Weisse Burg Beyaz Kale Pension Pamukkale

... strip of water that divides Europe from Asia, west and east; the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea (and beyond, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas), north and south

History seethes from the pavements, the shorelines; large cut granite block upon granite stone hundreds and thousands of years old hint at the tales and histories that line the Classical shelves of the world's libraries.

Founded in 667BC, and previously known as Byzantium and Constantinople, Istanbul has ...

... overtake you if you weren't tailgating the guy in front of you by less than one (passenger) car's length. Tailgating truck-induced stress notwithstanding, it was a good call: Rachel's hotel instinct guided us to a place in Bursa with our nicest shower yet, and by covering half the distance up front we made it back to istanbul just after lunchtime on Friday.

A Jack Johnson song just came on. Did I mention this one time on a business trip to New ...

... was too long for him, which was just as well. It came down juusst to the middle of his black speedo which made his 'junk' appear to be hanging as an afterthought below the hem of his shirt. But the best part was that he had bare legs and sneakers with white socks pulled up to mid-calf. As Tim Gunn would say, “That’s a lotta look.”

I wandered off by myself and went to the old theater. (Yes, there are ruins there) and it was lovely. It was straight up a ...

... condition, it felt very elegent and more real than say Efesus. It also had a massive stadium abd well good feezes! Now everyone else is gone though, I'm heading off tomorrw morning for Fetyer. I have two great reasons for mournıng at the monent. 1) the loss of my unbrella somewhere between Istanbul and Bergama and 2) the loss of my junper/zıp up thıng that I inhereted fron Chaz and was old and ...

... intended on buying absolutely nothing, I came away with a nice leather belt for 15 Euro. Pamukkale & Hierapolis - a swim in the world's oldest pool Blaine, Adam and I checked out the ancient ruins here, including a theatre, at the tomb of St Philip. Afterwards we paid 20 Lira for a swim in the antique pool, the world's oldest, which was 35 degrees and really relaxing. Inside the pool was heaps ...

... you can do that in some places. A matter of 5 minutes and the full blazing circle was completely gone! We began making our way back towards the white sparking pools, preparing for our own tread back down white, rocky surface. This was quite spectacular as well since there were a few lights along certain pathways, and some of the natural pools almost seemed to glow blue in the moonlight. We took our time heading back down, pausing to look in all ...

... up - they were stunning. We passed by the Byzantine Gate and took a really good group portrait of the 14 of us .. plus EG! We started making the trek up to the theatre and I stubbed my pinkie and was almost in tears, took me ages to get over the pain!!! It was definitely worth the scramble up there - the theatre is huge! It help about 12000 people and its in excellent condition, the stage especially - after all - it did ...

... trick like this) and I had the exact amount in Euro to pay. I know it's only 10 lira but a deal is a deal. The woman's face fell when she saw me produce the euro notes. We took another walk around the island, stopping at a park for the girls to burn off a bit of energy before we got going. I sat on a bench and an elderly Turkish man came over and sat next to me. I had no more than 3 words of Turkish and he had maybe a dozen of English, but we had a ...

... On these long bus rides, they stop about every 2 hours for a bathroom break and it is usually at some place where you can buy some small things to eat or drink. After leaving Pamakkule we stopped at one of the smallest resting points yet and the driver, knowing that we were the only non locals on the bus, indicated on his watch that we would be here for 15 minutes. OK, we get off the bus and walk around the small village. I had a bit of an upset stomach so we walked into a ...

... 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 ...