Day 8: Pamukkale

this morning we got up and got on the bus. again. the bus rides are starting to get a little rough, but we only have a few more days of it. personally, i'd gladly take more bumpy bus rides over a ferry ride. we'll see how that turns out in a few days! the bus ride was about four hours. we stopped a little over half way to get lunch. i bought two chocolate bars but i didn't know how much they were before i paid. they were the freaking most expensive chocolate bars i've ever bought. and then they melted in the bus. and then i lost half of one. bad chocolate day.

denizli is a town located in a valley in the mountains. before andrea gets all excited and starts envisioning colorado, the mountains aren't quite that big. only a very few have snow on them, and i don't think we're deep enough to be around those right now. we crossed town pretty quickly and went straight up the other side to pamukkale.

i'm going to try to explain it, but you should probably google it too because it's very strange and pretty looking. pamukkale is a limestone formation of staggered pools down the side of a mountain. the shallow water that collects in the pools and flows down the white rock is bright blue and very warm. i would know because i got to walk down the pools. there were a lot of people swimming, and even more people wearing inappropriate swimwear. no one was naked, but there were a lot of speedos and a lot of old ladies in bikinis. but the rest of it was pretty haha. there is something similar at yellowstone.

the same area is also home to the hieropolis, another ancient city. it was a lot more destroyed than the previous city, and everything was very mossy due to the hotsprings in the area. there's an amphitheatre that i didn't get to see, but i did get to walk along the biggest graveyard in the world. there were rock sarcophogi that had been unearthed everywhere.

we left the hieropolis and pamukkale and came to the hotel, which is so much nicer than the last one (and it's only 4 stars instead of a 5 star like the gross one...). too bad we're only here one night. we all went down to the pool for a swim after a super hot day, but the water was freezing so we bailed for the natural hot springs. the one pool was too cool so we got in the nasty yellow colored one. it had lots of algae in it that's supposedly good for your skin. it was hothothot. we met an old man who is the chief physician at the university of arkansas and other people from australia. they asked us all sorts of questions and we all talked about the constitution and politics and all kinds of things! it was very interesting. oh and everyone loves texas. when they ask where we're from everyone always says illinois and the person will say, "ohhh." and then i say, "i'm from TEXAS!" and the person always gets really excited! i even talked about the red river rivalry because one lady had two daughters who went to UT and the man from arkansas had one too. they thought i would be happy so they were holding up their longhorns so i quickly made a face, turned it upside down, and reminded them who won this last year.

i don't think i've mentioned this, but i also met an older man from lousiana a few nights ago and a girl from las colinas on the second night in istanbul. and no one from illinois. southerners are the best travelers, i guess. :]