Tour'n Turkey

After a really good visit in Istanbul, we headed out on a tour of some interesting parts of Turkey. Our first stop, after our first overnight bus, was the Cappadocia region in central Turkey. We got one free day in Goreme but were quite tired after the bus so we just hung around the hostel, our dorms were actually in a cave so that was pretty cool. Then next day we did a guided tour of southern Cappadocia, we started with a 4.5 km hike through one of the many valleys and saw lots of interesting rock formations and pigeon houses built into the sides of the cliffs. We then went to an underground city where the Christian population used to hide when the arabs invaded. They could actually live in the city for up to a year if they needed to. We then went to an onyx store where they actually made all of they're pieces from the rough onyx found in the region. (I think these stops are just to make the tour company money because we made quite a few of them on our tour days). The next day we had another tour, this one in northern Cappadocia. We visited an open air museum which was like the underground city but with lots and lots of churches. We also went to imagination valley where some of the rock formations looked like animals and stuff (if you tilt your head and squint really hard!!!) We decided to go hike around the animals instead of just looking at them from afar. We also visited a pottery place. Meghan volunteered to try her hand at making a flower pot and did a great job. Once they melt that baby down and a professional remakes it, it will be beautiful, just kidding, it was a valiant first effort, but apparently much harder than the pro made it look. After the tour finished, we got dropped off at the bus station to await our next overnight bus. We still haven't figured out why they decide to serve coffee and pop on a moving bus at 3 a.m but hey, that's Turkish hospitality I guess. We arrived in Pamukkale and had about an hour before our tour there started. We were very tired and the tour here didn't seem to go as well as the previous two. We first visited a red pool, where the water was very hot (56 C) and had lots of iron so it turned the rocks around it red (hence the name, very CLEVER) and then we went to the ruins of an ancient city. There was lots to see there but the highlight had to be the 15,000 capacity rome style amphitheater. Then we went to a group of pools that contained water very high in calcium so all of the surround rocks were white. This area looked like a ski hill but it was very hot. It looked very cool in the pictures at the travel agency but in reality the pools were all only ankle deep and the rocks hurt your feet while walking or just standing (for some reason no shoes allowed). We did get to look at a very rare specimen of human though. It was as if we had been carried back to 1990 and were in mullet country all over again. The father and son both sported the required hair-do and the glowing neon bathing suits, while the mother sported her string bikini and posed like a stripper every camera shot they took. We stayed the night in the area and woke up at 4 a.m to go to our next destination Ephesus. We started our tour in the ancient ruins of Ephesus. The library building was by far the most impressive. We then went to the temple of artemis (which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world) but was actually only a few pieces of rock lying around a field. I'm sure that in it's day it was a very impressive sight though. After that we headed to the Virgin Mary's house. She did not actually live there, it is said that she did live in the area and also died in the area and the locals built a house in her honor. It is also said that in the 1800's, a nun had a vision of the house in the hills around Ephesus and that she described the vision to someone. Scientific exploration teams were formed and they found the remains of the house based on what the nun had described. We then went back to our hotel, had a fantastic evening with a great sandwich for supper and then a couple games of chess over beer and went to bed. We were picked up the next morning and dropped off at the ferry bound for the greek island of Samos. This was a quick ferry ride and was quite comfortable. After spending the day in Samos, we hopped on our overnight ferry to Athens. This ferry was crowded, loud, smoky and the lights were never turned down. Meghan has said that if it weren't for the fact that we were surrounded by water, she would have got off part way through and found alternative transportation, I agree. We arrived in Athens 14 hours later and checked into our hostel and took a nap.