Travertine, euro-pose, and a lost kindle

So after Istanbul, which was incredible, we set out for Pamukkale. Pamukkale is a town in the middle of Turkey that was used as a Roman Bath resort a LOOOOONG time ago. It was an hour flight and then an hour bus ride from the airport. As we were getting on the bus, Kelsey and i realized we left our kindle on the plane. GOD DAMNIT!!! We were already out of the terminal, way past security, there was no way we're going to get back in there. Not a good start to Pamukkale. We just got on the bus and tried to enjoy the rest of the trip. We were told it was about $10/person to get us all the way to Pamukkale , then halfway through they pulled over and put us on a smaller bus... then said $10 more/person. That was STRIKE 2 Pamukkale! We eventually arrive in Pamukkale, which is a town that can't even be 4 square blocks, and decide to drop our stuff off at our hotel. We walk into our room, and there are 4 single beds placed at different parts of the TINY room. At that point we realized why the room was so cheap, it was basically like going to a summer camp for 30 year olds. The guys at the hotel were extremely nice though and they offered to help us try to get our kindle back from the airline.

The main attraction in Pamukkale is the national park which has the travertine baths. Essentially this is a huge deposit of travertine ("the rock") that is met by an underground river. From a distance "the rock" looks like a snow covered hill surrounded on all sides by a bunch of dry brush, with a long sloped path to the top (it looks like someone carved a long driveway out of the rock). When you get closer though you realize that the river, which is still running down to the foot of the path, actually carved the walkway up. All along the path to the top there are random pools that people can sit and cool off in (Turkey is HOT).  Like I said earlier, the grounds are actually in a national park and they won't let anyone wear their shoes on the travertine, so you see hundreds of people walking around barefoot in the water.

Now, from what we have observed, taking your shoes off and walking in water is the first step to losing most of your inhibitions to Europeans. After just entering the park, you see grown men and women having fun; splashing one another, laughing, etc. About a quarter of the way up, people start taking off their shirts and enjoying the sun (EVEN I DID IT). Half way up, speedos and bikinis (none of which should be on ANY of these people) are everywhere. At three quarters climb, we were literally stopped in our tracks by a group of 3 who were taking pictures of themselves. This quickly turned into a full blown photoshoot, each person taking, no joke, at least 100 photos of the other while the third person held up traffic. When we were forced to stop, we noticed that these 3 were not the only ones trying to update their portfolios. In fact, the 4 of us were in the minority of people not posing for the camera. Posing is not the right word, these people (not just girls) were WORKING IT; on hands and knees, doing the tiger claw, flexing, leg up against the wall of the mountain, the look over the shoulder, etc. etc. etc. In that moment, everyone was sexy in their minds; Grandmas, Grandpas, 20 Year old girls/guys, the fat guy in the speedo (who was encouraging his 2 sons and daughter to work it too). This small detail of Pamukkale was not in our tour books.

After that spectacle, we made it to the top. Here you overlook the entire valley, which is actually very beautiful. We hung out in some of the Roman pools, drank a few beers, then read the sign advertising for... the water park. Yep, they put a water park at the top of the 3000 year old historical landmark. Yep, both tasteless and genius at the same time. So, of course we went. "Water park" was a bit of an exaggeration. They had about 5 pools and 2 mini slides for kids. We didn't realize that we walked in without paying admission, but after getting a look at the facilities and the price, we bailed and went back to the travertine pools.

So after the pools we walked back to the hotel. Remember how I said the guys at the hotel were extremely nice? They had been working with Turkish Air to get us our kindle back all morning. Turkish Air had flown it back into Pamukkale, and these guys (who run a hotel for like $50/night for a room) paid a driver to drive an hour each way to the airport to pick it up. They told us to go get some dinner and they'd have it when we got back. Sure enough we went and got some dinner and birthday drinks for Melissa (happy bday again Mel!). When we finally returned to the hotel that night, they had our kindle and some birthday presents (postcards, tea, and a magnet) waiting for us. I tried to pay them for their troubles, at the very least for the cost of sending a driver, but they wouldn't accept any of it. They told us we were their guests and that is their duty. Such nice people. The next morning we woke up, kindle in hand, and took off for the Antalya on the Turkish Riviera. Nothing like a 3 hour bus ride to get you ready for the beach!

meeting the hunters, demitri, and effes in Turkey

oh turkey. thank you for showing us so many new things, for opening our eyes to this other part of the world, and for letting us enjoy your beauty, history, and culture. and beer. and hooka. and backgammon. seriously turkey, you rock.

turkey was a bit of an unknown for us - but we were beyond excited as we were finally going somewhere that was going to throw us through a few, must-be-exciting, cant-understand-a-word-your-saying, i only know how to say beer - loops. and it did. and it was amazing. or as donovon would say... amazeballs.

we hopped a flight from london to turkey to meet two of our favorite US friends, Mel & Donovan. Someone was celebrating her 29th, or was it 30th birthday - either way:) we were going there to celebrate her special day. and celebrate we did. it was so good to see both of those smiling, blondies - and we took the first few days by storm in istanbul seeing every site possible. its such an old, magnificent town - full of everything you see pictures of. incredible mosques every which way you look, birds flying in the sunset, locals playing backgammon and smoking hooka every night, and a bazaar that will blow your tea-loving, spice-smelling, carpet-bargaining mind. we started the trip off by tackling the Hagia Sophia, which was breath taking. It was built back in 500, and it was still so incredible. I still struggle to even fathom how in 500AD people made things so magnificent and just plain BIG by their bare hands. It was beautiful. We then covered our skimpy american clothed bodies up to check out the Blue Mosque, which was gorgeous or as we now say thanks to Ireland "gargous". What was cool about this was seeing the mosque actually in use. People, and lots of them, were praying in the middle of the floor as well as on the side (b/c ladies, apparently you only get a side hall... hmm, feminist kelsey starts to steam up a bit). but we had the chance to wait outside and read a bit about their religion which i also thought was truly fascinating. we stood in line for these places and all spouted off our 1/2 intelligent knowledge which was quite amusing seeing us all do without a magical iphone to refer to - and then after we felt sufficiently educated - wandered off to see just how many doners we could get for colin and some baklava to wash them down with. colin told me this trip was going to be death by doners & baklava. the guy wasnt kidding.

