Perhaps drinking the raki and red wine was a mistake. Dan and I woke up feeling a little less than fresh (he far worse than myself) when the alarm went off at about 5.20am. Why so early? We wanted to make a dash up to Sunset Point to take pictures and see the balloons in action.
We pulled ourselves together and grabbed our things, stumbling up the hill. It was still dark out but with a gentle glow appearing on the horizon. The hill is quite steep and I was puffed by the time we got to the top. It is a series of ridges that we had been to a couple of nights ago, one side overlooking Göreme and the other looking towards the Red and Rose valleys. We walked along the ridge and chose our spot where we could perfectly see both sides on a lovely little jutting out area. There were only a handful of other people up there at this time.
We could see and hear the balloons already being inflated in the valley beneath us and it wasn't long before the first took to the sky. The breeze was stronger today and the balloons floated up and quickly
over Göreme, heading away from the houses. It was beautiful - and Dan had truly picked the perfect spot! Looking around us quite a crowd had gathered but no one could get past us (we were sitting on the rock) to our little jutting out position.
The balloons went up in a distinctive two waves this morning - first with the sunrise and second once the sun had fully risen. We sat here for about an hour until the sun was quite high in the sky before deciding to head back down. It was just so beautiful! Once we looked like we were about to move - the people behind us mobilised very quickly to grab our spot!
On the way down we met a gorgeous little young cat (not quite a kitten anymore) who was SHO adorable and had a little stumpy tail. It climbed all over Dan and really wanted pats and I wanted to take it with us.
Back down we returned to our hotel, Jay looking up in surprise to see us not only up and awake, but returning at such an early hour. I don't think he could believe how much we can drink and still continue to function!
We collapsed back in our room for a bit and pondered our next move: repacking. We needed to pack with that evening in mind, namely the 10 hour overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. At breakfast, Jay said we could stay in our room until midday so that gave us the extra time we needed to pack and sort. We haven't bought anything but we spread our belongings out over more bags so we had our sleeping masks, small blanket and other amenities for the bus ride close at hand.
Jay let us leave our multitudes of luggage at the reception and we meandered out into the day. We had been given a hint about a great carpet shop from Sam and Steve which is run by a Kiwi.
We expected to go into the shop, say a little hello to Ruth, the owner, have a small peruse and bid our farewells. What actually happened was simply amazing - when we got there, Ruth was in the middle of a possible transaction with carpet sellers and she allowed us to sit and watch, explaining what was happening the whole time. She had the dealers reopen all the carpets to show us the different qualities, and explained the colours and prices while we drank apple tea. Ruth said that during peak buying season, this happens multiple times a day and it's exhausting!
Some of the carpets were utterly beautiful, and the favourite which was silk would sell for over US$14,000. Incredible.
Once the dealers had left, we sat and chatted for a long time as Ruth explained the background behind the carpets - something I had never even taken into consideration. Originally, carpets were used as part of a woman's dowery. She would make carpets and bags and all sorts, and weave her hopes and dreams and life into the pattern. Each was unique, and the original old carpets you could see were perfect in their imperfections; changes of colour, lines not straight etc. She then showed us modern carpets, still woven by women but to a pattern and for a wage, so still beautiful but lacking in soul.
She had her assistant lay out many different times of carpets and kilim, telling us the different region it was made in based on the colour and materials used. After, she took us down into the store room where she showed us many more and explained the pricing system. All were sadly out of our price range, but the knowledge Ruth imparted on us was invaluable! Maybe one day we will be able to purchase a carpet or kilim from her, as her passion and joy for it clearly shone through.
Dan started to feel a little queasy from the night before, so after perusing some cushion covers we made our leave.
We wanted to get a bit of food, and so we went in search of a restaurant we had been recommended but had been told it didn't exist on google maps. We couldn't find it, so settled for pide at the Cappadocia Pide House. Jay was there too randomly, and he and a Chinese tourist and ourselves had a big chat about practically everything! Dan and I ordered a pide each but we didn't finish them, and had it packed up to eat for dinner that night.
