Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Day 8 - Pamukkale/Hieropolis drive to Fethiye

Day 8 - Pamukkale & Hieropolis

Waking up early is getting harder to do every morning, but today we're taking a tour to the white cliffs of Pamukkale (cotton castle), Hieropolis (holy city) and transferring to Fethiye. Our mini bus picked us up promptly in front of our hotel, we bade farewell to Erdal and our new Virginian friends and started on our long journey. 3 hours to the site, 3 hours around the site and 4 hours to Fethiye. Whew!!

Along the way we picked up a few more people and drove to the National Unesco Park of Pamukkale, but before we commenced the tour, we stopped for lunch. They took us to a roadside restaurant swarming with half naked European tourists (the first time in Turkey we saw any exposed people), and ate a suspect meal. I knew I'd pay for it later. We started our tour at a silver shop, where locals tried to sell us overpriced silver, turquoise and amber. It reminded me of Mexico. Of course, no one bought anything so we left and continued up the mountain to  he Ancient City of Hieropolis.  It's said that Hades himself heated the thermal waters below so the people above could heal themselves in the pools. Hieropolis was amazing and was built much like other Roman/Byzantine cities: Agora, latrines, theatre, bath houses, etc. But this place was, of course, different! They used a very complicated drainage system which carried the important thermal waters to and from the pools. Ancient canals snaked throughout the complex ending up at various locations hither and tither. 

One location was the Cleopatra  pool. Worried about her fading beauty, she sought out this already famous location and visited it in her later years. Apparently it worked and news of this drove many more people to visit the city. In the pools are original columns from the ancient city that you can swim with, but with hordes of people already crammed in there creating a disgusting people soup, we resisted the urge and turned our attention to the white cliffs of Pamukkale. 

Located on the west side of the Holy City, Pammukale is where the thermal waters pool and fall over the cliffs. The minerals form a white cotton candy stone surface which can be seen for thousands of metres. There in the pools, you can wade and submerge yourself and it is said that the thermal waters will cure all that ails. We spent 3 hours on the site, exploring and wading but were ready to get to our next destination...Calis Beach in Fethiye!!

Our drivers dropped everyone off back in town and continued rolling through the hills until we made it to Fethiye. They struggled with their GPS, swearing in Turkish and finally found our beachfront Apartment in Calis beach (Chalish). The manager Julien, met us at the front and showed us our place. Julien is a nice British gent who lives in the building, he gave us directions and pointers on the various need to know locations (grocery and booze stores!!). He also provided us with a welcome package that included cookies, tea, coffee, crisps (British slang for potato chips), bread, eggs, fruits, veggies, juices, pop and water. We walked to the store down the road, bought some booze, sat on our beachfront balcony and watched the world go by. 

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