later on that night we found ourselves hysterically laughing over god knows what while hookaing & learning the game of backgammon. man - it was so fun. nothing like some apple tea, a little hooka buzz, and friendly game that none of us besides donovan knew how to play to get 4 friends laughing. we then headed back to our place (an awesome, awesome airbnb flat about 3 doors down from Mel & D's even awesomer hotel) and called it a night.

the next day we tackled the Palace - which really impressed the 4 of us with it's awesome Disneyland like courtyards and Herem (aka - place where all the concubines lived, and we can only imagine fought like they do on the bachelor). it was eerrie, and different, and fascinating to think about what life was like back then. we oohed and awwed at some big fancy diamonds and sped through to find a throne for mel to stand on and a fountain to take a picture of colin looking like he was peeing in. oh how we mature with age. but then made it over to the other side of town to check out the grand bazaar and have our socks knocked off by the impressive sales pitch for a turkish rug. first of all - this place is gigantic. we were lost on multiple occasions... from eachother, together, all alone - you name it, we were lost. but boy was it a lively scene to be lost in. everywhere you turn someone is trying to bargain with you to buy some of their gorgeous spices, sweet (and truth be told - not that good) turkish delight, beautiful teas, and our favorite... a silk, only made here, best quality, psshhh of course we use vegetable dye, let me make you some tea while i tell you more - turkish rug. we went next door to by some tea, and before we knew it donovan and mel were down a flight of stairs, in a tiny room full of carpets, teas in hand, butts on a couch, looking at 3 different versions of carpets - that lets be honest - they were never going to buy. but what an experience... col and i only joined the last 10 minutes and we were fascinated. after a crazy afternoon... we headed back for a quick rest, run, and then dinner at this fantastic place that we stumbled upon down an alley around the corner from our Instanbul homes. it was overlooking the bosphorous and we watched the sun set, and the city light up as we sipped on wine, ate yummy cheese, and listened to a lot of awesome and hysterical remixes put on specifically for the americans. thank you, hotel california.

for our last full day in instanbul we walked across the bridge instead of taking our trusty usual (smelly) tram, and watched all the fishermen not catch any fish. we got to the other side and enjoyed some coffee while resting and catching up a bit more - enjoying the weather that bounced back and forth from too hot, to perfectly breezey. Then headed up the hill to see the Sulemaniye Mosque and get some lunch. Well apparently we saved our crazy adventure for the last day as the hike up the hill was along construction filled, hand written sign, looks more like a scary alley - roads. We then got up to the Mosque which had a beautiful courtyard, rounded the corner looking for food, ran into all the university students and an allergy attack of dust. I don't think I have ever sneezed so much in my entire life - before I could notice that my eyes were watering and I was sneezing like a crazy I looked over and saw the other 3 dying as well. It was chaos and panic as we searched for food that of course was no where to be found, and we hanger-ly looked for cover from this dust & flower "breeze" that was taking all of us down. Finally we found a place to stop and rest our red & teary eyes, munch on some food, find a way to laugh about it all and enjoy the afternoon. As much as we didn't want to - we bared the elements again and made our way back down the hill, wandered through a smaller bazaar, tried to find scissors for mel to cut my hair, pick up some gifts for family, and then made it across the bridge and to our never-looked-so-good showers. Clean and clear eyed we made a night of it and took a cruise along the Bosphorus that was incredible - a must for anyone visiting turkey. We watched the sunset as we drank what tasted like bubble gum soda, and then saw the city light up on both sides, with both bridges showing off a fancy pants light show. It was awesome and we sat outside enjoying the breeze, only to step inside about 45 seconds before a wave took over our seats (thank goodness for Mel's genius)! We capped off our night with some doners, beer, backgammon (of course) - then headed home to get ready for our trip to Pamukkale the next day. The next morning before we left, Col & I made an early day of it heading over to check out the Asian side of Istanbul, and we are so so glad we did. And yes we can say we were in both Europe & Asian in 1 day - wahoo! It is such a beautiful part of Instanbul - away from all the touristy stuff, full of kind people, yummy bakeries and clean, cute areas. I've been doing a bit of research and training for a new passion of mine, so I met with a wonderful man named Hakkan about his business and training - and we talked for hours. I learned so much and was grateful. When we were done, Colin came by to say hello and to tell me he was headed next door to get a haircut and before we could say anything Hakkan was walking him over to his own personal barber for an official Turkish cut and shave. I left my handsome bearded husband to himself, while i went to do a bit more training, and when he returned he was a new man... with an awesome mustache. He pretty much said that was one of the best things we has ever done, and getting a nice shave at a barber is a must-do when needing to treat yourself. The mustache and story of them lighting his ears on fire pretty much had me smiling all day long. We grabbed some bakery treats, headed back to the EU side, met up with D & Mel and then were off to the airport to get to our flight (about 4 hours early - better safe than sorry in Turkey right?:)). After a flight, a few bus rides, and collectively loosing some sunglasses & a kindle we were in Pamukkale.... and it just got better.