Selcuk, Pamakkale, Water, and Trees

After a very long and grueling 10 hour bus ride from Cannakkale to Selcuk we arrived around 6:30 am to the sleepy little Hostel of Kiwi. We woke up the poor night manager to ask for the room that we had supposively reserved through Hassle Free (Hassle) travel agency, but they messed up again and Kiwi Hostel had expected us the day before we got there. They didn't have any dorm rooms available, but he gave us a room to ourselves in the basement with a King size bed to share. That early in the morning we didn't care, partly because the bed was soft and the room was cool. We slept a few hours and went to officially check in.
The lady that owns Kiwi hostel is a very nice Aussie (yeah, not sure why it's called Kiwi Hostel either) who gave us free breakfast and told us about all the cool things that we could do in Selcuk. We made a plan and set out for Ephesus and Artemis' Temple. 1st stop was to the Archeology museum that had us hanging about for a half hour because they were on lunch break, but turned out to be worth the wait. It was a small museum, but held very beautiful stone reliefs of the Gods and Goddesses. There was a whole room dedicated to the history of the gladiators. It told how they were mostly slaves and captured enemies that fought to the grisly death. Most of the fighters never made it past their 25th birthdays. Sad, but it was at a time where people got off on blood and death.
After the museum we walked along the 1.8 mile tree lined walkway to Ephesus. Along the way we stopped at Artemis' Temple and were very disappointed in one of the 7 Wonders of the World. In the olden days the Temple was a magnificent building of columned courtyards surrounded by 6 small lakes and with the circumference of 3 football fields. In all its glory it was quite an amazing feat to build, but now all that remains are a few piles of columned rubble and one erect column. Some of the lakes are there, but they're muddy and homes to lots of geese. The story goes that a mad lover of Cleopatra got angry and burnt the Temple to the ground. The Greeks really did have quite a temper. Now there is not much to look at for this spectacular monument.
We continued our walk until an empty tour bus stopped and the driver told us to get on. He said that it was a long way to walk and too hot. We gratefully accepted and were at the entrance in no time. We dismissed a ton of hasslers, bought our tickets and a computerized information thing and headed in. For those of you that don't know, Ephesus was a major city and way station for many of the Greek Royal members and the Greek Gods. Like in Karnak, Kings kept adding to the buildings, creating different and bigger complexes.
With a bad map and the trusty audio tour guide we learned about the history of Ephesus and its people. The people under went many changes of laws and governments because they changed ruling parties so any times. Buildings were added and taken down. A grand Library was erected in-between two buildings and so the architect made the higher walls slant inwards to give the Library the appearance of looking mightier than it really was. There were some impressive houses to see, but they cost too much extra so we opted to skip them. We walked the end of the 3km city and then walked the 3km back to the beginning. You weren't allowed to return the audio guide just anywhere. Just where we got them from. It was ok because we had more time to listen to all the background history.
We hopped a bus back to town and pretty much were in bed by 11pm. There is nothing to do in Selcuk during the night unless you are an old man or you go to Attila's - the expensive happening backpackers joint in the area.
The next morning we went to St. John's Church. It is said that when Jesus was about to be crucified, he pulled John away and told him, to look after Mary. So when Jesus was killed, John took Mary and they lived in the huge Church for many years and were happy until someone came and exiled John to an Island. There is the "Home of Mary" near Ephesus and I think that is where Mary went to live after John left. Anyhow, the Church is rather large with a main gate that looks like the entrance to a fortress, large stone wall with turrets. What remains of the buildings inside are several erect archways and columns, a small coliseum, a baptism bath, the treasury (which is some holes in the wall), and pieces of Christian reliefs mixed throughout broken walls and floors.
Above the Church on the hill that looks out over the whole valley is the Castle. I don't know much about it except that it was rather large with a wall surrounding the whole place. Robby and I tried in vain for an hour of fruitless walking to finding the entrance to the Castle only to discover that the entrance was through St. John's Church and that it closed a year ago. Go figure. Well, there is a Castle and there will remain a Castle and hopefully someday I will get to come back and see it.
Since it was really hot and Robby and I hadn't had a true hour of relaxing in the past few days, we headed to the Kiwi pool. Little did we know that the private pool for the Hostel would be a 3km walk along hot asphalt. When we had arrived at Kiwi house they gave us a map, but it was hand drawn and terrible at placing distances. We didn't think it was very far and that's why we never asked for a ride. At least we were nice and sweaty by the time we found the place. The Kiwi pool was hidden in a patch of peach and nectarine groves. The water came directly from a natural spring so was freezingly refreshing. It was us and three other people who enjoyed the serene-like tranquility of the place. No traffic, hardly any people, lush trees everywhere and free fresh fruit. Very nice. We stay for a while and headed back to town for dinner, reading and bed.