It was a lovely day and we weren't sure what to do now to fill in the time before the bus, so we wandered back up to Sunset Point and decided to explore as much of the peak as we could. We found a single tree on the peak and squashed ourselves beneath it (because it's hard for trees to grow out of rock!) and enjoyed the warmth and beautiful breeze. We walked to the other side of the peak and did the same - found a tree with a view over Göreme and sat and tried not to doze.
We eventually returned to the Angel Cave Suites to use the internet until it was time to go to the bus station. We bid Jay a fond farewell, promising to leave good reviews and wishing each other the best. His hospitality was second to none! I really felt like we were staying with friends.
Dan and I spent some time internetting before ladening ourselves up and wandering to the bus station. What lay ahead was a 10 hour overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. I get quite bad motion sickness so I was worried about this trip. I did everything in my power to help though - motion sickness travel bands, travel sickness tablets, neck pillow, eye mask, ear plugs, butt pillow and chewing gum. Turns out, I did quite well. I think I got more sleep on the bus than in some of our previous accommodation! It was still desperately uncomfortable, my coccyx was in agony and my arse was sore, but it worked reasonably well.
Our bus was laid out 2+1 so the seats were quite large. In the back of each seat was a screen where you could watch Turkish movies or listen to music. Quite luxurious, really! Far better than the UK offerings I've had to put up with before...
We made a couple of stops on the way as expected, and just before 6am we were woken up to get ready to alight at Pamukkale. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, and I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. We piled off the bus and straight onto a mini bus, which drove us into Pamukkale city. We arrived there about 6.30am - the grounds didn't open until 8am so we had a bit of time to kill.
Everyone piled into the bus company's office to sit and wait for either hotel transfers or for the grounds to open. First off we ate our muesli breakfast which rather confused those around us. At about 7am, I walked up the street to a hotel to use the bathroom to change clothes and waited in the front room with the hotel owner, a little old Turkish lady. We watched the equivalent of Turkish Bold and the Beautiful for about 20 minutes while I waited for the bathroom to be free (god, I thought MY IBS was bad, that guy was in there for half an hour!). She would occasionally let me know what was going on on the TV. Eventually he emerged and it was my turn. I wanted to change into my bathers because you can swim in the Pamukkale hot thermal pools.
I struggled into my one piece, forgetting that I needed to pee as well so I struggled out of the one piece, peed then struggled into it again. In total I took about 5 minutes and returned to Dan down the street. After his turn to change we secured our luggage in the bus company office and started the trek up street to the ticket booth for Pamukkale.
Pamukkale literally translates to Cotton Castle and it really is an incredible sight. Jutting out of nowhere, the white rock spills down the mountainside in long cooled rivulets. We had to wait a little while to enter because the ticket office man was late to work (and clearly didn't want to be there once he arrived!) but after patting an adorable kitty and buying our ticket we were through the gates and inside.
Once you walk up the hill a short way, the ground changes from soil and grass to white mineral stone. Here you have to take your shoes off and proceed barefoot. At 8am the stone was very very cold as the sun hadn't hit the valley yet and the stone was very rough and undulating underfoot. It wasn't long before my feet were very sore and cold. Oh well, they were getting a good exfoliate! We continued up and realised the ground was becoming wet where water was spilling out over the top of some shallow pools. The water was freezing! We tried to wade through but found we were getting our pants too wet so we retreated and tried a different path. As we continued up, more and more of these pale blue pools were on our right, each with very cold water. However up ahead (quite a long way ahead) we could see a waterfall and what looked like steam rising up. That's what we wanted.
We reached an area where a gushing channel had been carved which fed the billowing waterfall. People were sitting along the outside with their feet in the channel so we decided to try. Steaming hot! It burned our cold and sore feet but felt amazing. We sat here, soothing our weary feet for some time before making it to the main pool which was deliciously warm.
More and more people were arriving so we thought we'd explore a bit and come back. There were supposed to be more rock pools to swim in, but upon walking the entire length of the hill, right through all the Roman ruins, we found some dried up pools. Apparently they aren't open at this time of year.
Returning to the warm pool I plucked up the courage to get down to my bathers but not very many people were doing so and the pools were only shin deep anyway. We sat with our feet in the hot water and people watched for a while, laughing at the people who wore shoes onto the rock and were whistled at furiously by the guard on duty. No shoo!
