Lycus River Pamukkale

... eyes take? Sit on a European rooftop in downtown Sultanahmed, traveler hotel central. Look across the water at Asia. The ships, oil tankers, container vessels, navy ships, massive passenger liners line up to pass into Istanbul&#8217;s quays, or up through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. To where? Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Georgia?<br><br>Swivel and take in the soaring minarets of the magnificent Blue Mosque that exudes peace, gentility and the spirit of multi ...

... hotel, Aydin, showed up with a very cute puppy to give to his daughters. We asked where the dog came from, and it came out that they had stolen the dog from a gas station. The man who owned the dog had a few puppies, and Aydin had just taken one, and when the man complained Aydin just said "You have enough dogs. Why do you need this one?" and then just took off with the puppy. We definitely know this is what happened, because later in our travels we met a couple that had ...

An epic drive today. Left Istanbul in good time and made it most of the way down Turkey, stopping by the white calcium formations of Pamukkale. Damo and I went for a late night walk around the lake while Chris slept in the van. The frogs are overwhelming. The noise is so intense you feel like they're suspended on strings all around you.

... the formations, so we had to climb up barefoot, which was ******* the feet. It was so worth it though. At the top, there was a thermal pool that had ruins in the water. This sounds awesome, but all the submerged columns really hindered movement! I have a nice collection of bruises on my knees from clumsy swimming. The ruins are of the ancient city of ...

... There were various tombs, a full cemetary, pillars and archways that led into the ancient city and a theatre/stadium once again. We did not come across any more shoe-tying-impaired-tourists, so we were quite pleased with our stroll for the evening. (Mr. Pinkerson Golf Shirt must have had to begin his 17 hour descent back down again). We caýght the full sunset and were able to actually watch the sun sink down behind a mountainous landscape - it is odd ...

... s. There used to be many hotels up the top of the hill that sucked all the water so the tourist police had them all bulldozed in the attempt to replenish the pools of water. It hasn't quite worked and I'm not sure if it will be quite as picturesque as the 1980's. We walked down the bit that had some water in it, took off our shoes and had a paddle (with the 3 dogs!) then made our way up to the top section where there was ...

... this blog from an internet cafe in Pamukkale while Robert, Bruce and James wait for us in a traditional Turkish bar were we will have dinner, drinks and hubble bubble before catching a bus to Denilzi to board the overnight bus to Cannakkale for our Troy and Gallipoli tours tomorrow. It is weird here because this intenet cafe has 15 modern computers costing 1 lira per ...

... funniest things that we have noticed consistently from the North to the South in just about every city or village that we have been in, is that everyone incorrectly uses the words Right and Left. They reverse them. This of course makes getting directions to any particular thing you are looking for quite interesting. However, they always use hand signals while they are giving directions which is helpful. So imagine this scene: "Excuse me, where is the bus station?" "Go down this ...

... and we arrive in Pamukkale, our base for the next 2 nights. Pamukkale is another small town where a traditional Turkish life carries on amidst a tourist centred economy. We were tired, hot and dusty after roaming around Aphrodisias and our small pension had a swimming pool and beer, so instead of going our to see the sights, we had a beer and a swim and just generally lazed around for a few hours! Pamukkale attracts the tourists for 2 reasons, the first, which most of the ...

Hot 4 hour drive from Kusadasi to the warm pools of Pamukkale. If you stop briefly in Denizli (no place for a tourist) beware the icy milky fountain drinks at the bus station (Otogar) - it's 'aran' - a salted thinned yogurt (which is very good to prevent dehydration - but to the unsuspecting it tastes foul. The visit to the baths and pools was quite ...