The next morning we were up fairly early because we were starting a three day crazed journey of seeing towns for a day and then driving to new towns. We headed to Pamukkale first. Pamukkale is a small ancient village situated on top a mountain ridge overlooking farm land and high peaks across the valley. The best part of the hike up the hill to the ruin city was the calcumite covered rocks. Nature decided there wasn't enough beauty in the world and so it sculpted a whole hillside and beyond with white, snow-like rocks that dripped over bushes or formed into large pools that natural spring water poured into.
My first introduction to Pamukkale was being yelled at by a "lifeguard/security guard" because I had ventured up a few some hills to take a picture of a particular dripping rock and from below a very shrill and annoying whistle starts to go off. I looked around and couldn't see where the noise was originating from through all the happy swimsuit clad people splashing in the pools. I climbed a little high and the whistle didn't shut up. Instinct told me the whistle was directed at me, so I looked around again and this time I saw one very pissed off guy coming towards me, yelling to get down.
I figured, "Well, I’m already up here and I', already in trouble, so I might as well snap my shot." I clicked the shutter and headed to the guard. He pretty much tore my head off because I wasn't allowed to climb the calcumite not on the watered trail (they were trying to preserve the rock)and both Robby and I had our shows on, a huge NO, No. He pointed to a sign a good 10 yards from where I had started climbing and yelled at us some more. When we got close enough to read the sign it said in some really awful English to not climb the rocks. Opps. The sign that said to take your shoes off was turned away from us at the entrance and so we never saw it. We said sorry to the unforgiving guard and continued on our way. We walked up the 1 km calcumite hill admiring the natural beauty of the place and regretting the fact that no one told us to bring a swimsuit. Robby went under one of the waterfalls to get wet.
We eventually reached the museum at the top of the lakes and learned about the Greek Gods and some of the culture that lived in Pamukkale. The museum was housed in the giant bath house of the ancient culture and told the story of the people who lived there. Pamukkale was an epicenter of many people. The town was about 2 times the size of Ephesus with the springs being a major attraction for all. The waters processed healing abilities and so many of the towns folks took baths regularly. A nice idea back then. We wandered along the car road to the columned Temple and then continued on to the numerous grave sites. It seemed that the further we went along the road the less people and pretty soon it was us and bewildered faces from passing cars and tour buses. I guess it was too hot for people to be walking about. We didn't mind because no one got in the way of our shots.
I found the 1km stretch of graveyard to be rather interesting. It looked like Superman had had a really bad day and decided to throw a 100's of stone coffins as a stress reliever. Broken resting places lay littered about the ground. Some sideways, upside down, on top of each other, and crumbling. The insides were all pillages long ago, the bodies missing. It makes you wonder what the world has come too when ancient societies that whole-heartedly believe in an afterlife and in death that they spend their lives preparing for death and in a mere 2000 years their resting places are dug up and looted for the sake of greed. The dead are carelessly thrown to the side, not a thought of remorse among the ones that profit. It makes you wonder if your body will still be lying in its finally resting place in a 1000 years or so or in some random museum for little kids to laugh at.
We managed to walk to the end of the city in search of finding the red calcumite red formations, but we rewarded with a mini-mart/ restaurant that had seen better days. The parking lot and for path to the abandon eatery was covered in weeds and dust. We decided to head back along the cliff edge and admire the valley below. There were many dry calcumite pools spanning across the top of the cliff, but the water had dried up 5 years ago. We climbed a massive hill to look down into the theater and were rewarded with 4 intact statues and a beautiful backstage relief of ancient gods. We couldn't go down the stairs and get a better look because there was a dig in progress. I tried to get Robby to go ask them for a job, but she said, "No," and admired them from afar.
That evening we hopped on two more buses to make it to Koycegiz for the night. We were told by the owner of Kiwi Hostel that Koycegiz was the place to go if you wanted a nice boat ride to relax and not many people because the tourist buses hadn't found the place yet. We checked into one of the nicest Hostels ever and went to sleep in a beautiful wooden dorm room with a slanted ceiling and a view of the lake beyond. In the morning we boarded the day boat cruise that would take us to Turtle Island and mud baths.