We tried walking to the other side and then we realised - here are the terraces from all the photos. Empty. Devoid of water with taps at the top. It seems only a tiny portion was open at this time of year, which turned out to be a bit disappointing. After making this discovery we decided to go down and find some lunch. I walked in as many pools on the way down as possible, each one distinctively colder than the one before as the hot water cooled as it travelled down the rock face.
We are lunch in a little cafe with views of the hill which was quite tasty. After that we wandered around the little lake at the bottom before deciding it was time to head back. I was feeling so tired - the bus journey started catching up with me and I was overheating.
Next we just did some standard things like looking for an ATM (which resulted in a lot of hassling from shop owners wanting us to give them business) and stopped for some sugary drinks.
It was time to get the shuttle to Denizli bus station and onto Selçuk. Finally the guy inside said something to the effect of "oh the shuttle doesn't come *here*, you have to go down the street, and when you see a mini bus going in *this direction* (gesticulates wildly) get on it." What?
It actually turned out to be easy so when a shuttle came along in the right direction we hopped on it, and before we knew it we were at Denizli bus station.
The journey to Selçuk took three hours and again my travel sickness pills knocked me out for most of it. We were given snacks and drinks on board, and all it cost was about €7 each. Much better than the trains and buses in the UK!
There was a gorgeous orange sunset and a bit of rain on the journey, and when we arrived in Selçuk our hostel wasn't too far from the bus station. I had forgotten that we had a triple room at the ANZ Hostel (everything around here is Aussie themed?) and so we have lots of space! The hostel looks really rather nice so far, and was ridiculously cheap with breakie included tomorrow.
I did a quick search and found a place for us to have a late dinner called Selçuk Pidecisi. The food was rather delicious and they were very generous, including a large salad, fresh fresh bread (OMG the bread!), some Turkish tea and a delicious dessert that I can't remember the name of - I think it was tahini or peanut with sugar - all for free. I had the kofte and Dan a pide. Satiated, we walked back to our hostel, Dan trying to pat as many cats as he can on the way - and now it's time for the first proper sleep in a couple of days.
Til next time
xx
We pulled ourselves together and grabbed our things, stumbling up the hill. It was still dark out but with a gentle glow appearing on the horizon. The hill is quite steep and I was puffed by the time we got to the top. It is a series of ridges that we had been to a couple of nights ago, one side overlooking Göreme and the other looking towards the Red and Rose valleys. We walked along the ridge and chose our spot where we could perfectly see both sides on a lovely little jutting out area. There were only a handful of other people up there at this time.
We could see and hear the balloons already being inflated in the valley beneath us and it wasn't long before the first took to the sky. The breeze was stronger today and the balloons floated up and quickly
over Göreme, heading away from the houses. It was beautiful - and Dan had truly picked the perfect spot! Looking around us quite a crowd had gathered but no one could get past us (we were sitting on the rock) to our little jutting out position.
The balloons went up in a distinctive two waves this morning - first with the sunrise and second once the sun had fully risen. We sat here for about an hour until the sun was quite high in the sky before deciding to head back down. It was just so beautiful! Once we looked like we were about to move - the people behind us mobilised very quickly to grab our spot!
On the way down we met a gorgeous little young cat (not quite a kitten anymore) who was SHO adorable and had a little stumpy tail. It climbed all over Dan and really wanted pats and I wanted to take it with us.
Back down we returned to our hotel, Jay looking up in surprise to see us not only up and awake, but returning at such an early hour. I don't think he could believe how much we can drink and still continue to function!
We collapsed back in our room for a bit and pondered our next move: repacking. We needed to pack with that evening in mind, namely the 10 hour overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. At breakfast, Jay said we could stay in our room until midday so that gave us the extra time we needed to pack and sort. We haven't bought anything but we spread our belongings out over more bags so we had our sleeping masks, small blanket and other amenities for the bus ride close at hand.
Jay let us leave our multitudes of luggage at the reception and we meandered out into the day. We had been given a hint about a great carpet shop from Sam and Steve which is run by a Kiwi.
