards to a little village of Sirince. There we got to taste some interesting (and not so tasty) wines, including mandarin, blueberry, cherry and blackberry, stroll cobbled streets, get invited by an elderly lady into her home for some tea, have a delicious lunch comprised of Turkish pizza (almost like savory pancakes), and simply meander through the village. Although there was nothing particular about this little place, it was probably the highlight of the day. The only thing that would have made it better would have been the absence of tour buses, which unfortunately seem to make it virtually everywhere.

We’re now in Bergama with plans to see the ruins of Pergamum tomorrow morning; in the afternoon we will be parting with our vehicle (which we have grown very fond of); and in the evening we will be hoping onto a 10 hour night bus to Istanbul.