Robby and I lucked out and got on a boat with only Turkish people and I think a Croatian family. Since it was not a tourist boat we had an entertainer Turkish man that showed us magic tricks with strings and then dressed up as a female belly dancer and strutted his stuff while amusing us and passing boats. The men on other boats would be really jealous of us because we had a belly dancer, but then they'd realize it was a guy and get embarrassed for drooling.
First stop after sailing through the tall reed water way was Turtle beach. The Turtles come out at night, but during the day everyone lounges around on the beach and takes in the beauty of the water. Robby and I joined the rest of the morons in the water and tried to body surf on the little waves. Both of us ended up with salt water up our noses. Yuck. We stayed at the beach for 3 hours and then headed to a mud bath on the edge of the water. The building looked like a creepy stripped clown tent that houses hot spring baths, but it was $2 USD to cover ourselves in stinky mud, turn to a green cement monster in the sun and then take a dip in the soothing hot water. It was well worth the money.
We went back to the home island, grabbed our stuff and boarded a bus to Fethiye. Someone told us to stay at Ferah hostel, but I think whoever that person was was on crack when they said it was a nice place. Robby and I had to fight with 8 other people for the remaining dorm beds and ended up in a small shack out front in the garden that was used as a TV lounge. There were sheer curtains with a yapping mutt outside and a safety light that flashed on and in our eyes everytime an ant walked by. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep and we paid more than anywhere else we'd been for a whole 9hrs accommodations.
The next day we boarded a large yacht for our splurge trip in Turkey. We were convinced that if you were in Turkey you had to go on a Blue Cruise. Since we went on the felucca we figured that a large, posh boat would be a much better adventure. We and 10 other people were the happy passengers and crew on the boat. Everyone got to buddy up in a room with a queen bed, a small closet, and a bath room with a removable spicket in the sink for a shower. It went about 3 ft, so we opted for swims and the hose on deck for a shower.
Intro to the passengers: Aussie friends, Craig and Melissa (Mel); Aussie friends, Sara and Carrie; The Turk, Yusef; and the Italian Stallions, Andrea (Male), Lorenzo, and Rudy. The crew consisted of Sean (Aussie), 1st mate and cook and Ali (Turk), captain. Everyone was extremely nice, but all the Aussies were party people, the Italian’s were great dancers and the Turks just blended in. Robby and I were part of all the groups, but if we were there we could be invisible if we wanted.
We began the day eating a great lunch prepared by Sean who said that this was only the beginning and the best was yet to come. It was so nice to have a real meal; bread, starch, veggies, and meat. We've been basically getting by on just carbs. Sean was impressed because all the food that we put on the table was devoured. Apparently his last boat didn't eat anything and he was mad. We couldn't get enough.
We sailed to a bay and swam in the clear emerald water for a while. Then we headed to St. Christopher's Island, the home of Santa. Yeah, Santa was a real guy who used to give presents to people and he lived on this island for a brief period of time. We docked for the night, had another swim and laughed at the Italians that arrived late via the ice cream boat. Everyone in Turkey helps each other out.
We all clamored up the steep hillside of St. Christopher's Island to look at the ruin 8 Churches, the remains of the civilization that lived there long ago, and watch the sunset. We climbed back down and spent the rest of the night reading and playing card games. The Aussies played drinking games and sang songs.
We spent the majority of the next day sailing so that we could spend the last day swimming and relaxing. We stopped a few places for a swim and docked for the night at Kas (pronounced Cash). We were allowed to venture through the cute little cobble stone town until dinner time where we came back to enjoy some of the freshly caught fish of the day. I had helped to catch two of them while sailing. We played a few rows of drinking games before heading to a bar and talking into the early morning.
The following day we sailed pass the Sunken City of Kekova while Sean tried to tell us the little information he knew. Large town built on the water, but as nature goes, the waters rose and the town was submerged. Parts of remaining buildings and stairs can still be seen above water, but the best way to see the city is to scuba. Too bad we couldn't afford it. We docked across the way at the island of Simena. There was a castle at the top that we hiked to. We took a wrong turn and ended up at the graveyard of the old village. More stone coffins that protrude from the ground, but they covered the side of the hill and went all the way down to the water, some even in the water. We took pictures, sat in the shade a bit and continued to our dock for the night.
