Days 349-356: South West Turkey
Pamukkale, Afrodisias, Fethiye, Antalya
Waterless pools, love bugs, rock tombs, and Turkish fare.
We saw postcards and posters of the “travertine pools” in Pamukkale and we had to go. The travertines are brilliant white, multi-tiered calcium pools with crystal blue water – well, at least they were pools when the water wasn’t being diverted to “preserve” them. We found out those postcard pictures were taken at least seven years ago.
The waterless travertine pools at Pamukkale. These were one of the coolest geological formations we’ve seen and would have been even prettier if there was water in them like the postcards show.
Surrounding the travertines were the ruins of Hierapolis. To quote the Lonely Planet guidebook: “In ancient times Hierapolis was a place where the sick came for a miracle cure, but the size of the necropolis suggests the local healers had only mixed success.”
Raising the dead at the Necropolis in Pamukkale. We didn’t appreciate what a “city of the dead” looked like until we saw the incredible number of tombs strewn about the hills.
We also made a day trip to Afrodisias. The town was named after the temple dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, where frequent “love ins” in her honor occured. The temple was converted to a Byzantine church, which put the kibosh on the amorous activities. There wasn’t much of the temple-turned-church left, but the site was huge and worth the trip.
Some bugs took a cue from the love goddess Aphrodite… (nobody told them it was a Christian church now). We thought they looked like the head of that dude from Episode I of Star Wars.
The stadium at Afrodisias was huge and very well preserved. One end was set up for gladiator matches. We found out that gladiators had a 1 in 3 chance of surviving their first year on the job. Guess the job interviewer didn’t ask “where do you see yourself in five years?”
Turkey has put on a nice show for us with wild flowers, including these red poppies, all over the place.
The entry gate to the temple of Aphrodite.
Lots of well carved sarcophagi around these parts.
The resort town of Fethiye hadn’t quite fired up for the season yet and was pretty much empty. We caught the very first (and only) “12 Island Cruise” of the season. Despite the Spring-forward time change, all of the tourists managed to make it to the boat on time. However, the same couldn’t be said of the busload of happy-go-lucky young Turks that eventually joined us for the trip.
We’re blaming the incredible speed of this cool orange salamander on one of the 12 islands for the blurry picture.
Sorry, but we simply couldn’t resist taking this picture on another island. The irony was too thick.
Fishing boats in Fethiye harbor on a calm morning.
The Lycians carved tombs right into the rocky cliffs above Fethiye in the 4th century BC.
When paving some of the streets in Fethiye, they just left some of the sarcophagi right in the middle of the road.
We spent a couple relaxing days in the resort area of Antalya. The place was absolutely swarming with tourists. The best part of our visit was the reason everybody else was here, to see the total solar eclipse, which we already covered in a previous entry.
Here’s the part where we go off on food. We already covered Turkish tea (great!) and Turkish coffee (ug!). Before we got here, we were concerned that we would find the vegetarian options to be quite limited. And a menu like this one didn’t give us much hope.
Fortunately, we figured out how to eat in Turkey. And now we love the food! Breakfast is generally included with hotel rooms and consists of: unlimited bread and tea, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, and spreads.
For lunch and dinner we discovered “mezes”. Most restaurants have a refrigerated glass case filled with appetizers (mezes). We could get a plate or two of mixed mezes that would more than fill us up and have a huge variety. Some of our favorites are: grilled eggplant with potato and tomato, stuffed grape leaves or peppers, hummus, fried potatoes, green beans with tomatoes, and white beans in tomato sauce. These always come with unlimited bread. Some places would throw in complimentary tea and/or fruit with the meal. We’ve never left a Turkish meal hungry.
That would be fine if it weren’t for the fantastic desserts in Turkey. “Turkish delight” is a gummy sweet covered in powdered sugar or coconut and comes in a huge variety of flavors (from nuts to fruity). We had tried Turkish delight in the States and always hated it, but it is incredibly tasty here. Have we mentioned baklava? It doesn’t really matter since it’s so damn good we’ll mention it again. There are shops selling it everywhere and it is generally heavenly. Speaking of which, we’re hungry and there’s a baklava place down the street.
Tags: Turkey
Kelly & Marcus
April 14th, 2006 at 7:28 am
You can send some of that baklava this way….
No baby yet….
xxoxox
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:49 pm
Hi Kelly and Marcus – I don’t know how I stumbled on your blogs – quite by accident – but how glad I am! I feel a bit naughty, like a voyeur, but am thoroughly enjoying your wonderful photos and commentary! I’m a Brit living in the States, but lived in India and Malaysia before coming here, so have very much enjoyed reliving some of my memories via your travels! Loved the ‘on the loo’ photo in Ephesus. We visited that exact spot on honeymoon 20 years ago! Thank you so much!!
Cheers, Kate Phillips
April 27th, 2006 at 8:38 am
Hi Kate! Thanks for the kind words. We love hearing from anyone reading. No better place to launch a marriage than a communal bathroom. 🙂 All the best!