PAMUKKALE
The "cotton castle" was pretty neat. Huge white cliffs of hardened calcium and minerals from hot underground springs running down the mountain that can be seen from miles away. They've been used as a spa from ancient times, hosted the large roman city of heiropolis, and even today provide water to the modern town, who's plumbing is in a perennial state of repair due to the extremely hard water (our shower head was spitting water from everywhere but the holes that were actually designed to do that).
We got dropped off at the top of the mountain to explore the ruins of heiropolis and I dragged Jaimie into her first ever Doctor Fish experience (she's easily the most ticklish person I've ever met so that was a must do for me). Then the real fun started as we embarked on a barefoot walk down calcified slopes as the sun set. Easily one of the most memorable strolls of my lifetime: beautiful and unique scenery; warm spring water rolling gently over your toes the entire way down; rock hard surfaces that had dried in a multitude of formations creating a variety of textures on the soles of your feet. Your senses keep suggesting it should be slimy and slippery, but, with rare exceptions, each step is greeted with a firm grip - although you can never quite shake of the fear of slipping enough to abondon a gingerly gait. The entire experience met my expectation, which was a pleasant surprise given how high I'd set the bar.
My pictures are a complete massacre of the spectacle... Just go here and enjoy the ones google's hive-mind thinks are the best instead:
SELCUK AND EPHESUS
Spent an afternoon souvenir shopping in the little village of Selcuk, where we also ate the tastiest and cheapest lunch of our tour and strolled past the castle, mosque, and St. John's basilica (this region has a lot of legends of him writing his gospel account here). Late in the day we headed to Ephesus to see the ruins after the crowds died down. It's regarded as the largest (partially) restored roman city ruins. It definitely is large. Didn't quite live up to my sky-high expectations, although that was likely impossible. Highlights were: a backgammon board carved into marble in the government section where you can envision long ago politicians sitting and playing a game outside the "Parliament House"; the public toilet room (where you can also envision people sitting and talking together while they poo - no privacy here); a suspected "house if pleasure"; getting pictures of the library of Celsus with no one else around; enjoying another view while sitting in a 25,000 seater amphitheater. The scale of the place is definitely impressive, and as you take in all the marble, detailed carvings, advanced institutions, and contemplate how far all over the world these sites were built, you really start to realize just how impressive the Roman Empire was.
One interesting tidbit our guide shared: the famed library of Celsus was the third largest in the world, behind Alexandria and Pergamum (also in Anatolia). The competition between the two bigger ones to build the largest led Egypt to stop selling papyrus to Anatolia, which in turn caused them to start writing on animal skins. Stack enough of those on top of each other and start binding one side, and eventually you move away from papyrus scrolls and into bound parchment books. The word "parchment" derives from "Pergamum". Neato.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
I always form a lot of opinions on things in case you couldn't tell. Here's my last ones on Turkey:
- Turkish people are wonderful. Polite, happy, friendly, intelligent, cultured and, in, what's the word for having good ethics and rule of law and social trust? Civilized? Whatever that word is, they are that too. I think they've landed themselves squarely in my top 10 favourite peoples list on this trip. Germans on the other hand took another drop down the ladder - they seem to be universally regarded as the worst tourists: terrible tippers, pedantic nit pickers, and harsh critics - our guide said no one ever wants one in their group because you know immediately you will not get your usual good reviews or a decent tip. I need to travel back there again some day because they seemed great when I was in their country... Maybe they just need to be somewhere they can make everything "just so".
- turkey itself is also a wonderful country: diverse landscapes, mountainous and ocean clad, abundant agriculture, magnificent history, well developed (I experienced zero culture shock here). Thoroughly enjoyed my time here... But you can also sense some of the problems just below the surface. Border tensions, the Kurdish problem, and financially... Well, the roads are good, health care is better than Canada, and university is cheap, but the economy and taxes are a lot lower. If you do the math, there's something not quite right on the financial horizons.
- Pollution also seems to be a problem. A lot of hazy smog in some regions and not unlike china and India in that regard, if an order of magnitude smaller. They are investing heavily in geothermal and nuclear, building 3 nuclear plants as we speak. People hear that and go, well, nuclear, especially in an earthquake prone region, but I've been sold on that as likely our best path forward. A lot of renewables have their own issues - solar, for instance, I was surprised to learn that when you add in the mining and manufacturing components, it's not that much better environmentally than natural gas. We had a chap in our group who's been a consultant with nuclear power plants his whole career, and in his opinion, we need to go almost 100% nuclear right now to avoid the worst of climate change. A movie I can't recommend enough if you haven't seen it yet is "Pandora's Box". Go watch it. I'll wait. :)
- I didn't talk much about whirling dervishes on this trip, even though the sect they belong to is 19% of Turkey's population and one of its most recognizable cultural icons. That's cause other than a stop at a museum in Konya, I didn't pay much attention to it. The one memory I have though was a sign at said museum that stated once a dervish in training completes 1001 days of suffering, he gets elevated to his own cell room. You'd think that's a great reward, but it continued to say he now begins his 3 months of "cell suffering". Just like the famous Simpson's stone cutters episode. "Remove the stone of Shame. Attach the stone of Triumph!" :) Religious traditions are funny.
- in total, we drove well over 2500 kms the past 9 days. Not counting day trips, boat rides, and balloon floats. That's the equivalent of driving from Vancouver to Winnipeg, except you do it at 70-80 km/h instead of the usual 110+ in Canada. I can't believe I willingly paid money to spend that much time in a bus, but it was actually quite delightful. Great scenery, good company, a pleasant old Turkish driver Ali. Not saying I'd do it again, but I would recommend it.
THE LAST SUPPER
Our group all went out for one last meal together last night before they continue on without us. Probably was my favourite night of the trip. Lamb stir fry, fried anchovies, and wine for dinner, then across the street to a sheesha bar for huka, backgammon, and raki (the Turkish spirit made from grapes with aniseed for a delicious liquorice flavour). And lots of laughs ("I don't think his mother's canal was quite big enough for him" was the best line of the night). That actually felt like the most authentic cultural experience we had on the trip.
We're docking in samos now. Time to shut down the blogging for a few days and just kick it. Island style.
Gule Gule.
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