The night activity was Smuggler's Inn. Some guy decided it would be awesome to build a bar in the middle of a remote island with access only by boat and then offer shuttle coats to all the cruise ships to the bar. We went and danced the night away with old America and Aussie songs. The Aussies and the Italians got plastered while we just danced. We came back to the boat around 2:30am and everyone, but us and Andrea decided to go for a "nudy" swim. The jumped in the cold water and started giggling and talking really loud that the next morning Sean was reprimanded by three or so captains from other boats. He didn't care because the other boats knew that this was an area where the backpacker boats docked and therefore they should know that it will be loud. Us and the rest of the passenger got a rude awakening from some crazy guy who decided that we kept him up all night so he was going to jump in the water at 7:30 am and start screaming at us to wake up and join him. Yeah all the drinkers were hung over and we just wanted to sleep. He didn't shut up and we all lumbered onto the deck for breakfast.
We spent the remaining of the morning swimming, talking and packing. We got off the boat and boarded a bus to take us to Olympos. Robby and I had assumed that Olympus was a fairly large town because all the Blue Cruises went and left from there, but it turns out it is a quaint little backpacking village stuffed into the woods. All the stores and Hostels are tree house/cabins surrounded by mountains and trees. We traveled with the Aussies to Bayram's and somehow stayed in a small shanty hut that was the last one up the hill and behind all the other tree houses. Our roommate was Craig while the three other girls shared the cabin below. All three of us climbed a dangerous slope and entered the hut thinking at any moment the crooked wooden building was going to collapse and we'd all tumbled down the hill into the rest of the tree houses and most likely be killed by rolling so many times. Luckily the place held.
We wandered through the small town and realized we were staying at the 2nd most popular place, but one of the shittist in my opinion. At least they gave you free tea and coffee, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast had a variety of choices which made us quite happy since we were sick of Turkish breakfast: hot hard boiled egg, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, salty cheese and tea. There is only so much of that you can take.
We went down the 500 meter wooden path to the beach and somehow managed to absent-mindedly pass the toll booth. We were hoping to find the Aussies, but the beach turned out to be far bigger then we expected and we found our own spot on the sand near the idiot cliff jumpers. We stayed a bit and headed back to read a bit on the pillow covered decks of the Hostel. Bayram's tree house might suck, but they had a cozy reading, playing games atmosphere where you could take off your shows and lay on a rugged and pillowed platform. We met a nice Aussie couple that filled us in on the latest in the new and kind of made me paranoid.
They told us that 19 idiots decided to bring liquid weapons on board 19 separate flights to the US where they would set them off via cell phones. Luckily they were caught before the planes took off, but now there is a strict band on all carry-ons. You’re not allowed to bring anything on the plane, but your passport and medicine. Yeah, this rule better get amended soon because there is no way I'm sticking my camera and film under the plane. So if anyone hears more on this subject will you please keep me updated? Thanks, I appreciated it. Hopefully the scare will blow over soon.
We found the Aussies sometime later and learned how to play Uker, which is a great game and if anyone wants to play I'd be more than happy to teach you. After 1 am Robby and I decided to be losers and good to bed while the Aussies opted for dancing at the Orange Night Club. We were rudely awoken by Craig who was too drunk to know that if he kept talking to us at 4 in the morning we didn't want to hear it. Eventually he passed out and we got to wake him up at 9am since check out was at 10 am.
Robby and I had planned to go walking through the ruins, but we spent the majority of the morning playing Uker with the Hung-over people. It was relaxing and fun, so we didn't care too much. After 2m we said we'd meet them at the beach and head down the beach road to the ruins. Remnants of the vast town were scattered throughout the trees, so Robby and I selected a path and went on a lovely hike through the woods. The day was beautiful and we enjoyed the exercise and tranquility that came with hiking. I hadn't realized how much I missed hiking until I came to Olympos. Nice place to stay for a little bit.
We hiked out onto the beach and found the Aussies just as they were preparing to head back. We all were catching the 5 pm bus to Antayla. We walked back, grabbed a bite to eat and smashed into the over crowded bus. After 20 minutes we transferred to a new bus and within 2 hours we were at the main bus station in Antayla awaking our night bus to Cappadocia. Sara and Carrie were coming on the same bus, but Craig and Mel had to stay the night and catch a plane to London in the morning. We said sad goodbyes and headed to the gnome village of Goreme.
Since I've already written a ton and we want to get food, I will write about Cappadocia later. Until then stay safe, don't fly anywhere, and tell me hi once in a while.