The boy from Indianapolis goes to Heiropolis

the antique pool in Pamukkale
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We made a detour from the intinerary of our tour.  Instead of stopping at a bird sanctuary and seeing the endangered bald Ibis we opted for a return to the bazaar for an hour.  I bought a Kurdish headscarf which is white thin cotton with a black houndstooth design and small tassles.  It served me well as a bus blanket, pillow, and scarf during the next two days.  The rest of the day was driving back to Goreme.  I overnighted at my previous cave digs where I had a really cozy bed and private bath for 35 Lira with a really skimpy breakfast.  And just so you know everywhere you go here breakfast remains cukes, tomatoes, boiled egg, olives toast and jam with tea or coffee.  EVERY BREAKFAST.

crossing the Euphrates
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I awoke pretty much recovered from the cold.  Just having a cold was unique for me.  I almost always get flues.  I made the day busy with a local bus to the town of Derinkuyu which has an underground city built by Greek orthodox citizens who were looking for a way to keep from being slaughtered by the Mongols and other invading hordes.  The warren of tunnels and rooms runs 7 levels down to a large arched church dug in a cross design.  I was joined on my journey by two Dutch women; Sofia and Theodora who were retracing steps they took 20 years previously.

Pistachio pickers
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I figure I would become a depressed hunchback very quickly in such an environment. We took the return bus together getting off a few km from Goreme where their hotel was.  I continued on foot from there as valleys on either side of the road offered further photo ops.

I pulled one of those foolish decisions to hike down into one of these valleys which consisted of a sort of slip sliding and jumping into a big pile of dirt.  It was fun and I got to wander the stream bed of this green valley and get up close to the funny shaped towers.  The sun was setting and it was striking with the light hitting the conical towers.

In the underground city
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I walked into town and took my mud splattered self to an outside restaurant where a young Aussie woman was spending a bit of her vacation helping out the restauranteur.  I got an acceptable cappucino and an unacceptable burger with a bun like chewing playdough.  They remade my burger with the good bread made locally and then as a kindness served me a desert which had the same microwaved unedible texture.

My bus took me 10 hours of no sleep through the night and across the Anatolian plain from the oddities of Cappadochia to the Green Hellenistic lands of the west.  I took a room from a tout and as I was passing the next room I saw inside Denys from the tour to the east.  He and Michel had overslept and missed their bus the day before.  I got to chat with them for a small bit before they headed south to the coast.  I showered and jumped into the day by walking to the very nearby travertine formations of Pamukkale and the next door ruins of Heiropolis.   I hiked up the white side of this cliff formed by the continuous flow of the mineral waters down the calcified slopes which form these very turquoise pools.  You have to go barefoot in order not to damage the slopes and you cannot walk in the natural pools but they have manmade ones that you are free to wade into.  When you get to the top the ancient Greek and the Roman town of Heiropolis lies in this grassy plain which rises behind into a hill.

One of the big rocks they would block the doors with in case of invasion
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I found the ruins of Heiropolis most attractive.  The dry grasses and very blue sky with the snow capped mountains in the distance and the dramatic remains of a once wealthy city of Greece then Rome was worth spending hours wandering through.

Particularly interesting was the necropolis with its many sarcophogi which you could climb all over.  Where in Italy you would not be able to even touch this stuff.  The smell of the necropolis was well...like death.  I couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from.  Was it these strange bruise colored flowers?  Then I heard a slow crunching through the dry grass and found a land turtle who when I startled him headed right into a crack in a mausoleum and wedged himself in to the point he would never be able to extricate himself.  Were the many turtles of which I saw 3 more  killing themselves in the necropolis?

A mom and daughter at Derinkuyu
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I walked up and down the hilly area taking in the various ruins and filling my socks with burrs.   After sacrificing my ankles to these weeds I went to the Antique Pools and took a soak and swim in the healing mineral waters that have been made into a very attractive swimming pool.

I made my escape from there as hordes of Russian tourists poured into the building and took the long way back down the hill in the midday heat.  It reached at least 40 celcius.  People become lethargic and less helpful.  I stopped for lunch and took a nap on the couchlike seating on the terrace.  The staff could care less.  They had to be roused in order to be paid.  I found an internet cafe where the staff could not be bothered to figure out why I could not get into the realtravel site.  I tried taking a nap at the hotel in the lobby as they have many comfy overstuffed couches.

The valley to the left
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I got so irritated by the internet staff that I decided to take the local bus to the nearby city of Denizli to find another internet cafe.  I sat on the wrong side of the bus and boiled all the way there.  Reaching there I could not figure when the buses stopped going back to Pamukkale and could not find another cafe so I simply returned on the next bus this time sitting on the shady side and with windows open cooled down a bit and got a little sense so that I went right to a restaurant and ordered a glass of wine.  The only smart thing to do on such a day.

Imagine living here
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I had a wonderful dinner of pork chops and a satisfying baklava .  The wine was local.  The vineyards were inherited from the Greeks when they were deported in the population shift of the 1920s.  Sleep came gratefully.