Pamukkale Adventure

Today I rose, but I certainly didn't shine... waking up before the sunrise tends to do that to a non-morning person. I crept out of my host family's apartment close to 6 am. Why you may wonder, especially on a Sunday?! I had an adventure in store for me today along a handful of other AIESEC interns: Pamukkale. Pamukkale is absolutely gorgeous! And mind-boggling at the same time. It looks like snow, but in fact it is calcium carbonate. In Turkish it is translated as "cotton castles" also known as a travertine. (Only right now, after reading Wikipedia, did I find out it's slightly radioactive...awesome.) Back in the day, like way back in the 2nd century B.C., the Romans used these hot springs as baths. I can attest to it being hot, I think I walked away with slightly burnt feet today from the stones.  Unfortunately coming to Pamukkale is quite a trek from Izmir! It took a bus ride of about 3 hours just to get to Denizli, the province in which Pamukkale is located, then another bus to the actual park. Long story short, I spent about 10 hours on different transportation systems today. Welcome to Turkey! :)

At first I thought the picture above was the only attraction to see at Pamukkale, apparently I had not done my homework very well. The ancient city of Hierapolis once stood here also. It was amazing to see all the ruins, and in good condition! It made me smile, when I was in Rome the closest you could get to Roman ruins was on a guided path in the Roman Forums. In Turkey you literally could just walk through the field of fallen ruins. One of my friends went up to a fallen column, touched it, took a picture with it etc. In Rome you would have gotten escorted out by a "polizia" and probably screamed at; but in Turkey there was nobody there to watch over the ruins, which is too bad, and kind of cool at the same time. At the top of a huge hill stood the Roman amphitheater. It was in great condition!