We expected to go into the shop, say a little hello to Ruth, the owner, have a small peruse and bid our farewells. What actually happened was simply amazing - when we got there, Ruth was in the middle of a possible transaction with carpet sellers and she allowed us to sit and watch, explaining what was happening the whole time. She had the dealers reopen all the carpets to show us the different qualities, and explained the colours and prices while we drank apple tea. Ruth said that during peak buying season, this happens multiple times a day and it's exhausting!
Some of the carpets were utterly beautiful, and the favourite which was silk would sell for over US$14,000. Incredible.
Once the dealers had left, we sat and chatted for a long time as Ruth explained the background behind the carpets - something I had never even taken into consideration. Originally, carpets were used as part of a woman's dowery. She would make carpets and bags and all sorts, and weave her hopes and dreams and life into the pattern. Each was unique, and the original old carpets you could see were perfect in their imperfections; changes of colour, lines not straight etc. She then showed us modern carpets, still woven by women but to a pattern and for a wage, so still beautiful but lacking in soul.
She had her assistant lay out many different times of carpets and kilim, telling us the different region it was made in based on the colour and materials used. After, she took us down into the store room where she showed us many more and explained the pricing system. All were sadly out of our price range, but the knowledge Ruth imparted on us was invaluable! Maybe one day we will be able to purchase a carpet or kilim from her, as her passion and joy for it clearly shone through.
Dan started to feel a little queasy from the night before, so after perusing some cushion covers we made our leave.
We wanted to get a bit of food, and so we went in search of a restaurant we had been recommended but had been told it didn't exist on google maps. We couldn't find it, so settled for pide at the Cappadocia Pide House. Jay was there too randomly, and he and a Chinese tourist and ourselves had a big chat about practically everything! Dan and I ordered a pide each but we didn't finish them, and had it packed up to eat for dinner that night.
It was a lovely day and we weren't sure what to do now to fill in the time before the bus, so we wandered back up to Sunset Point and decided to explore as much of the peak as we could. We found a single tree on the peak and squashed ourselves beneath it (because it's hard for trees to grow out of rock!) and enjoyed the warmth and beautiful breeze. We walked to the other side of the peak and did the same - found a tree with a view over Göreme and sat and tried not to doze.
 |
| I nicknamed this one "Penis Valley". |
We eventually returned to the Angel Cave Suites to use the internet until it was time to go to the bus station. We bid Jay a fond farewell, promising to leave good reviews and wishing each other the best. His hospitality was second to none! I really felt like we were staying with friends.
Dan and I spent some time internetting before ladening ourselves up and wandering to the bus station. What lay ahead was a 10 hour overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. I get quite bad motion sickness so I was worried about this trip. I did everything in my power to help though - motion sickness travel bands, travel sickness tablets, neck pillow, eye mask, ear plugs, butt pillow and chewing gum. Turns out, I did quite well. I think I got more sleep on the bus than in some of our previous accommodation! It was still desperately uncomfortable, my coccyx was in agony and my arse was sore, but it worked reasonably well.
Our bus was laid out 2+1 so the seats were quite large. In the back of each seat was a screen where you could watch Turkish movies or listen to music. Quite luxurious, really! Far better than the UK offerings I've had to put up with before...
We made a couple of stops on the way as expected, and just before 6am we were woken up to get ready to alight at Pamukkale. We were literally in the middle of nowhere, and I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. We piled off the bus and straight onto a mini bus, which drove us into Pamukkale city. We arrived there about 6.30am - the grounds didn't open until 8am so we had a bit of time to kill.
Everyone piled into the bus company's office to sit and wait for either hotel transfers or for the grounds to open. First off we ate our muesli breakfast which rather confused those around us. At about 7am, I walked up the street to a hotel to use the bathroom to change clothes and waited in the front room with the hotel owner, a little old Turkish lady. We watched the equivalent of Turkish Bold and the Beautiful for about 20 minutes while I waited for the bathroom to be free (god, I thought MY IBS was bad, that guy was in there for half an hour!). She would occasionally let me know what was going on on the TV. Eventually he emerged and it was my turn. I wanted to change into my bathers because you can swim in the Pamukkale hot thermal pools.
I struggled into my one piece, forgetting that I needed to pee as well so I struggled out of the one piece, peed then struggled into it again. In total I took about 5 minutes and returned to Dan down the street. After his turn to change we secured our luggage in the bus company office and started the trek up street to the ticket booth for Pamukkale.
Pamukkale literally translates to Cotton Castle and it really is an incredible sight. Jutting out of nowhere, the white rock spills down the mountainside in long cooled rivulets. We had to wait a little while to enter because the ticket office man was late to work (and clearly didn't want to be there once he arrived!) but after patting an adorable kitty and buying our ticket we were through the gates and inside.
Once you walk up the hill a short way, the ground changes from soil and grass to white mineral stone. Here you have to take your shoes off and proceed barefoot. At 8am the stone was very very cold as the sun hadn't hit the valley yet and the stone was very rough and undulating underfoot. It wasn't long before my feet were very sore and cold. Oh well, they were getting a good exfoliate! We continued up and realised the ground was becoming wet where water was spilling out over the top of some shallow pools. The water was freezing! We tried to wade through but found we were getting our pants too wet so we retreated and tried a different path. As we continued up, more and more of these pale blue pools were on our right, each with very cold water. However up ahead (quite a long way ahead) we could see a waterfall and what looked like steam rising up. That's what we wanted.
We reached an area where a gushing channel had been carved which fed the billowing waterfall. People were sitting along the outside with their feet in the channel so we decided to try. Steaming hot! It burned our cold and sore feet but felt amazing. We sat here, soothing our weary feet for some time before making it to the main pool which was deliciously warm.
More and more people were arriving so we thought we'd explore a bit and come back. There were supposed to be more rock pools to swim in, but upon walking the entire length of the hill, right through all the Roman ruins, we found some dried up pools. Apparently they aren't open at this time of year.
Returning to the warm pool I plucked up the courage to get down to my bathers but not very many people were doing so and the pools were only shin deep anyway. We sat with our feet in the hot water and people watched for a while, laughing at the people who wore shoes onto the rock and were whistled at furiously by the guard on duty. No shoo!
We tried walking to the other side and then we realised - here are the terraces from all the photos. Empty. Devoid of water with taps at the top. It seems only a tiny portion was open at this time of year, which turned out to be a bit disappointing. After making this discovery we decided to go down and find some lunch. I walked in as many pools on the way down as possible, each one distinctively colder than the one before as the hot water cooled as it travelled down the rock face.
We are lunch in a little cafe with views of the hill which was quite tasty. After that we wandered around the little lake at the bottom before deciding it was time to head back. I was feeling so tired - the bus journey started catching up with me and I was overheating.
Next we just did some standard things like looking for an ATM (which resulted in a lot of hassling from shop owners wanting us to give them business) and stopped for some sugary drinks.
It was time to get the shuttle to Denizli bus station and onto Selçuk. Finally the guy inside said something to the effect of "oh the shuttle doesn't come *here*, you have to go down the street, and when you see a mini bus going in *this direction* (gesticulates wildly) get on it." What?
It actually turned out to be easy so when a shuttle came along in the right direction we hopped on it, and before we knew it we were at Denizli bus station.
The journey to Selçuk took three hours and again my travel sickness pills knocked me out for most of it. We were given snacks and drinks on board, and all it cost was about €7 each. Much better than the trains and buses in the UK!
There was a gorgeous orange sunset and a bit of rain on the journey, and when we arrived in Selçuk our hostel wasn't too far from the bus station. I had forgotten that we had a triple room at the ANZ Hostel (everything around here is Aussie themed?) and so we have lots of space! The hostel looks really rather nice so far, and was ridiculously cheap with breakie included tomorrow.
I did a quick search and found a place for us to have a late dinner called Selçuk Pidecisi. The food was rather delicious and they were very generous, including a large salad, fresh fresh bread (OMG the bread!), some Turkish tea and a delicious dessert that I can't remember the name of - I think it was tahini or peanut with sugar - all for free. I had the kofte and Dan a pide. Satiated, we walked back to our hostel, Dan trying to pat as many cats as he can on the way - and now it's time for the first proper sleep in a couple of days.
Til next time
xx
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